Tag: astronomy

Stunning winning photos from the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year are revealed – from a question mark on the sun to a running chicken nebula

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Spellbinding images of our galaxies and solar system have now been revealed, as this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year was announced. 

Greenwich’s Royal Observatory received more than 4,000 entries from over 64 countries, with photographers of all abilities competing to win the prestigious prize.

Shots were shortlisted across 10 different categories and include what appears to be a question mark on the Sun and even the bizarrely named Running Chicken Nebula. 

But the mesmerising ‘Andromeda, Unexpected’ bagged first prize

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NASA’s moon crew meet their Orion spacecraft for first time

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The four astronauts embarking on a mission to the moon next year have had their first good look at the Orion capsule that will take them there.

NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, got up close and personal with the Orion spacecraft during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center from where the moon-bound Artemis II mission is currently scheduled to launch in November 2024.

Artemis II crew members,
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NASA’s Mars helicopter glimpses Perseverance rover from sky

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, captured an aerial image of the Perseverance rover during its latest flight at the end of last week.

The aircraft and rover arrived together on the red planet in February 2021, and since then both have been operating inside the Jezero Crater, a dried-up lake that scientists believe could contain evidence of ancient life.

In an image shared by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is overseeing the current Mars mission, we can just spot

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What comes after Webb? NASA’s next-generation planet-hunting telescope

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NASA

When it comes to building enormous, complex space telescopes, agencies like NASA have to plan far in advance. Even though the James Webb Space Telescope only launched recently, astronomers are already busy thinking about what will come after Webb — and they’ve got ambitious plans.

The big plan for the next decades of astronomy research is to find habitable planets, and maybe even to search for signs of life beyond Earth. That’s the lofty goal of the Habitable Worlds

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This 360-degree video shows Ariane 5 rocket’s final launch

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Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket lifted off for the final time last month, bringing to a close 27 years of reliable service.

The European Space Agency (ESA), which oversaw the mission, has just released a 360-degree video of the launch from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, allowing space fans to strap on a pair of VR goggles to see the 164-foot-tall (50-meter) rocket blast skyward from just a few meters away.

The camera was clamped firmly to a steel cable

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James Webb captures gorgeous Ring Nebula in stunning detail

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A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the stunning and distinctive Ring Nebula — a gorgeous structure of dust and gas located in the constellation of Lyra. This nebula is a favorite among sky watchers as it faces toward Earth so we can see its beautiful structure, and because it is visible throughout the summer from the Northern Hemisphere. It is different from the Southern Ring nebula, which Webb has also imaged, but both are a type

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Curiosity rover battles up a 23-degree slope on Mars

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The Curiosity rover is slowly making its way up Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall mountain on Mars. Mountains are useful to study as their steep slopes can reveal layers of material laid down over time, like a geological time capsule. But just like heaving up a mountain is a challenge for humans, it can be tricky for rovers too. Curiosity recently took on a particularly steep and slippery slope, marking its most challenging climb to date.

How difficult terrain is for

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How Webb instruments work together to create views of space

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A series of new images from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the dusty, irregular galaxy NGC 6822 — and the different views captured by various Webb instruments.

Located relatively close by at 1.5 million light-years from Earth, this galaxy is notable for its low metallicity. Confusingly, when astronomers say metallicity they do not mean the amount of metals present in a galaxy, but rather the amount of all heavy elements — i.e., everything which isn’t hydrogen or helium. This

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NASA accidentally loses contact with legendary Voyager 2

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An artist’s concept of the Voyager 2 spacecraft NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA has lost contact with the legendary Voyager 2 spacecraft after “inadvertently” sending it a command that caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth.

The error means that Voyager 2, which launched in 1977 and is currently around 12.4 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, is unable to receive commands or transmit data back to mission controllers.

“This change has interrupted communication between Voyager 2 and the

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Webb spots water vapor in a planet-forming disk

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One of the big open questions about Earth and how life formed here is where the planet’s water came from. Water is essential to life as we know it, but many scientists think that water did not originally form on Earth — rather, it may have been carried here by asteroids. Recently, though, astronomers have discovered water vapor in the planet-forming region of a star, suggesting that future planets which form here might have access to water right from the

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