by Richard Easther | Dec 24, 2018 | Astronomy, Cosmology, New Zealand, Personal
Each galaxy lives within its own three-dimensional halo of dark matter whose gravitational field corrals the stars within it. Without the stars, the halo would still be there, albeit invisible to our eyes; but if the halo vanished, the stars would scatter into the...
by Richard Easther | Dec 19, 2018 | Education, New Zealand
Showing visitors around the University of Auckland can be a quick lesson in our colonial history. The University is named for the city, which is named for a spectacularly unsuccessful Governor-General of India. Our oldest streets are centred on Queen Street — which is...
by Richard Easther | Sep 5, 2018 | Astronomy, New Zealand, Physics, Science in Our Lives
Last weekend. former astronaut, fighter pilot and David Bowie fan, Commander Chris Hadfield posted some stats about the safety of flying, showing that per mile traveled, planes are about 10 times safer than trains, and 100s of times safer than cars. If...
by Richard Easther | Jul 31, 2018 | Bad Science, Education, New Zealand
Given how often astrophysics shows up in the news, you might think it was one of the biggest branches of science. And yet, everyone working in my personal subfield (the cosmology of the early universe) would plausibly fit into a single 777. Per participant,...
by Richard Easther | Jun 4, 2018 | Academia, Education, Personal
A few weeks ago I listened to a bunch of super-enthusiastic high school students share their excitement about astronomy, astrophysics and the space industry. We were at the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand’s annual meeting; every year they fund a dozen...
