Armagh is a partner in two telescope projects whose key goal is to detect the optical counterpart of colliding massive dead stars. Albert Einstein predicted that when two massive objects spiral around each other, eventually merging to become one more massive object, gravitational waves would be emitted. Scientists spent a Read more…
What once sounded like a story from science fiction is now quickly becoming a scientific reality, with privately funded projects and NASA-supported studies into the feasibility of a radio dish nestled inside a lunar crater. There are two issues which must be addressed when observing in the long wavelengths of Read more…
Article by: Matthew McMahon, Museum Collections Officer Brass might not have the appeal of other rich metals, like gold or silver, but ask anyone that has spent time around an old observatory and they will tell you that brass sparkles just as bright. At the start of 2023 we Read more…
Solving a 40 year cosmic mystery about interstellar gas only to uncover an even deeper one. Author: Michael Burton, Director of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium Hydrogen molecules have been found in clouds of shocked gas in interstellar space that are at temperatures of around 5,000 degrees. This is much Read more…
Want to know more detail about the research described in this Astronotes article on ultra-hot hydrogen molecules? Here are five papers spanning more than four decades of research that helped lead to this discovery of ultra-hot molecular hydrogen: Velocity profiles in the 2.1 micron molecular hydrogen line emission line in the Orion Molecular Cloud Read more…
Written by Nick Parke, Education Officer Yes, the JWST is now in space! You may be pinching yourself to be sure the images we are seeing from the James Webb Space Telescope are actually real – don’t worry, they are! After this 30 year long wait though, your disbelief is Read more…
Article by Ed Snowdon Whether you are a researcher gathering data, or a hobbyist taking photos from your back garden, astronomy has always required a certain amount of good luck. Instruments can be uncooperative, data can be lost or damaged, and of course there’s the ever-present threat of bad weather. Read more…
Ask any number of astronomers who they believe to be the most influential figures in 20th century astronomy and chances are you will hear the name of Vera Rubin being uttered a few times. Recipient of numerous awards and accolades including the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal, Vera Rubin (nee Read more…
It’s been just over two months since The James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space. On Christmas Day 2021, Professor Michael Burton watched the launch online, whilst enjoying his Christmas dinner! So, what has happened since launch day and where is the telescope now? We find out more from Read more…
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been in space since 1990 and has resolved many long-standing problems in astronomy, whilst raising new ones thus improving our knowledge and curiosity significantly. It has been the most important telescope we had for 31 years. Now it’s time to relay the mission to its Read more…
How many moons can you see with the naked eye? The answer may surprise you.. Of the hundreds of moons orbiting the planets of our solar system, all but four are too faint to see with the naked eye. One of the four is, of course, Earth’s own Moon. The Read more…
NGC stands for the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, which is an astronomical catalogue of deep sky objects and was compiled in 1888 by the 4th director of the Armagh Observatory John Dreyer. To this day the NGC catalogue is still used by Astronomers all over the world and remains one of our many claims to fame! The catalogue contains 7840 objects Read more…
by Galin Borisov and Apostolos Christou This September, we had the first opportunity to make astronomical observations while physically present at the telescope since the start of the COVID19 pandemic. Our instrument of choice was the 2-m RCC telescope at Rozhen Observatory on the Rhodope mountains in SW Bulgaria. So here we are at 1700m above sea level with a forecast for good weather and ready for new discoveries! One Read more…
By Galin Borisov (not the interstellar comet discoverer) During this tough period of COVID-19 pandemic, most of the astronomical observatories around the world are closed and no observations are carried out. But my Bulgarian colleague, Yanko Nikolov, decided to self-isolate in the mountain and fulfil the observations with the 2m Read more…
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…
Just released are first images and videos from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) – revealing unprecedented detail of the Sun’s surface, with experts saying it will enable a new era of solar science and a leap forward in understanding the Sun and its impacts Read more…
Lying somewhere between young main-sequence stars and old white dwarfs, hot subdwarfs are blue stars with about half the mass, a tenth the diameter and ten times the brightness of the Sun.
The long standing satellite king of The Solar System, Jupiter, has been dethroned – Saturn now has 82 moons to Jupiter’s 79! via GIPHY The new moons were discovered by astronomers at The Carnegie Institution for Science using the Subaru telescope on top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. According to Read more…
To kick off our new weekly series on the Technical Applications of Astronomy to Society, inspired by a recent publication of the IAU (The International Astronomical Union), our Director Michael Burton has written a brief summary of the history and purpose of the IAU, as well as outlining some of Read more…
While you may be familiar with black holes from sci-fi and many artists’ renditions of the phenomenon, our first actual view of the event horizon of the supermassive black hole which is at the centre of a neighbouring galaxy, Messier 87, was released 4 weeks ago to the day. What 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.
The hottest February day ever in Armagh.
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.
The discovery of planets orbiting around other stars has been one of humankinds greatest achievements. The existance of these ‘exo-planets’ can challenge our perception of our place in the universe. Since the first confirmed detection of a planet around another normal star (51 Peg) in 1995, many thousands of planets have been discovered. Indeed, it is likely that most stars will have their own system of planets. It is important in answering the question – is there intelligent life out there?
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 by: Holly Preece, PhD student at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium NASA’s Hubble space telescope was launched on 24th April 1990. It was the first optical space telescope to be launched into orbit and has been one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built. It orbits the Earth Read more…
Article by Aaron Golden, Visiting Astronomer at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium Stephen Bourke works at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden, and Aaron Golden at the School of Maths in NUI Galway, and is a visiting astronomer at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium. Read more…
Article Written by Gavin Ramsay Comets have been known for millennia with Halley’s Comet famously being shown in the Bayeux Tapestry illustrating events which took place in 1066. They were also thought to foretell catastrophic events. Today we know them as having a small nucleus made up of ice and Read more…
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…
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…
After telling us about the Sun, in part two of this posting Armagh astronomer Gerry Doyle takes us through the telescopes and satellites being used to study the Sun. The Solar Physics community needs continued access to state-of-the-art observational facilities (both space- and ground-based) that cover a broad range of wavelengths and Read more…
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium’s Robinson Lecture this year will be about the Sun. To lead into this here is the first of two articles about why astronomers study our Sun, and the range of telescopes and satellites co-opted to the the task. Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that 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 October 31, 2017, the world will celebrate the international hunt for dark matter. Armagh Observatory and Planetarium will be having a special showing of the “Phantom of the Universe” at 2pm, a Full Dome show which discusses our understanding (or lack thereof) Dark Matter, and the search to find 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…
The Sun is a constant presence in everyday life from rising in the morning signifying the beginning of the day, to setting at night representing the time to rest. With the human race ever more dependent on technology it is important to monitor solar activity and the potential harm it Read more…
As the summer draws to a close September is a perfect time for stargazing before the cold nights of winter finally creep in. With sunset around 9pm and a forecasted heatwave, fingers crossed for some clear skies with some lovely mild temperatures. A key feature of the summer night sky Read more…
During our school days, children in the developing and developed world could not even dream about getting a chance to look through a professional telescope; forget about playing with it for real observations! Those days, only the best professional astronomers/astrophysicists had access to such telescopic sites and networks. However one Read more…
Michael Burton, Director, AOP On 27th July 2017, the RoI Minister John Halligan switched on I-LOFAR telescope, the largest radio telescope in the world, at Birr Castle in Co. Offaly. The Armagh Observatory and Planetarium is a member of the 8 institutions across the island of Ireland that came together to build I-LOFAR. Read more…
It’s hard to believe that the summer has come around and we are half way through 2017. Time may be flying by but the good weather means a chance of clear skies at night and with lots to see this month let’s hope the rain stays at bay. Read more…
The discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 exo-planetary system is a truly remarkable event in science. It is an exemplar of how an armada of telescopes – some located on the ground and some in space, and collectively owned by a league of nations – can work together to chart new frontiers Read more…
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a powerful instrument which can be used to observe the Sun at high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution. ALMA consists of a giant array of 12-m antennas, with baselines up to 16 km, and an additional compact array of 7-m and 12-m antennas. Read more…
In many walks of life a single concerted effort to achieve the impossible will usually encounter opposition on all sides, however it appears that this reality is little diminished when it comes to astronomy. So for the largest space telescope in history to get off the ground and become that Read more…
While HST’s successor is named after the architect of the revolutionary Apollo Moon missions, an obvious tribute to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s second administrator, James E. Webb, the name given is perhaps also symbolic of the aspirations of all those involved in the project, that with the telescope’s Read more…
Have you ever wished you could hop into a time machine, zip back billions of years and answer one of the age old questions that have plagued mankind from the first time someone peered up into the night sky? To know what exactly happened in the universe that created the Read more…
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy which is supported by fifteen countries. Established in 1962 it operates some of the most technologically advanced telescopes in the world. Their mission is to provide state-of-the-art research facilities to astronomers and astrophysicists, allowing them to conduct front-line 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…