Christopher Palma

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lighted bridge into city against night sky

Probing Question: How are we affected by light pollution?

10/12/11

It has been one of Homo sapiens' most ancient activities: sitting around a fire and gazing with wonder at the stars spread across the dark night sky. These days, if you've had this awe-inspiring experience, you're one of the lucky ones, says Christopher Palma, senior lecturer in Penn State's astronomy & astrophysics department. "Did you know that from many locations in the United States you can't see the whole Little Dipper anymore?" he asks.

Christopher Palma

11/10/08

At the fourth Research Unplugged event of the fall season, Christopher Palma led a discussion on "Galactic Cannibals," explaining to a riveted audience how larger galaxies draw in, tear apart and "swallow" smaller galaxies that come too close to their gravitational pull.

Probing Question: Are asteroids a threat to Earth?

11/12/07

Hollywood thrillers such as Deep Impact helped to jump-start America's interest in knowing what our "deflection strategy" would be if a giant asteroid was on a potentially catastrophic collision course with Earth.

Probing Question: What do sunspots have to do with GPS reception?

4/16/07

When you plan a picnic or a hike, you want an accurate weather forecast to warn you of possible storms. If you plan to use your global positioning system (GPS) to chart your course, you may want a solar weather forecast, as well. Recent news articles have reported that solar storms can interfere with GPS satellite transmissions. This could be a bit of a problem if you are relying on your car's onboard navigation system to tell you where to turn right.

Probing Question: Is ours the only universe?

8/18/05

Astronomers Chris Palma and Jane Charlton answer:

Palma: There's a distinction that needs to be made here. When we loosely throw around the term "universe," usually what we mean is the observable universe, what we can see from here on Earth. We know roughly how old the universe is—the current number is 13.7 billion years. And we know the speed of light. So anything that is within 13.7 billion light years from Earth we can see because light from that object has had enough time to reach us.