Space – Trevor O'Donoghue

Space rocks (death from above)

9th October 20229th October 2022 by Trevor O'Donoghue

*The doomsday scenario: A massive asteroid impact. Is it really only a matter of “when” and not “if”?*

NASA’s recent Dart mission to deflect an asteroid’s path, serves to illustrate just how precarious Earth’s existence is. We are at the mercy of what the Universe throws at us. Our atmosphere and magnetic field serve us well in protecting us from cosmic rays, eruptions of particles and energy from the Sun, and the small meteors that continually bombard us. The presence of large planets like Jupiter and Saturn in our Solar System act as protective big brothers, sweeping up any wayward asteroids that happen to pass by on the way to Earth.

Frank Drake and his alien equation

24th September 202224th September 2022 by Trevor O'Donoghue

Frank Drake and the search for alien life

At the start of September in Aptos, California, an elderly man slipped peacefully away, almost unnoticed. Aged 92, Frank Drake was one of the founding fathers of SETI ( search for extraterrestrial intelligence). Through his life’s work, he pioneered a scientific approach to a topic that in the early years, was seen as fringe at best and downright crazy at worst.

Return to the Moon

12th September 202212th September 2022 by Trevor O'Donoghue

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B,

50 years. That’s how long it’s been since man last roamed about on the surface of the Moon. December 1972 to be precise. On December 11th, the lunar lander from Apollo 17 touched down on the Moon and spent a brief 75 hours there. The two astronauts on board, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent 22 hours outside the lander, walking and driving about on the Moon’s surface. They collected over 110 kg of moon rock, drove almost 40 kilometres and explored distances up to 8 km away from their lunar lander. When they were finished, they packed away their collection of moon rock, took off their dusty space suits, took a brief nap and blasted off the surface of the Moon.

A tale of two pictures

5th February 201924th December 2018 by Trevor O'Donoghue

earthrise — The earth rising over the moon, taken Christmas Eve 1968

Christmas can be a hectic time, office parties, catching up with friends and family, up early for Santa and and days spent visiting and being visited. It can also be a time for reflection.

With that in mind, allow me to present two pictures that give us a unique insight and pause for thought, to contemplate our place in the universe.

Patterns in the sky

5th February 201910th October 2018 by Trevor O'Donoghue

The Pleiadas, M45 — The Seven Sisters, a magnificent star cluster and a herald of the fast approaching colder winter nights

Since time immemorial people have looked up at the night sky and tried to make sense of, and understand it. Pinpricks of light twinkling and glittering. Bright stars that seem to form patterns with neighbouring stars. Harvests were made, seeds planted and fields ploughed on the rising and setting of particular patterns. These patterns are what we call constellations. In simpler times, people spent more of their lives outside, were closer to nature, and so it is easy to understand how these stellar patterns held a special significance for cultures all over the world.