Astronomy Hoax's

9-27-09

It is said that on the first day of spring and fall, there is an equinox, and you can stand an egg straight up. This is false. People believe this because on an equinox, the Earth's axis is pointing perpendicularly to the sun. They believe that it has an affect on gravity, so it is possible to make an egg stand. Well, the truth is that you can stand an egg on its end any day of the year. It just takes a very careful and presice person to make it stand. This is an example of an Astronomy Hoax. Another example is that people believe the sky is blue because it reflects light off the oceans. The sky is actually blue because photons hit molecules, and bounces of them, then scatters of into different directions. The color blue has a short wavelength so it scatters more than they other colors. Therefore, the sky is blue.

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/egg_spin.html

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/blue_sky.html

Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope was just upgraded to become a higher performing observatory again. They replaced its camera to one that works more efficiently. The new camera is more light sensitive, and not blurry. They also added a cooling instrument onto the camera, so it is at an operating tempurature. NASA Astronauts repaired the space telescope.

I chose this picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope because I believe it shows how excelent the new camera is. This is a very clear and colorful picture of Stephan's Quintet. This shows a group of five galaxies.

http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/hubble_essentials/

This site is created by Space Telescope Science Institute's Office of Public Outreach.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/x/