After a decade of travelling through space, and years before that of mission planning, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft is right on track to deliver a superb mission. Already it has…
On the night of Monday August 4, mainland Australia will see Saturn disappear behind the moon. It’s the third time this year that the moon and Saturn will perfectly line up, as viewed from our part of…
A galaxy more than 12 billion light years from Earth is heading for a “red and dead” future because it is running out of the fuel needed to make new stars. The galaxy, known as ALESS65, is an ultra-luminous…
The first images from Australia’s Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope have given scientists a sneak peek at the potential images to come from the much larger Square Kilometre Array (SKA…
Today I awoke to the news that Germany has announced its intention to withdraw from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. The SKA is an ambitious project that plans to build a radio telescope with…
It’s almost three months since a team of scientists announced it had detected polarised light from the afterglow of the Big Bang. But questions are still being asked about whether cosmic dust may have…
A titanic eruption in our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, has sent shockwaves through the astronomical community here on Earth. NASA’s Swift satellite detected a flood of gamma rays at 21:15 UTC yesterday…
Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland et Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute
Across North America, Europe and Japan, skywatchers will be out in force this weekend with high hopes of catching a never-before-seen meteor shower. Predicted to peak this Saturday, May 24, the shower…
Magnetars are stars that are incredibly dense, rapidly spinning, amazingly hot and – as their name suggests – are the most magnetic objects known in the universe. The magnetic field on the surface of a…
Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute et Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland
Everyone’s favourite ringed planet – the magnificent Saturn – is well worth some extra attention in the coming days. Tomorrow night, it reaches opposition, shining at its very best and brightest, directly…
AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia…
Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute et Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland
Over the past two decades, almost 1,500 exoplanets have been discovered orbiting distant stars – but Dutch astronomers have determined for the very first time just how fast one of those exoplanets is spinning…
Due to a rare alignment of events, many Australians will today experience a second eclipse this month. A partial solar eclipse will be visible from across Australia later this afternoon, following the…
Last week, scientists announced the discovery of Kepler-186f, a planet 492 light years away in the Cygnus constellation. Kepler-186f is special because it marks the first planet almost exactly the same…
If you’re willing to rise early tomorrow morning then there’s the chance to see a meteor shower, known as the Lyrids, which may been responsible for a bright light seen recently over Russia. A dashcam…
People around the world are being invited to learn how to hunt for planets, using two new online apps devised by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin and UC Santa Cruz. The apps use data from…
If the solution to a problem does not reveal itself straight away then why not let your initial guesswork evolve? That’s the approach we’ve taken in trying to determine the mass of our galaxy by mapping…
There is excitement in astronomy and planetary science departments worldwide as the new Gemini Planet Imager, housed in the Gemini South Telescope in the Chilean Andes, turns its razor-sharp gaze to the…