By the end of the month on September 29, Uranus will be at opposition. The gas giant will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. This makes it the best time to view Uranus. Due to its distance, it will only appear as a tiny blue-green dot in all but the most powerful telescopes. Continue reading
Just as an expert chess player sacrifices a piece to protect the queen, the solar system may have given up a giant planet and spared Earth, according to an article recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Continue reading
This month you can witness a supernova with just binoculars or a small telescope. The supernova is called SN 2011fe and has been discovered by astronomers on August 24 within hours of its explosion. It is located within the Messier 101 galaxy 23 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. Continue reading
This month on the 12 and 13 the Perseids Meteor Shower will peak. It is one of the best meteor showers to observe because it can produce up to 60 meteors per hour at the peak. You may also be able to see some meteors any time from July 23 to August 22. Continue reading
The following is a huge infographic showing the true scale of the solar system with all its planets, minor bodies and the most famous probes we have sent out into deep space. Scientists measure distances in our solar system in … Continue reading
Astronomers say they have found a previously inconceivable phenomenon: planets that do not appear to be anchored to a host star but instead wander the heavens unbound. In a two-year scan of the cosmos, 10 planets with roughly the mass of Jupiter, have been found… Continue reading
Rocky planets a few times heavier than Earth that were thought might be life-friendly may lack a protective magnetic field that originates from an iron core that is at least partly molten. A simulation of super-Earths between a few times and 10 times Earth’s mass suggests that high pressures will keep the core solid… Continue reading
This is a photo montage of Uranus and five of it’s largest moons. The photos were taken separately by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. The moons, from largest to smallest as they appear here, are Ariel, Miranda, Titania, Oberon and Umbriel. … Continue reading
This is a photo of a crescent Neptune and its largest moon Triton taken by the Voyager 2 probe in 1989. It is unique because such a picture could not be taken from Earth since Neptune never shows a crescent … Continue reading