Tag Archives: ganti

Exoplanets

Posted on June 3, 2017 by ST Editors

by Prasad Ganti In the last decade or so, there has been lot of excitement around the discovery of exoplanets, that is the planets outside of our solar system. An interesting book on this topic has been “Exoplanets” by Michael … Continue reading →

Posted in June 2017, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Recycling rockets.

Posted on May 1, 2017 by ST Editors

by Prasad Ganti Space X recently launched its flagship rocket Falcon 9 to send cargo to the International Space Station. It was almost a routine launch, barely indistinguishable from the others except for one feature. The first stage of the … Continue reading →

Posted in May 2017, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The States of Matter

Posted on April 3, 2017 by ST Editors

by Prasad Ganti As I listened to a science lecture on a Saturday morning, “Science on Saturdays” at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, the title was related to interaction of plasma with the surfaces. It made me think when the … Continue reading →

Posted in April 2017, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Launching a hundred satellites

Posted on March 2, 2017 by ST Editors

by Prasad Ganti India’s space agency ISRO recently launched a rocket with one hundred and four satellites as payload and released each satellite in succession flawlessly into the intended orbit. Apart from setting a record, some trends became apparent to … Continue reading →

Posted in March 2017, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

So far away…

Posted on January 3, 2017 by ST Editors

by Prasad Ganti “Betelgeuse is 640 million light years away. It is a red giant, and is almost dying”. How do we know this, when it is difficult to find out what is happening in Syria or Russia? After all … Continue reading →

Posted in January 2017, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Cosmic Fireworks

Posted on December 3, 2016 by ST Editors

by Prasad Ganti Stars are born, they live, and then they die. Like any living beings. They are born when lot of gas and dust comes together under the influence of gravity and a nuclear furnace gets lit. Hydrogen powers … Continue reading →

Posted in December 2016, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Astronomical Vantage Point

Posted on November 3, 2016 by ST Editors

By Prasad Ganti Last winter, I was driving across Pennsylvania in the middle of the night from the western border with Ohio to the south eastern border with New Jersey. I saw Orion the hunter, the most prominent constellation in … Continue reading →

Posted in November 2016, Sidereal Times | Tagged | Leave a comment

Rocket Science

Posted on October 4, 2016 by ST Editors

By Prasad Ganti Recently, SpaceX’s rocket Falcon 9 blew up on the launch pad, after having had several successes with Falcon 9 in the past. A further failure last year was reported when its rocket blew up in space. Regardless, … Continue reading →

Posted in October 2016, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Juno, the wife of Jupiter

Posted on September 9, 2016 by ST Editors

By Prasad Ganti NASA’s Juno spacecraft traveled for five years before reaching Jupiter on July 4, 2016. It will orbit around for 20 months studying Jupiter’s atmosphere before crashing into it. The last spacecraft to visit and study Jupiter was … Continue reading →

Posted in September 2016, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment