The Galactic Inquirer

Cosmochemistry and Astrobiology

Exploring Galactic Ecosystems (II) – New Insights from Radio Surveys

Galactic ecosystems encompass the varied complexes of inter-relating stellar, nebular, and other matter that are actively forming new stars.  These include molecular clouds, cloud cores, protostellar and protoplanetary systems, HII regions and starbursts.

Exploring Galactic Ecosystems (I) – An Introduction to the Nebular Birth Sites of Stars, Planets, and Life 

It is not hyperbole to state that galactic ecosystems have spawned pretty much everything that we hold dear – including ourselves.  These nebular nurseries have incubated all the stars, planetary systems, and many of the complex molecules known to humanity.

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.

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Exploring Galactic Ecosystems (II) – New Insights from Radio Surveys

Galactic ecosystems encompass the varied complexes of inter-relating stellar, nebular, and other matter that are actively forming new stars.  These include molecular clouds, cloud cores, protostellar and protoplanetary systems, HII regions and starbursts.

Exploring Galactic Ecosystems (I) – An Introduction to the Nebular Birth Sites of Stars, Planets, and Life 

It is not hyperbole to state that galactic ecosystems have spawned pretty much everything that we hold dear – including ourselves.  These nebular nurseries have incubated all the stars, planetary systems, and many of the complex molecules known to humanity.

Strange Features on the Far Side of the Moon: A Closer Look at Paracelsus C

More than fifty years ago, Apollo 15 photographed something unusual on the far side of the Moon. In a panoramic photograph taken from lunar orbit, two bright, sharply defined objects stood out from the otherwise subdued landscape on the floor of a crater called Paracelsus C. Today we can take a much closer look.

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Exploring Galactic Ecosystems (I) – An Introduction to the Nebular Birth Sites of Stars, Planets, and Life 

It is not hyperbole to state that galactic ecosystems have spawned pretty much everything that we hold dear – including ourselves.  These nebular nurseries have incubated all the stars, planetary systems, and many of the complex molecules known to humanity.

Book Review: Michael Lemonick’s The Georgian Star

If you have never heard of the Herschels, then you are missing out on the most important astronomers of the 18 th and 19 th Century. William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus, together with his able and dedicated sister Caroline and his erudite son John revealed the Milky Way and its diverse contents as never before.

How to Talk to Aliens

If we ever make contact with an alien civilization,...