Mon Sep 29, 2025 SPECIAL RELATIVITY DAY
Even if you’ve never had a science class, you still probably know this one little formula: E equals m c squared. On September 30, 1905, that amazing equation was introduced to the world when Albert Einstein published it in his theory of special relativity. And in so doing, Einstein showed us how the sun has been able to shine steadily for all these years. There once was a lot of disagreement about how the sun produced so much energy. One theory was that meteor bombardment heated it and made it glow. Another theory was that it was burning like an immense lump of coal. The best theory suggested that the sun had once been as large as the whole solar system; as it shrank, it produced heat. None of these theories worked. But by invoking nuclear fusion, where hydrogen is fused to make helium and a lot of energy, Einstein solved the problem.
Tue Sep 30, 2025 TCAS MEETING
There will be a meeting of the Treasure Coast Astronomical Society this Tuesday evening, at 7:30 p.m. It will be at the Science Center on the main Fort Pierce Massey campus of Indian River State College. Many of the Treasure Coast Astronomical Society members own at least one telescope, but if all you have is a pair of binoculars, or even just an interest in the sky and astronomy, then this is the club for you. Each meeting features astronomy lessons and highlights all the space news like their hopes to see a star go nova over in the western evening sky sometime between now and next year. So once again, come on out to the meeting at 7:30 this evening at the Indian River State College here in Fort Pierce.
Wed Oct 1, 2025 BRIDE OF THE MORNING STAR
The planet Venus shines in the east before dawn this month, a brilliant morning star. The Blackfoot Indians tell the story of how Venus, the Morning Star, met Soatsaki, the Feather Woman. She saw him before sunrise, and said, I wish to marry the Morning Star. Morning Star heard her words and so stood before her on the river path. He said, “I have seen you gazing upward and will take you to the sky country.” He placed an eagle’s feather in her hair, and suddenly she was in the house of the Moon and the Sun, who called her their daughter. Morning Star and Feather Woman were married, and soon they had a son. But one day Soatsaki disobeyed the Moon and dug up the great turnip that grew beside the sky lodge, and she and her son became falling stars, sent back to earth through the hole that had been made. Their sky path became the Milky Way.
Thu Oct 2, 2025 THE END OF THE WORLD
The astronomer Harlow Shapley once suggested two possible ways that the world could end. In one scenario, the earth loses its forward momentum, and the sun’s gravity pulls our planet inward to a fiery destruction. Another theory supposed the opposite might happen, that the earth might drift outward and suffer a frozen death like Mars. Of course, both “fire and ice,” may be our ultimate fate. Five billion years from now, when the sun runs out of fuel, gravity will take over and collapse it. This will heat it up, and the sun will expand to become a red giant star, engulfing the inner solar system, including earth. Then, when the last bit of helium fuel is exhausted, the sun will collapse again, heating up, turning into a high energy white dwarf! So, let’s make it a point, five billion years from now, to get off the planet!
Fri Oct 3, 2025 ROBERT GODDARD
Robert Goddard was born on October 5th, 1882. When he suggested that rockets could take us to the moon, the New York Times announced that he was wrong, because everyone knew that rockets couldn’t work in outer space because there was no air for them to push against. But Goddard understood that a rocket’s exhaust did not push against the air; the action of the combustion in the rocket created the reaction of the exhaust pushing against the rocket itself (Newton’s Third Law). In 1926 he launched the first liquid-fueled rocket which replaced gunpowder-like solid fuel.) The advantage here is that, unlike solid fuel rockets which go until they run out, you can throttle up and throttle back liquid fuel engines and obtain a great deal more control over the speed and flight path of the rocket.
