Keith Cooper – Page 3 – Astronomy Now

A hidden giant

18 May 2022 Keith Cooper

The star hidden inside this spectacular dusty cocoon is not only a red giant, but also a rare stellar breed known as a carbon star.

Milky Way’s supermassive black hole shines in stunning first portrait

12 May 2022 Keith Cooper

The black hole in the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy has been imaged for the first time, showing a ring of gas encircling the event horizon, beyond which no light can escape.

The largest comet ever seen has been measured – and it’s a whopper

14 April 2022 Keith Cooper

The nucleus of the largest known comet in the Solar System, C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein), has been measured by the Hubble Space Telescope to be 129 kilometres across.

How JWST will unlock the chemical cosmos

24 December 2021 Keith Cooper

JWST will measure the metallicities of distant galaxies, providing information about the chemical evolution of the Universe.

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?

Possible evidence found for life on Venus

14 September 2020 Keith Cooper

The best evidence for life beyond Earth has been found in the most surprising of places – the atmosphere of Venus. A team led by Jane Greaves, who is a professor at Cardiff University, has detected the presence of phosphine gas in Venus’ clouds.

Heat blast is smoking gun for how the Galaxy’s most extreme stars form

22 May 2020 Keith Cooper

A powerful wave of thermal radiation caught rippling through an accretionary disc of gas surrounding a distant protostar could be the strongest evidence yet for how the most massive stars in the Universe form.

Hubble at 30: A cosmic legacy

24 April 2020 Keith Cooper

Amid flame and smoke, the Hubble Space Telescope blasted off the launch pad aboard the space shuttle Discovery 30 years ago today, ushering in a new era for astronomy that has transformed our understanding of the Universe around us.

Beginners’ astronomy: how to see the Lyrid meteor shower

20 April 2020 Keith Cooper

If you’ve never seen a meteor shower, then with no work or school for many people in the morning thanks to the continuing COVID-19 lockdown, the Lyrids are a great opportunity to stay up late and witness nature’s own fireworks.

Beginners’ astronomy: That bright light you can see in the western sky? That’s Venus

17 April 2020 Keith Cooper

During the warm evenings and clear skies of recent weeks, you may have noticed a brilliant, shining beacon towards the west, far brighter than anything else in the night sky other than the Moon. That’s the planet Venus.

Articles by Keith Cooper