Exposing Pseudoastronomy

A classic young-Earth creationist claim is that spiral galaxies would wind themselves up and become a uniform disk if they had been around for millions or billions of years. In this episode, I go through this basic claim and why a basic misunderstanding of spiral galaxy arms leads to its conclusion.

Some think that our Sun is part of a binary star system, that there is another star out there, gravitationally bound, that does bad things to us from time-to-time. This has some observational data that it can explain. But, what about current data, and what about current searches for such an object? And, where do genuine scientific pursuits cross the line into pseudoscience?

It is claimed by many that Billy Meier is a UFO contactee. As partial evidence of this, it is claimed that he wrote about things well before anyone on Earth (including scientists) knew about them. In this episode, I go through a lengthy process of exploring some such writings that people have claimed are good evidence of this, specifically ones related to Jupiter and Saturn.

Dr. Robin Canup is the Associate Vice President of the Planetary Science Directorate at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO. She received her BS in physics from Duke University and her PhD in planetary sciences from the University of Colorado, and Robin has been at the forefront for over a decade in simulating how the moon may have formed. In this interview, we discuss some of the remaining issues with how the moon may have formed and what the current state of the research is.

A common claim by Richard Hoagland is that various celestial objects are artificial or have artificial objects or structures upon or within them. One such object is Mars' inner moon, Phobos. This episode is a look at the history of the claim and the evidence presented.

A special behind-the-scenes look at the development of mini-conspiracies surrounding the recent Colorado floods by yours truly.

Xenon-129 was discovered in abundance by the Viking landers on Mars. Xenon-129 can only be produced in nuclear reactions, so claims John E. Brandenburg. Ergo, Mars was murdered in a vast nuclear exchange. Or was it?

Around 2008, the claim that Jewish holidays occurring during a Blood Moon in 2014 and 2015 was going to signal the Apocalypse. The claim persists in some circles today. Exploring the nature of eclipses and the Jewish calendar itself sheds some light onto the basic claim.

David Sereda started as a UFOlogist who became interested in "alternative" energy, propulsion, and anti-gravity. Over the years, he branched out into what most would term a general 'new age' movement with quantum vibration jewelry and harmonic resonances. In this second of two parts, I discuss numerous varied claims that he has made related to basic science, physics, and astronomy, that illustrate various misunderstandings of each field.

David Sereda started as a UFOlogist who became interested in "alternative" energy, propulsion, and anti-gravity. Over the years, he branched out into what most would term a general 'new age' movement with quantum vibration jewelry and harmonic resonances. In this first of two parts, I discuss this evolution and go through a few of his claims. Part two will focus on many more of his claims.

Richard C. Hoagland has claimed now for at least a decade that there exists a “hyperdimensional torsion physics” which is based partly on spinning stuff. I assume he is correct in his model and claims and that his Accutron watch can actually measure what he claims. I then go through how you would properly design an experiment to test the claims and show why the data that Mr. Hoagland has presented is, quite literally, meaningless.

Astronomical objects are an astronomically large distance away. So far, in fact, that for light, at its current speed, to get from there to us so we can see them, that the universe must be more than 6000 years old. Young-Earth creationists have a problem with that. This epiosde discusses one of the ways they try to solve that problem.

In yet another edition of "Fake Planet X" stories, this time I talk about Mark Hazlewood's claims surrounding his failed prediction of a 2003 approach. Hazlewood borrowed a lot from Nancy Lieder (she claims he copied her), but he is much more conspiratorial. This episode focuses more on the story of what happened and his claims rather than delve too much into why everything he claimed was wrong.

By most accounts, Disney's "John Carter" movie, based on the books by Edgar R. Burroughs, was a box office flop. It did get decent reviews, and I don't think it's not worth seeing. But Richard C. Hoagland saw something different, and in an exclusive, three-hour interview in April 2012, he laid out his case that "John Carter" was depicting Mars as it really was, and the Therns who controlled things from behind the scenes were what is going on today, on Earth.

Ancient astronomers searched for evidence and found none that Earth is not the center of the universe. Thousands of years later, we found that evidence, but there are still people today who point to other reasons and claim heliocentrism is wrong. This episode explores those and some independent ways to show why geocentrism doesn't work.

In the long-delayed "2012 Back-Peddling" episode that is this, I talk about a few examples of people saying one thing or group of things is/are going to happen on or about December 21, 2012, and then their reactions (or lack there-of) when it didn't. Or claims that it still did. We'll see ...

Nancy Lieder is best known for her failed prognostications about Planet X coming in May 2003. Lost among her many Planet X claims is a deeper misunderstanding of astronomy. In this episode, I delve into several of her astronomy misstatements and explain what's really going on.

Back in 2010, David Coppedge, a young-Earth creationist and an Intelligent Design advocate, sued NASA for workplace discrimination, alleging he had been discriminated against due to his religious views. He later amended the lawsuit for wrongful termination after he was fired. In early 2013, the lawsuit was thrown out in its entirety. This episode is an interview with a legal expert about the case.

The color of Mars seems like it should be something fairly simple to know and represent. Scientists claim to have solved it very early on, but a branch of conspiracy theories claims that, in fact, NASA and other space agencies have lied about the true color of Mars for decades.

The first public, and abridged, version of a TAM 2013 workshop on image processing and analysis for skeptics. This was a live talk presented at the Denver 2013 Skepticamp in front of a live studio audience. Besides background information, this talk used basic skills to analyze the infamous Face on Mars and a lesser known lunar step pyramid.