Astronomy

One of Webb’s strong points is its ability to directly image planets around another solar system. The telescope has been in operation for long enough now that a flood of those images are starting, as more and more systems come under the telescope’s gaze. One of those is described in a recent paper and press release from NASA. According to the paper, the planet in a nearby system is about the size of Saturn, which would make it the smallest planet ever found by direct observation. The planet is located in TWA 7, a system located about 111 light years from Earth - a blink of an eye in galactic terms. Also known as CE Antliae, it is located in the constellation Antlia, hence its name. It garnered some attention in the astronomical community as of late due to its well-defined protopla...

Omegon 2 x 54 wide-field binoculars Multi-coating and blackened lens edges prevent reflections to ensure a clean untroubled field. Galilean binoculars go all of the way back to, well, the time of the great man himself. I vaguely recall reading once that he conceived of strapping two of his telescopes together, but the source of this tale now escapes me. We do know that the first pair to be constructed were made by fellow Italian Cherubin d’Orléans in the 1670s, mounting two Galilean telescopes in parallel to achieve ‘binocular’ vision. He even incorporated individual eyepiece focusing! In the nineteenth century, abbreviated ‘opera glass’ versions magnifying about 3× found favour in theatres – used as much to observe fellow patrons as the action on stage. A resurgence occurred in the mid-t...

It's official. NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request (FY 2026) has been released, and the news is decidedly mixed. In a previous article, we examined the FY 2026 Budget Request (released on May 2nd) and its recommendations for the coming year. With the release of the FY 2026 Budget, what was previewed and the anxiety it caused for many have been confirmed. While the Budget bolsters funding for NASA's exploration programs for the Moon and Mars, it also contains deep cuts to many other programs and the cancellation of key elements in NASA's Moon to Mars architecture. In addition to reducing NASA's overall funding for the coming year, the Budget calls for the cancellation of the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft, and the Lunar Gateway. It also contains de...

To the stargazers out there, let’s take a journey nearly 7,000 light-years away from earth through our cosmic wonderland otherwise known as space, where towering pillars of gas and dust form the birth of stars.     In the northern celestial hemisphere of the night sky, in the constellation Serpens (The Serpent) we have the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16 or M16). In the very heart of the Eagle Nebula (M16), the famous ‘Pillars of Creation’ stand. They stretch around 4-5 light years while the eagle nebula spans 70 by 55 light years. Although they are relatively small in comparison to the nebula itself, they stand as extraordinary monuments in show of the raw creative power the universe holds.     The Eagle Nebula was first discovered by a Swiss astronomer named Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 17...