... June 24, 1999 . NGC 1365: A Nearby Barred Spiral Galaxy . ... Explanation: Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a bar , but perhaps not so prominent as the one in NGC 1365, shown above . ... NGC 1365 is a member of the Fornax Cluster of Galaxies . Because NGC 1365 is relatively nearby, simultaneous measurements of its speed and distance are possible, which help astronomers estimate how fast our universe is expanding . ...

... Astronomers have found a planet the size of Earth just outside of our Solar System, orbiting around our nearest star! ... More than 800 planets have now been found outside our Solar System, we call them 'exo-planets . ... While the newly discovered exo-planet is similar to the Earth in size, it is much closer to its star than our planet. ... A year on the exo-planet would be just three days long (this is how long it takes the planet to complete one orbit of its star). ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . Asteroid 2010 SO16 and the Earth follow similar orbits around . the Sun. ... out a horseshoe shape in space, taking 175 years to go from . ... Asteroid 2010 SO16 takes 175 years to make the trip from one end of the horseshoe to the other. ... Currently, three other horseshoe companions of the Earth are known to exist but, unlike 2010 SO16, these linger for a few thousand years at most before moving on to different orbits. ...

For Astronomers: Finding a Partner Teacher . ... By now you've decided you want to start a Project ASTRO partnership, but you don't have a partner. ... When you contact a teacher, explain that you want to volunteer as a Project ASTRO astronomer and describe some of what you'd like to offer. ... Bring a copy of the Project ASTRO How-To Manual, The Universe at Your Fingertips, and other Project ASTRO resource materials you may have to a meeting with the school principal or classroom teacher. ...

Aristarchus of Samos, around 200 BC, proposed that the Earth revolved around the Sun, but found few supporters. ... For a discussion of the discovery of the solar system which includes a "moving picture" illustrating retrograde motion, click here . ... The Sun and Moon, he claimed, obviously moved around Earth. ... The full story of the discovery of the solar system--of Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho and Kepler--is long and would take this discussion too far afield. ... Nicolaus Copernicus . ...

... For us to see them from such great distances, quasars must be producing enormous energy -- they are about 1000 times brighter than an average galaxy! ... One of their choices for the energy source of quasars was a black hole. ... On the one hand, it may seem difficult to think that mere friction between bits of matter could account for the energy of a quasar, but, on the other hand, gravity is unimaginably strong near a black hole. ... How does matter actually rush towards the black hole? ...

... Under certain conditions, like those in the nucleus of a QSO, all atoms can be made to emit light at particular wavelengths. ... If that source is approaching the observer, the wave is squashed up onto itself making the wavelength shorter. ... This is redshift. ... You can see how the section of the QSO spectrum which we observe changes with redshift. ... We then see how far we had to slide the observed spectrum along the scale to make it match and that is the objects redshift. ... The 2QZ team . ...

... Records were made this January when the RadioAstron satellite was joined by ground-based telescopes, forming a radio telescope 220,000 km across тАУ roughly 20 times larger than the Earth. RadioAstron , a Russian orbital telescope of 10 meter diameter, joined with ground-based observatories to resolve objects 50 times smaller than is possible with the Hubble Space Telescope. ... Images: . The RadioAstron spaceantenna observes a celestial radio source simultaneously with ground-based dishes. ...

ATNF Home . About ATNF . ... About ATNF overview . News | ... Australia Telescope Steering Committee . ... Australia Telescope User Committee . ... Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory . ... Parkes radio telescope . Australia Telescope Compact Array . Mopra radio telescope . ... Information & tools for observers . ... Australia Telescope Online Archive (ATOA) . ... ATCA | ... Australia Telescope 20GHz Survey . ... Visiting Parkes radio telescope . ... Parkes radio telescope webcam . ...

As an obligatory preparing for the application to participate in the IAO a short report of National Olympiad of the current year with a set of all problems used on the Olympiad has to be presented by the applicating team. ... The final minutes (protocols written in Latin or Cyrillic in form of tables) of the Olympiad (evaluating of solutions of the students participated in the last stage of the Olympiad) should be included as well. ... Historical data of the National Astronomy Olympiad: . ...