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Articles on Astronomy

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Astronaut Alan L. Bean, Apollo 12, walks on the Moon’s surface. Commander Charles Conrad Jr. is reflected in Bean’s helmet visor. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Apollo 12: Fifty years ago, a passionate scientist’s keen eye led to the first pinpoint landing on the Moon

Apollo 11 tends to steal the spotlight when it comes to lunar landings. But Apollo 12 was the first mission to make a precise pinpoint landing on the Moon - and without the aid of computers or GPS.
This artist’s impression shows a view of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system. ESO/M. Kornmesser

NASA’s TESS spacecraft is finding hundreds of exoplanets – and is poised to find thousands more

Beyond the outer edge of the Solar System, mysterious, unknown worlds await by the thousands. Astronomers can now finally find them and explore them - but will we find another Earth?
An image taken by the Hubble telescope of NGC 4639, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. NASA

Something is killing galaxies, and scientists are on the case

The first ever Canadian-led large project on one of the world’s leading telescopes will investigate how the birth and death of galaxies are affected by their environment.
A composite image showing the distribution of dark matter, galaxies and hot gas in a merging galaxy cluster taken with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. NASA

Canada’s grand plan to explore the mysteries of the cosmos

The Canadian Long Range Plan 2020 for astronomy and astrophysics builds on Canadian research’s previous success to extend Canada’s role.
The universe is home to a dizzying number of stars and planets. But the vast bulk of the universe is thought to be invisible dark matter. Illustris Collaboration

Why do astronomers believe in dark matter?

Why do astronomers believe there’s dark matter when it cannot be directly detected? Let’s look at the evidence, and see what dark matter’s presence means for our universe.
Galileo thought Saturn looked a bit like the head of a teddy bear with two big ears. He thought it may be made of three planets. www.shuttershock.com

Curious Kids: why does Saturn have rings?

Most people think that many millions of years ago, Saturn didn’t have rings at all. Instead, it had a big moon moving around it. Eventually, the moon burst and broke into pieces.
The Milky Way: a pattern of stars, or a pattern of gaps? Luke Busellato/Wikimedia Commons

Why do different cultures see such similar meanings in the constellations?

Around the world and throughout history, we find remarkably similar constellations defined by disparate cultures, as well as strikingly similar narratives describing the relationships between them.
With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the Sun’s blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

A brief astronomical history of Saturn’s amazing rings

Although the rings of Saturn may look like a permanent fixture of the planet, they are ever-changing. New analyses of the rings reveal how and when they were made, from what and whether they’ll last.
Another reason you don’t want to get too close to a black hole is because of something we call ‘spaghettification’. If this happened to Earth it would be… unpleasant. Shutterstock

Curious Kids: can Earth be affected by a black hole in the future?

If you got too close to a black hole, it would suck you in and you’d never be able to escape, even if you were travelling at the speed of light. This point of no return is called the event horizon.

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