Pins matching tag:Astronomy

Arthur Eddington presents the results of the May 1919 eclipse expeditions to Principe and Sobral at a joint session of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society at Burlington House. The measured deflection of starlight matches Einstein's prediction, and the meeting accepts it.

At a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announce GW150914, a signal from the merger of two black holes recorded by both LIGO detectors on 14 September 2015 - the first direct observation of gravitational waves.

China's Chang'e-6 capsule landed in Inner Mongolia on 25 June 2024 carrying 1,935.3 grams of lunar soil and rock, the first samples ever taken from the far side of the Moon.

China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft reached within 20 km of Earth's quasi-moon Kamoʻoalewa, the National Space Administration announced on 6 July 2026, beginning China's first asteroid sample-return effort.

A Northumbria University team using the William Herschel Telescope's WEAVE spectrograph found unusually nitrogen-rich gas in the tail of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, pointing to formation at about 30 kelvin far from its home star.

Reprocessing archived Keck images, astronomers have confirmed a Jupiter-size planet less than a million years old, 55 times Earth's distance from its star, forming far faster than planet-formation models allow.

Using South Africa's MeerKAT array, a Harvard & Smithsonian team reports the first direct detection of auroral radio emission from a planet outside the Solar System, implying a magnetic field of at least 1,250 gauss on the giant planet Beta Pictoris b.

A Science Bulletin study of EP250704a, seen on 4 July 2025, finds the longest prompt X-ray flash ever recorded from a neutron star merger, nearly ten minutes long, as strong evidence that such mergers can leave a magnetar behind.

Minior, the Meteor Pokémon, joins Pokémon GO in a six-day Minior Shower from 19 to 24 October 2026, with shooting stars lighting the in-game sky each evening.

The second Minior Shower runs 14-19 November 2026 during the Leonids meteor shower, with a new core colour to find.

The gravitational-wave detectors start a six-month intermediate observing run before the fifth observing run. Both LIGO detectors take part, Virgo joins despite possible maintenance interruptions, and KAGRA joins as it becomes available.

The first stage of Euclid Data Release 1 puts out all raw data and calibrated images, catalogues and spectra over about 1,900 square degrees of sky. The higher-level products for galaxy clustering and weak lensing follow in mid-2027.

ESA publishes the fourth Gaia data release, the mission's first principal release, covering the first 5.5 years of observations. It adds astrometric time series, an exoplanet list and the software to work with them.

The third Minior Shower, 11-16 December 2026, is the one where a core colour debuts in each hemisphere.

A 30-metre segmented-mirror telescope stalled for a decade by opposition to building on Mauna Kea, with La Palma as the alternate site. Estimated date.

The Moon's shadow touches down at 15:59:35 UT on 2027-02-06, and the annular phase lasts up to 7 minutes 51 seconds along a path 281.5 km wide crossing Chile, Argentina and the Atlantic. A partial eclipse is visible from South America, Antarctica and western and southern Africa.

The SKA's low-frequency telescope in Western Australia reaches its AA2 array assembly in 2027, the stage at which science verification observations begin.

At 6 minutes 23 seconds over Egypt, the longest totality visible from land until 2114, crossing Spain, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Greatest eclipse falls at 15:07:46 UT on 2028-01-26, where the annular phase lasts 10 minutes 27 seconds on a path 323.0 km wide; the longest annularity anywhere on the track is 10m30.6s. The path of annularity crosses Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Suriname, Spain and Portugal, and a partial eclipse is visible from eastern North America, C. & South America, western Europe and northwestern Africa.

Rubin's Data Release 1, built from the first year of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, is expected about two years after the survey began on 29 June 2026.

Totality passes directly over central Sydney for nearly four minutes, the first there since 1857.

A 39-metre segmented mirror in Chile's Atacama, collecting more light than all existing 8-10 metre telescopes combined. Estimated date.

The European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope, being built atop a Chilean mountain by 16 partner nations, is now targeting first light in March 2029 after repeated delays.

ESO's 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope takes its first test observations from Cerro Armazones in March 2029, with scientific first light following in December 2030.

A 340-metre asteroid passes about 32,000 km from Earth, closer than geostationary satellites and visible to the naked eye from Europe and Africa.

The SKA's mid-frequency array in South Africa's Karoo reaches AA2 in 2029, two years after its Australian counterpart, opening science verification observations.

Thousands of dishes and antennas across South Africa and Australia acting as the world's largest radio telescope. Estimated date.

The Moon's shadow touches down at 06:27:55 UT on 2030-06-01, and the annular phase lasts up to 5 minutes 21 seconds along a path 249.6 km wide crossing Algeria, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Russia, n. China and Japan. A partial eclipse is visible from Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Arctic and Alaska.

The Moon's shadow touches down at 06:50:19 UT on 2030-11-25, and the total phase lasts up to 3 minutes 44 seconds along a path 169.3 km wide crossing Botswana, S. Africa and Australia. A partial eclipse is visible from southern Africa, southern Indian Oc., the East Indies, Australia and Antarctica.

Greatest eclipse falls at 07:14:46 UT on 2031-05-21, on a path 152.2 km wide; the annular phase lasts up to 5 minutes 26 seconds, its greatest duration reached further east along the track. The path of annularity crosses Angola, Congo, Zambia, Tanzania, s. India, Malaysia and Indonesia, and a partial eclipse is visible from Africa, southern Asia, the East Indies and Australia.

The Moon's shadow touches down at 21:06:12 UT on 2031-11-14, and the hybrid phase lasts up to 1 minute 8 seconds along a path 38.3 km wide crossing the Pacific and Panama. A partial eclipse is visible from the Pacific, southern the United States, Central America and northwestern South America.

The Moon's shadow touches down at 13:25:23 UT on 2032-05-09, and the annular phase lasts up to 0 minutes 22 seconds along a path 43.7 km wide crossing the South Atlantic. A partial eclipse is visible from southern South America and southern Africa.

The Moon's shadow touches down at 18:01:16 UT on 2033-03-30, and the total phase lasts up to 2 minutes 37 seconds along a path 781.0 km wide crossing eastern Russia and Alaska. A partial eclipse is visible from North America.