Launched in 1997, the Cassini mission to Saturn sent it’s final images back to earth last week before plunging into the planet in a planned manoeuvre. It spent 13 years in orbit around the ringed planet, carried out some spectacular science and beamed some great images back to earth.
Being on the large side, means I always take a keen interest in the latest diet fads and technologies to see if there is an easy way to shed some of the excess pounds. Of course, I could simply eat less and move more but that sounds very dull and not at all interesting, so I have been quite successful at ignoring that option and waiting for the ultimate diet to come along.
Every day the earth is bombarded from space with millions of pieces of sand, dust and specks of rocks. When these pieces of debris hit our atmosphere at speeds in excess of 50 km/second they burn up and can be seen as spectacular streaks across the night sky. These are shooting stars and are visible every night if the sky is clear. However, there are certain times of the year when the Earth passes through a cloud of dust and debris and creates many more shooting stars.
The past week has seen my phone emit a flurry of chirps, beeps and flashing LEDs. They have been alerts from Twitter or from an Aurora Watch UK app. Most of the them have been yellow alerts with the occasional amber alert, letting me know that there is a slim possibility of seeing the aurora or Northern Lights.
In May 2017, Astronomy Ireland magazine featured an article I wrote on the Trappist 1 system. Down load the article here or click read more below
