Exoworlds

Stargazing – Where the heavens come alive

Voyager 2 gets a new lease on life.

Engineers at the NASA/CalTech operated Jet Propoulsion Laboratory (JPL) have found an ingenious way to entend the life of the aging spacecraft – the only one to visit the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune and is now sending back vital data about the region beyond the Heliosphere – the region where the Sun’s magnetic field
Continue Reading

Planet 9 – The Controversial missing planet?

We know a lot about the solar system – but we also know so little. Over the last century or so there have been several theories of additional planets inhabiting both the inner and the outer solar system. Vulcan During the 19th century it was discovered the planet Mercury was not sticking to the predictions
Continue Reading

The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Universe

A lot of people out there have an interest in the heavens to one extent or another, some take it to the level of professional qualifications, some have simply educated themselves and know as much, if not more, than some professional astronomers – but the educational information available on the internet is a mixed bag
Continue Reading

Revisiting where we may find life and the Drake equation

Where should we look for life? Developed in 1961 by the late Frank Drake, a giant of the SETI community, it was an initial attempt to ascertain how many intelligent civilisations might exist that humanity could potentially communicate with. Every parameter was a best guess, nothing definitive was known, and whilst our knowledge has improved
Continue Reading

Impacts – how often, how deadly, can we prevent them?

Over the years of humanity looking to the heavens we have been aware of ‘stuff’ burning up in the atmosphere, in the early days we did not know what this was or where it came from, there are stories of “stones from the heavens” thrown by angry gods and in recent years archaeologists have found
Continue Reading

When is a planet not a planet?

In 2006 the IAU (international Astronomical Union) held a meeting, IAU0603, and resolution 5A discussed the “Definition of a Planet”. Courtesy the IAU. RESOLUTIONS Resolution 5A is the principal definition for the IAU usage of “planet” and related terms. Resolution 6A creates for IAU usage a new class of objects, for which Pluto is the
Continue Reading

Former mini-Neptune/ice dwarf – or just Terrestrial?

The astronomy world has been abuzz for several years regarding the discovery of so many mini-Neptunes – planets that seems to be similar in characteristics to Neptune, but smaller. A Mini-Neptune, also called an ice dwarf or transitional planet, is a planet less massive than Neptune but resembling Neptune in that it has a thick
Continue Reading

Betelgeuse Update – Smaller and Nearer than first thought.

This article was originally published by the Australian National University and all rights are reserved by them. Supergiant star Betelgeuse smaller, closer than first thought Friday, October 16, 2020 — It may be another 100,000 years until the giant red star Betelgeuse dies in a fiery explosion, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.  The study, led by Dr Meridith Joyce from The
Continue Reading

Colonising Mars

There is a lot of debate about colonising Mars, in fact the conversations have been had for more than 100 years, but realistic plans to at least land humans on Mars are around 50 years old. In 1976 the debate grew when NASA successfully landed the Viking 1 and 2 landers on the Red Planet,
Continue Reading

News – 12 August 2020

Researchers have concluded that the molten rock and cooled volcanic glass present on the surface of Lava-Ocean Planets is unlikely to be the cause of their brightness, some of which have an albedo higher than Earth. This is intriguing, these lava-Ocean worlds are similar in size to Earth but whizz around their host star so
Continue Reading

The Moon – our amazing companion

For as long as humans have gazed upward to the sky, there are many who gazed is awe at the site of the Moon in our sky. For many thousands of years the Moon has been both a source of inspiration and terror in all cultures around the world, with various appearances being classed as
Continue Reading

NUCLEOSYNTHESIS IN STARS

How the elements are made The manufacture of all the elements of the periodic table is the result of nucleosynthesis within stars, successively heavier elements are created by combining the atoms that form the nuclei of lighter elements. The most abundant element in the observable Universe is Hydrogen, which occurs in three “flavours” or isotopes, the
Continue Reading

Supernova Classifications

The story of Betelgeuse has kicked things off, so it seems appropriate to discuss Supernova. I am sure if I asked the question; “What is a Supernova“ Most would answer the obvious, “An old star exploding at the end of it’s life“ Whilst true, it is also not accurate either. There was a time when
Continue Reading

The Most likely Naked Eye Supernova

ETA Carina. (10h 45m 03.591s / −59° 41′ 04.26″) It is believed that before Western Sailors ventured south enough to see Eta Carina, once called Eta Argus, that is was the brightest star in the sky as seen from Earth, perhaps as bright as magnitude -4.3, however, since it was discovered by Western astronomers and
Continue Reading

Betelgeuse, and the story of a Supernova

There has been quite a bit of discussion of late regarding the dimming of the star α Orionis (Alpha Orionis) or commonly known as Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is a semi-regular variable Supergiant Star that is located to the upper right of the attached Hertzsprung-Russel diagram. It is classified as spectral class M1-M 2-1a to ab. The classification depends
Continue Reading

You cannot copy content of this page