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Where is the center of the universe?
Although artist’s illustrations are often used to represent the Big Bang, there is no center and no boundary to the universe. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly Where is the center of the universe (where the Big Bang occurred) and where is its edge? As counterintuitive as it may seem, the universe has no center, and it…
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Welcome to the next step in smart telescope astronomy: Unistellar Odyssey
On January 7 2024 Unistellar proudly unveiled the new Odyssey range of smart telescopes at the world’s biggest tech show, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024, held in Las Vegas. Smart telescopes are here, and they are here to stay — with numerous optics brands battling it out to come up with the very best…
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Award-winner Karteepan reaches for the stars at Croydon High
After touching the edge of space with weather balloons, teacher’s astronomy club is now planning to launch a satellite – earning the plaudit: ‘her impact resonates far beyond the confines of her classroom’ A Croydon secondary school teacher has been named the winner of the 2024 Royal Astronomical Society Secondary and Further Education Award. <img…
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Globular star cluster emitting mysterious radio signal
The most sensitive image ever of a globular cluster – and the deepest, most detailed radio image ever produced by an Australian radio telescope – has thrown up a surprise. Globular clusters are round collections of stars bound together by gravity, but usually much smaller and less complex in structure than a typical galaxy. The…
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‘We do not understand how it can exist’: Astronomers baffled by ‘almost invisible’ dwarf galaxy that upends a dark matter theory
Scientists have discovered an “almost invisible” dwarf galaxy that cannot be explained by our current understanding of the cosmos. The mysteriously faint object, which has evaded detection for years, is so dim that researchers haven’t even been able to pin down exactly where it is. The newfound galaxy, named Nube (or “cloud” in Spanish), was…
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The strange story of the grave of Copernicus
Nicholas Copernicus was the astronomer who, five centuries ago, explained that Earth revolves around the Sun, rather than vice versa. A true Renaissance man, he also practised as a mathematician, engineer, author, economic theorist and medical doctor. Upon his death in 1543 in Frombork, Poland, Copernicus was buried in the local cathedral. Over the subsequent…
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Mysterious ‘Big Ring’ found in space ‘must surely be telling us something’
It is 1.3bn light-years in diameter and appears to be roughly 15 times the size of the Moon in the night sky as seen from Earth. Photo: University of Central Lancashire Scientists at the University of Central Lancashire have discovered a gigantic, ring-shaped structure in space. It is 1.3 billion light-years in diameter and appears…
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UK astronomers discover gigantic ring-shaped structure in space
UK scientists discovered a gigantic ring-shaped structure in space, which may challenge people’s understanding and existing assumptions about the universe. The astronomers named the ring-shaped structure “the Big Ring”, which is 9.2 billion light-years from Earth. It has a diameter of about 1.3 billion light-years, and a circumference of about four billion light-years, made up…
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Astronomers accidentally discover ‘dark’ primordial galaxy with no visible stars
Astronomers have accidentally discovered a dark galaxy filled with primordial gas untouched that appears to have no visible stars. The researchers behind the discovery say this galaxy, designated J0613+52, could be “the faintest galaxy found to date.” Interestingly, scientists using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) discovered the “dark” galaxy through a complete error. “The GBT…
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NASA astronomers detect high-energy ‘signal’ from outside our galaxy in ‘serendipitous discovery’
Astronomers have discovered a surprising light “signal” from outside of our galaxy after analysing 13 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Key points: The source of a high-energy burst of light found outside our galaxy is unknown NASA astronomers detected it after analysing data from a powerful gamma ray telescope They were originally…