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The object has a highly unusually long rotation period, and was found in an area we call the neutron star ‘graveyard’.
The 1833 Leonid Meteor storm, as seen over Niagara Falls.
Edmund Weiß (1888)
Could the Tau Herculid meteor shower put on a spectacular show next week? Only time will tell.
Protons and neutrons in an atom’s nucleus can be arranged in different configurations, creating nuclear isomers.
KTSdesign/SciencePhotoLibrary via Getty Images
Nuclear isomers are rare versions of elements with properties that mystified physicists when first discovered. Isomers are now used in medicine and astronomy, and researchers are set to discover thousands more of them.
Without Dr Bernie Fanaroff, the SKA might never have come to South African shores.
Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Fanaroff is one of the key individuals responsible for the current growth and strength of astronomy in South Africa.
The Milky Way above a single MeerKAT antenna in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Inset: EHT image of the Milky Way black hole.
SARAO, EHT
Sagittarius A* lies in the southern sky, passing directly above South Africa.
This image shows Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
EHT Collaboration
Sagittarius A* is a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Now that astronomers have imaged it, they can begin to learn more about black holes within other galaxies across the universe.
An Eta Aquariid meteor (centre) along with comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in the background, photographed during the 2020 Eta Aquariid shower.
Photo by Jonti Horner
Each year, the Earth runs through a broad river of dust surrounding Comet Halley – giving birth to the spectacular Eta Aquariid meteor shower.
Artist’s impression of the PSR J0523-7125 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Carl Knox, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)
The pulsar PSR J0523-7125 is more than ten times brighter than any other radio pulsar outside the Milky Way.
Scientists think there are 300 million habitable planets in the Milky Way, and some may be home to intelligent life.
Bruno Gilli/ESO
This year, two groups of astronomers plan to send messages containing information about humans and the location of Earth toward parts of space they think may be home to intelligent life.
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A growing number of satellite ‘mega-constellations’ are being deployed. Will a starry night sky soon be a thing of the past?
Some of the MeerKAT’s 64 dishes, which astronomers use to collect huge amounts of data.
© South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)
Complementary science will be at the heart of the Square Kilometre Array.
Artist’s impression of a giant planet forming.
NASA, ESA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
A glimpse of a distant Jupiter-sized exoplanet sheds light on how gas giants form.
Uluru by night with Milky Way, stars and galaxies. Taken at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in Northern Territory, Central Australia.
The First Astronomers shares the extensive star knowledge of First Peoples worldwide, stretching back millennia to reclaim so-called Western discoveries and highlight the strength of oral traditions.
The Hubble Space Telescope was born from a previous decadal survey. What leaps forward will come from this one?
NASA Johnson/Flickr
The astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey for the 2020s lays out plans to search for life on distant planets, understand the formation of galaxies and solve deep mysteries of physics.
Jayanne English using data from MeerKAT and the Dark Energy Survey
Next-generation radio telescopes unravel the mysteries of ghostly circles in the sky.
NASA
The telescopes primary mirror segments are now working together to provide a single, sharp image.
The Sun occasionally ejects large amounts of energy and particles into space that can smash into Earth.
NASA/GSFC/SDO via WikimediaCommons
Space weather can affect satellites in a number of different ways, from frying electronics to increasing drag in the atmosphere.
A giant asteroid struck Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
NASA has only mapped 40% of the potentially dangerous asteroids that could crash into Earth. New projects will boost that number, and upcoming missions will test tech that could prevent collisions.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari (L) and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa perhaps need to extend their hand shakes into the outer space.
Photo by Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images)
Nigeria-South Africa bi-national commission is a laudable initiative but missing the space cooperation element.
Lia Koltyrina/Shutterstock
Humans might one day be able to live somewhere else in the Universe.