The rapidly-approaching 2019 will let us mark a half-century since human beings took the first steps on a body other than the Earth, namely our own Moon. But, come the New Year, lunar exploration is likely to make the headlines for one other reason: a number of robotic spacecraft built by three different nations will attempt to repeat the feat accomplished by the Apollo programme and land on the Moon’s surface.
With Space Exploration comes theories and conspiracies. In our latest blog we debunk some of the more infamous ones.
Some seven months ago, a NASA spacecraft called InSight was launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket and headed to Mars (Figure 1). If all goes well, the spacecraft will land on the Martian surface at around 8pm UK time this Monday 26th November and begin its science investigation. InSight is a fixed lander (see Figure 2 below), a much simpler affair than the Curiosity rover that arrived in 2012 and continues its trek across the floor of Gale crater to this day. Mobility, is however, not required for the specific aim of the mission.
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.
The Armagh Observatory and Planetarium are holding a special event to mark the lunar eclipse, coming at almost the same time as the opposition of Mars. The event has proved so popular that tickets sold out within a couple of hours of being released, so we have written this blog entry to tell you about what will happen if you missed out on obtaining a ticket or are going to try to observe the eclipse from elsewhere.
July 20 1969 saw, arguably, the most famous event in all of human history when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the Moon and left his footprints there – a mark still indelibly framed in the lunar dust today, some 49 years later. It may seem almost as incredible that it is indeed nearly half a century ago that this epochal event occurred, one that united all of humanity for a short while, as we stared at that yellow orb in our night skies to know that one of our species was walking on it surface.
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…
Well, thankfully the drudgery of January is behind us and we can look forward to a month full of dark nights, stars and even a hint of romance. And let me tell you this my dear reader, if there’s one thing we’re experts on up in the Planetarium, it’s romance**. Read more…
Since the beginning of the space age, humanity has been sending robotic emissaries to all corners of the solar system. These represent some of the most complex technological undertakings ever conceived. Travelling for years and even decades to their destinations, they have helped form a modern picture of the solar Read more…
Hello again Planetarichums! It’s Stephen here, ready to do my very best to explain some of the upcoming wonders in our night sky as we head into winter and the Christmas holidays. So, first things first, we’ll talk a little about our celestial neighbour, the Moon. On December 3rd our Read more…