The Galactic Inquirer

Cosmochemistry and Astrobiology

Sticking Close to Home #3 — Forming Planets

To form a solar system, the literature says that in a simulation like this we can ignore the gravity of the Sun and just concentrate on the interaction of the objects in the protoplanetary disk.The gas, dust and other objects rotate around the forming Sun in Keplerian orbital motion...

We’re All Healthier Under a Starry Sky

Blue wavelengths of light are damaging to many forms of life, and glare from unshielded light compromises road safety and infiltrates bedrooms, suppressing melatonin production, undermining sleep quality and duration, and exacerbating susceptibility to many kinds of illness...

Advancing Astronomical Literacy via Student Writing Contests

It is tempting to say that any well-educated person should know what it takes to be scientifically literate.  But what does scientific literacy really involve?  Given that scientific literacy is a key goal of most science education standards and frameworks, considerable ink has been dedicated to utilizing the term in pedagogical papers.  

Astronomical Meeting in South Africa Makes History

Africa’s astronomical debut has come at an opportune time, as a multitude of facilities and projects have taken root across the continent in the service of astronomical questing. 

Surfing The Auroral Cascade: Quantitative Constraints on Oxygen Forbidden-line Emissions and Exciting Electron Velocities

The formula for collisional excitation of the atoms responsible for auroral emission can explain why green auroras from excited oxygen atoms can occur at relatively low altitudes, but red auroras from these same atoms are constrained to higher altitudes of lower density. The same formula also suggests much lower electron velocities (~100 km/s) than are required to excite the oxygen atoms to the required metastable levels for subsequent emission (~1000 km/s).

Sensing the Biochemical Character of Galactic Ecosystems

...What we have come to appreciate is the seminal role played by clustered star formation in driving the physical and chemical evolution of the galaxies that host these stellar nurseries. Such concentrated sites of newborn stars along with their nebular environs constitute what are known as galactic ecosystems. These energized realms represent vital “crucibles” for growing the chemical complexity that is necessary for biotic processes.

Earth & Space Report #12: Exploring our Cosmic Origins

Carl Sagan wrote that "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” We wish to know our home, so back we go, to the Big Bang, and step by step to today.

GAAC Meeting, October 9 2020, with Robert Naeye and Finding Life on Other Worlds

Are we alone or do we share our solar system and galaxy with other forms of life? And how widespread are advanced civilizations with whom we could communicate? Right now we don’t have answers to these profound questions. But scientists are in hot pursuit...

Latest news

Multi-Spectral Imagery of the Multi-phase ISM in M33

We investigate star formation in the Sc(s) II-III galaxy M33 by analyzing eight prominent HII regions using multi-wavelength data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and optical imagery. Results indicate that dust emission is a compact tracer of high-mass star formation, while PAH and H-alpha emissions decline more slowly with galactocentric radius.

Dispatches from the Cosmos — Winter 2025

Just like the dust that stubbornly besmirches your computer monitor, bookcase, and ancestral credenza, cosmic dust is now recognized to have a multiplicity of origins.  For decades, astronomers thought that aging red giant stars produced most of the dust responsible for obscuring and reddening our views of nebulae and more distant stars ...

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you

Earth & Space Report #12: Exploring our Cosmic Origins

Carl Sagan wrote that "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” We wish to know our home, so back we go, to the Big Bang, and step by step to today.

Earth & Space Report #11: Surfing the Galactic Froth

This edition combines fun and science as only Dr. Waller can do, as we take a colorful look at what's going on in supposedly empty space between the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomical Meeting in South Africa Makes History

Africa’s astronomical debut has come at an opportune time, as a multitude of facilities and projects have taken root across the continent in the service of astronomical questing.