Research Astronomer Dr Apostolos Christou reports on a new model to explain the two “oddball’’ moons of Neptune: Triton, a >2000 km diameter satellite that circles Neptune in the opposite direction that the planet rotates; and 300-km Nereid, the planetary moon with the most elongated orbit in the solar system. Read more…
By Christopher Duffy Studies of the sun, our closest star, have shown that sun spot activity and solar eruptions, also known as solar flares, are strongly correlated – regions of the sun with many sun spots are found to be the typical point of origin for most solar flares. This Read more…
The hottest February day ever in Armagh.
With Space Exploration comes theories and conspiracies. In our latest blog we debunk some of the more infamous ones.
NASA has announced the retirement of the Kepler spacecraft. After launch in March 2009, it began a continuous observation of a 115 square degree field of view (the diameter of the moon is 1/2 a degree) between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.
It’s the beginning of a new month, filled with new exciting events in the night sky. Here is a brief summary of what to expect in the next few weeks.
This July will be a very astronomically eventful month – full of eclipses, bright planets, meteor showers and bright satellite passes. If the weather permits, we will have the opportunity to witness a lot of interesting events in the night sky.
Article by Michael Burton, Director of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover recently discovered organic molecules in 3 billion year old Martian rocks. This material may have been delivered by meteorites and comets to the young planet. Deep space is full of organic matter. Organic matter contains Read more…
Article by: Tom Watts In collaboration with universities in England, Australia and Thailand, the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium is part of a team operating and commissioning the new Gravitational wave Optical Transient Observatory (GOTO) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma. GOTO, once operational, Read more…
Article written by: Conor Byrne As an astrophysicist with a keen interest in space from a young age, the opportunity to witness a rare astronomical phenomenon is naturally quite high on the ‘bucket list’. So when I was attending a research workshop in the United States in August 2017, just Read more…