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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exoplanets Archive
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Wonders of the April Night Sky
Posted on March 29, 2012 | 2 CommentsThe month of April is fantastic month for stargazing and for astronomy in general with numerous dates to mark in your calendar. From Earth Day celebrated on 22 April, in... -
2012′s Space Odysseys
Posted on January 5, 2012 | 3 CommentsWhat exciting space events has 2012 in store for us? What important space anniversaries are coming up this year? Welcome to our annual guide to what the Universe has waiting... -
Have we found an alien Earth?
Posted on September 15, 2011 | 2 CommentsA team of astronomers based at the European Southern Observatory have announced the discovery of more than 50 new exoplanets orbiting nearby stars. This is the largest number of such... -
New Planets in the August Sky
Posted on August 18, 2011 | 2 CommentsPlanets orbiting other stars are now known to be common. Few can be seen with even the largest telescopes but on a summer night you can at least easily look... -
Barnard’s Star and its Phantom Planets
Posted on August 4, 2011 | 1 CommentOnce planets orbiting other stars were unknown as they could not be directly observed. Several decades ago one astronomer was certain he had found the planets of a nearby star... -
Eight Record-breaking Exoplanets
Posted on July 20, 2011 | 5 CommentsOnce exoplanets, worlds orbiting other stars, were the stuff of science fiction but now we know of literally hundreds of real alien planets circling other stars. Astronomers can infer and... -
What if we picked up a signal from outer space?
Posted on March 21, 2011 | 2 Comments“The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “Contact”, “2001: A Space Odyssey” and many other movies have depicted the first contact between humans and aliens. Do scientists really listen for messages... -
Kepler-11: a strange and crowded planetary system
Posted on February 3, 2011 | No CommentsKepler-11 is an amazing, newly-discovered system of exoplanets. About 2000 light years from Earth, six planets orbit a star like our Sun. Each planet is bigger and more massive than... -
“An unnatural interest in astronomy”
Posted on January 21, 2011 | No CommentsDon Pollacco, a research astronomer at Queens University Belfast, came to Armagh Planetarium to give a fascinating talk on exoplanets in January 2011. Afterwards Dr Pollaco kindly chatted to me... -
Exoplanet HAT-P-1b: weird, warm and fuzzy
Posted on November 29, 2010 | No CommentsThe extra-solar planet HAT-P-1b has baffled astronomers since it was discovered in 2006. The planet is puffed up much larger than theory predicts. HAT-P-1 has a volume nearly twice than...