Astronomical Society of Victoria

26/08/2026

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐒𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟎 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫.
Look closely at one of the most famous photographs ever taken of Earth and you might struggle to find Earth at all.

There are no blue oceans. No continents. No clouds. Just darkness, scattered sunlight, and a tiny pale blue point almost lost within it.

That dot is us.

The photograph was taken 36 years ago on Valentine's Day by NASA's Voyager 1.

Voyager 1 was launched in 1977 to study Jupiter and Saturn. By 1990, NASA was preparing to switch off its cameras permanently to conserve the spacecraft's limited power.

But before the cameras went dark, there was one last idea.

Astronomer Carl Sagan, a member of the Voyager imaging team, had spent years arguing that the spacecraft should turn around and photograph the Solar System it was leaving behind.

Look closely at one of the most famous photographs ever taken of Earth and you might struggle to find Earth at all.

23/08/2026

Happy Monday Morning - Satellites Stealing Our Stars?

23/08/2026

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐱𝐲 𝐈𝐬 𝟏.𝟕 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭-𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞.
The Universe can pull some wild monkeyshines, especially when it comes to scale.

From giant black holes to massive sheet-like walls of galaxies, our reality is full of mind-boggling chonkers.

But a galaxy named IC 1101 is bonkers in a way that dramatically exceeds the upper end of normal.

Using the deepest observations yet of IC 1101, astronomers have made the strongest measurement to date of its physical extent, identifying the boundary of its main stellar body some 260 kiloparsecs from its centre.

That makes it around 1.7 million light-years across – which makes it, according to a team led by astrophysicist Carlos Marrero de la Rosa of Spain's Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, the largest galaxy known to date.

And the kicker? It's still growing.

The Universe can pull some wild monkeyshines, especially when it comes to scale.

22/08/2026

𝐀𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐲 '𝐦𝐞𝐠𝐚-𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡' 𝟐𝟑 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭.
Astronomers have discovered an unusually massive, dense exoplanet that challenges conventional ideas about how rocky planets form.

Called GJ 523b, the exoplanet is about 2.5 times wider than Earth but packs roughly 23 times our planet's mass into that relatively compact size. Worlds this large and dense are sometimes referred to as "mega-Earths," an informal term for unusually massive, predominantly rocky planets. GJ 523b's high density suggests it contains relatively little atmosphere despite being large enough that astronomers would normally expect it to have accumulated a substantial gaseous envelope, according to a statement from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

"This isn't what we expected at all."

21/08/2026

𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥.
Spend the next month getting to know the Moon. Set aside some time each day to look at the Moon, and record your observations in the provided log. You can continue your lunar observations through International Observe the Moon Night and beyond!

20/08/2026

𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐤𝐲 𝐖𝐚𝐲'𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐧.
Decades carefully tracking stars orbiting our galaxy’s central black hole, Sagittarius A*, have led to this breakthrough discovery of a very promising star. Because it orbits so close to Sagittarius A*, S301 opens a new window to the fundamental properties of spacetime in this extreme black-hole environment,” says Nobel Prize winner Reinhard Genzel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany, and founding member of the collaboration that made the new observations.
https://t.ly/75Xl2

19/08/2026

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡 𝐚 𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐫 𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬𝐞.
Want to photograph the partial lunar eclipse this month (28th August)? This guide has everything you need to capture this spectacle, from camera settings to equipment recommendations and beyond.

Want to photograph August's almost-blood moon but aren't sure where to start? We've got your covered with our in-depth guide.

16/08/2026

New Monday, new week, new goals, new start!

15/08/2026

𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭, 𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐲 𝐖𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭.
The standard cosmological model does an excellent job of explaining the Universe, but there are a few places where the numbers don't add up. That's led to several theories about dark forces working behind the scenes.

One of those theories attempts to explain the 'clumpiness' of dark matter.

Although its nature remains unknown, dark matter provides much of the gravitational scaffolding that helps galaxies and the larger cosmic web take shape.

But some observations hint that cosmic structure may be more strongly 'clumped' at later times than the standard cosmological model predicts.

Recent research has suggested there might be an extra force at play, in addition to gravity, that's drawing these clumps together: a hidden interaction acting only within the dark sector.

The standard cosmological model does an excellent job of explaining the Universe, but there are a few places where the numbers don't add up.

14/08/2026

'𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐔𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝': 𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐀 𝐑𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐙𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞.
When NASA's Perseverance rover used its laser to tease apart some pale rocks lying around in Jezero Crater in 2025, scientists did not expect anything out of the ordinary.

Little did they know what was in store.

The rocks contained something never before found on Mars – a mineral that, here on Earth, can constitute literal treasure.

The mineral was corundum, the crystalline material that forms rubies and sapphires. And there was even a whiff of chromium, which gives rubies their distinctive reddish-pinkish hues.

"Very unexpectedly," wrote a team led by geochemist Ann Ollila of Los Alamos National Laboratory in a conference abstract, "SuperCam's TRL analysis of three plagioclase-rich float rocks in the crater rim were found to exhibit clear signatures of chromium-bearing corundum."
https://t.ly/ykSC2