by Colin Stuart | Feb 2, 2015 | Astronomy news, Uncategorised
Saturn is a lot of people’s favourite planet due to its resplendent rings. Some of those rings – made of house-sized chunks of ice – have recently been snapped by the Cassini space probe alongside the planet’s diminutive moon Epimetheus (just...
by Colin Stuart | Jan 29, 2015 | Astronomy news, Uncategorised
The Hubble Space Telescope is the gift that keeps on giving. For more than 20 years now it has been churning out spectacular views of the cosmos. And this latest image of the galaxy NGC 7714 is no exception. It beautifully illustrates how, over time, gravity...
by Colin Stuart | Jan 28, 2015 | Astronomy news, Uncategorised
Astronomers have used the Very Large Telescope in Chile to image the ethereal gas cloud known as CG4. It is an example of a ‘cometary globule’ – long, stretched out clouds of gas that are reminiscent of comets. They were first discovered in...
by Colin Stuart | Jan 27, 2015 | Astronomy news, Uncategorised
NASA has released new data from yesterday’s cosmic fly-past when asteroid 2004 BL86 zoomed past the Earth at a slightly greater distance than our Moon. Those observations appear to reveal the asteroid has a moon of its own. The main asteroid is 325 metres across...
by Colin Stuart | Jan 27, 2015 | Astronomy news, Uncategorised
Back in 2012, astronomers uncovered the first ring system in another solar system. Now they have released details of its dimensions and possible evidence of alien moons nestled within. The rings encircle the planet J1407b. As the planet orbits its star, its set of...
by Colin Stuart | Jan 23, 2015 | Book Reviews, Uncategorised
As a science writer I am very fortunate that English is such a beautiful language with a wide and varied vocabulary. It allows me to describe the fascinating – and often complex – world of modern astronomy. But in an intriguing thought experiment,...