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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cosmology Archive
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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... -
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... -
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... -
The Science of Green Lantern
Posted on May 9, 2011 | 7 CommentsGreen Lantern has for decades guarded Earth and beyond from evil in the pages of comic books but the cosmic superhero is about to face his greatest challenge: can he... -
Another galaxy, far, far away seen by HST and ESO
Posted on October 21, 2010 | No CommentsGalaxies, distant from us in space and time, have been in the news recently. Astronomers knew that far away galaxies (and hence ancient galaxies)were smaller than those galaxies closer (in... -
Dark matter and dark energy: the deepest mysteries in astronomy
Posted on October 1, 2010 | 2 CommentsIn, say 1975, there was only one kind of ‘stuff’ in the Universe, matter made of protons and neutrons. By 1985 there was a consensus that this was not enough,... -
Elliptical galaxies: everything you need to know
Posted on October 1, 2010 | No CommentsWe all love bright and showy spiral galaxies! So much so, that we tend to overlook the elliptical galaxies which make up about 30% of the galaxies out there. Smaller... -
Following a rainbow back to the Big Bang
Posted on September 27, 2010 | No CommentsHere’s how rainbows are made. Some 13.7 billion years ago, a mere millionth of a second after the Big Bang, the first hydrogen and helium nuclei condensed out of a... -
Hubble throws light on dark matter
Posted on September 24, 2010 | No CommentsDark matter and its part in the evolution of the Universe is revealed by new data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope. This image could be taken for a lurid...