Tag Archives: Habitability

Free Astronomy Magazine – July-August 2020 Issue Available For Reading And Download

And Happy 4th, fellow astrophiles!

The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (July-August 2020) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure at www.astropublishing.com (click the link to go directly to the issue).

July-August 2020 includes a selected survey of astronomical content of local and cosmological interest from NASA/ESA, ESO, ALMA, as well as three feature articles from our fearless leader/editor Michele Ferrara. The feature articles in this issue discuss:

  1. “All the planets of Proxima Centauri” – the science for this article was quite literally being published as the article itself was being put together, about as fast a processing of journal-article-to-magazine as one can do while putting others together.
  2. “A supernova or Sagittarius – which should we thank?” – I’ve mentioned in many lectures that our own Sun is either the second or third stellar inhabitant in our vicinity, with a local supernova sparking the formation of it and our Solar System way back when. Recent studies indicate that other events 5-ish billion years ago might have instigated the events that lead to “us.”
  3. “The principle of mediocrity and the habitability of galaxies” – lump this use of the word “mediocrity” with the scientific use of the word “theory,” please. It is a joy to know that fundamental debates are being had in the astronomy and astrophysics literature and that there remains plenty, plenty yet to know for those pondering their futures in STEM.

For those wanting a quick look at what the issue has to offer, the Table of Contents is reproduced below.

The web browser-readable version: www.astropublishing.com/4FAM2020/

Jump right to the PDF download (15 MB): July-August 2020

Free Astronomy Magazine – November-December 2019 Issue Available For Reading And Download

Greetings, fellow astrophiles!

The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (November-December 2019) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure at www.astropublishing.com (click the link to go directly to the issue).

As editor-in-chief Michele Ferrara alludes to early in his “flexible concept” article on page 38, there’s been quite the transition into the study of exoplanets and the potentials for habitability as a way to more credibly have the discussion about alien life. His article on page 22 is worth the read for those who think it’s not a question of “if” but of “how often?”

Free Astronomy Magazine (website, facebook) was featured as the first of a series of articles on great free online content for amateur astronomers (see A Universe Of Free Resources Part 1) and we’ll be keeping track of future publications under the Online Resources category on the CNYO website.

You can find previous Free Astronomy Magazine issues by checking out our Free Astronomy Magazine Category (or look under the Education link in our menu).

For those wanting a quick look at what the issue has to offer, the Table of Contents is reproduced below.


November-December 2019

The web browser-readable version of the issue can be found here:

November-December 2019 – www.astropublishing.com/6FAM2019/

For those who want to jump right to the PDF download (20 MB), Click here:

November-December 2019