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 1Portrait 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 2History 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 3The Oort cloud, one of the most successful theoretical models about the Solar System (from Theoretical astronomy)
Image 4Places like Paranal Observatory offer crystal clear skies for observing astronomical objects with or without instruments. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 5Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 6The 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)
Image 7The main platform at La Silla hosts a huge range of telescopes with which astronomers can explore the Universe. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 8"El Caracol" observatory temple at Chichen Itza, Mexico (from History of astronomy)
Image 9An amateur astrophotography setup with an automated guide system connected to a laptop (from Observational astronomy)
Image 10One 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 11Amateur astronomer recording observations of the sun. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 12Babylonian tablet in the British Museum recording Halley's Comet in 164 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 13A voting session is conducted in 2006 International Astronomical Union's general assembly for determining a new definition of a planet (from Astronomer)
Image 149th-century diagram of the positions of the seven planets on 18 March 816, from the Leiden Aratea (from History of astronomy)
Image 15The Nebra sky disk, Germany, 1800–1600 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 16Southern Hemisphere (from History of astronomy)
Image 17Artist 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 18Calendrical functions of the Berlin Gold Hat c. 1000 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 19An example of a gravitational lens found in the DESI Legacy Surveys data. There are four sets of lensed images in DESI-090.9854-35.9683, corresponding to four distinct background galaxies—from the outermost giant red arc to the innermost bright blue arc, arranged in four concentric circles. All of them are gravitationally warped—or lensed—by the orange galaxy at the very center. Dark matter is expected to produce gravitational lensing also. (from Physical cosmology)
Image 20Ultra HD photography taken at La Silla Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 21The Hubble Space Telescope (from History of astronomy)
Image 22The Antikythera Mechanism was an analog computer from 150 to 100 BC designed to calculate the positions of astronomical objects. (from History of astronomy)
Image 23Segment of the astronomical ceiling of Senenmut's Tomb (circa 1479–1458 BC), 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 24Historical Jantar Mantar observatory in Jaipur, India (from History of astronomy)
Image 25The Crab Nebula as seen in various wavelengths (from Observational astronomy)
Image 26An 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 27Sunset at the equinox from the prehistoric site of Pizzo Vento at Fondachelli Fantina, Sicily (from History of astronomy)
Image 28ALMA is the world's most powerful telescope for studying the Universe at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 29Historical accuracy of atomic clocks from NIST. (from Theoretical astronomy)
Image 30Amateur astronomy groups are often involved in outreach to introduce astronomy to the general public (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 31Overview of types of observational astronomy by observed wavelengths and their observability. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 32Comparison of CMB (Cosmic microwave background) results from satellites COBE, WMAP and Planck documenting a progress in 1989–2013 (from History of astronomy)
$Image 3350 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory (from Observational astronomy)$

Image 3350 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 34An assembly in Estonia to observe meteors (from Observational astronomy)
Image 35The inflationary theory as an augmentation to the Big Bang theory was first proposed by Alan Guth of MIT. Inflation solves the 'horizon problem' by making the early universe much more compact than was assumed in the standard model. Given such smaller size, causal contact (i.e., thermal communication) would have been possible among all regions of the early universe. The image was an adaptation from various generic charts depicting the growth of the size of the observable universe, for both the standard model and inflationary model respectively, of the Big Bang theory. (from Physical cosmology)
Image 36Map 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 37Arabic astrolabe from 1079 to 1080 AD (from History of astronomy)
Image 38Sir Patrick Moore was one of the world's leading popularisers of astronomy. (from Amateur astronomy)

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Featured article - show another

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

Image of the Sun, a G-type main-sequence star, the closest to Earth

A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated 10²² to 10²⁴ stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye—all within the Milky Way galaxy.

A star's life begins with the gravitational collapse of a gaseous nebula of material largely comprising hydrogen, helium, and trace heavier elements. Its total mass mainly determines its evolution and eventual fate. A star shines for most of its active life due to the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core. This process releases energy that traverses the star's interior and radiates into outer space. At the end of a star's lifetime as a fusor, its core becomes a stellar remnant: a white dwarf, a neutron star, or—if it is sufficiently massive—a black hole. (Full article...)

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Did you know - show different entries

... that the asteroid 2011 XC2 missed the Earth by less than 1 lunar distance on 3 December 2011?
... that the mass-luminosity relation, first derived by Arthur Eddington in 1924, helps astronomers find the distances to binary star systems?
... that the planetary nebula Abell 39 is unusually spherical, yet its central star is offset from the center?
... that data from Mariner 10 led to the discovery of Mercury's magnetic field in 1974?
... that the Toronto Magnetic Observatory had to be moved as the University of Toronto's electric lighting was interfering with observations?

More Did you know facts

More Did you know (auto generated)

... that the Passive Seismic Experiment Package recorded one of the first instances of humans littering on another planetary body?
... that Susan Murabana created Africa's first permanent planetarium?
... that the Springfield Science Museum is home to the oldest operating projection planetarium in the United States?
... that Michael Collins has been called "one of the best clarinettists walking the planet" by The Times?
... that the star TRAPPIST-1 has seven planets, several of which may have temperatures that would allow the existence of liquid water (artist's impression depicted)?
... that in many works of fiction, the asteroid belt is the remnants of a destroyed planet?

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WikiProjects

WikiProject Astronomy	WikiProject Solar System



WikiProject Cosmology	WikiProject Spaceflight

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Selected image - show another

Credit: Hubble Space Telescope

HH 46/47 is a complex of Herbig–Haro objects (HH objects), located around 450 parsecs (about 1,470 light-years) away in a Bok globule near the Gum nebula in the Vela constellation.

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Astronomy News

21 November 2024 –: The European Southern Observatory announces that its astronomers in Chile capture the first close-up image of a star outside the Milky Way. (The New York Times)
20 November 2024 – Discoveries of exoplanets: In a study published by the Nature journal, astronomers announce the discovery of IRAS 04125+2902 b, a newborn exoplanet. The discovery was made by Madyson Barber, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Nature) (ABC News)
15 July 2024 – Mare Tranquillitatis pit: In the journal Nature Astronomy, American and Italian scientists announce the discovery of a lunar cave, approximately 250 miles (400 km) from the landing site of Apollo 11. (AP) (Nature Astronomy)

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December anniversaries

7 December 1972 – The Blue Marble photograph is taken by the Apollo 17 crew
8 December 1992 – Galileo completes the second Earth flyby
14 December 1962 – Mariner 2 becomes the first space probe to perform a flyby of a planet, when it passes within 35,000 kilometers of Venus
17 December 1917 – 2001: A Space Odyssey science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke is born
19 December 2013 – Gaia is launched for the mission to study billions of stars in the Milky Way
21 December 1968 – Apollo 8, is launched with the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return safely to Earth
27 December 1571 – Astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer Johannes Kepler is born

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Space-related Portals

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Astronomical events

All times UT unless otherwise specified.

1 December, 06:21	New moon
6 December, 02:11	Mercury at inferior conjunction
7 December, 20:19	Jupiter at opposition
8 December, 08:56	Moon occults Saturn
9 December, 09:19	Moon occults Neptune
12 December, 13:18	Moon at perigee
14 December, 01:12	Geminids peak
15 December, 09:02	Full moon
18 December, 08:49	Moon occults Mars
21 December, 09:20	Earth southern solstice
22 December, 10:00	Ursids peak
24 December, 07:25	Moon at apogee
25 December, 01:59	Mercury at greatest western elongation
30 December, 22:27	New moon