The Bad Astronomy Newsletter

Bad Astronomy Newsletter #32

Contents:

1. Is it hot in here or is it just perihelion?
2. Dark Matters in the Boston Globe
3. AAS meeting promises to provide lots of news
4. Universe Today is back!
5. Subscribe/Unsubscribe info

1) Is it hot in here or is it just perihelion?

Happy perihelion! On January 4 at 05:00 Universal Time (January 3 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time), the Earth reaches perihelion, or the point in its orbit where it is closest to the Sun. According to the Naval Observatory, the US's official keeper of such knowledge, the Earth will be 0.983320381 astronomical units from the Sun at that time, where an AU is the average distance of the Earth to the Sun. One AU is defined as a distance of 149,597,870.691 kilometers, so at perihelion we'll be 147,102,635.20 kilometers from the Sun, give or take a significant digit or two.

If you're wondering why we are closer to the Sun in the winter than in the summer, than I can tell two things about you: 1) you have a northern hemisphere bias, and 2) you haven't read my website about the seasons. Go there now! The Naval Observatory's site is also pretty cool. Go to "Astronomical Applications" to find all sorts of fun facts about where things are in the sky.

2) Dark Matters in the Boston Globe

I wrote an article for the Boston Globe that appeared on the last day of 2002. The topic was dark matter, the weird stuff that comprises roughly 90% of the mass of the Universe, but until recently was undetected. The article is currently online, but will be taken offline and made available only to paid subscribers soon, so read it while you can. I'll always have a link to it in my "In Print" section on my site too.

3) AAS meeting promises to provide lots of news

The American Astronomical Society is the largest US organization of professional astronomers, and meets twice a year. They will be meeting in Seattle from January 5-9, and I will be there. The January meeting is pretty big, and typically has lots of very cool news stories coming out of it. If I can, I'll summarize a few and send them out in the next newsletter. In any case, keep an eye on your local newspaper and TV news broadcasts: they're sure to have something from the meeting. I have no doubt there will be new Hubble images, for example, and those are always a crowd-pleaser.

4) Universe Today is back!

Great news: The Universe Today, a daily newsletter/website about current events in space and astronomy, is back online after a too-long hiatus. This is one of my favorite websites, and if you subscribe to the newsletter you get updates in your email (and you can't have too many newsletters, right?). Take a look.

5) Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

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