Blogs / Bad Astronomy

So I’m looking over my sitemeter and see a hit coming in from YouTube. I click the link, and see that someone has taken an excerpt of the debate I had with Joe Rogan on Penn Radio about the Moon hoax and made a video of it. Cool!

I already wrote my thoughts on the debate here, here, and here. This came up at TAM 5.5, and some folks were laying blame on Penn for not reeling in Rogan, who was using some relatively unfair tactics (shouting me down, interrupting, and so on) during the show. I don’t think Penn is to blame; it would have been nice to have someone jump in, but it was my responsibility to slap back at Rogan, not Penn’s.

I learned a lot during those two shows, and while I don’t think I’ll be more of a jerk when I debate people, I’ll make sure I’m more assertive, and not let my opponent run roughshod over me. I don’t know when I’ll be in tht position again, but hey, practice makes perfect.

Got some time, and jonesing for science and skepticism?

Then go to The 79th Skeptics Circle and The 39th Carnival of Space. There’s lots of cool stuff there, and maybe even some blog posts by some folks you know.

Richard Saunders is an Australian skeptic and good friend. He is a polymath: a master at origami, a videocaster, a writer, and just an all-around drobbly bloke.

He makes a skeptical vidcast called The Tank (formerly The Skeptic Tank), and in the most recent episode, his cohost Michael Wolloghan walks around Sydney asking people, "What is a skeptic?"

The walkabout starts about 21 minutes in, so give it time to load.

This is a brilliant idea, and I may very well steal it… once it warms up in Boulder, that is.

Chris Lintott is a UK astronomer, cohost of Sky at Night, blogger, Galaxy Zoo cofounder, and cool guy. He dealt with the dumb Martian Bigfoot stuff too, but he went a step — or tread — farther. He made a t-shirt.

Yes, want.

I just heard from my editor: she approved my book manuscript!

WooHOO!

How this worked: I sent her the first draft, she made suggested edits, and I implemented (most of) them in the final draft. I sent the final draft to her last week, and yesterday she accepted these revisions. So, the final copy is in, she likes it, and it’s already in production!

That doesn’t mean the book’ll be out in a week, though. It doesn’t even mean it’s done. I’ll be getting copy edits back, and then I’ll have to read the book carefully to make sure the edits are good. Since this is a science book with some cutting edge ideas in it, it also means I have to make sure that what I wrote is still accurate. Then I’ll send it back with corrections (if any), and they’ll lay it out in book form. I get that copy, check it again, and then if it’s good, then everything is good.

We’re still looking at an October release, but I’m hoping it’ll be sooner. We’ll see.

So: yay!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of America’s first satellite, Explorer 1.

This was a response to Sputnik, launched by Soviets a few months before. The whole story is actually a bit complicated (Clavius.org has a nice synopsis, and AstroProf has more too); but ironically the Americans could have had the first satellite in orbit had they not been reluctant to use a rocket built for the Army and based on German technology.

Explorer 1 was equipped with an X-ray detector that was basically a fancy Geiger counter. Built by a team led by James van Allen, it was lofted up to see what the radiation environment of space was. The team was astonished to discover that near-Earth space was tremendously radioactive; their detector saturated.

And thus the basis of the Moon Hoax was born.

Too bad; if the hoax believers had some basic science education they’d understand the problem. What Explorer 1 discovered were the van Allen radiation belts: regions around the Earth where the magnetic field of our planet has captured subatomic particles. Moving at high speed, when these slam into the metal walls of a satellite they are decelerated. This process produces X-rays (called Bremsstrahlung — German for "braking" — radiation), and that’s what the Explorer 1 detector detected. Moon hoaxers get terribly confused about this, saying there are deadly X-rays in space. They’re wrong: the X-rays are a by-product of the subatomic particles screeching to a halt inside metal. Unless the Sun is flaring, there is very little X-radiation in near-Earth orbit. It’s the subatomic particles that are dangerous, but they can be stopped by various substances like glass and insulation without creating X-rays.

Try explaining that the hoax believers. You might as well speak in Klingon to them.

Anyway, Explorer 1 was a fantastic achievement. Not only was it the US’s first satellite, it also broke through a new frontier in science. We learned that the Earth’s magnetic field has ramifications for space flight, and eventually led to a better understanding of how we are coupled with our nearest star, the Sun.

Mind you, these guys had no clue what they’d find. That’s why they put the X-ray detector in Explorer 1 in the first place! And look what happened.

I salute the pioneers of the space age, and of the space science age. We owe you folks a lot.

After 17 years, Montel Williams is closing his doors. And the world’s IQ goes up a few points.

But whatever will Sylvia Browne do? Make an honest living for once?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAhahahahaha!

No, of course not. She’ll continue scamming people through her phone readings, books, and tours.

You just can’t stop Sylvia Browne.

Or can you?

Tip o’ the tin foil beanie (gotta block those psychic rays) to Way of the Woo.