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Planets

Latest News

Making Neptune’s moons

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 Apostolos Christou, 8 months8 months ago
Human Exploration

5 Facts About…Saturn!

Now we come to the sixth planet from the sun, with the magnificent ring system, it’s Saturn! It is now the planet with the most known moons! Saturn recently beat out Jupiter in the moons category, even though Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar system and behaves somewhat Read more…

By Anna Taylor, 9 months9 months ago
Human Exploration

The Artemis Program – The Successor to Apollo

50 years ago, humankind took its first steps on the moon, and the world celebrated. However, 47 years ago, the last human walked on the moon, and we have not been back since. Until now. The new programme that will take humans back to the moon is called Artemis, who Read more…

By Anna Taylor, 9 months9 months ago
Human Exploration

5 Facts About… Jupiter!

Let’s move on to the largest planet in our solar system, the great gas giant Jupiter. Jupiter is over twice as heavy as all the other planets in the Solar system put together. Jupiter is a gas giant planet, the largest in the solar system, made up of swirling gases Read more…

By Anna Taylor, 9 months8 months ago
Planets

5 Facts About… Mars!

This week out 5 Facts series continues with our little brother planet – Mars! Seeing Red  Mars is famously known as the red planet as its dusty ground is tinged brownish red by iron-oxide (rust). This makes Mars look red to the human eye when we see it in the night sky. Read more…

By Helen McLoughlin, 9 months9 months ago
Planets

5 Facts About… Earth!

This week our 5 Facts series continues with our home planet! Read on to learn more about our Earth. Earth is the only planet not named after a God The other planets in our Solar System are named after Roman and Greek Gods, but not our Earth! The word “Earth” Read more…

By Courtney Allison, 9 months9 months ago
Planets

Venus Resplendent

Those of you going out late in the day for an evening stroll or just enjoying the spring smells in your garden may have noticed a bright white beacon of light shining high in the west after sunset. This is Venus, the closest planet to the Earth and the brightest Read more…

By Apostolos Christou, 9 months9 months ago
Image of Venus
Planets

5 Facts About… Venus!

Next in our 5 Facts series we have the most evil planet of them all! The second planet from the sun is named after the Roman Goddess of love. However, as we are about to find out, it is far from lovely! Hot, Hot, Hot!  Although Mercury is closest to Read more…

By Helen McLoughlin, 9 months9 months ago
Image of MESSENGER
Planets

5 Facts About… Mercury!

Kicking off our 5 Facts series we have the littlest member of our planetary family! Mercury is the smallest planet  Pluto used to be the smallest planet in our solar system but since it was ‘demoted’ to a dwarf planet, Mercury then won the prize for being the smallest planet Read more…

By Helen McLoughlin, 10 months10 months ago
Alien Life

Astrobiology II: Life on Moons!

Back to our search for aliens in the second installment of the Astrobiology Series!

By Anna Taylor, 11 months11 months ago

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RSS Intergalactic Craic
  • The Safest Dinner Party of 2020
    For the last episode of Season 1, Heather and Courtney suggest their ideal astronomy guests to a dinner party. They cover some of humanity's greatest astronomical achievements as well as discuss some of the rumours surrounding a particular famous astronomer's party behaviour! Need Some Space?
  • Turning Back The Clock - The History of AOP
    Join Heather and Special Guest Host Dr Rok Nezic as they delve into the archives and discuss the history of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium through their favourite objects. Clocks, books, instruments and rooms, they've got it all covered, and they have a bit of craic along the way.
  • Vampires, Zombies and... Bowties? Oh My!
    This week Intergalactic Craic has some added spook for your Autumn. Vampire stars, zombie stars and spooky nebulae will all be discussed by Courtney and Heather. Need Some Space?
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Welcome to Astronotes

Hello and welcome to Astronotes, the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium’s official blog. Here you will find the latest news and views from all those who work in our organisation, from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration. We hope you will come here to learn what is hot and exciting, profound or even weird from worlds beyond ours . So that's the introduction out of the way, now on with the Universe!

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