Mark McCaughrean<p>If you're so minded, you can take a listen to the interview I did with Valerie Sanderson on the BBC World Service about the new interstellar interloper, Comet 3I/ATLAS, & what it means for science & future missions like ESA's Comet Interceptor.</p><p>It starts at 13m18s into today's episode of The Newsroom:</p><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172zwl4vgrjpv5" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172zwl4</span><span class="invisible">vgrjpv5</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/SpaceScience" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SpaceScience</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a></p>
#spacescience
1 post1 participant0 posts today
Who doesn't love space? It captures our imaginations and makes us wonder if we are truly alone.
Join us for a fair of astronomical proportions at York University with the Allan I Carswell Observatory and our event partners. A single ticket will get you entry to booths, activities, telescopes, and the Astronomy in Action Planetarium.
This exciting event is running as a FIRST CLEAR DAY event as it will be outdoors and under the open air between June 24 - July 4. The event will happen only once on the first clear day, and all ticket holders will see a go or no-go update (depending on the weather) both on the event website and via their registration email by 9am each day.
We are excited to welcome you to walk through the solar system, investigate sundials, and interact with both science and games in this event. All areas are suitable for ages 5 and up, but younger children should be accompanied by an adult.
For tickets and information see: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/
Curious about what makes Astro Fair so special? Check out our spotlight in YFile!
https://www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/06/18/open-air-astro-fair-fosters-learning-local-support-for-york-u-observatory/
#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
Join us for a fair of astronomical proportions at York University with the Allan I Carswell Observatory and our event partners. A single ticket will get you entry to booths, activities, telescopes, and the Astronomy in Action Planetarium.
This exciting event is running as a FIRST CLEAR DAY event as it will be outdoors and under the open air between June 24 - July 4. The event will happen only once on the first clear day, and all ticket holders will see a go or no-go update (depending on the weather) both on the event website and via their registration email by 9am each day.
We are excited to welcome you to walk through the solar system, investigate sundials, and interact with both science and games in this event. All areas are suitable for ages 5 and up, but younger children should be accompanied by an adult.
For tickets and information see: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair/
Curious about what makes Astro Fair so special? Check out our spotlight in YFile!
https://www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/06/18/open-air-astro-fair-fosters-learning-local-support-for-york-u-observatory/
#AstroFair #AstronomyEvent #FamilyFun #ScienceFestival #YorkU #AllanICarswellObservatory #Stargazing #SolarViewing #Sunspots #Planetarium #HandsOnScience #ScienceOutreach #STEMEducation #TorontoEvents #ThingsToDoToronto #SpaceScience #AstronomyForEveryone #ObservatoryEvents #ClearSkies #TelescopeViews #ExploreTheUniverse #AstronomerLife #YorkUObservatory #AICO
“So, hands up who thinks Mark’s new book is groovy?” 
Thank you very much to ESA Director General, Josef Aschbacher, for his enthusiastic endorsement of “111 Places in Space You Must Not Miss” at the Paris Air Show today, publication day 
(Truth be told, he was actually speaking after my talk & asking which of the kids in the audience would like to be an astronaut, but the picture taken by Karen O’Flaherty was too perfect not to use 
)
Gone but not forgotten 
On behalf of XMM-Newton, Rosetta, Herschel, Planck, BepiColombo, JWST, & JUICE, thanks for the ride to space, #Ariane5 
As seen at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget today.
Just passing through Mannheim, to connect to the TGV direct to Paris 
Will be going out to Le Bourget tomorrow to give a talk at the Paris Air Show.
It’s supposed to cover the science highlights from the roughly fifty space science missions ESA has built and/or collaborated on over the Agency’s half century history 
All in twenty five minutes 
Just two days now until my book, "111 Places in Space You Must Not Miss" is published in Europe 
As you might have guessed, there are 111 mini-chapters, each comprising around 350 words of text & a full-page image describing somewhere interesting in space 
Here are all 111 of those images ... well, at least a central 20 pixel wide strip of each one
Europe: 19 Jun
UK: 21 Jul
US: 2 Sep
Available from all the usual places and:
https://emons-verlag.de/p/111-places-in-space-that-you-must-not-miss-7517
The International Space Science Institute in Bern is looking for a director. Can recommend as a really nice institute hosting good meetings in a beautiful city.
International Space Science InstituteJob Opportunities | International Space Science InstituteJob Opportunities at ISSI. Come join our small team in a vibrant place supporting space science and scientists.
Millions of degrees hot off the press – first results from ESA's PROBA-3 mission, using two spacecraft separated by 150 metres to create artificial solar eclipses.
This makes it possible to trace the solar corona close to the surface of the Sun on a routine basis, not just during actual eclipses.
Congratulations to the PROBA-3 team 
Image taken on 23 May 2025:
Inner yellow: PROBA-2 SWAP
Middle green: PROBA-3 ASPIICS
Outer red: SOHO LASCO C2
Apropos space missions studying the Sun's poles, here's a little something from 6 October 1990.
The deployment of the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission from space shuttle Discovery as part of STS-41.
The spacecraft is at top left of the IUS/PAM-S combo, which powered it towards Jupiter.
There it used a big gravity assist to get out of the ecliptic & orbit over the north & south poles of the Sun.
My slight reprocessing of this JPG scan of the film original: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/22587754
Currently doing battle with a truculent million year old baby protostar below the belt of Orion, moving behind clouds some eighty million au away 
As a brief distraction, here’s a several billion year old grown-up star just one au away, playing with the water and ice in the atmosphere of one of its planets 
