The Earth is the jewel of the Solar System, the only world orbiting the sun that is teeming with life. This comes as no surprise when you examine the nature of life. All life on Earth, from microbes to human beings, is based on the carbon atom. It is difficult to...
Matariki, which means ‘Little Eyes’, is a cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades and the Seven Sisters. On a clear dark night you can see, with good eyesight, about seven stars. However, these are just the brighter members of a cluster of more than 1,000 stars....
The most brilliant region of the Milky Way comes directly overhead on a winter’s evening. Looking up you will notice that there is a dark, almost black rift running along the centre of the brightest region. Today we know that this dark rift is formed by vast clouds of...
The Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, is the brightest and most celebrated cluster of stars in the sky. The cluster contains more than 400 stars but only six are easily seen with the unaided eye. The individual cluster stars are not particularly bright, but...
For most of human history there was no such thing as the ‘written word’. Knowledge was passed from generation to generation in story form… because we can all remember a good story. Many of these stories are still around today. Trouble is that the vast majority of...
Early evening, looking to the south, you will see two glowing clouds of light that look like detached portions of the Milky Way. These are the Clouds of Magellan, two external galaxies that are satellites of the Milky Way. The Large Cloud is 169,000 light-years away...
