The UK under a curtain of aurora

Former astronaut Piers Sellers, a British-born climate scientist who flew on three space shuttle missions to help construct the International Space Station, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61.

The vivid green Northern Lights resemble a bird soaring over open water in Olderdalen, Norway. This image, by Jan R Olsen of Norway, is one of those shortlisted in this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

Astronomers circling the North Atlantic and in South America were treated to a spectacular total eclipse of the Moon that occurred at prime time for US-based stargazers Sunday night, 27 September and in the early hours of this morning for observers in Western Europe.