Astro Blog

Source:   Andrew Fraknoi , Astronomical Society of the Pacific  A new annotated guide to written, web, and audio-visual resources for teaching or learning about planets orbiting other stars is now available.  Materials include video and audio files of lectures and interviews with leading scientists in the field, phone and tablet apps, a citizen-science web site, popular-level books and articles, and more. Published by the NASA Astrophysics Education and Outreach Forum and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astronomy-resource-guides/the-search-for-planets-around-other-stars/

Source:  Daniel Clery, Science    Excerpt:  Where did the moon come from? For 3 decades, planetary scientists have agreed that ... a body the size of Mars struck Earth a glancing blow that reduced both to rubble. The cloud of debris reformed itself into the modern Earth and moon ..."giant impact" theory neatly explained why the rocks Apollo astronauts brought back from the moon closely resembled rocks on Earth—or so it seemed at first. ...recent computer models show, such a collision wouldn't have scrambled the two bodies together enough to explain the similarity. Meeting last month in London to discuss the problem, scientists agreed that the origin of the moon must have been messier and more complicated than anyone had assumed.... [Hear podcast interview at  http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6155/183/suppl/DC1 ] http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6155/183