…on the outer edge of a spiral galaxy, home to a hundred billion stars…
…a star died.
This was no ordinary star. It was a monster of a star, at least 20 times more massive than our Sun.
This month’s performance of Gateway to the Stars coincides with National Astronomy Day, with the show running at 6:45 pm on Saturday, May 7. Spring is not only the time for Astronomy Day, but is also the best season for observing “galaxies”!
Galaxies are the largest entities in the universe – each can contain anywhere from [...]
Experience intense cosmic destruction from the safety of our Hansen Dome Theatre. Clark Planetarium’s newest feature, Violent Universe: Catastrophes of the Cosmos, is a sure fit for those who enjoy the splendid beauty of our cosmic surroundings paired with explosive sequences and epic destruction.
The most distant object observable with the unaided eye is visible in our current night time sky. It is the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, M31. There are many ways to find this object. I prefer to use the constellation Cassiopeia.
Cassiopeia was the Queen of Ethiopia. She is commonly depicted as a lady on a throne, [...]
Twenty-three years ago, on 23 February 1987 at 12:35 a.m. MST, detectors in the US, Japan and Russia observed a burst of 24 neutrinos. They came from a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. About 2 hours later, an experienced New Zealand amateur astronomer observed the area [...]
This week’s Cosmic Quiz winner is Carina Wytiaz, who asked,
I’ve heard that all galaxies have a black hole at the center. Does our galaxy have a black hole?
You heard correctly, Carina. Astronomers have found evidence that all galaxies in the universe, including our own Milky Way galaxy, have Supermassive Black Holes at their centers.
A [...]
This week’s Cosmic Quiz winner is Greg McMurray, who asked:
How fast is the Earth moving relative to everything else?
Let’s break it down.
The first motion of Earth that we’re all familiar with is rotation – the movement of the Earth that gives us day and night. Here in Salt Lake City at about 40 degrees north [...]
This week’s KUTV Cosmic Quiz winner is Cameron Porcaro. Cameron’s question was, “How far away is the nearest star to our solar system?”
Fun question!
How many stars are in our solar system? If you answered hundreds of billions, you are not alone. That is the most common answer I hear. The correct answer is…one. The Sun is the only star in the solar system. This illustrates a widespread confusion over the meaning of three astronomical terms, solar system, galaxy [...]
This week’s winner of the Clark Planetarium, KUTV-2 Cosmic Quiz is Zachary Griffin. He wants to know, “What is the farthest known galaxy?”
There are several galaxies that are good candidates for the farthest-known galaxy, but what they all have in common is they’re roughly 13 billion light years distant. That means that when astronomers see [...]
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