Asteroids — the poem

Ceres is Queen of the belt. She’s the best-a.
Her husband is Pallas. Court jester is Vesta.
She makes up a third of the belt on her own
She’s cratered and icy and sits on her throne.

Second chance planets 3: cosmic rain on dried-out worlds

Have you ever been lost in the desert?

Stumbling along the sand dunes, the Sun beating down on you, your mouth sticky and dry. All you can think about is water…

How Borisov found Borisov (the second interstellar object)

To start things off, a limerick: My dear old friend ‘Oumuamua I asked her — What’s up? What is new-ah? “I’ve been thinking of That guy Borisov The interstellar number Two-ah!” Figuring out what’s up with a new population of astronomical objects is like going to a party without knowing the dress code. Here’s what’s…

‘Oumuamua: was it aliens? (spoiler: no)

Imagine this. You’re drinking your morning coffee. A small blob zooms at top speed through the kitchen, into the hall and out an open window. You only catch a quick fuzzy glimpse before it’s gone. What was that thing? What’s your first guess? A neighborhood cat? A squirrel? Maybe something more exotic like a raccoon…

Comet Interceptor!

A space mission to intercept an Oort cloud comet — or, if we’re lucky, an interstellar object like ‘Oumuamua.

How planets die: pulverized in a deluge of asteroids and comets!

Where would we be without the occasional asteroid crashing into the Earth?

Can moons have moons?

Planets orbit stars. Moons orbit planets. But no moons have their own moons (let’s call them submoons). Why is that?

Is Pluto a mega-comet?

Short answer: Well sort of, but it’s more useful to think of it as being built from the same stuff as comets. Like an Uncle of the comets. Read on for an explanation. Earlier this week my wife mentioned a headline she saw. “Pluto is a giant comet? Whoa!” It was all over the place:…