Gran Telescopio Canarias has a (sort of) new spectrograph. The HORS spectrograph is very high resolution, and of course GTC’s huge mirror collects a lot of light from even the most distant object. Put them together and you can measure the abundances of the chemical elements in stars, determine the masses of black holes in binary systems, and the composition of the atmospheres of exoplanets. I say it’s a…
Today is Holy Innocents Day, which is the Spanish equivalent of April Fool’s Day. Last year I got my friends in Franceses This year they got me. They came to visit on Christmas day, and poor Theresa got stung by a wasp, just below her eye. Of course it’s a terrible place to get stung, and it swelled up like she’d been thumped by Mike Tyson. So when I phoned…
Today is Holy Innocents’ Day, which commemorates the massacre of the innocents by Herod in Matthew’s gospel (although according to Wikipedia, it’s probably not a historical event). In Spain and SPanish-speaking countries, it’s the Spanish equivalent of April Fool’s Day. Last year I got my friends in Franceses. This year they got me. They came to visit on Christmas day, and poor Theresa got stung by a wasp, just below…