Category: Q&A
Apr. 24 Webcast - planet viewing and discussion
In honor of Global Astronomy Day 2010, Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center will be holding a live evening webcast on Saturday, April 24. The webcast will start at 8:30 pm and continue through 10:30 pm. We will be showing live footage (if weather permits) and recently obtained images and animations of the currently visible planets, including Venus, Mars and Saturn, as well as our Moon. CSU astronomers and Space Science Center staff will be discussing topics such as the Moon's geology, Mars exploration, and Saturn, its moons, and rings. Viewers will be able to submit questions for the speakers to be answered after each segment's initial presentation. For more information, see the Space Science Center webpage, or go directly to the webcast page. (Microsoft Silverlight or a related browser plug-in will be needed.)
Abuse of astronomy
I had a phone call recently which made me quite angry - not at the caller, but at the people who abuse science, and take advantage of others' ignorance of science. The caller was a therapist, who told me that several patients had been calling lately, full of anxiety that the world was going to end in 2012 due to one astronomically-based reason or another.
Now, I've already discussed this subject (pt. 2, 3) at some length: there is no scientific reason to think that any particular catastrophe will happen in 2012. Yet people keep trying to attach "scientific explanations" to their predicted end-of-the-world scenarios. That seriously cheeses me off, because it's abusing the "good name" of science - acquired because the scientific method has worked so well to explain and predict the world around us - to scare people for no good reason. Worse, this sort of scare tactic will most affect people already vulnerable, those with anxiety or depression... sometimes with tragic results.
No fear of 2012, Part 3
I've been discussing one of the scenarios I've heard, giving supposed astronomical reasons why the world will end in 2012. Here are Part 1 and Part 2.
From a family friend: Will the Sun (or Earth) be swallowed by a black hole in 2012?
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