Drawing of sky-goddess Nut, held by Shu, arched over her brother, the earth-god Geb. The rising Sun sails up her legs in the east before setting down her arms in the west.
Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo
A new study shines light on the link between the Milky Way and the ancient Egyptian sky goddess Nut
Some of the satellite dishes that make up the MeerKAT.
South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)
MeerKAT has made remarkable contributions to South African and international science.
Massive dying stars emit large amounts of radiation.
NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team via AP
Some ancient texts record what were likely dying stars, faintly visible from Earth. If close enough, these events can disturb telescopes and even damage the ozone layer.
Photograph: Nasa (Goddard Space Flight Center)
The Peregrine and Nova-C landers are due to carry out valuable science at two diverse lunar locations.
An artist’s depiction of two astronauts on Mars.
cokada/E+ via Getty Images
If an astronaut were to die on Mars, neither cremation nor burial would be good options.
The Milky Way, as seen with neutrino particles.
IceCube Collaboration / US National Science Foundation (Lily Le and Shawn Johnson) / ESO (S. Brunier)
An observatory called IceCube was used to produce a view of our galaxy in particles rather than light.
Scientists have detected the first neutrinos from our galaxy.
NSF/IceCube
New data from the IceCube collaboration shows neutrino emissions from within our Milky Way galaxy – but figuring out where exactly these ghost particles come from is harder than it seems.
IceCube Collaboration/Science Communication Lab for CRC 1491
Neutrinos are some of nature’s most elusive particles, but new research has used them to create an image of our own galaxy.
The far side of the Moon is an attractive place to carry out astronomy.
NASA / Ernie Wright
The current race to the Moon is opening up opportunities for lunar astronomy.
Combined images from the ASKAP and Parkes radio telescopes.
R. Kothes (NRC) and the PEGASUS team
Our galaxy should be full of traces of dead stars. Until now, we have found surprisingly few of these supernova remnants, but a new telescope collaboration is changing that.
Sunti/Shutterstock
Many galaxies are too faint or small for us to observe easily – but science can help us work it out.
The Milky Way above a single MeerKAT antenna in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Inset: EHT image of the Milky Way black hole.
SARAO, EHT
Sagittarius A* lies in the southern sky, passing directly above South Africa.
Artist’s impression of the PSR J0523-7125 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Carl Knox, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)
The pulsar PSR J0523-7125 is more than ten times brighter than any other radio pulsar outside the Milky Way.
A composite image of the data collected by the ALMA telescope in Chile, showing spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster.
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Dagnello (NRAO)/T. Brown (VERTICO)
Studying the extreme environment of the Virgo Cluster — which comprises thousands of galaxies — helps us learn what factors can affect and start or stop star formation.
CSIRO
After six decades during which it tracked lunar missions, spotted distant pulsars and quasars, and even expanded our concept of the size of the Universe, the Parkes telescope is still going strong.
Bruno Gilli/ESO/Wiki Commons
The sky on other planets doesn’t look the same as the sky on Earth does. And that’s because of the different gases in Earth’s atmosphere.
Sebastian Zentilomo/University of Sydney
Fluctuating radio waves that appear to come from near the heart of the Milky Way are a new puzzle for astronomers.
Astronomers have found a way to estimate the number of stars in the universe.
Comstock Images via Getty Images
Scientists have a good estimate on the staggering number of stars in the universe.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest orbital telescope ever built and is scheduled to be launched into space on Dec. 18, 2021.
NASA/Desiree Stover
The largest orbital telescope ever made will allow astronomers to study the atmospheres of alien planets, learn about how stars form in the Milky Way and peer into the farthest reaches of the universe.
MeerKAT, the precursor to the massive Square Kilometre Array, allows astronomers to gather huge amounts of data about galaxies.
Photo by Jaco Marais/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Technology is allowing astronomers to study and analyse galaxies in far more detail than was previously possible.