I’ve been busy compiling two new articles about the 2012 doomsday scenario. This time I’ve investigated why Planet X is not the same thing as the Sumerian planet “Nibiru”, and why a “killer solar flare” will not be possible in the year 2012. This brings the 2012 series...

On June 10th, I was invited on Captain Jack’s Paranormal Radio show to chat about the various 2012 Doomsday scenarios. We had a great time for three hours talking about everything from the Mayan calendar and Planet X to the Phoenix Mars Mission and Saturn. The show has just been made available...

As a science public outreach advocate, I am totally behind a new deal between NASA and animation experts Disney-Pixar. Using the new movie WALL-E, a story about the last robot-rover on Earth exploring space (with all the fuzzy, heart-warming Disney stuff in between), NASA has signed a deal with the...

There is a trend in astronomical observations to label strange and exotic objects with superlative names. Take “supermassive” black holes for instance. Yes they are more massive than intermediate black holes, bigger than stellar black holes, and in a whole different league to theoretical...

Goonhilly is an area of the Lizard Peninsula in the British county of Cornwall. This region has been the destination of countless family holidays in my lifetime, and even today the Cornish landscape provides plenty of surprises for me. One landmark in particular has been the focus of my interest for...

(Update: It seems people agree with my 2012 article and it hit the front page of Digg just before 1am (GMT) on Wednesday. Join the fun!) The Mayan Prophecy seems to predict the end of the world, or at least a large potion of humans on Earth. As a race we appear to have side-stepped many previous doomsday...

When you stop to think about it, sending transmissions via radio into space in the hope to contact aliens is a bit silly. The intention behind the 16 transmission we have directed into space is to a) make contact with extraterrestrials, b) advertise our presence in the cosmos, and c) tell ET something...

I’ve heard some crazy talk in my time, but the fear surrounding the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has really surprised me. On writing a story last month that a guy in Hawaii (with a scant background in physics) was trying to pass a lawsuit to put a stop to the construction of the LHC, I...

My true aim for astroengine.com is to post advanced (but interesting) space physics concepts on an informal stage. But when news like this comes along, I feel compelled to say something. In a nutshell, the UK physics and astronomy community has been hit with a series of harsh and ill thought-out budget...