Alan Duffy

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Dramatic, but not apocalyptic. Stanimir G Stoev

Fact over fiction on the ‘apocalyptic’ super blood moon

Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology

A rare super blood moon visible from parts of the Earth this month will delight those people lucky enough to see it. But why has this marvel of the solar system got some people so worried?
Dark matter is notoriously hard to detect, but a new experiment might finally shed light on this mysterious substance. Dirk Dallas/Flickr

How we plan to bring dark matter to light

Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology and Elisabetta Barberio, The University of Melbourne

A new detector built deep underground in a gold mine will hopefully unravel the mystery of dark matter.
Hubble fireworks.

Hubble in pictures: astronomers’ top picks

Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute; Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology; Chris Tinney, UNSW ; Fred Watson, Australian Astronomical Observatory; Geraint Lewis, University of Sydney; Howard E Bond, Penn State; James Bullock, University of California, Irvine; Jane Charlton, Penn State; John Clarke, Boston University; Kim-Vy Tran, Texas A&M University; Lucas Macri, Texas A&M University; Michael Drinkwater, The University of Queensland; Michael J. I. Brown, Monash University; Mike Eracleous, Penn State; Philip Kaaret, University of Iowa; Rachel Webster, The University of Melbourne; Roberto Soria, Curtin University, and William Kurth, University of Iowa

Astronomers from around the world identify their favourite images sent back to Earth by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Looking for dark matter in the galaxy collisions such as in Abell 2744, dubbed Pandora’s Cluster. X-ray: NASA/CXC/ITA/INAF/J.Merten et al, Lensing: NASA/STScI; NAOJ/Subaru; ESO/VLT, Optical: NASA/STScI/R.Dupke

Shedding new light on the search for the ‘invisible’ dark matter

Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology and Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology

Scientists know so much about dark matter apart from what it is exactly. But are they getting any closer?
New data reveals no evidence of gravitational waves in the early universe, as observed by the BICEP2 radio telescope (pictured) near the South Pole. teffen Richter, Harvard University

Gravitational wave discovery still clouded by galactic dust

Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology and Krzysztof Bolejko, University of Sydney

One of this century’s greatest potential discoveries concerning the origins of the universe has now fallen to galactic dust. That’s according to a new joint-analysis of all the existing data – including…
Get your telescopes ready for a rare close encounter with an asteroid this Australia Day. Flickr/Ryan Wick

Giant asteroid makes its closest pass of Earth on Australia Day

Bryonie Scott, The Conversation

Clear skies this Australia Day could give observers a rare look at a giant asteroid flying past Earth at 56,000kmh. The asteroid, known as 2004 BL86, will not return to Earth for around another 200 years…
There’s a lot of dust between us and the edge of the universe. H Raab/Flickr

Has dust clouded the discovery of gravitational waves?

Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology and Krzysztof Bolejko, University of Sydney

It’s almost three months since a team of scientists announced it had detected polarised light from the afterglow of the Big Bang. But questions are still being asked about whether cosmic dust may have…
The origin of today’s burst of energy has astronomers puzzled. AP Photographie /Flickr

Heavens above! What made the cosmic flash that lit Earth today?

Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology

A titanic eruption in our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, has sent shockwaves through the astronomical community here on Earth. NASA’s Swift satellite detected a flood of gamma rays at 21:15 UTC yesterday…
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was much bigger when photographed by Voyager back in 1979. NASA

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot could disappear in a generation

Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology

NASA revealed today that the iconic Great Red Spot on Jupiter has shrunk to its smallest size ever – and astronomers have no idea why. The Great Red Spot is a giant anticyclone storm that has been raging…
Graduate student Justus Brevik testing the BICEP2 used to find evidence of cosmic inflation nearly 14 billion years ago. EPA/Steffen Richter/Harvard University

First hints of gravitational waves in the Big Bang’s afterglow

Krzysztof Bolejko, University of Sydney and Alan Duffy, The University of Melbourne

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in the US have announced overnight what they believe is the indirect detection of gravitational waves in the afterglow of the Big Bang. The…
The main mass of the Chelyabinsk meteorite is kept at the Chelyabinsk State Museum of Local History. The asteroid caused the largest airburst on the planet since the famed 1908 Tunguska event, which also occurred in Russia. Andrey Yarantsev

Chelyabinsk meteor explosion a ‘wake‑up call’, scientists warn

Shireen Chan, The Conversation

Three studies have revealed details of the meteor that exploded above Russian city, Chelyabinsk, in February this year. Their findings, published today in a pair of papers in Nature and one in Science…
It sounds like sci-fi, but Earth could be in an asteroid’s path. Now the UN is doing something about it. Russ Seidel

Best way to stop a killer asteroid? Form a committee

Alan Duffy, The University of Melbourne

The United Nations (UN) has adopted several recommendations of a new asteroid defence plan, the first steps in preventing Earth from being struck by an asteroid. The recommendations were a response to…
Brace yourself for the most super supermoon of 2013 this weekend - but how exactly does the moon appear to change size? Marianne Klock

Check out the year’s biggest and brightest moon on Sunday night

Alan Duffy, The University of Melbourne

This Sunday night, June 23, at precisely 9.33pm AEST, the full moon becomes a “supermoon” – an especially bright full moon. This extra brightness occurs because the moon is closer to Earth than normal…

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