... The Helix Nebula from Blanco and Hubble . ... How did a star create the Helix nebula? ... The Tarantula Nebula is a giant emission nebula within our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud. ... The center of the Andromeda galaxy is beautiful but strange. ... In the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole. ... As a present to APOD readers, digital imager Mattias Malmer offers a very high resolution view of big beautiful Saturn....

... Planets . ... The planets were found using the HARPS instrument on the 3.6m telescope at ESOтАЩs La Silla Observatory. ... A planet in orbit around a star causes the star to regularly move towards and away from observers on Earth. ... One newly discovered planet, HD 85512 b, is best hope found so far for a habitable exoplanet. ... The HARPS team so far have found that about 40% of stars similar to own Sun have at least one planet smaller than Saturn (which is 95 times more massive than Earth). ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . ... News Feed . ... 2012 December 18th . ... Cooler November . ... Relative Humidity at Armagh Observatory, 1838-2008 . 2012 November 29th . ... 2012 November 28th . ... 2012 November 22nd . ... Armagh Observatory 2012 Robinson Lecture . ... 2012 November 1st . ... 2012 October 1st . ... Armagh Observatory Business Plan 2012-2013 (PDF) . ... Armagh Observatory and Planetarium Management Committee Minutes November 2011 - PDF . ...

... Tonight's Sky . ... The Magazine . ... Star Atlas . ... An artificial comet holds secrets to Earths life . ... Astronomy for Kids . ... Observing springtime deep-sky objects with a large telescope . ... The planet has extreme temperature swings and perhaps active lava flows. ... A digital supplement to Astronomy magazine. ... Join TravelQuest International with Astronomy and Discover magazines on one of three great tour options surrounding this celestial spectacle . ... Astronomy Magazine . ...

... 2008 November 17 . HR 8799: Discovery of a Multi-planet Star System . ... Explanation: How common are planetary systems like our own Solar System? In the twelve years previous to 2008, over 300 candidate planetary systems have been found orbiting nearby stars. ... Although the HR 8799 planetary system has significant differences with our Solar System, it is a clear demonstration that complex planetary systems exist, systems that could conceivable contain an Earth-like planet . ... About APOD | ...

... General information . ... Staff . Research staff . ... Information . ... Historical highlights . Historical research . ... This process is thought to occur in circumstellar disks of gas and dust around young stars on rather short timescales : infrared surveys show that the number of low mass stars with disks drops dramatically for stars older than 10 Myr, suggesting that in order to form large solids before the disk disperses, the growth process has to take place within a few million years. ...

... The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is a conspicuous object in the night sky with a prominent place in ancient mythology . ... The stars in the Pleiades are thought to have formed together around 100 million years ago, making them 1/50th the age of our sun, and they lie some 130 parsecs (425 light years ) away. ... Data for these stars are listed in a table below. ... Yes . ... WEBDA Pleiades cluster data . ... M45: The Pleiades Star Cluster (2007 November 18) ...

... Abstract . ... The Ages of Globular Clusters and the Population II Distance Scale . ... HST/FGS Astrometric Search for Young Planets Around Beta Pic and AU Mic . ... Luminous and dark matter in disk galaxies from strong lensing and stellar kinematics . ... WFPC2 Imaging of Fomalhaut b: Determining its orbit and testing for H-alpha emission . ... Globular clusters are the oldest structures within the Milky Way that are directly accessible to observation. ... Past weeks: . ...

... For a timeline of the exploration of the magnetic environment of the Earth, Sun and Planets, see here . ... Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) builds the first astronomical telescope and observes for the first time craters on the Moon, satellites around Jupiter, and the way Venus goes through phases like the Moon (crescent, etc.) ... 17 December--First successful flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. ... 16 March--Goddard launches his first liquid-fuel rocket. ...