Archive – Page 5 – Astronomy Now

The Sun’s magnetic field is about to flip

11 February 2025 Astronomy Now

The Sun’s magnetic field flips every 11 years, marking solar maximum, its most active phase, with intensified solar events, unlike Earth’s relatively stable magnetic field.

Globular NGC 2419 is far out!

11 February 2025 Mark Armstrong

NGC 2419 appears as a faint globular cluster in Lynx, though in reality it’s a massive and luminous object that’s a distant outlier of our Milky Way Galaxy.

‘Half-Goldilocks’ world found going in and out of its habitable zone

11 February 2025 Keith Cooper

A bizarre exoplanet whose orbit takes it from the frozen wastelands of its planetary system to the inner edge of its habitable zone is challenging astronomers’ concepts of what kinds of planets can potentially support life.

Hubble traces hidden history of Andromeda Galaxy

24 January 2025 Keith Cooper

Though the Milky Way and Andromeda formed billions of years ago, evidence shows they have very different evolutionary histories despite sharing the same cosmological neighbourhood.

Watch the Moon buzz Venus and Saturn

24 January 2025 Mark Armstrong

There’s a picturesque early evening scene at the start of February as the Moon passes dazzling Venus and fading Saturn.

Belt up for a journey to the heart of Orion and the Horsehead Nebula

23 January 2025 Mark Armstrong

The Horsehead Nebula is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. Resembling a horse’s head is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion’s Belt. Nearby, the Flame Nebula appears like its name in astrophotos.

Messier 67: Observe an ancient open cluster

23 January 2025 Mark Armstrong

Messier 67 is an ancient open cluster in the southern, equatorial half of Cancer. It was discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler in 1779. It is a truly ancient cluster, with some astronomers calculating that it’s as old as five billion years!

The Quadrantids: a strong meteor shower to start the year

2 January 2025 Mark Armstrong

The Quadrantid meteor shower kicks off the meteor-watching calendar, peaking this year on 3 January. Renowned for its reliability, it consistently ranks among the best annual meteor displays.

Catch Mercury’s end of year pre-dawn show

10 December 2024 Mark Armstrong

Mercury ends the year on a high as a pre-dawn object during primarily the second half of December.

Brilliant Jupiter rides high in Taurus

6 December 2024 Mark Armstrong

The observing year comes to a close with a bang as brilliant Jupiter comes to opposition on 7 December. Across the whole of the month the dominant gas giant planet offers its best observing circumstances of the year.