Astronomers using European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes have discovered giant spots on the surface of extremely hot stars hidden in stellar clusters. Not only are these stars plagued by magnetic spots, some also experience superflare events, explosions of energy several million times more energetic than similar eruptions on the Sun. Read more…
Breaking astronomy news! The European Southern Observatory, in combination with other institutes, has discovered a black hole – and it’s a mere 1000 lightyears from Earth! This newly discovered Black Hole forms part of a triple system (called HR6819) that can be seen with the naked eye. Petr Hadrava, Emeritus Read more…
This week our Astronomy & You series takes a look at Electronic Imaging Detectors and their effect on our lives. This piece was written by Ana I. Gomez de Castro. Ana is a full professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics and member of the Mathematics Faculty in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid Read more…
This week’s edition of our Astronomy & You series is a piece on the applications of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to our everyday lives. The following piece was written by Gabriele Giovannini; vice-President of the IAU’s Division B and full Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in Bologna Read more…
This week’s instalment of the Technical Applications of Astronomy to Society features a piece written by Professor Antonio Mario Magalhaes; astronomer, IAU member and Full Professor at the Instituto de Astronomia, Geofisica e Ciencias Atmosfericas of the University of São Paulo in Brazil. In this piece, he outlines the wider Read more…
Article by Armagh Astronomer Tolis Christou Imagine being outdoors on a sunny day, following the Sun as it rises from the east, heading towards the south and then on towards the west where it sets. Now think back: when did you feel the hottest: when the Sun was highest in Read more…
Astronomers have made the exciting discovery of an Earth-mass exoplanet in the habitable zone of our nearest neighbouring star, Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star 4.25 light years (1.3 parsec) from the Sun. The new-found world, designated Proxima b, is a little more massive than the Earth, implying that it Read more…
For those of you that are still bearing the psychological scars from Pluto’s demotion from planet to dwarf planet a decade ago, here is news that may add salt to the wounds. Published recently in the Astronomical Journal, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown claim they have found evidence of a Read more…
Peer deep into the constellation Sagittarius and you will find a spectacular young star cluster and its associated stellar nursery. These are M8 and the Lagoon Nebula. More than 4300 light years (1320 parsecs) from the Solar System, this is an active star-forming region. Billions of years ago our Read more…
The discovery of new planets beyond our Solar System has further expanded on what we thought we knew about what is out there. These distant extrasolar planets or exoplanets have only been confirmed to be in existence within the last twenty years and lots of new discoveries are still being Read more…