Dear PT5 How are you doing? All set for the trip? Before you go, let me show you the UFO I grew up under. Image: http://www.island-images.co.uk/2023/2302/230209164910.html This is the VOR/DME beacon at Cregneash on the Isle of Man. Don’t google ‘vor’, trust me. Besides in this instance it stands for VHF Omdirectional Range (VOR) with
This is Pluto. Isn’t it gorgeous?! This photo was taken by New Horizons by the way, the first space probe sent to Pluto and still merrily hurtling out of the solar system. Some of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes are aboard. Some Pluto facts. It’s two thirds the width of Earth’s Moon and 1/5th the width of
Dear PT5-The Hunt for Planet X Part 2-The Rise, and Fall, and Rise of Planet X
Dear PT5 How are you doing? I would have written soon but I’ve been hunting planet hunters hunting Planet X. Let me explain.The way you find planets is by looking where they aren’t. The orbits of other, smaller objects nearby will be altered by a larger body passing by. Like wakes on a boat, or
Dear PT5-The Hunt for Planet X Part 1-Percival, Giovanni, Elizabeth and Clyde
Dear PT5 How are you doing? Right now you’re just over 4 million kilometres away. That’s apparently 0.026847 AUs and you’re so far away that it takes just under 14 seconds for light to travel from you to us. You’re keeping your distance, and I think that’s safest. For all of us. Let me explain.
Dear PT5, It’s almost Halloween! ‘Horror Christmas’ as we sometimes call it is one of my favourite times of year. This is B-movie season, the nights closing in but not all the way, the weather shifting and the scent of pumpkin spice in the air. Which is why this week I bring you…CLONED TREES FROM
Dear PT5 I’ve been reading about henges this week. The first surprise was that henges is a plural. I grew up in the UK in the 1980s and that meant that history was the standing stones in the field at the bottom of my road, the Jorvik Centre, a mile or so of London, the
Dear PT5-Henges, Ritual Landscapes and You
Dear PT5 I’ve been thinking a lot about time recently, and how, as one of the great philosophers once said it’s an illusion, lunch time doubly so. As a lifelong sandwich enjoyer I respectfully disagree with him about lunch time and as a passenger on the endless conveyer belt of linear time, I find the
Dear PT5-Time and Space and Time in Space
Dear 2024 PT5 Welcome to orbit! Or, should I say, welcome back to orbit. I’m writing this on the 29th of September 2024, and at some point today you’re going to begin your roughly two month placement as the planet’s second Moon. There’s a lot to catch you up on so, once a week, I’m
DEAR PT5-THE BLACK KNIGHT RIDES AGAIN
