Cheap Astronomy - Dear CA Ep. 136: Complexities

Things aren't always straight-forward.

Hosted by Steve Nerlich.

Dear Cheap Astronomy – What's all the current fuss about dark energy?

Some preliminary data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, also known as DESI has resulted in a swath of popular science articles claiming dark energy is diminishing. 

Well…

It's worth starting by saying that many of the core project team have stressed it's just the first data release – there'll be at least four more, so everyone should probably just chill a bit until more data is available.

 

Dear Cheap Astronomy – Why do eclipse paths run in different directions?

Yes folks, it's that rare event when we actually answer an astronomy question. So, solar eclipses. As you know, the Earth's rotation makes the Sun appear to cross the Earth's daytime sky following a line we call the ecliptic. And yep, that's no coincidence, but we'll get to that. The ecliptic is not a fixed path because of the Earth's tilted axis of rotation. So as the Earth progresses in its orbit around the Sun, from the Earth's surface at the equinoxes, the Sun appears to be overhead at the equator, but for the rest of the year it's either shifting north towards the Tropic of Cancer or south towards the Tropic of Capricorn.

 

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