Astronomy

Mercury in a transparent early-evening sky on 24 January 2021. Image: Martin Campbell. Mercury, the fast moving inner planet, passed through inferior conjunction between Earth and the Sun on 6 December and then heads rapidly west of the Sun to emerge into the pre-dawn twilight from around 13 December. Across a flat south-eastern horizon Mercury lies just over 5 degrees up from London at about 7.15am (7.49am and around a degree lower in Scotland), 40 minutes before sunrise. Mercury’s relative dimness, magnitude +1, at the start of this apparition, means a pair of binoculars may be needed to spot it. The elusive planet always reaches peak brightness at the end of morning apparitions. Of all the major planets, Mercury is the most troublesome to locate and difficult to observe, as, outside of...

As NASA's Europa Clipper embarks on its historic journey to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, Dr. Matt Powell-Palm, a faculty member at Texas A&M University's J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, has unveiled groundbreaking research that could transform our understanding of icy ocean worlds across the solar system. The study published in Nature Communications, co-authored with planetary scientist Dr. Baptiste Journaux of the University of Washington, introduces a novel thermodynamic concept called the "centotectic" and investigates the stability of liquids in extreme conditions -- critical information for determining the habitability of icy moons like Europa. Revolutionizing the Search for Habitability The exploration of icy ocean worlds represents a new frontier in plane...

Space largely seems quite empty! Yet even in the dark voids of the cosmos, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are streaming through space. The rays contain 10 million times as much energy as the Large Hadron Collider can produce! The origin of the rays though is still the source of many a scientific debate but they are thought to be coming from some of the most energetic events in the universe. A new paper suggests the rays may be linked to magnetic turbulence, coming from regions where magnetic fields get tangled and twisted up.  Cosmic rays are high-energy particles, typically protons and atomic nuclei. They travel at speeds near the speed of light and are thought to come from different sources such as the Sun, supernova explosions and other events across the universe. As the rays ...

During December we will be able to start stargazing from earlier in the evenings, weather permitting of course. This means that on clear nights we get a view of more stars and objects in the night sky; but it is better to be prepared for the colder weather (and more than likely rain if you are in Armagh). To help with stargazing we want to leave the city lights behind and find a spot with less light pollution. Then it is helpful to keep phones away to let your eyes adapt to the dark, so you can see more of those stars that appear faint to the naked eye.  The sun will be setting much earlier during this month than in the previous ones, so hopefully that gives us more time to get some stargazing in before bed. Let’s turn our gaze to the sky now and look for some celestial patterns.  Co...