Measuring Gravity As part of a survey to determine the true topography of Ireland by Ordnance Survey Ireland, AOP has recently hosted an experiment designed to measure the Earth’s gravity to an incredible precision, just 10 nms-2! That’s an incredible 0.00000001 ms-2! To put into context just how accurate that Read more…
When the first module of the International Space Station (ISS) launched from Kazakhstan in 1998, humans just had a small orbiting home, about the size of a bus. Over the past two decades it has expanded beyond recognition, and is now an orbiting science laboratory that is literally out of Read more…
We don’t like to think about it, but the world will end one day. It is likely to be engulfed by the Sun as it expands into a red giant star 6 billion years from now, but whether humans survive to see that day is up for debate (climate change…). With regards to the universe, Read more…
Continuing our weekly Astronomy & You series we have an article explaining the invention of Wi-Fi from Tony Beasley. Tony is an IAU member and is President of Commission B4 Radio Astronomy within the organisation. Tony is also the Director of The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the USA. The history Read more…
Summer’s here! The weather’s heating up and skies will hopefully be clear for a bit of stargazing! There are lots of interesting sights in the sky this July, so while you may have to wait longer for it to get dark, get outside, allow your eyes to adjust and get Read more…
This week our Astronomy & You series takes a look at Electronic Imaging Detectors and their effect on our lives. This piece was written by Ana I. Gomez de Castro. Ana is a full professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics and member of the Mathematics Faculty in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid Read more…
This week’s edition of our Astronomy & You series is a piece on the applications of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to our everyday lives. The following piece was written by Gabriele Giovannini; vice-President of the IAU’s Division B and full Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in Bologna Read more…
Its June and school is nearly out. The summer holidays are fast approaching and whether you are planning a holiday home or abroad there will so many interesting objects to observe in the June Night sky; let’s just hope the weather is kind to us and offers good clear skies Read more…
Continuing our weekly instalments outlining astronomy’s impact on your everyday life, we have an article by Jan Mathijs van der Hulst. Thijs is an astronomer, Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of Groningen, and member of the IAU’s Division B steering committee. Below he outlines how time keeping owes Read more…
Continuing our weekly series on the application of astronomy to technology, we have an piece written by Dmitrij Bisikalo; Professor at The Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Astronomy and the President of the International Astronomical Union’s Commission B1 on Computational Astrophysics. In this piece, he outlines the link between Read more…