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 1Historical accuracy of atomic clocks from NIST. (from Theoretical astronomy)
Image 2Comparison of CMB (Cosmic microwave background) results from satellites COBE, WMAP and Planck documenting a progress in 1989–2013 (from History of astronomy)
Image 3Sir Patrick Moore was one of the world's leading popularisers of astronomy. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 4History 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 5Segment 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 6The Hubble Space Telescope (from History of astronomy)
Image 7Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 8A voting session is conducted in 2006 International Astronomical Union's general assembly for determining a new definition of a planet (from Astronomer)
Image 9Amateur astronomer recording observations of the sun. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 10The Nebra sky disk, Germany, 1800 - 1600 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 11Artist 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 12ALMA is the world's most powerful telescope for studying the Universe at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 13Historical Jantar Mantar observatory in Jaipur, India (from History of astronomy)
Image 14Calendrical functions of the Berlin Gold Hat c. 1000 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 15The Oort cloud, one of the most successful theoretical model about the Solar System (from Theoretical astronomy)
Image 16The main platform at La Silla hosts a huge range of telescopes with which astronomers can explore the Universe. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 17Babylonian tablet in the British Museum recording Halley's comet in 164 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 18Sunset at the equinox from the prehistoric site of Pizzo Vento at Fondachelli Fantina, Sicily (from History of astronomy)
Image 19Portrait 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 20Ultra HD photography taken at La Silla Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 21The Antikythera Mechanism was an analog computer from 150 to 100 BC designed to calculate the positions of astronomical objects. (from History of astronomy)
Image 22Arabic astrolabe from 1079 to 1080 AD (from History of astronomy)
Image 23An 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 24Places like Paranal Observatory offer crystal clear skies for observing astronomical objects with or without instruments. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 25Southern Hemisphere (from History of astronomy)
Image 26The 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 279th-century diagram of the positions of the seven planets on 18 March 816, from the Leiden Aratea (from History of astronomy)
Image 28The Crab Nebula as seen in various wavelengths (from Observational astronomy)
Image 29"El Caracol" observatory temple at Chichen Itza, Mexico (from History of astronomy)
Image 30An amateur astrophotography setup with an automated guide system connected to a laptop (from Observational astronomy)
Image 31An assembly in Estonia to observe meteors (from Observational astronomy)
Image 32Map 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 33One 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 34Amateur astronomy groups are often involved in outreach in order to introduce astronomy to the general public (from Amateur astronomy)
$Image 3550 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory (from Observational astronomy)$

Image 3550 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory (from Observational 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 Sun, captured through a clear solar filter

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a massive, hot ball of plasma, inflated and heated by energy produced by nuclear fusion reactions at its core. Part of this energy is emitted from its surface as visible light, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation, providing most of the energy for life on Earth. The Sun has been an object of veneration in many cultures. It has been a central subject for astronomical research since antiquity.

The Sun orbits the Galactic Center at a distance of 26,660 light-years. From Earth, it is on average 1 AU (1.496×10⁸ km) or about 8 light-minutes away. Its diameter is about 1,391,400 km (864,600 mi; 4.64 LS), 109 times that of Earth. Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, making up about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Roughly three-quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen (~73%); the rest is mostly helium (~25%), with much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron. (Full article...)

List of featured articles

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Did you know - show different entries

... that 12th-century Muslim scientist Al-Khazini, who proposed a theory of gravitation long before Isaac Newton, was, in his early life, a slave of the Seljuq Turks?
... that Kepler-47c is a circumbinary planet orbiting in the habitable zone of Kepler-47, a binary star system?
... that two high school students used the automated telescope at Leuschner Observatory to record the earliest images of supernova SN 1994I?
... that the Kuiper crater in the Kuiper quadrangle, named after Dutch American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, has the highest albedo recorded on Mercury?
...that Mt. Olympus Mons on Mars is the highest peak in the solar system?

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... that pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean Sea have been described as "a human rights violation that encapsulates a will to eliminate a person's presence on the face of the planet"?
... that in early depictions of Uranus in fiction, the planet was portrayed as solid
... that the Springfield Science Museum is home to the oldest operating projection planetarium in the United States?
... that it took five years of observations to find the planet orbiting the star HD 175167?
... that examples of artificial planets in science fiction include Riverworld, the Well World, and the Death Star?
... 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)?

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WikiProjects

WikiProject Astronomy	WikiProject Solar System



WikiProject Cosmology	WikiProject Spaceflight

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Credit: NASA / ESA / Andrew Fruchter (STScI) / ERO team (STScI + ST-ECF)

The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392), also known as the Clown-faced Nebula, Lion Nebula or Caldwell 39, is a bipolar planetary nebula (PN) discovered by astronomer William Herschel in 1787. Image of NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula is by HST in 1999.

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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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April anniversaries

2 April 1968 – The epic science fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey is released
3 April 2014 – NASA announces that the Cassini orbiter has found evidence of an underground body of water on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn
7 April 2001 – Mars Odyssey orbiter is launched to map and search for water on Mars
12 April 1961 – Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to enter outer space when he is launched into orbital flight in Vostok 1
19 April 1971 – The first space station, Salyut 1, is launched into orbit
24 April 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope, a powerful research tool and public relations boon for astronomy, is launched into orbit

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Space-related Portals

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Astronomical events

All times UT unless otherwise specified.

6 April, 09:25	Moon occults Saturn
7 April, 08:11	Moon occults Neptune
7 April, 16:47	Moon occults Venus
7 April, 17:53	Moon at perigee
8 April, 18:18	New moon and Total Solar Eclipse
11 April, 22:53	Mercury at inferior conjunction
20 April, 02:09	Moon at apogee
22 April, 06:44	Lyrids peak
23 April, 23:49	Full moon