space exploration Archives - Colin Stuart

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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First ring system found beyond solar system may hide exomoons

Colin Stuart — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:14:13 +0000

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 more than 30 rings periodically blocks out some of the star’s light. Such […]

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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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Stunning new infrared image of Eagle Nebula

Colin Stuart — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 09:59:19 +0000

In the 1990s it adorned mugs, mousemats and bedroom walls. Now the Eagle Nebula has been revisited by the Hubble Space Telescope – the observatory that first brought it to worldwide attention. The original iconic image was taken at visible wavelengths – the same light our eyes can see. This jaw-droppingly beautiful new image is […]

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What will future human space exploration look like?

Colin Stuart — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 16:33:27 +0000

I’ve just seen this beautiful video from Swedish artist Erik Wernquist. He imagines what our future in the solar system might look like and it is nothing short of spectacular. Carl Sagan provides the stirring narration.

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