To help find Planet 9, you just need a computer and a little astronomy knowledge. Already, 120,000 images have been processed by citizen scientists in just 3 days.
Astronomers are surprised by what they’re finding out about galaxies that formed in the early days of our universe, now that sensitive telescopes allow direct observation, not the inference of old.
Pluto is a dwarf planet but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of our attention.
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
A group of astronomers are trying to reclassify Pluto as full ‘planet’. But there are good reasons to leave our classification system alone, and this doesn’t mean Pluto is any less interesting.
We don’t know what the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way will look like.
Ute Kraus/wikipedia
Several of the newly-discovered exoplanets orbiting a small star appear to be locked in an intricate dance that hints at how such planetary systems can form.
Moana takes to the sea.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Disney’s Moana has a remarkably accurate depiction of how Polynesian peoples navigate by the stars, and draws attention to the richness of Indigenous astronomy.
An artist’s impression of a Sun-like star close to a rapidly spinning supermassive black hole, with a mass of about 100 million times the mass of our Sun.
ESA/Hubble, ESO, M. Kornmesser
The discovery of a new black hole adds to our understanding of these celestial objects that fascinate in both fact and fiction.
Have we really discovered other “Earth-like” planets orbiting around other stars? Understanding what we do and do not know about exoplanets is the key to answering this question.
ESO/L. Calcada/N. Risinger/Reuters
Over the last 20 years, advances in the field of exoplanet discovery have excited the imaginations of scientists and enthusiasts alike. But we’re in position to know yet whether a planet is habitable.
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder uses several telescopes to survey the sky.
CSIRO
After months of running in test-mode, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope is now gathering data at an incredible rate to give us a new look at how our universe works.
Very few African universities offer postgraduate degrees in astronomy. This gap in knowledge and training can be addressed through international partnerships and collaboration.
Patience can be rewarded as with this composite of the 2016 Geminids meteor shower, seen over Mt Teide volcano on the Canary Islands, off Spain.
Flickr/StarryEarth
Up until the seventeenth century, astrology was seen as a scholarly tradition, and it is credited as influencing the development of many modern day subjects.
The discovery of the year was the first detection of gravitational waves.
LIGO/T. Pyle
A new highly sensitive detector is being built one kilometre underground in a gold mine to detect the elusive dark matter.
Part of CSIRO’s ASKAP antennas at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia.
Australian SKA Office/WA Department of Commerce
It’s almost impossible for any human to spot something unknown or unusual in the massive amount of data collected by our telescopes. So we’re teaching an intelligent machine to search the data for us.
More needs to be done to protect people in astronomy from those who seek to abuse or harass others.
Shutterstock/Allexxandar
Allegations of abuse within CSIRO’s astronomy division reveal how it can damage lives and careers. Much of this was hidden from view, including from friends and colleagues.
This image is an approximation of what the upcoming supermoon will look like.
Credit: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio