People used to think that when they looked up at the night sky, they were seeing all of space. Then American astronomer Edwin Hubble found out something so amazing, NASA named a telescope after him.
The recipe book for galaxy formation may need to be rewritten after the discovery of a massive galaxy that stopped making new stars early in the Universe’s history.
Many of the constellations we know in the night sky come from myths of the ancient Greeks. But similar stories are told by the oldest living cultures on Earth, including those of Australia.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.