Michael Garrett, University of Manchester The US$100m (£70m) Breakthrough Listen Initiative, founded by Russian billionaire, technology and science investor Yuri Milner and his wife Julia, has identified a mysterious radio signal that seems to come from the nearest star to the Sun – Proxima Centauri. This has generated a flood of excitement in the press […]
Category Archives: Astronomy
Galactic archaeology: astronomers are using stars as fossils to study the Milky Way
Understanding the stellar population of our galaxy could reveal a great deal, not only about our own home but also about the universe as a whole. So-called galactic archaeology can reveal how galaxies take shape and explain some of the interesting complexities of our own.
A simple guide to buying your first telescope
You decided to buy your first telescope, but don’t know where to start? Here’s a simple guide for you.
Interview: It’s time to rethink the Milky Way
The Milky Way might be right on our cosmic doorstep, but a group of astronomers suspect that the way we currently study it is stunting our understanding. Professor Ralf Klessen at Heidelberg University in Germany is one of four researchers who have recently begun a six-year project, ECOGAL, to try something new: imagine our home […]
NASA’s Planet Patrol Project lets the volunteers help to find exoplanets
NASA announced a new citizen science project called “Planet Patrol” which lets the volunteers help to find exoplanets using TESS Space Telescope (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) data. It is similar to another NASA citizen science project, “Backyard Worlds”, where volunteers or the “citizen scientists” are checking telescope images the same way the American astronomer Clyde […]
Moon passing in front of Mars in this spectacular video
On September 6, 2020, French astrophotographer Thierry Legault (@ThierryLegault) went to the South of Lisbon to capture the event of the Moon passing in front of Mars. The result is this spectacular video, titled “Occultation of Mars by the Moon” by Legault himself.
Backyard Worlds: NASA is asking for volunteers to help find the hypothetical Planet 9
Some astronomers think in our outer solar system there’s a giant, undiscovered world hiding and they call it (for obvious reasons) Planet Nine. Whether it exists, it could be 5-10 times the size of the Earth and orbit Sun hundreds of times farther away than Earth orbiting Sun. Now, a NASA citizen science project called […]
Saturn and its rings: Hubble’s spectacular new photo (July 4, 2020)
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this spectacular photo of Saturn and its rings on July 4, 2020, when the ringed gas giant was 839 million miles (1,35 billion kilometers) from Earth.
Most-detailed 3D map of the Universe has been released
On Jul 20, 2020, scientists have released what they call the “most-detailed 3D map of the universe ever produced”. This incredible map shows 11 billion years of the Universe’s history, with galaxies closest to Earth appearing in purple & blue, and distant galaxies in yellow & red.
Comet NEOWISE and noctilucent clouds – something we’ve never seen before
Russian space agency Roscosmos published spectacular photos of Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) and noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) above our beautiful planet Earth. This is something we’ve never seen before. Forming about 45-55 miles (75-90 km) above polar regions in summer, noctilucent clouds are Earth’s uppermost clouds and only visible around twilight. PMCs […]
