Rogue Planet
CFBDSIR2149-0403 Catchy kinda title ain’t it? It might get a proper name one day, but for now this will have to do for what astronomers are calling a ‘rogue planet’. Rogue planet? Sounds worrying. Like...
View ArticleA Galaxy Far, Far Away…
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope doesn’t just cover vast distances, it allows astronomers the chance to look back in time. A team examining what is known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field has revealed seven...
View ArticleDwarf Planet
You’ve got to feel for Pluto. Minding its own business, left out in the cold on the periphery of the solar system. Not causing any trouble… Then, in 2003, a tenth ‘planet’ was discovered. 2003ub313, or...
View ArticleAsteroid 2012 DA14 Pays a Flying Visit
At about 19:30 GMT on Friday February 15th, Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be a mere 17,200 km away from Earth. DON’T PANIC! Forgive me for coming over all Douglas Adams there, but there really is no need to...
View ArticleHow To Measure the Rate of Spin of a Supermassive Black Hole
It’s a question that vexes and challenges me on an almost daily basis. How do you measure the rate of spin of a supermassive black hole? I’ve even been to the extreme lengths of listening to Muse’s...
View ArticleEuropa
When we look out at the stars we wonder about life beyond our own planet. When we look for signs of life we look for water. There’s plenty of it out there. Take Europa for example. First glimpsed by...
View ArticleComet C/20 11 L4 Pan-Starrs
As celestial bodies go, comets are pretty rare. The most famous, Halley’s comet, only shows up every 76 years or so. Without wishing to get all technical, comets differ from asteroids in that they are...
View ArticleSolar Superstorm – Factor 5,000 Up People!
You see, until recently, if someone had asked you if you were prepared for a Coronal Mass Ejection, you would have considered giving them a slap round the chops. But thanks to my super-informative...
View ArticleThe Universe Is Perfect – Well, Almost
It sounds like the title of a Douglas Adams novel, but ‘an almost perfect universe’ is how the European Space Agency is describing the latest image taken from the Planck Space Telescope. It looks a bit...
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