234737
233559

Skywatching

Searching for the Milky Way's Black Hole

Searching for the Milky Way's Black Hole

May 20, 2022 / 4:00 am

When we look into the southern sky close to the horizon on summer evenings, we are looking towards the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is lurking...

Looking at where we came from

Looking at where we came from

May 13, 2022 / 4:00 am

Where did we come from? The main science-based ideas propose life on Earth began in shallow, sunlit water, or around hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean. The...

Looking at how our universe will come to an end

Looking at how our universe will come to an end

May 6, 2022 / 4:00 am

Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe began, in an event often referred to as the "Big Bang". At some point in the remote future, we think the...

Venus: From steamy jungle to super hot furnace

Venus: From steamy jungle to super hot furnace

Apr 29, 2022 / 4:00 am

One of the demonstrations done for public tours of the (National Research Council's Dominion Radio Astrophysical) observatory (in Penticton) involves a...

Astronomy on the Moon’s far side

Astronomy on the Moon’s far side

Apr 22, 2022 / 4:00 am

The image showed a group of distant galaxies in what would have been beautiful detail. However the image was crossed by lots of white lines, rather like the...

What ripples in 'space time' can tell us

What ripples in 'space time' can tell us

Apr 15, 2022 / 4:00 am

If you have ever sat by a pond on a summer's afternoon, you must have spent some time looking at the ripples. When a fish surfaces for a moment it leaves...

Space telescope spots 12.8 billion-year-old star

Space telescope spots 12.8 billion-year-old star

Apr 8, 2022 / 4:00 am

The image does not look very impressive, just a faint, somewhat blurry dot. However, that dot is an image of the oldest and most distant individual star we have...

Hard to believe there isn't life elsewhere in universe

Hard to believe there isn't life elsewhere in universe

Apr 1, 2022 / 4:00 am

We're all familiar with the sorts of alien we get in science fiction movies. They are usually humanlike and often move slowly because the actors cannot see...

Finding signs of life elsewhere in the universe will not be easy

Finding signs of life elsewhere in the universe will not be easy

Mar 25, 2022 / 4:00 am

The story in "A for Andromeda", a book by Fred Hoyle and John Eliot, starts with the last-minute tests before the opening of a new radio telescope. ...

Many astonomical discoveries made by amateurs

Many astonomical discoveries made by amateurs

Mar 18, 2022 / 4:00 am

Today our astronomical tool kit includes telescopes with 10-metre diameter mirrors (or bigger), radio telescope arrays spanning continents, and of course all...

Taking a closer look at the unseen universe

Taking a closer look at the unseen universe

Mar 11, 2022 / 4:00 am

The project sounded tedious but straightforward—to find out how matter is distributed in spiral galaxies. One approach was to carefully count the stars...

Exploring oceans on other planets may provide us answers

Exploring oceans on other planets may provide us answers

Mar 4, 2022 / 4:00 am

The deepest point in the Earth's oceans lies almost 11 kilometres below the surface. Down there it is cold and has seen no sunlight for millions of years....

Black holes the most efficient energy sources in the universe

Black holes the most efficient energy sources in the universe

Feb 25, 2022 / 4:00 am

Astronomers observing the core region of a galaxy 1.2 billion light years away have detected what could be the buildup to an extremely high-energy...

James Webb Space Telescope preparing to keep an eye on space

James Webb Space Telescope preparing to keep an eye on space

Feb 18, 2022 / 4:00 am

The James Webb Space Telescope is now at its parking place about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, located so that the Earth is between it and the Sun. Now it...

Moon plays a large part in Earth's continued existence

Moon plays a large part in Earth's continued existence

Feb 11, 2022 / 4:00 am

As part of our quest to find out if we are alone in the universe, our search is strongly focussed on “Earth-like” planets—worlds like ours. So...

Trying to see into the centre of our galaxy

Trying to see into the centre of our galaxy

Feb 4, 2022 / 4:00 am

The MeerKat radio telescope, located in southern Africa has produced some absolutely stunning images revealing what is going on in the centre of our galaxy, the...

Looking for watery life on other planets

Looking for watery life on other planets

Jan 28, 2022 / 4:00 am

Now that we know our world is just one of countless billions of planets scattered across the universe, is it reasonable to assume ours is the only one with...

Cosmic 'bubbles' are just some of what fills 'empty' space

Cosmic 'bubbles' are just some of what fills 'empty' space

Jan 21, 2022 / 4:00 am

Our Solar System is currently moving through a cosmic bubble. This void in space is about 1,000 light years wide. (A light year is the distance light travels...

Cosmics explosions: From solar flares to the Big Bang

Cosmics explosions: From solar flares to the Big Bang

Jan 14, 2022 / 4:00 am

There are places in the universe where colossal amounts of energy are stored. Most of the time, it is slowly released non-catastrophically, but on some...

The search for rogue planets in outer space

The search for rogue planets in outer space

Jan 7, 2022 / 4:00 am

Imagine a world upon which the Sun has not shone for millions or billions of years, or maybe ever. It is wandering the spaces between the stars and the only...

233347
231499
227699
235394