‘The Universe’ Archives
Betelgeuse in unprecedented detail
Betelgeuse is one of my favourite stars. Firstly it is easily identifiable as part of the Orion constellation and secondly did you know that it is actually the destination star for the original Planet of the Apes novel (in French by the way!). But on a more serious note it is a semiregular variable star located approximately 640 light-years from [...]
Orions Belt in gorgeous detail
Explanation: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, are the bright bluish stars from east to west (left to right) along the diagonal in this gorgeous cosmic vista. Otherwise known as the Belt of Orion, these three blue supergiant stars are hotter and much more massive than the Sun. They lie about 1,500 light-years away, born of Orion's well-studied [...]
The Known Universe
Its crazy just how small a space we actually occupy in the known universe. This video is another attempt to show us just how big the universe is. It uses the usually technique of speed up by orders of magnitude as it moves away from the Earth. Somehow that doesn't quite give me a real sense of scope. It was well made and I liked the bit where it [...]
New Stunning Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image released
This is yet another astonishing image from Hubble. This is a new version of the Ultra Deep Field, in near-infrared light and taken with the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3. This image is of the same region as the visible Ultra Deep Field in 2004, but at longer wavelengths providing more information about the early Universe's history. We are [...]
