This short video will show you how to easily find the Sombrero Galaxy
News from the Galactic Centre
World space news and astronomy outreach through (Milky Way) Kiwi eyes.
The Mars Yard, simulating Mars on Earth
We visited the Mars Yard at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney a few weeks ago and had a great time at this fantastic facility that is doing very important work.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe – Journey to the Sun’s Corona
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is set for launch on 31 July to begin it’s journey to the Sun’s corona to help us understand more about the solar wind and why the corona is so hot.
The sky of April – a rope of stars
April is the beginning of the season of the planets. Jupiter gets higher in the sky and Saturn and Mars start making an appearance. It’s also the month where we can start to fully appreciate the Milky Way as the Galactic Centre begins to rise.
Tiangong-1 demise, 1 April, no 1 April joke
The Chinese Tiangong-1 space station is predicted to conduct an uncontrolled re-entry sometime during 1 April 2018, NZ time.
Living off space – asteroid mining
Asteroid mining is seen as a lucrative source of income and, on the surface, it appears to be a way of accessing almost limitless resources. It’s not that simple though, it’s difficult, expensive and at the edge of our technological ability. But it won’t be that way forever.
The night sky for this week 26 March to 1 April
The night sky this week will see the reappearance of the Moon and the Planets will be in a more favourable position for viewing.
BFR, SLS, KRK and Long March 9 and probably in that order
The US has two options for getting to Mars within the next decade and a half with the ambitious plans from SpaceX and the more risk adverse plans of NASA. Both Russia and China also have some plans for Mars and have design work underway to build large rockets to support missions to Mars and to the Moon.
Europa Clipper is looking a bit more secure, yay for astrobiology
It looks like NASA is going to get a good amount of funding in a bill set to fly through the US Congress and Senate. This is great news for programmes such as Europa Clipper that have dependencies on the SLS programme.
NASA and the Space Launch System and Mars, eventually
NASA’s plans to get to Mars are a bit slower than Elon Musk’s. They have many more steps and have plans to achieve some quite impressive things such as space station orbiting the Moon and capturing an asteroid.
Big Fat Rocket, Big Friendly Rocket, Big Falcon Rocket, Big ###### Rocket
SpaceX is well advanced in it’s plans to build a huge rocket to take humans to Mars and they plan to do this by 2024. This article has a closer look at the Big Falcon Rocket to see what’s so special about it.
The last days of the Tiangong-1
The Chinese space station, Tiangong-1 is probably going to enter the atmosphere sometime between 30 March and 6 April in an uncontrolled re-entry.
Humanity’s humanity star
The Humanity Star that was launched by Rocket Lab is expected to burn up tomorrow as it re-enters the atmosphere.
How to find M83 – the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy
This little video will show you how to find the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M83.
Some more things to look at on the Moon
This article has another look at the Moon and covers five fantastic sights that are worth examining through a telescope.
Observing the Moon, the best stuff to look at
As part of Moon week it’s a good opportunity to have a look at some of the most amazing features to observe on the Moon, so get your telescopes ready and have a look at these.
The chronicles of the Head Cheese: Who owns the Moon?
The question of who owns the Moon has always been an interesting topic. Fortunately we have a treaty system to say that no one can own the Moon – but before this there were some very interesting and somewhat crazy claimants.
The night sky this week, 19-25 March 2018
The night sky this week is looking great to view a few of the brightest galaxies in the Southern Sky. It’s also going to be awesome to get some views of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been whizzing around the Moon since 2009 collecting loads and loads of data that is going to be very useful for when humans return to the lunar surface.
What’s the Moon made of – Cheese
This article explores what the Moon is made of – not cheese, in case you were wondering. The complex nature of its composition is quite amazing, as is its similarity to the Earth’s chemical makeup.
The early Moon missions
This article looks at some of the earlier mission to the Moon including some of the missions from the Luna and Ranger programmes of the Soviet Union and the United States.
