Archive – Page 327 – Astronomy Now

Clouds fail to spoil the eclipse party

20 March 2015 Keith Cooper

While clouds did their best to obscure the solar eclipse, many observers have still been able to witness the Moon moving in front of the Sun.

Missing link between supernovae and planet formation found

19 March 2015 Astronomy Now

An international scientific team using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has discovered a cloud produced by a supernova explosion 10,000 years ago that contains enough dust to make 7,000 Earths, showing that supernovae are capable of producing a substantial amount of the material from which planets can form.

Eclipse safety tips video

19 March 2015 Astronomy Now

Astronomy Now’s Greg Smye-Rumsby offers tips on how to safely view the partial solar eclipse of 20 March 2015.

Mysterious Martian dust cloud and aurora detected by NASA spacecraft

19 March 2015 Astronomy Now

Unlike the Earth, Mars lost a global protective magnetic field billions of years ago, so solar particles can directly strike the atmosphere. NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft recently detected extensive auroral activity in the Red Planet’s northern hemisphere, plus an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud.

Your minute-by-minute solar eclipse timeline for the British Isles

18 March 2015 Ade Ashford

If you wish to see in detail how the eclipse will appear from where you live and the exact times that the key stages will occur, we’ve prepared this specially illustrated minute-by-minute timeline to how Friday’s big event will roll out over the British Isles.

Getting into the groove of Saturn’s rings

18 March 2015 Astronomy Now

In this image from the Cassini probe orbiting Saturn we see that there are varied structures in the planet’s rings at almost every scale imaginable.

Eclipse dos and don’ts

18 March 2015 Astronomy Now

How not to observe a solar eclipse! Do not risk permanent damage to your eyesight by using unsafe methods. Make sure the solar eclipse is not the last thing you see!

How an old law might bring new life to the search for habitable exoplanets

18 March 2015 Astronomy Now

Researchers at the Australian National University and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen have calculated that billions of stars in the Milky Way will have between one and three planets in the habitable zone conducive to liquid water, by using a law proposed in 1766 that helped to discover Uranus.

Why do eclipses happen?

18 March 2015 Keith Cooper

Solar eclipses are relatively rare; they happen when the Moon moves directly and precisely in front of the Sun. Why are they so infrequent, and why do solar eclipses always come in pairs with lunar eclipses?

Get ready for the eclipse!

18 March 2015 Astronomy Now

This Friday a stunning partial eclipse of the Sun will take place over the British Isles, while just a few hundred miles north the Sun will plunge into totality. Eclipse chaser Nick James describes what you can expect to see, and how to image it.