Scientists using ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope have discovered that a curious dead star has been hiding one of the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe all…
Read the articleOne of the most legendary PR disasters in the history of astronomy happened in 1973 when the world awaited the arrival of comet Kohoutek, discovered by…
Read the articleThis August sees the return of the Perseid meteor shower and, with the moon setting around midnight on Aug 11, the early hours of the 12th…
Read the articleSomething big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun’s vast magnetic field is about to flip. “It looks…
Read the articleWhile working to correct an extreme case of myopia (otherwise known as short-sightedness), Dutch optician Hans Lippershey stumbled upon the fact that a particular arrangement of…
Read the articleThe mysterious, almost mystical bright light emerging from these thick, ominous clouds is actually a telltale sign of forming stars. Here, a very young star is…
Read the articleNASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided the strongest evidence yet that short-duration gamma-ray bursts are triggered by the merger of two small, super-dense stellar objects, such…
Read the articleESA’s Sun-watching Proba-2 satellite has been in orbit since November 2009, demonstrating a range of technologies and serving as a platform for scientific observations. The 130-kg…
Read the articleIn astronomy, there’s nothing quite like a bright meteor streaking across the glittering canopy of a moonless night sky. The unexpected flash of light adds a…
Read the articleThe true identity of centaurs, the small celestial bodies orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune, is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Are they…
Read the article
