This month is a great time to see Jupiter in our night skies. Appearing in the south, the largest planet in our solar system is a brilliant sight, whether you’re observing with the naked eye, or following the path of its moons with binoculars! But what is this distant planet really like? A Planetary Goliath …
Solar Orbiter obtains first images for ESA
Today marks the release of the very first images taken by ESA’s Solar Orbiter. Having performed its first close approach to the Sun, Solar Orbiter has become the closest spacecraft to take images of the Sun. These stunning new images are already exciting scientists, showing the Sun at higher resolutions than we’ve ever seen before. …
New Horizons First Look at Pluto 5 Years Ago Today
On this day 5 years ago, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gave us a whole new view on Pluto. The spacecraft spent 9 and a half years swinging past Jupiter and heading to the edge of the solar system, before coming within 7,800 km of the distant dwarf planet. Prior to this, we didn’t know much …
Spotlight on Venus
As the Earth’s nearest neighbour, Venus is one of the easiest planets to spot in the night sky. Named after the Roman goddess of love, it shines resplendently, often just after sunset or before sunrise. This week, it will be particularly bright, as it reaches its greatest brightness in the dawn sky of the 8th. …
Thanks for bearing with us
Thanks for bearing with us at this difficult time. As the country begins to open up again with the easing of coronavirus restrictions, we wanted to let you know that we will be back – just not quite yet. Woking Planetarium closed its doors at the beginning of March. As a result, we had to …
Comet NEOWISE – How you can see it
This month sees an exciting new object grace our skies. Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, more commonly known as Comet NEOWISE, was discovered by the NEOWISE space telescope on the 27th March 2020. But don’t worry, you don’t need to launch yourself into space to see it! Comets are notoriously unpredictable, and it’s often difficult for …
Asteroid Day
Today marks the international day of awareness and education about asteroids – Asteroid Day! It’s a huge program, organising events all over the world, and headquartered from Luxembourg. The date of June 30th was chosen specially to mark the anniversary of the Tunguska event. In 1908 Siberia, an asteroid exploded, flattening 2,000 square kilometres of …
Space Launches July 2020
Here is your one-stop shop for space launches in July 2020. This month sees up to 138 satellites launched, 3 missions to Mars and one cargo delivery to the International Space Station. Read on to find out more! Last updated: July 15th 2020 Satellite Launches LAUNCH FAILURE 4th: US private company Rocket Lab launch several …
Hot Jupiters’ Origins Made Clearer by New Discovery
Hot Jupiters are a mould-breaking type of planet; huge Jupiter-sized gas giants that orbit shockingly close to their star. The recent detection of HIP 67522 b could provide answers to the most pressing question about these goliaths. How did they form? We have no examples in our own solar system, so exoplanets like this one …
ESA’s Solar Orbiter approaches the Sun
On June 15th, ESA reached a milestone as Solar Orbiter approaches the Sun. It managed to get 77 million kilometres away from it! That might sound like a lot, but in reality it is about half the distance from the Earth to the Sun. It’s very difficult to get spacecraft close to the Sun, because …