solar system Archives - Colin Stuart

Why Voyager 1 has NOT left the solar system

Colin Stuart — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 18:49:48 +0000

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The ingenious way Victorian astronomers communicated comet discoveries

Colin Stuart — Mon, 15 May 2017 10:10:55 +0000

In today’s hyper-connected world we take communication for granted. A few taps and you can fire a message around the world in seconds. You can even tweet from space. But things weren’t also so easy, and back in the 1880s the technology of the day was hampering astronomical progress. The trouble was with comets – […]

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A way to visualise the scale of the universe

Colin Stuart — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 22:12:39 +0000

I talk to a lot of people about the universe. Tens of thousands of people a year, ranging from 3-year-olds to 93-year-olds. And one of the things everyone finds hard to comprehend is the sheer scale of the universe. We’re used to dealing with a daily existence spanning mere metres. Sometimes we drive hundred of kilometres; […]

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Ten Starter Items for the Astronomy Beginner

Colin Stuart — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 11:36:35 +0000

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Planet Nine (and a reminder of what is and isn’t a planet)

Colin Stuart — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 09:39:23 +0000

The internet and news media are awash with news of “Planet Nine”. For the last few years astronomers have known that some of the objects orbiting the Sun beyond Pluto appear to be mysteriously aligned. One possible explanation for this is that there is a large body even further out and the gravity of that […]

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Mars Orbiter spies Phobos in front of Red Planet

Colin Stuart — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 10:57:18 +0000

Unlike our Moon, which is about one quarter the size of Earth, Phobos, the largest of Mars’s two moons is tiny – just 25 kilometres across. That makes it smaller than London. In this new image, released from The Mars Orbiter, Phobos is seen passing in front of Mars back in October. The gorgeous views […]

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Cassini spies tiny moon Epimetheus next to Saturn’s rings

Colin Stuart — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:55:32 +0000

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 113 kilometres across). Released today, but taken on December 5, 2014, Cassini was 2 million kilometres […]

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Moon revealed around asteroid that recently buzzed past Earth

Colin Stuart — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:43:29 +0000

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 and its companion measures 70 metres. Click the image below to see an […]

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Beautiful new Rosetta image of comet 67P

Colin Stuart — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 10:21:22 +0000

It was the hottest news in astronomy in 2014 – the arrival of Rosetta and the landing of Philae on comet 67P stole the show. The scientists behind the amazing mission are busy analysing the data acquired so far. We are now waiting to see if Philae can be roused from its slumber as the […]

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Dawn mission reveals Ceres’s ‘white spot’ persists

Colin Stuart — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 18:10:17 +0000

The latest image from NASA’s Dawn mission has revealed the same unexplained white spot observed by the Hubble Space Telescope as far back as 2003. Its true nature is one of many mysteries the mission hopes to resolve when it sidles up to the asteroid later this year. Some researchers suspect that Ceres has a […]

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