Portal:Astronomy

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The Astronomy Portal

Introduction

Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole.

Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Chinese, Maya, and many ancient indigenous peoples of the Americas. In the past, astronomy included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars.

Professional astronomy is split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects. This data is then analyzed using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. These two fields complement each other. Theoretical astronomy seeks to explain observational results and observations are used to confirm theoretical results.

Astronomy is one of the few sciences in which amateurs play an active role. This is especially true for the discovery and observation of transient events. Amateur astronomers have helped with many important discoveries, such as finding new comets. (Full article...)

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various astronomy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Sir Patrick Moore was one of the world's leading popularisers of astronomy. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 2The Oort cloud, one of the most successful theoretical model about the Solar System (from Theoretical astronomy)
Image 3One of the Oldest Observatories in South America is the Quito Astronomical Observatory, founded in 1873 and located 12 minutes south of the Equator in Quito, Ecuador. The Quito Astronomical Observatory is the National Observatory of Ecuador and is located in the Historic Center of Quito and is managed by the National Polytechnic School. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 4Arabic astrolabe from 1079 to 1080 AD (from History of astronomy)
Image 5An amateur astrophotography setup with an automated guide system connected to a laptop (from Observational astronomy)
Image 6An assembly in Estonia to observe meteors (from Observational astronomy)
Image 7A voting session is conducted in 2006 International Astronomical Union's general assembly for determining a new definition of a planet (from Astronomer)
Image 8Sunset at the equinox from the prehistoric site of Pizzo Vento at Fondachelli Fantina, Sicily (from History of astronomy)
Image 9Map of the Milky Way Galaxy, with the constellations that cross the galactic plane in each direction and the known prominent components annotated including main arms, spurs, bar, nucleus/bulge, notable nebulae and globular clusters (from History of astronomy)
Image 10ALMA is the world's most powerful telescope for studying the Universe at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 11The main platform at La Silla hosts a huge range of telescopes with which astronomers can explore the Universe. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 12Calendrical functions of the Berlin Gold Hat c. 1000 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 139th-century diagram of the positions of the seven planets on 18 March 816, from the Leiden Aratea (from History of astronomy)
Image 14An image of the Cat's Paw Nebula created combining the work of professional and amateur astronomers. The image is the combination of the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope of the La Silla Observatory in Chile and a 0.4-meter amateur telescope. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 15Comparison of CMB (Cosmic microwave background) results from satellites COBE, WMAP and Planck documenting a progress in 1989–2013 (from History of astronomy)
Image 16The Crab Nebula as seen in various wavelengths (from Observational astronomy)
Image 17Southern Hemisphere (from History of astronomy)
Image 18Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 19Overview of types of observational astronomy by observed wavelengths and their observability. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 20"El Caracol" observatory temple at Chichen Itza, Mexico (from History of astronomy)
$Image 2150 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory (from Observational astronomy)$

Image 2150 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 22Historical accuracy of atomic clocks from NIST. (from Theoretical astronomy)
Image 23The Hubble Space Telescope (from History of astronomy)
Image 24Places like Paranal Observatory offer crystal clear skies for observing astronomical objects with or without instruments. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 25Portrait of the Flemish astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest who became Head of the Mathematical Board and Director of the Observatory of the Chinese emperor in 1669 (from Astronomer)
Image 26Amateur astronomer recording observations of the sun. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 27The Nebra sky disk, Germany, 1800 - 1600 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 28History of the Universe – gravitational waves are hypothesized to arise from cosmic inflation, a rapidly accelerated expansion just after the Big Bang (from Physical cosmology)
Image 29Ultra HD photography taken at La Silla Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 30The Antikythera Mechanism was an analog computer from 150 to 100 BC designed to calculate the positions of astronomical objects. (from History of astronomy)
Image 31Segment of the astronomical ceiling of Senenmut's Tomb (circa 1479–1458 BCE), depicting constellations, protective deities, and twenty-four segmented wheels for the hours of the day and the months of the year (from History of astronomy)
Image 32Historical Jantar Mantar observatory in Jaipur, India (from History of astronomy)
Image 33Babylonian tablet in the British Museum recording Halley's comet in 164 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 34Artist conception of the Big Bang cosmological model, the most widely accepted out of all in physical cosmology (neither time nor size to scale) (from Physical cosmology)
Image 35Amateur astronomy groups are often involved in outreach in order to introduce astronomy to the general public (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 36The Northern Hemisphere page from Johann Bayer's 1661 edition of Uranometria - the first atlas to have star charts covering the entire celestial sphere (from History of astronomy)

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Featured article - show another

This is a Featured article, which represents some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

The location of Barnard's Star, c. 2006 (south is up)

Barnard's Star is a small red dwarf star in the constellation of Ophiuchus. At a distance of 5.96 light-years (1.83 pc) from Earth, it is the fourth-nearest-known individual star to the Sun after the three components of the Alpha Centauri system, and is the closest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. Its stellar mass is about 16% of the Sun's, and it has 19% of the Sun's diameter. Despite its proximity, the star has a dim apparent visual magnitude of +9.5 and is invisible to the unaided eye; it is much brighter in the infrared than in visible light.

The star is named after Edward Emerson Barnard, an American astronomer who in 1916 measured its proper motion as 10.3 arcseconds per year relative to the Sun, the highest known for any star. The star had previously appeared on Harvard University photographic plates in 1888 and 1890. (Full article...)

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Did you know - show different entries

... that Oscar Monnig donated one of the largest private collections of meteorites to Texas Christian University?
... that at first light in 1987, the William Herschel Telescope was the third largest single optical telescope in the world, and is still the second largest in Europe?
... that a Bok globule is a dark cloud of dense dust and gas, first observed by astronomer Bart Bok in the 1940s, in which star formation is taking place within the H II region?
... that the aerial telescope is a type of very long focal length refracting telescope built in the second half of the 17th century that did not use a tube?
... that the galaxy pair Arp 147 contains a ring of nine black holes?

More Did you know facts

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... that the active galaxy 3C 120 was given the variable-star designation BW Tauri because of its variability in the visible spectrum?
... that King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's "cli-fi" thrash metal album addresses a mix of current ecological threats and attempts to find another planet to live on?
... that Nandivada Rathnasree, who ran Delhi's planetarium, proposed that astronomers could be taught using India's stone-built observatories?
... that fictional depictions of Jupiter have portrayed human habitation on the planet and its moons both by altering the environment to suit humans and altering humans to be suited to the environment?
... that the Springfield Science Museum is home to the oldest operating projection planetarium in the United States?
... that Susan Murabana created Africa's first permanent planetarium?

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WikiProjects

WikiProject Astronomy	WikiProject Solar System



WikiProject Cosmology	WikiProject Spaceflight

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Selected image - show another

Credit: NRAO / L. Birzan and team (Ohio University)

A galaxy cluster, or cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity with typical masses ranging from 10¹⁴–10¹⁵ solar masses. MS 0735.6+7421 is a galaxy cluster located in the constellation Camelopardalis, approximately 2.6 billion light-years away. A composite image from Hubble and Chandra.

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Astronomy News

20 February 2024 –: Astronomers identify the most luminous object ever observed, QSO J0529-4351, a quasar that accretes around one solar mass per day. (The Guardian) (Nature.com)
24 November 2023 –: Astronomers at the Telescope Array Project in Utah, United States, observe the second largest cosmic ray ever detected, the so-called Amaterasu particle, with an energy of 244 EeV. (Cosmos Magazine)

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May anniversaries

1 May 1959 – The former Beltsville Center is renamed to Goddard Space Flight Center in honor of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, rocket pioneer who achieved first launch of a liquid-fueled rocket
4 May 1967 – Lunar Orbiter 4 is launched to perform a photographic survey of lunar surface features
7 May 1975 – Explorer 53 (SAS-C), a NASA X-ray astronomy space telescope, is launched from the San Marco Range in Kenya, Africa
7 May 1997 – English-language French science fiction action film, The Fifth Element is released showing passenger inter-constellation vehicles, spacefighter craft, and various non-human creatures
14 May 1935 – The planetarium at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California opens
14 May 1973 – The first American space station, Skylab, is launched
18 May 1969 – The Apollo 10 human spaceflight is launched, testing all aspects of the lunar landing mission, except the actual lunar landing
20 May 1978 – Pioneer Venus is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida becoming the first spacecraft placed in orbit around Venus
30 May 1971 – Mariner 9 robotic space probe is launched becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Mars

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Space-related Portals

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Astronomical events

All times UT unless otherwise specified.

3 May, 22:32	Moon occults Saturn
4 May, 18:55	Moon occults Neptune
4 May, 19:58	Eta Aquariids peak
5 May, 02:26	Moon occults Mars
5 May, 22:11	Moon at perigee
8 May, 03:22	New moon
9 May, 20:59	Mercury at greatest western elongation
13 May, 10:45	Uranus at conjunction
17 May, 19:00	Moon at apogee
18 May, 18:02	Jupiter at conjunction
23 May, 13:53	Full moon
31 May, 08:09	Moon occults Saturn