One of our Astronomers, Dr Gavin Ramsay, reflects on his memories of some of the amazing telescopes he has travelled to throughout his career! When the telescope was invented in early 17th century, they were generally used in the urban environment. Gradually they were housed in quite grand purpose-built buildings Read more…
Back to our search for aliens in the second installment of the Astrobiology Series!
SpaceX’s last resupply, CRS-19, launched into blazing sunshine atop a cloud of smoke. NASA are sending some interesting payloads high into space in March 2020… A focus of research conducted on the ISS (International Space Station) has always been how plants grow and develop without gravity helping them, and how Read more…
Astrobiology is the study of life on planets or moons other than the Earth. But, to search for life, we must first know what life is. And that might not be as simple a task as you’d think. It turns out that ‘life’ might just be an arbitrary definition that Read more…
In honour of World Mental Health Day 2019, here follows a brief overview of the mental health impacts of space travel and how NASA has altered its attitude to this pressing issue over the decades. Arguably, the worst thing to happen to Buzz Aldrin was walking on the moon. After Read more…
An update from Elon Musk on SpaceX’s vision for the future.
President John F Kennedy’s speech to the United States’ Congress on the 25th of May 1961 encapsulates the romanticism that has adorned the endeavour of space exploration to this day. A President asking the representatives of his people to fund a daring, groundbreaking mission to, “before this decade [was] out, [land] Read more…
Article by Professor Michael Burton, Director of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium July 20, 2019 marks 50 years from the day Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon, humanity’s first foot steps on another world. As much an awe inspiring feat then as it remains today. Indeed, despite the revolution in Read more…
As we are fast approaching the 50th anniversary of man’s greatest achievement of landing men on the moon in 1969, we are taking a look back and how women were treated in NASA’s space program and how things are different (or similar) today. Sally Ride had never planned to be 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…