Astronomy

Get ready to embark on a journey through time and imagination as the Armagh Observatory & Planetarium proudly announces its upcoming “Robot Exhibition”, running from 2nd July to 31st August 2024. This summer, science-fiction enthusiasts and curious minds alike will have the unique opportunity to explore a mesmerising collection of robots, cyborgs, and androids.    Science-fiction fans are sure to recognise their favourite metal movie stars in this comprehensive exhibit. The Robot Exhibition showcases memorable and iconic robots from science-fiction movies and TV shows, highlighting their role in storytelling and exploring how they represent our changing relationship with technology.     Visitors are invited to delve into the past, present, and future of robots in science-fiction, cons...

Did stars form differently 12 billion years ago compared to how they form today? The cosmic environment of the early Universe was metal-poor – that is, it was depleted in heavy elements that astronomers call ‘metals’ and that are formed inside stars. These metals were sparse because not enough time had passed for sufficient generations of stars to produce them. Image: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/A. Pagan (STScI). It’s thought that the abundance of these metals within giant molecular gas clouds can affect how stars form, for example potentially influencing the initial mass function that describes the distribution of stellar masses. In the present day Universe, the initial mass function leads to low-mass stars being extremely common and high-mass stars being extremely rare. In the early Univers...

Map of the line emission of hydrogen (in red and blue) and oxygen (in green) in the PJ308-21 system, shown after masking the light from the central quasar ("QSO"). The different colors of the quasar's host galaxy and companion galaxies in this map reveal the physical properties of the gas within them. Credit: Decarli/INAF/A&A 2024 An international research group led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and comprising 34 research institutes and universities worldwide utilized the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to witness the dramatic interaction between a quasar inside the PJ308–21 system and two massive satellite galax...

AOP is a statutory body as set out in The Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. It is overseen by a Board of Governors, with the Board having delegated primary responsibility for the governance and management of the organisation to a Management Committee. AOP is sponsored by the Department for Communities (DfC). Armagh Observatory was established in 1790, with it being the oldest scientific institution in Northern Ireland and the longest continuously operating astronomical research facility in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Armagh Planetarium is the oldest operating Planetarium in the UK and Ireland, having been in operation for more than 50 years as the public face of space and astronomy in Northern Ireland. Biographical Details: Prof Ruth Hunter is a Profess...