The Bad Astronomy Newsletter

Bad Astronomy Newsletter #24

Contents:

1. TechTV interview airs Monday, not Friday
  
2. Earth's Third Moon?
3. Planet X: Mark Hazlewood steps over the line
4. Another naked eye sunspot?
5. Subscribe/Unsubscribe info

0) Just a note: I sent out a newsletter just the other day, but some new things have come up. All four items here are interesting and/or important, so don't assume they are in order of importance! You'll find all four to be of some interest, I bet.

1) TechTV interview airs Monday, not Friday

I found out late Friday that the TechTV show "Tech Live" will air the interviews of Mr. Sibrel and me on Monday, delayed from Friday. I don't know why this happened, but if you get TechTV, tune in Monday, September 16 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern (US) time to see the show. Here is the website.

Speaking of which, there are more articles about Buzz hitting Mr. Sibrel on the web. I have added a separate page for him, since Mr. Sibrel seems to desire the spotlight. Let's see what it illuminates, eh? I hope you have a strong stomach.

Also, someone decided to make their views known about this event: the domain name bartsibrel.com has a single page on it with what might be called an editorial comment. Read it here: http://www.bartsibrel.com [Note added March 1, 2003: the site is no longer up. Too bad: it said a lot of very frank things about Mr. Sibrel].

2) Earth's Third Moon?

I have been getting a bit of email about news reports of an object recently spotted in near-Earth space. They have been claiming this object may be a new moon of Earth! Subsequent observations and analysis have shown that the object is consistent with being the spent booster from a Saturn 5 rocket, possibly from the Apollo 12 mission. After being used to loft the astronauts to the Moon, it took on a wide orbit, and has just recently been recovered by astronomers. It may also hit the Moon next year! Information on this fascinating story is still coming in.

Your best bet is to keep checking these websites for updates:

http://www.space.com

http://www.msnbc.com/news/spacenews_front.asp?0si=- (specifically, here: http://www.msnbc.com/news/807219.asp)

The obvious question is, why is this our third Moon? Well, it isn't really. The second moon to which people are referring is the asteroid Cruithne. It was discovered a few years back, and is in an orbit which lets it interact with the Earth gravitationally, performing a bizarre dance. It isn't really a moon of Earth, but it isn't an independent object either. I wrote a description of it in my Bitesize pages and you can find out more here as well.

3) Planet X: Mark Hazlewood steps over the line

Regular readers are aware of the idea of Planet X, a rogue planet which some people claim will pass by the Earth next May and cause biblical-level disasters. Regular reader or not, you can guess how I feel about this claim: it's nonsense. I have written a series of pages saying just why.

One of the loudest purveyors of this, um, "theory", is Mark Hazlewood, a self-described scientific illiterate. He and I have butted heads before. The things he says are almost always wrong, amazingly so, but this has not stopped him from writing a book, starting a listserv, and giving talks and interviews about all this. He has never even gotten within a glancing blow of reality.

But now he has gone too far. He says all manners of silly things, but this time he actually shocked me. He said:

"Understanding that it's the same people that committed the 911 atrocities that are behind hiding Planet X, is a significant piece of information for all to comprehend."

Now, even my detractors (for the most part) understand that when I debate an issue, I do it scientifically and that I strive to remove any impoliteness or personal attacks. I am now willing to make an exception.

This loathsome proclamation by Mr. Hazlewood should disgust rational thinkers everywhere. I have put my thoughts into a new passage on my Planet X analysis of Mr. Hazlewood's claims, so rather than say it again here I urge you to go there and read more.

I'll refrain from further comment. Having this come on the heels of Bart Sibrel ambushing Buzz Aldrin is almost more than I can take. Folks, please: keep thinking critically. Without an informed public, the people like this will continue to feed off the filth and muck, twisting reality to match their own ends. Only knowledge and free thought can stop them.

4) Another naked eye sunspot?

A reader on my bulletin board mentioned he saw a sunspot with his unaided eyes the other day. I checked, and sure enough there is a monster spot on the Sun that should be visible for a few more days. Spots that big can be seen without telescopes or binoculars, but you must exercise caution. You can look at the Sun unaided when it is just rising or setting; when it's on the horizon most of the dangerous light is absorbed by the Earth's air. When it's up higher this radiation can get through and damage your retina.

The best way to see the spots is using a pair of binoculars to project the image on a piece of white paper. Don't look through the binocs at the Sun! That'll damage your eye very seriously. But projecting the image is quite safe. I did this at lunch the other day and people were interested in seeing what was going on. It's cool, and a good way to get people excited about astronomy! When you look at the Sun, remember that 100 Earth's could fit comfortably across its disk...

For info about the sunspot, check the Space Weather page. You can also participate in the Bad Astronomy bulletin board discussion about the spot.  

I have a chapter about looking at the Sun in my book. You can look at Andy Young's page about this topic, where I got a lot of info for that chapter.

5) Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

If, for some weird reason, you want to unsubscribe to this newsletter, just send email to badastronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com with no body text. Make sure you send it from the address to which the newsletter is sent! Alternatively, you can unsubscribe from the Yahoo!Groups website. Go to http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/groups-32.html for more info.

Remember, the newsletters will be archived on the website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/badastronomy so even if you unsubscribe you can still read them there. I suggest staying subscribed so you get them as soon as I send them.

Also, I do not sell your email addresses and neither does Yahoo! Take a gander at the Yahoo!Groups privacy message if it makes you feel better: http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/ Note that the email addresses are visible to me, but I have no prurient use for them. If that makes you nervous for whatever reason, feel free to unsubscribe and simply read the archived newsletters at the website listed above.

Phil Plait
The Bad Astronomer
badastro@badastronomy.com
http://www.badastronomy.com