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GAM 2017 Blog
GAM 2017 Blog GAM 2017 Blog
Final Thoughts, Final Borders!
By Johannes Stübler We all are sitting in the same spaceship called Earth. Fragile and vulnerable, covered by a thin atmosphere which protects us from space. If mankind will survive we have to burst all limits and have to leave sometimes our spaceship Earth and we have to learn to deal with the conditions of deep space. Personally I belive that life is an universal phenomenon. The myriad of suns, stars and, as we know today, planets don't make me belive we are the one and only in our universe. Even we are really unique in our universe the more...
Daily Menu
By Grom D. Matthies Around volcanic vents deep down on oceans floor, tiniest creatures thrive on what the inners of Earth provide. They feed, not unlike a washing machine, on energy and some chemicals that would cook or corrode any decent surface creature instantly. Those tiny fellows, however, tend not to age a lot as they are prey to some other, slightly bigger critters who love to chew on snacks with a strong taste of sulfur and whatnot. These critters are in turn the staple food for the digestive apparatus of even bigger ones. We humans call this sequence a...
Faces of Astronomy for Development
By Karabo Makola and Ramasamy Venugopal Astronomy is very special to all of us and the Global Astronomy Month (GAM) provides a great opportunity for everyone to celebrate our common love. Usually the OAD's contribution to the GAM blog is written by Kevin Govender. This year, the blog is a retrospective from two visitors to the OAD. Both of us came from outside the astronomy community but have learned so much during our time at the OAD. Most importantly, we have realized the passion and thirst for action in this community and learned how people, given the opportunity, can have...
Can you find the speed of light yourself?
By Samir Dhurde a representative image If you diligently do the previously mentioned study of the motions of the Galilean Moons, then you may want to continue a bit more on the lines of an important study that lead to one of the first, close-to-accurate measurements of the speed of light... and this is the best time to start trying the method yourself! Extraordinarily Fast Before the 17th century we believed that there was no such thing as the "speed of light". It was thought that light could travel any distance in no time at all. In 1638, the great...
A month for Jupiter!
By Samir Dhurde Jupiter is a fascinating planet, being the envy of all others in its size. In fact it is also called a failed star - a gas giant that just missed the nuclear fusion bus, or else we on Earth could have had a Tatooine- like sunset scene sometimes. It is most of the time the 4th brightest object in our skies, only switching places for some time with Mars when the latter is at its closest to the Earth. Having been observed for millennia, it features in many human mythologies and cultural notes under so many names...
