In March 2019 the American Vice President Mike Pence surprised many people when he announced an extremely ambitious plan to put American astronauts on the Moon in 2024. NASA named its new crewed Moon programme Artemis, after Apollo’s sister in Greek mythology. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the dates have slipped since this extremely ambitious announcement. After numerous… Continue reading NASA’s Artemis Moon Missions
Tag: Astronomy
Astronomy Items
June 21 2025 – the solstice
In 2025, for most people in the world the June solstice will fall on 21 June. For those of us living in the the Northern Hemisphere, it is the day of the year when there is the most daylight. The origin of the word solstice is from two Latin words: sol, which means Sun, and sistere, to… Continue reading June 21 2025 – the solstice
The Oort Cloud
The Oort Cloud, theorized by Jan Oort in 1950, is a vast, icy structure beyond the Solar System, containing trillions of objects. It is divided into the sparse outer cloud and the denser, doughnut-shaped inner cloud. Evidence for its existence includes the orbits of long-period comets. Galactic tides and interactions with giant planets likely contributed to its formation and distribution of icy bodies.
Venus the Morning Star
Anybody who has observed the eastern sky just before sunrise in the last few weeks will have noticed a brilliant white object - the planet Venus, also known as the morning star. It is brighter than any other planet and at its brightest ten times brighter than Sirius the brightest star. Its brightness has often… Continue reading Venus the Morning Star
The Lyrids 2025
The night of 22/23 April 2025 will be the peak of the Lyrids, one of the most famous prolific meteor showers. Meteors (also known as shooting stars) are bright streaks of light caused by small lumps of rock or metal called meteoroids hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at very high speed. As they pass through the atmosphere they get… Continue reading The Lyrids 2025
Explaining Science 