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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

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New data from Tabby’s Star suggests that dust, not alien megastructures, is the cause of its dimming

New observations of Tabby’s Star now suggests that it is dust, not alien megastructures, that has caused the star’s erratic fluctuations in dimming over the past century.

“Dust is most likely the reason why the star’s light appears to dim and brighten. The new data shows that different colors of light are being blocked at different intensities. Therefore, whatever is passing between us and the star is not opaque, as would be expected from a planet or alien megastructure,” said [LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Assistant Professor Tabetha Boyajian].

Though the data appears strong, it still leaves astronomers a bit baffled about how dust could cause the particular dimming they have seen.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

3 comments

  • Localfluff

    It must be a very particular dust cloud to dim a star which is even larger than the Sun. That’s according to truly *stellar* physics that classifies these nearly Sun-like F-stars by the millions. The dimmings have been up to 20% almost from one day to another. The radius of the Sun is about 4 times the distance to the Moon. You don’t cover that up very easily. North Koreans covering up their Pyongyang central Square with flags all at once doesn’t quite do it. Even the trees reddening in the autumn are too slow. What could suddenly and repeatedly cover up an entire star?

    And it only happened to one in 100,000 observed by the same telescope. If one dust cloud once dimmed a star, sure that must happen sometime. But this guy is regular with its irregular dimmings. I thought there was something wrong with the telescope, but it seems very well confirmed form the ground now. So even the bad ideas don’t work. That’s what exploration is all about. This beats our brains, and the human instinct is to look closer until we beat it back. Our brain cells somehow conspire against these unknown thingies to make up ideas about them that, seemingly, neutralizes them to our comfort world. That got a bit philosopsychical.

  • LocalFluff: Heh. Excellent post. Made me laugh, and was scientifically thoughtful as well.

  • Mike Fortner

    I know we have heard a lot about a Dyson sphere. I agree with Localfluff. Dust seems unlikely. My vote is for a Larry Niven Ring world structure. There were analyzed as being unstable so it could be just the ticket. The ring could just revolve around the star in a very unpredictable manner. Just a thought. This is fun too.

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