All About Space

SCAN HERE TO GET OUR DAILY NEWSLET TER We’re now on the other side of Christmas, and I’m keen to hear if any of you received a telescope – or any other observing kit – during the holiday season. But whether you did or not, I hope you’ll make attendi

Astronomers hailed the Euclid telescope’s ability to capture stunning intricacies of the universe in remarkably few hours as they revealed the mission’s first portfolio of full-colour images. “We have never seen astronomical images like this before,

This stunning spiral isn’t a gateway to the abyss. It’s the galaxy Messier 83 as seen through the eyes of the James Webb Space Telescope. More specifically, the observatory captured this image by tapping into one of its powerful infrared devices, the

Behold a region of intense star formation, partially hidden by thick dust, just 300 light years from the supermassive black hole sitting at the centre of our galaxy. The scene was imaged in all its spectacular glory by none other than the James Webb

/AllAboutSpaceMagazine @spaceanswers space@spaceanswers.com Microscopic metallic spheres recovered from the Pacific Ocean are likely the result of humanmade industrial pollution, rather M than pieces of an interstellar meteor. Last summer, Harvard as

The Hubble Space Telescope snapped a new view of a hazy spiral galaxy that once hosted a supernova explosion. The galaxy, formally known as NGC 941, lies about 55 million light years from Earth. Its spiral arms are bright but not very well defined, s

Chinese scientists have constructed a numerical model to simulate the Martian atmosphere and assist the country’s plans to collect rock samples from the Red Planet. The model replicates the cycles of dust, water and carbon dioxide in Mars’ atmosphere

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUpiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is heading back to Earth – for the time being, anyway. The spacecraft launched from French Guiana on 23 April 2023 and is ultimately bound for Jupiter to study the planet and three

The Japanese private spaceflight company ispace has unveiled a mini rover that will fly on its next Moon landing mission next year. The micro rover will launch in winter 2024 inside the payload bay at the top of ispace’s Mission 2 lander, if all goes

The deeper we look into space, the further back in time we see. Light emanating from some of the younger galaxies in our universe has to travel for billions of years to reach us, getting picked up by our instruments rich with information from the cos

A few years ago, astronomers saw for the first time a patch of cosmic darkness long thought to be unseeable – a black hole, a powerful, elusive beast so dense that not even light can escape its gravity. Black holes are known to gobble up anything and

Featuring high-quality Maksutov-Cassegrain optics, the NexStar 4SE is an ideal telescope for observing and photographing the wonders of space. With a total weight of 9.5 kilograms including the tripod, the ultra-portable 4SE features a precision opti

• WHERE THEY COME FROM • HOW THEY SPARK LIFE • THIS YEAR’S UNMISSABLE EVENTS • MAKE YOUR OWN DISCOVERY A comet bright enough to be seen with the naked eye is one of the most fascinating and thrilling sights in astronomy, and the appearance of a gre

Venus has recently become a serious consideration for a potential manned mission – since it’s the closest planet, the journey would take less time, and there are more orbital windows of opportunity to go there. It has 81.5 per cent of Earth’s mass –

A fresh analysis of Moon rocks brought home during the Apollo missions has revealed the presence of hydrogen. This finding suggests future astronauts could someday use water available right on the Moon for life support and rocket fuel. Researchers wi

Pesquet is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut who was the first person from France to command the International Space Station. During Pesquet’s first mission, he flew to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz and spent 197 days in space between 2016 and 201

Some star systems believed to host two stellar bodies may actually have a hidden third – a traitorous star that could help S push one of its sparkling companions towards the other as the latter feasts on its victim like a vampire. Such is a discovery

If we could somehow glance down at the entire Milky Way, our home galaxy would look like a spinning pinwheel. In it, some 100 I billion stars are sprinkled across 100,000 light years, accompanied by unfathomable amounts of gas and dust. Together, the

Over the years, scientists have unveiled the existence of quite a few intriguing particles, pushing O the entire field of physics forward with each discovery. There’s the ‘God particle’, for instance – the Higgs boson that grants all other particles

If we only relied on our eyes, we would be blind to most of what the universe has to offer. There would be so much that we I would completely miss, from the explosive nature of gamma-ray bursts to the dusty skeletons of galaxies and even the radiatio

For quite a while, an asteroid named Phaethon has presented astronomers with something of F a conundrum. When it passes close to the Sun during its orbit, a long tail of material can be seen leaving the rock. However, if Phaethon’s tail is the stuff

Supermassive black holes range from hundreds of thousands to billions of times the mass of our S Sun, and they’re thought to be at the centre of almost every large galaxy in the universe. But while scientists know plenty about them despite having onl

Though the vast majority of satellites were not designed to be serviced, NASA is looking into ways to make it possible to extend their operational lives. Similar to how a car can be repaired and receive more fuel, satellite servicing seeks to make th

Astronomy can be a very lonely and antisocial hobby. Even if you’re a stargazer from a town or a city with an astronomical society and regularly attend meetings and observing nights, you’ll still spend a lot of time on your own, standing in the dark,

In this issue... 80 What’s in the sky? You’ll need to wrap up warm to make the most of dark nights under the stars 82Planetarium Where you can find the planets this month and the phases of the Moon 84 Month’s planets Mercury offers the perfect obse

What would it be like to fall through the clouds of our Solar System’s ice giants, Uranus or Neptune? No one truly knows – but we W might be close to finding out. We have landed on, crashed into or descended into the clouds of all of the planets in t

A very surprising number of skywatchers, even experienced amateur astronomers, have never seen Mercury. But why?With a maximum magnitude of -1.9, it’s far brighter than the brightest star in the sky, so it should be really obvious to the naked eye. T

As with all features on the Moon, your best views of Schiller will be on evenings when it is close to the terminator and illuminated from a low angle. Ask someone to draw a picture of the Moon with craters, and those craters will likely be round. Tha

Just to the east of the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) is a dimmer constellation called Monoceros (the Unicorn). Although none of the stars that make up the group are particularly bright, this constellation sits in the band of the Milky Way, and

Winter offers a selection of targets not just for the beginner to whet their stargazing appetite, but for seasoned skywatchers to get truly stuck into a tour of the heavens. W Mid-January through to February offers a selection of star clusters, galax

Cost: £89.99 / $99.99 From: LEGO 1 LEGO has released a 1,087-piece building set that recreates NASA’s Apollo 11 Lunar Lander. The ‘Eagle’ has landed in stores around the world, and is also available online. Builders of all ages can now have a hands-o

Edwin Eugene Aldrin Junior was born on 20 January 1930 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. In 1946, after graduating from high school, he turned down a scholarship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to join the United States Military Academy. Aldr