Portal:Astronomy

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

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 1Sir Patrick Moore was one of the world's leading popularisers of astronomy. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 2Amateur astronomy groups are often involved in outreach in order to introduce astronomy to the general public (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 3A voting session is conducted in 2006 International Astronomical Union's general assembly for determining a new definition of a planet (from Astronomer)
$Image 450 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory (from Observational astronomy)$

Image 450 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 5Overview of types of observational astronomy by observed wavelengths and their observability. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 6One 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 7Places like Paranal Observatory offer crystal clear skies for observing astronomical objects with or without instruments. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 8Sunset at the equinox from the prehistoric site of Pizzo Vento at Fondachelli Fantina, Sicily (from History of astronomy)
Image 9Ultra HD photography taken at La Silla Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 10Arabic astrolabe from 1079 to 1080 AD (from History of astronomy)
Image 11Historical Jantar Mantar observatory in Jaipur, India (from History of astronomy)
Image 12History 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 13Amateur astronomer recording observations of the sun. (from Amateur astronomy)
Image 14The Antikythera Mechanism was an analog computer from 150 to 100 BC designed to calculate the positions of astronomical objects. (from History of astronomy)
Image 15An amateur astrophotography setup with an automated guide system connected to a laptop (from Observational astronomy)
Image 16The Nebra sky disk, Germany, 1800 - 1600 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 17The main platform at La Silla hosts a huge range of telescopes with which astronomers can explore the Universe. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 18Portrait 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 19An assembly in Estonia to observe meteors (from Observational astronomy)
Image 20Historical accuracy of atomic clocks from NIST. (from Theoretical astronomy)
Image 21"El Caracol" observatory temple at Chichen Itza, Mexico (from History of astronomy)
Image 22Map 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 23Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (from Observational astronomy)
Image 24An 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 259th-century diagram of the positions of the seven planets on 18 March 816, from the Leiden Aratea (from History of astronomy)
Image 26Southern Hemisphere (from History of astronomy)
Image 27Comparison of CMB (Cosmic microwave background) results from satellites COBE, WMAP and Planck documenting a progress in 1989–2013 (from History of astronomy)
Image 28The 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 29The Hubble Space Telescope (from History of astronomy)
Image 30ALMA is the world's most powerful telescope for studying the Universe at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. (from Observational astronomy)
Image 31The Crab Nebula as seen in various wavelengths (from Observational astronomy)
Image 32Babylonian tablet in the British Museum recording Halley's comet in 164 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 33Artist 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 34Segment 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 35Calendrical functions of the Berlin Gold Hat c. 1000 BC (from History of astronomy)
Image 36The Oort cloud, one of the most successful theoretical model about the Solar System (from Theoretical astronomy)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Featured article - show another

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

Seen in orbit from the departing Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2009, flying Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125), the fifth and final Hubble mission.

The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble's targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) controls the spacecraft.

Hubble features a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror, and its five main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes. It has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images, allowing a deep view into space. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the universe. (Full article...)

List of featured articles

edit

Did you know - show different entries

... that British mathematician Margaret Meyer was the first woman to be elected to the Royal Astronomical Society?
... that the star cluster Messier 103 can be observed with the use of binoculars?
... that NASA has plans to tug an asteroid to the Moon?
... that MOA-2009-BLG-387Lb is the eleventh planet discovered using the gravitational microlensing phenomenon?
... that the first Dutch satellite, the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite, had the Main Belt asteroid 9996 ANS named after it?

More Did you know facts

More Did you know (auto generated)

... that Michael Collins has been called "one of the best clarinettists walking the planet" by The Times?
... that Jessen's icosahedron has been used for both the "Skwish" children's toy and a NASA proposal for a "super ball bot" to cushion space landers on other planets?
... that Susan Murabana created Africa's first permanent planetarium?
... that fictional depictions of Jupiter have portrayed human habitation on the planet and its moons both by altering the environment to suit humans and altering humans to be suited to the environment?
... that the Passive Seismic Experiment Package recorded one of the first instances of humans littering on another planetary body?
... that the Springfield Science Museum is home to the oldest operating projection planetarium in the United States?

edit

WikiProjects

WikiProject Astronomy	WikiProject Solar System



WikiProject Cosmology	WikiProject Spaceflight

edit

Selected image - show another

Credit: Ken Crawford

NGC 4565 (also known as the Needle Galaxy or Caldwell 38) is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. The 10th magnitude galaxy sits perpendicular to our own Milky Way galaxy and is almost directly above the North Galactic Pole. First spotted in 1785 by Sir William Herschel (1738–1822), this is one of the most famous examples of an edge-on spiral galaxy.

More selected pictures

Read more

edit

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)

edit

June anniversaries

2 June 1966 – Surveyor 1 lands on the moon, first US spacecraft to do so
3 June 1966 – Gemini 9 (Gemini Titan 9A) launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida
19 June 1976 – The Viking 1 orbiter arrives in Mars orbit
24 June 2004 – First private spaceflight, SpaceShipOne piloted by Mike Melvill
27 June 1996 – Galileo probe, flyby of Ganymede (Jupiter's largest moon)
30 June 2001 – The NASA Explorer mission, MAP (Microwave Anisotropy Probe), is launched to measure the temperature of cosmic background radiation (remnant heat from the Big Bang)