The European Space Agency (ESA) have officially approved two space missions, LISA and EnVision, for launch in the 2030’s. LISA will search for gravitational waves whilst EnVision will study the interior and atmosphere of Venus. Both missions have contributions from NASA. The process of being formally `adopted’ by ESA can Read more
Burcu Gunay, Ege University, Turkey We have developed a new method to look for carbon compounds in space, akin to prospecting for oil on Earth. Between the stars lie vast amounts of interstellar gas and dust, spread thinly throughout our Galaxy. The dust can contain compounds of carbon. When it Read more
Juno NASA’s Juno Spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral August 5th 2011, beginning its long journey to the mighty gas giant Jupiter with the aim to reveal and understand the formation and evolution of the planet. Juno was equipped with many scientific instruments to investigate the existence of a rocky inner Read more
Ireland’s entry into the space race is now at the testing phase. Preparatory testing for the space mission, EIRSAT-1, is taking place at the ESA’s Hertz antenna test chamber in Noordwijk, Holland. Educational Irish Research Satellite 1 is being built by students and staff of University College Dublin and Queens University Read more
Today marks the 30th birthday of The Hubble Space Telescope (HST). On the 24th of April 1990 NASA launched Hubble into low earth orbit and it is still up there today! Hubble has allowed us to see deep within the caverns of space, revealing the most incredible and famous images Read more
So as it turns out, we have had a secret, tiny moon lurking around our planet for potentially up to 3 years – and we had no idea! It’s not surprising we missed it – it’s no Europa for sure. It’s so small it is invisible to the naked eye. Read more
AOP researchers have used data from a NASA space mission to shed light on one of the most violent phenomena in our solar system – magnetic explosions on the surface of the Sun. Abhishek Srivastava, formerly a research associate at AOP and now a solar scientist at the Indian Institute Read more
As it is Good Relations Week here in Northern Ireland, we are covering the history of international relations within the context of space. More specifically; how the backdrop of global relations and newly formed Russia worked together with their former rival The United States of America to build the first 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
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
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
Satellites, our lives wouldn’t be complete without them. Since the beginning of the Space Race, Satellites have become a major part of how we observe our Solar System and the Universe, and also keep a close eye on our own planet.
Article written by: Heather Alexander, Education officer At the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium we have been having a look at all the things that are going to happen throughout the year and trying to select some of the events that we are most looking forward to. Needless to say this Read more
Have you ever wondered what is it like to live in space? How you put things down when there’s no ‘up’ or ‘down’? How do you sleep when nothing holds you to your bed? How you wash your face when the water does not behave normally? Here are some interesting facts about life in space.
The Observatory and Planetarium has welcomed school students to visit for work experience. A previous Astronote described our work with the Faulkes Telescope Project. Below is an account written by three of our work experience students in 2018 March, based on the work done at Armagh Observatory and Planetarium by them and three other students.
Recent observations of the helium star HD144941 have been obtained from space. Armagh astronomers Professor Simon Jeffery and Dr Gavin Ramsay have discovered that they show a light curve best explained by darker and lighter patches on the star’s surface coming into view as the star rotates with a period Read more
The 2018 Robinson Lecture will be given by Professor Louise Harra of University College London. Her topic is about the Solar Orbiter, a new spacecraft to be launched to study the Sun. It will be held in the Archbishop’s Palace in Armagh on Wednesday 22 November, 2017, starting at 7pm. Read more
On Aug 14th 2017 LIGO and the Virgo Gravitational Wave detectors based in the USA and Italy detected the fourth merging Black Hole event. This was a triumph for both groups, but especially the Virgo group which had only started taking regular data earlier that month. It did leave many Read more
Gaia is a satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 19 December 2013. It is essentially a census gathering information on over one billion stars, totalling an amazing 1% of the galaxy’s total population, measuring their positions, motion, brightness and colour. Gaia’s primary objective is to create the Read more
While suspicion, fear, and fantasy, at times were closely associated with the Cold War period in terms of how the USA and the USSR viewed one another’s respective actions, it became clear that space projects were not exempt from this mutual scrutiny either. One such project which did little to Read more
“Man must rise above Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives” Socrates (circa 399BC). Of course the philosopher Socrates would not have been thinking about satellites or spacecraft at this time, but his famous quote Read more
Although the concept of something being “there” but being hidden from our eyes under the cover of darkness is one that has disturbed usually one or other of us once upon a time, when it comes to space it’s hard to find an idea that thrills scientists and astronomers more. Read more
There are thought be thousands of satellites in working order in orbit around the Earth. If the count was to include all Earth satellites including broken parts and discarded pieces, there are thought to be 21,000 pieces of space junk greater than 10cm across up there. If we include fragments Read more
Gleaned from NASA and Hubblesite.org, here are some facts you may not know about the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). 1. The HST’s history is longer than you might have thought, going back to just after World War II. In 1946, the astronomer Lyman Spitzer (1914-97) identified the main advantages Read more
