Wednesday, April 2

Astronomy

March Night Sky 2025 – Astronotes
Astronomy

March Night Sky 2025 – Astronotes

Welcome to our quick take on top celestial wonders to spot in the March night sky! Well we’ve certainly been spoiled for entertainment so far this year with the heavyweights of our Solar System -Earth’s planetary neighbours gathering together on the same side of the Sun to put on the first ever ‘Grand Parade’ of the planets – it would seem, primarily for our enjoyment! An amazing event that no doubt filled all able to witness it in the Northern hemisphere with awe and wonder. If you missed seeing all the big guns of the Solar System within the same skyscape last month – don’t worry as the brightest-looking planets: Mars, Venus, and Jupiter can still be spotted. Image Credit: TheSpaceway/Pixabay.com But what’s new for us to see this month? Well on the 23rd March we will be able to watch Sat...
The Lithium Problem – Astronomy Now
Astronomy

The Lithium Problem – Astronomy Now

Artist impression of the Big Bang. Image NASA/HST One of the most significant challenges to the Big Bang hypothesis that emerged recently concerns the abundance of the element lithium. Lithium abundance is a cornerstone prediction of the Big Bang theory. If the universe had once been extremely dense and hot, fusion reactions within such conditions would have produced a specific, albeit small, amount of lithium. This limited amount is due to the fact that most lithium would have been consumed in subsequent fusion reactions. According to the theory, we should find roughly five lithium atoms for every 10 billion hydrogen atoms — a tiny fraction, but still detectable. However, for decades, astronomers have known that this prediction presents a substantial problem. Through spectroscopic analys...
Astronomy

Astronomers discover 128 new moons orbiting Saturn | Saturn

Astronomers have discovered 128 new moons orbiting Saturn, giving it an insurmountable lead in the running tally of moons in the solar system.Until recently, the “moon king” title was held by Jupiter, but Saturn now has a total of 274 moons, almost twice as many as all the other planets combined. The team behind the discoveries had previously identified 62 Saturnian moons using the Canada France Hawaii telescope and, having seen faint hints that there were more out there, made further observations in 2023.“Sure enough, we found 128 new moons,” said the lead researcher, Dr Edward Ashton, a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Academia Sincia in Taiwan. “Based on our projections, I don’t think Jupiter will ever catch up.”There are 95 moons of Jupiter wit...
The Athena Lunar Lander Also Fell Over on its Side
Astronomy

The Athena Lunar Lander Also Fell Over on its Side

The Athena lunar lander (IM-2) has been declared dead after it failed to stick the landing on the surface of the Moon. The second commercial lander launched by Texas-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines attempted to reach the lunar surface on March 6th. However, it ended up in a crater near the lunar south pole, where it then fell on its side. The company confirmed that the mission was dead this morning in a statement. Per that statement, Intuitive Machines declared that while the lander was no longer operational, the mission was not a total write-off:"[T]he IM-2 mission lunar lander, Athena, landed 250 meters from its intended landing site in the Mons Mouton region of the lunar south pole, inside of a crater. This was the southernmost lunar landing and surface operations ...
Lord of Ether and Light – Earliest Astronomical Drawings on display at Armagh Planetarium  – Astronotes
Astronomy

Lord of Ether and Light – Earliest Astronomical Drawings on display at Armagh Planetarium  – Astronotes

Fig 1: Sketches of the Orion Nebulae, on display in the Armagh Planetarium. It takes a good telescope to see deep into space, but it takes a Great Telescope to change how we see the entire universe. In 1845 such a telescope was built by the 3rd Earl of Rosse, in the grounds of his castle in the town of Birr, County Offaly. He didn’t build it alone however; he was inspired by earlier instruments, such as the 4-foot reflector made by Sir William Herschel. That telescope had been so powerful that it helped Sir Herschel discover a new planet for the first time in thousands of years. He was also aided by more recent developments, such as the new technology employed by Thomas Grubb in his 15-inch telescope he built for Armagh Observatory in 1834.   The Great Telescope used a 6-foot mirror to gat...