Astronomy

THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — On stage, before a silent assembly of scientists, many of whom are experts on alien worlds, planetary scientist Paul Byrne assumed his position behind the podium. He had come to present research on Europa, a moon of Jupiter that almost certainly harbors a subsurface ocean. The moon is thought to be among the most promising places to explore for life in our solar system. But much of that promise clings to an unknown — the geologic activity of Europa’s seafloor. “I don’t think there’s anything happening on the ocean floor,” said Byrne, of Washington University in St. Louis, to the crowd gathered at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on March 11. input[type="radio"].svelte-1heu7pz{display:none}.payment-option-wrapper....

Artist’s visualization of GRB 221009A showing the narrow relativistic jets — emerging from a central black hole — that gave rise to the GRB and the expanding remains of the original star ejected via the supernova explosion. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, Northwestern University postdoctoral fellow Peter Blanchard and his team detected the supernova for the first time, confirming GRB 221009A was the result of the collapse of a massive star. The study’s co-authors also found that the event occurred in a dense star forming region of its host galaxy as depicted by the background nebula. Credit: Aaron M. Geller / Northwestern / CIERA / IT Research Computing and Data ServicesJames Webb Space Telescope observations show no sign of heavy elements.In October 2022, an international team of re...

One of the computer-generated images of Jupiter’s moon Callisto that was used to test the capabilities of Juice’s engineering model in March 2024. When Juice's flight model passes the real Callisto in 2031 and offers scientists a tantalising glimpse at the mysterious, cratered alien world, this is how it will appear to the spacecraft's navigation camera. Credit: ESA/Airbus Seven years from now, in April 2031, ESA's Juice mission will fly past Jupiter's moon Callisto, offering scientists a tantalizing glimpse at the mysterious, cratered alien world. That might seem far off, but in the world of spacecraft operations, it ...

When light strikes the atmosphere all sorts of interesting things can happen. Water vapor can split sunlight into a rainbow arc of colors, corpuscular rays can stream through gaps in clouds like the light from heaven, and halos and sundogs can appear due to sunlight reflecting off ice crystals. And then there is the glory effect, which can create a colorful almost saint-like halo around objects. Like rainbows, glories are seen when facing away from the light source. They are often confused with circular rainbows because of their similarity, but glories are a unique effect. Rainbows are caused by the refraction of light through water droplets, while glories are caused by the wave interference of light. Because of this, a glory is most apparent when the water droplets of a cloud or fog are...

April, is that you? Jaysus you’re lookin’ well!  That’s right, can you believe it, we’re already in April. March was a bit of a crazy one, with some days feeling like all the seasons had been rolled into one. We’re past that now, and from here on out we’re hoping for better weather, and some truly amazing night sky star gazing.     When going out stargazing this April, don’t forget to keep an eye on the weather. Don’t forget April showers bring May flowers! In Northern Ireland the weather can be unpredictable, but if you keep a good eye on your preferred weather apps and websites, it will give you a good idea of when is best to go out for some stargazing. Even the slightest bit of rain can hinder the lens of a telescope, so be careful and plan appropriately.     Moon  One of the best thing...