Where do meteorites come from? This question has been occupying the scientific community ever since it was realised that these “rocks from the sky” are, in fact, pieces of other worlds arriving on our planet from deep space. New research done by scientists at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium in Read more…
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.
Is it possible that ancient cultures 7000 years ago knew how to create flying machines to traverse the sky and beyond using a technology that NASA engineers are still trying to harness today? The first artificial satellite launched famously into orbit was the Russian satellite Sputnik, in 1957. Prior to Read more…
Looking south from Northern Ireland after sunset in the middle of May and you will see there is a parade of planets dominating the sky. On 15 May 2014 about 10.30pm, sweep westwards from the rising full Moon in the east to pale yellowish Saturn lying in the constellation Read more…
What exciting space events has 2012 in store for us? What important space anniversaries are coming up this year? Welcome to our annual guide to what the Universe has waiting ahead! This year marks twenty years since the first extra-solar planets were discovered when a pair of planets were Read more…
202 million km (1.35 AU or 125 million miles) from Earth an explorer from Earth is investigating the giant asteroid Vesta. This intrepid pioneer is the Dawn space probe. Orbiting about 2700 km (1700 miles) above Vesta, Dawn slowly rotates around the world beneath it. Every 69 hours, the Read more…
NASA’s Dawn spaceprobe is approaching the asteroid Vesta. At a distance of 483 000 km, the spacecraft has made images rivalling the best Hubble Space Telescope views of this fascinating little world. Between Mars and Jupiter lies the Asteroid Belt. Relics of the Solar Nebula which birthed the planets, these Read more…