A new comet is swinging through the inner solar system, and it is brightening rapidly as it approaches Earth for a 100 million mile close encounter in mid-June.
Comet McNaught (C/2009 R1) has a vivid green head and a long wispy tail that looks great through small telescopes.
By the end of the month it could be visible to the … Read the rest of this article
2010 could turn out to be a landmark year – the year that sees the announcement that extraterrestrial life has been discovered.
You’re probably wondering what nutjob I’ve been listening to. No less a nutjob than Astronomy magazine. Ok, so the magazine is a bit thin and light these days compared to what it used to be. But a snippet … Read the rest of this article
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched successfully today and achieved orbit after an abort earlier in the day. Following the cancellation of further development on NASA’s Constellation manned space vehicles, SpaceX received a sizeable investment from NASA to further develop their line of privately owned launchers.
The Falcon 9 is a two stage, liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) powered … Read the rest of this article
A magnetic filament on the sun erupted yesterday (May 24th), and the blast hurled a coronal mass ejection in the general direction of Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras around May 27th when the advancing cloud is likely to deal a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field.… Read the rest of this article
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Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose work was condemned by the Catholic Church as heretical, will be reburied by Polish priests as a hero on Saturday, May 22nd, 2010, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave.
His burial in a tomb in the cathedral in Frombork (Poland) where he once served as a church … Read the rest of this article
The purpose of the Mars500 study is to gather data, knowledge and experience to help prepare for a real mission to Mars. Obviously there will be no effect of weightlessness, but the study will help to determine key psychological and physiological effects on people in such an enclosed environment for such an extended 520-day period of time.
The experiment is … Read the rest of this article
11 May, 2010: ESA’s Herschel infrared space telescope has made an unexpected discovery: a hole in space. The hole has provided astronomers with a surprising glimpse into the end of the star-forming process.
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NGC 1999 is the green tinged cloud towards the top of the image. The dark spot to the right was thought to be a cloud of dense …
The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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Aurora Oval
(Southern Hemisphere) |
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