Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe has successfully completed its mission at the asteroid Ryugu and is now on its way home. It’s expected to get here late next year. Space probes don’t often get to come home, so you might wonder why this one is coming back to Earth. The reason is that it’s what’s called a sample… Continue reading Hayabusa2 is coming home
How do we know when something is from outside the Solar System?
You probably saw the recent news that astronomers have spotted an object from interstellar space making its way through the Solar System. It’s called 2I/Borisov and it’s the second object like this that we’ve seen. The first was called 1I/’Oumuamua and was only spotted a couple of years ago, so this is all very new… Continue reading How do we know when something is from outside the Solar System?
Why astronomers are excited about repeating fast radio bursts
The CHIME telescope in Canada recently detected eight new repeating fast radio bursts. This is huge news! It brings the total number of known repeating fast radio burst sources to ten, up from the two which were previously known. Fast radio bursts are one of the biggest and most interesting mysteries in astrophysics today. First… Continue reading Why astronomers are excited about repeating fast radio bursts
The Solar System Has a Lot of Water
There have been a couple of recent discoveries of water in new places in the solar system. Last week a team using data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe announced the discovery of water ice on the surface of the Moon, and last month researchers using radar data from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission announced… Continue reading The Solar System Has a Lot of Water
Not all gravitational waves start with a bang
You’ve probably heard of gravitational waves. They’ve been in the news a lot recently because of two experiments called LIGO and Virgo, which have detected gravitational waves coming from some of the most violent events in the Universe – black holes merging and an enormous explosion known as a kilonova. But did you know there are… Continue reading Not all gravitational waves start with a bang
How long have we been predicting eclipses?
Tomorrow there will be a total lunar eclipse which will be visible in much of North America and Asia. I won’t personally be able to watch it from here in the UK, but if you’ve never seen one you should check it out if you can. During a lunar eclipse the Earth moves directly between… Continue reading How long have we been predicting eclipses?
