How does a plasma ball work?

Most people remember being told at school that there are only three states of matter; solids, liquids, and gases. They might be surprised to hear that there is a fourth state of matter called Plasma and think that the list ends there. This isn’t true and there are several more and the number stated varies […]

Why is the sky blue?

White light is composed of of a continuous spectrum of colours. You will remember Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. A useful way to learn Newton’s seven colours in order. You could argue that as it is a continous spectrum there are many more colours than seven. Newton chose seven as apparently he liked […]

What is the fate of the universe?

Big Crunch, Big Rip or Big Freeze? The Big Rip hypothesizes that the rapid increase in the universe’s expansion powered by dark energy will eventually create greater forces than gravity. This would essentially rip apart all matter in the universe such as the sun, the Earth and even black holes! The Big Crunch hypothesizes that […]

What is a super full blood moon?

Super – the moon’s orbit is elliptical and has an average distance of 350,000km from Earth. It can vary by approximately 50,000km between the perihelion (minimum distance away) and aphelion (maximum distance away). In January, the moon appeared bigger as it was closer to the Earth. A blue moon. The lunar orbit is less than […]

How do we know what stars are made of?

“Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.” Werner Heisenberg. Almost 150 years ago, the Brazilian social philosopher Auguste Comte, whose words ‘Ordem e Progresso’ (Order and Progress) are enshrined on the Brazilian flag, made a foray into the world of astronomy by stating that ‘man would […]