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How to spot the 2023 Perseid meteor shower wherever you are

The Perseids are a major meteor shower - here is your guide to spotting them in July and August 2023

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Two-faced star seems to have one hydrogen side and one helium side

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Could we put out the sun with a sun-sized orb of water?

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Stars found hidden in huge cloud wrapped around the Milky Way

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Caption The first anniversary image from NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope displays star birth like it?s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. It is a relatively small, quiet stellar nursery, but you?d never know it from Webb?s chaotic close-up. Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disk, the makings of future planetary systems. The young stars at the center of many of these disks are similar in mass to the Sun, or smaller. The heftiest in this image is the star S1, which appears amid a glowing cave it is carving out with its stellar winds in the lower half of the image. The lighter-colored gas surrounding S1 consists of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a family of carbon-based molecules that are among the most common compounds found in space. For more detail on what is happening where in Webb?s image of Rho Ophiuchi, watch the video tour and read the press release. Credits Image NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI) Image Processing Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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JWST celebrates first year of science with awesome star-forming image

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James Webb Space Telescope images

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The 8 most dazzling images from JWST’s first year of science

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https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2017/07/Exploring_Jupiter t may still be some years away from launch, and over a decade before our Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer reaches the gas giant and its icy moons, but preparations are well under way. This new artist?s impression depicts the final spacecraft design, the construction of which is being overseen by Airbus Defence and Space. The spacecraft?s solar wings form a distinctive cross-shape totalling 97 sq m, the largest ever flown on an interplanetary mission. The size is essential to generate sufficient power ? around 850 W ? for the instruments and spacecraft so far from the Sun. The spacecraft is furnished with a laboratory of instruments that will investigate Jupiter?s turbulent atmosphere and vast magnetosphere, as well as study the planet-sized moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. All three moons are thought to have oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts and should provide key clues on the potential for such moons to harbour habitable environments. Juice?s cameras will capture exquisite details of the moon?s features, as well as identify the ices and minerals on their surfaces. Other instruments will sound the subsurface and interior of the moons to better understand the location and nature of their buried oceans. The tenuous atmosphere around the moons will also be explored. The spacecraft will also include booms such as a 10 m-long magnetometer mast (seen towards the bottom of Juice in the artist impression), a 16 m radar antenna (the long boom across the top), and antennas to measure electric and magnetic fields. Ganymede is the only moon in the Solar System to generate its own internal magnetic field, and Juice is well equipped to document its behaviour and explore its interaction with Jupiter?s own magnetosphere. Juice is scheduled for launch in 2022 on a seven-year journey to the Jovian system. Its tour will include a dedicated orbit phase of Jupiter, targeted flybys of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, and finally nine months orbiting Ganymede ? the first time any moon beyond our own has been orbited by a spacecraft. In the artist?s impression, which is not to scale, Ganymede is shown in the foreground, Callisto to the far right, and Europa centre-right. Volcanically active moon Io is also shown, at left. The moons were imaged by NASA?s Galileo spacecraft; Jupiter is seen here with a vivid aurora, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. ESA/ATG medialab; Jupiter: NASA/ESA/J. Nichols (University of Leicester); Ganymede: NASA/JPL; Io: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; Callisto and Europa: NASA/JPL/DLR

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How to spot Jupiter's icy moons

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Solar Flare X1 from AR2994 in ?Motion? ? Miguel Claro Photograph of the Sun taken from a 27-minute timelapse of a solar, flare which took place on 30 April 2022. Taken with a Sky-Watcher Esprit ED120 telescope, Daystar Quark Chromosphere filter, Sky-Watcher EQ6 mount, Player One Apollo M-Max Solar camera, 840 mm, 900 frames at 9.1 ms per frame (recorded as video at 109 FPS) Location: Dark Sky Alqueva region, ?vora district, Portugal

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See the remarkable photos up for Astronomy Photographer of the Year

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The Milky Way could contain thousands of stars from another galaxy

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People at Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, UK on the summer solstice

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What is the June solstice and what causes it?

21 June is the summer solstice, or longest day, in the northern hemisphere and the winter solstice, or shortest day, in the southern hemisphere

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How to see five planets align in the sky this weekend

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The JWST is already delivering on its promise to transform cosmology

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Fast-growing galaxy seen by JWST offers window on the early universe

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Astronomers are using a new supernova to search for alien signals

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