Space
Astronomy
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Astronomy
Astronomy is the study of space, including planets, stars and galaxies. We can see some objects in space with just the naked eye, but many more, including those that are billions...
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History of astronomy timeline
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Observing space
From Earth, we can observe with the naked eye other objects in space: our nearest neighbour, the Moon; our local star, the Sun; five of the other planets of the Solar System...
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Observing a solar eclipse
On 20th March 2015, UK residents witnessed a near-total solar eclipse. From around 8.30 a.m. the Moon appeared to move across the Sun, taking about an hour to cover it almost...
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Constellations
Constellations are areas of the sky, divided up for the purpose of locating and identifying stars, galaxies and other objects in the heavens, as well as the star patterns they...
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Space probes
To study other bodies in the Solar System, even the most powerful telescopes are limited in what images and other information they can provide. Manned space missions to other...
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Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is any life that does not originate from Earth. None has so far been discovered. Often described as alien life, or aliens, extraterrestrial life might range...
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Exoplanets
An exoplanet, or extrasolar planet, is a planet outside our Solar System that orbits another star. The first detection of an exoplanet was confirmed in 1995. Named 51 Pegasi b, it...
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The search for Planet Nine
Caju, an asteroid discovered in the outer Solar System in 2015, is proving of great interest to astronomers. They believe that its strange orbital path around the Sun can only be...
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Cassini mission to Saturn
The Cassini mission, officially the Cassini–Huygens mission, was a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a probe...
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Juno mission to Jupiter
On the morning of 5th July 2016 the Juno space probe, which had been travelling through the Solar System since its launch in 2011, went into orbit around Jupiter. To do so, it had...
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Rosetta mission
On 12th November 2014, the Rosetta space probe launched its lander, called Philae, on to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Philae lander had 10 instruments on board...
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New Horizons mission to Pluto
Nine years after it left Earth, NASA’s New Horizons space probe became, on Tuesday 14th July 2015, the first spacecraft to reach Pluto. In August 2006, soon after the probe's...
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Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) space probe Hayabusa2 (hayabusa is Japanese for "falcon") was launched on 3rd December 2014. Its mission was to study the asteroid...
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Perseverance mission to Mars
Perseverance, nicknamed Percy, is a car-sized rover designed and built to explore Jezero Crater on Mars for NASA's Mars 2020 mission. Of a similar design to Curiosity, an earlier...
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Where do the stars go in the day?
The stars are still there in the sky during the day. You just cannot see them because the sky is so bright. In fact, there is one star you can see during the day—although you...
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