Article written by: Prof. Jorick Vink, Armagh Observatory and Planetarium. According to the European Space Agency (ESA) there is a 1-in-625 chance that Asteroid 2023DW, with the size of a Football pitch, can strike Earth on Valentine’s Day 2046. Astronomers around the globe, including those at the Armagh Observatory Read more…
On 22 January 1997, Lottie Williams from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was walking through a park around 4am with friends when they saw what looked like a shooting star in the sky. “It was just a big ball of fire, shooting across the sky at just a fast speed,” Lottie recalls. After Read more…
Exploring and learning new things have always been a passion for humankind. We like new challenges. Sputnik widened our perspective in 1957. Shortly followed by Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, in 1961. Today, only 60 years after Gagarin’s historical achievement, we have spacecraft all around the Solar System. Read more…
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium reports that, if skies are clear on the morning of 10th June 2021, sky-watchers will witness a partial eclipse of the Sun. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, in effect casting a shadow on our planet. When the Read more…
What do a tree, a colander and a piece of cardboard have in common? The answer: they can all be used to observe a solar eclipse! Our Sun – the brightest star in the sky – has been the subject of intense scrutiny ever since human beings began to interrogate Read more…
A myth deeply engrained into popular culture is that the Moon is made of green cheese. The Apollo missions showed beyond reasonable doubt that the moon is made of rock and not, sadly, of one of our favourite dairy products. That being said, data brought back from Apollo and the Read more…
Has a crime ever been committed in space? Who would investigate allegations of crimes committed beyond Earth’s atmosphere? Under what jurisdiction are astronauts held accountable as no country owns space? Well, in space all astronauts are governed by National Law; this is similar to the law on international waters as Read more…
5 exciting things that you should know about the ISS in 2019! Making History 2019 was a very exciting year for space exploration as two Nasa astronauts embarked on the first ever all-female spacewalk! Jessica Meir and Christina Koch were tasked with replacing a failed power control unit. This was Read more…
There’s been a lot of controversy over the effect of SpaceX and Elon Musk’s plans to move the internet into space. We take a look at what this really means. You might have seen articles in the news recently about SpaceX’s new Starlink constellation of satellites. Planned to offer high Read more…
An update from Elon Musk on SpaceX’s vision for the future.