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Astronomy

Lyrid meteor shower

Space

How to watch the Lyrids meteor shower peak this weekend

You have a decent chance of seeing shooting stars from anywhere in the world during the Lyrids meteor shower peak in the early hours of 22 and 23 April

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Space

Distant world breaks record for heaviest element on an exoplanet

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Space

Tonight is your best chance to see Mercury in the night sky

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A composite image of the Crab Nebula features X-rays (blue and white), optical data (purple), and infrared data (pink)

Space

X-ray map of the Crab nebula reveals strange pockets of turbulence

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FGGJAF M44 - Praesepe also known as the Beehive Cluster - an open star cluster in the constellation of Cancer

Space

How to spot the Beehive cluster in the constellation of Cancer

Regulars
GRB 221009A surrounded by dust rings

Space

The most powerful space explosion ever seen keeps baffling astronomers

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Space

How to see the moon, Venus, Jupiter and Mars line up tonight

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Space

Spring equinox 2023: Why day and night aren’t actually equal in length

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Plaster bust of philosopher Anaximander and group of other busts. Portraits of ancient historical persons. Mass-product souvenir in Turkey. Copy space, selected focus; Shutterstock ID 2261783295; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Humans

Anaximander review: Did Anaximander create science, asks Carlo Rovelli

Culture
The magnificent spiral galaxy M99 fills the frame in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. M99 ??? which lies roughly 42 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices ??? is a ???grand design??? spiral galaxy, so-called because of the well-defined, prominent spiral arms visible in this image. M99 was captured by Hubble???s Wide Field Camera 3 on two separate occasions, helping astronomers study two entirely different astronomical phenomena.?? The first set of observations aimed to explore a gap between two different varieties of cosmic explosions; novae and supernovae. Novae, which are caused by the interactions between white dwarfs and larger stars in binary systems, are far less bright than the supernovae which mark the catastrophically violent deaths of massive stars. However, current astronomical theories predict that sudden, fleeting events could occur that shine with brightnesses between those of novae and supernovae. Despite being described by astronomers as being shrouded in mystery and controversy, just such an event was observed in M99. Astronomers turned to Hubble???s keen vision to take a closer look and precisely locate the fading source. The second set of observations were part of a large Hubble project which aims to chart the connections between young stars and the clouds of cold gas from which they form. Hubble inspected 38 nearby galaxies, identifying clusters of hot, young stars. These galaxies were also observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a colossal radio telescope consisting of 66 individual dishes perched high in the Chilean Andes. The combination of Hubble???s observations of young stars and ALMA???s insight into clouds of cold gas will allow astronomers to delve into the details of star formation, and paves the way for future science with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.??

Space

Galaxies’ missing matter may be found – but now there’s too much of it

Most galaxies seemed to be missing a huge proportion of the matter we expected them to have – now researchers may have found its hiding spot, but the discovery contradicts accepted models of galaxy formation

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Space

What is the Venus-Jupiter conjunction and how can you view it?

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Space

Northern lights: The best pictures of the aurora taken across the UK

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Space

Welsh island Ynys Enlli becomes Europe’s first dark sky sanctuary

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Space

A weird comet is travelling through space with a dust blob it made

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