Welcome to Astronotes
Hello, I’m Colin, welcoming you to Astronotes, the Planetarium’s official blog. Here you will find the latest news and views from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration. We hope you will come here to learn what is hot and exciting, profound or even weird from worlds beyond ours . So that's the introduction out of the way, now on with the Universe!
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Universe Archive
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Image of the Month: The Tarantula Nebula
Posted on April 20, 2012 | No CommentsOur Image of the Month was released to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and is a striking panoramic look at a stellar nursery which is... -
Young Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
Posted on March 1, 2012 | No CommentsWe are looking far from home in this pretty image of an open cluster of young stars, sparkling like jewels. They and their associated gas cloud are known as NGC... -
Eternity in 365 days
Posted on January 23, 2012 | 1 CommentThe Universe is 13.75 billion years old. It is easy to say, but what does that mean in Earthly terms? Let’s squeeze the whole history of the Universe into a... -
NGC 1672 and the Only Joke in Astronomy
Posted on November 14, 2011 | No CommentsHere is possibly the only joke in all of astronomy. Two spiral galaxies walk into a pub. The first one goes up to the bar and asks for two drinks,... -
Our Place in the Expanding Universe
Posted on October 20, 2011 | No CommentsOur galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of an enormous number of galaxies spread throughout a vast Universe, which is expanding. Everyone knows these facts now, but how do... -
Light from the End of the Dark Ages
Posted on October 13, 2011 | No CommentsA long, long time ago when the first stars and galaxies were forming, the Universe was filled with electrically neutral hydrogen. This thin soup of gas absorbed ultraviolet light and... -
Antennae Galaxies seen by the ALMA Antennae: Image of the Month
Posted on October 3, 2011 | No CommentsThe Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the world’s biggest and most complex astronomical instrument. Located at the European Southern Observatory on the Chajnantor plateau in northern Chile, the array... -
As Far as Our Eyes Can See
Posted on September 29, 2011 | No CommentsIn more than twenty years of hard work, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has made both beautiful images and profound discoveries, sometimes doing both at the same time. What are... -
Are Neutrinos Faster Than Light?
Posted on September 26, 2011 | 10 CommentsNeutrinos travel faster than light! The science world is agog at this unexpected announcement from CERN in Switzerland. This result has to be verified, for if true it seems that... -
How to see an Exploding Star
Posted on September 8, 2011 | 2 CommentsThe astronomy community is excited by the discovery of an exploding star, a supernova, in a galaxy 21 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. We explain this...