Here comes the Sun as New Zealand switches to summer time, and there is so much going on: World Space Week, the Aerospace Conference, the International Observe the Moon Day, and the 100 hours of Astronomy, all in October! In the sky, the Fishhook of Maui drags the Milky Way down from the sky, making for a fabulous horizon looking west.
NASA’s Europa Clipper is using Mars as a cosmic slingshot to get a speed boost on its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. While zipping past at 884 km, scientists will test its instruments before it heads off on its 2.9-billion-kilometr trek. But Europa isn’t the only icy world making waves—new data suggests Jupiter’s Callisto also has a hidden ocean, and Saturn’s Enceladus has a mushy zone under its ice shell that might be hiding alien microbes. Beyond the frost line, the search for life is heating up! 🚀❄️👽
In mid-April 2024, the Pleiades disappeared behind the blaze of the Sun. We watched them every night from Star Safari until we could see them
Once you get to know your way around the sky and spend a lot of time under the stars you can start seeing amazing things.
News from space in January and February 2019
The amount of interstellar particles being detected by Voyager 2 may indicate that the spacecraft is about to pass through the heliopause into interstellar space.
When observing the planets in astronomy it can be quite surprising to see the different sizes that appear in the eyepiece and how this can change over time.
We had a great time showing heaps of students Jupiter and Saturn during a talk about Matariki at Government House.
Now that your telescope is all ready, take it outside and start viewing the night sky.
Space exploration drives a lot of technological development that has spinoffs for Earth-bound applications.
The discovery of hydrogen in the plumes shooting out of Enceladus got everyone excited that the conditions might be right for life inside the icy moon. Now a lab experiment confirms that life could really be possible in those conditions likely to be found on Enceladus.
Milky-Way.kiwi has compiled a definitive list of the most awesome and fantastic objects of the night sky in this, the Milky-Way.kiwi Catalog. There are 12 objects encompassing both the Northern and Southern sky, so there’s something in the list for everyone.
Have you ever been asked how far can you see in a telescope? This article helps answer that question and also covers how far you can see with the naked eye and a pair of binoculars.
(And we can do something about it.)
Life needs CHNOPS, the six essential elements Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, and Sulphur. Curiosity found them on ancient Mars, but a new study shows Earth was born without them. Only a lucky impact with Theia made our world habitable. In contrast, Venus never stood a chance. Meet the three planetary siblings and discover why only Earth became a cradle for life.
Mars’s mantle contains ancient fragments up to 4km wide from its formation—preserved like geological fossils from the planet’s violent early history.
Cosmic rays are hitting the atmosphere constantly. One of the products of the collisions is muons, and we can detect muons on the surface of the Earth to learn about the cosmic rays.
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