Eta carinae, wow!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...esides-our-own

The BBC's science site is excellent and is one of my favourites.

Various astronomy stories that may be of interest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z9rkv4j

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...rse-180959572/

http://phys.org/news/2016-06-team-mo...iper-belt.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...ife-180959583/

Is Satan watching you?

http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.c...85_upscale.jpg

This is a very a good site for anybody interested in astronomy and space travel.

http://www.space.com/

Jupiter lights up:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2...rs-north-pole/

Ten things you might find interesting about jupiter.

http://www.seeker.com/top-10-things-...897301620.html

I love that they called the space probe Juno - why? Because in Roman Mythology, Juno could peer through Jupiter's clouds. Absolutely beautiful.

Yes it's the perfect name.

At the moment there are so many stories and links around on Juno that I have not even bothered to post them.

But here is just one that I enjoyed reading today.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...galileo-space/

The Smithsonian is doing a good job of keeping everyone up to speed on Juno.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...ace-180958410/

http://www.airspacemag.com/space/rea...6b68643&no-ist

Mind boggling!

http://phys.org/news/2016-07-newly-planet-suns.html

An excellent article on the Tunguska explosion.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...out-of-nowhere

The Rosetta probe what has it discovered?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zskknbk

Another article on the new exoplanet discovery along with an actual image of the mysterious world - over 300 light years away!

http://www.seeker.com/bizarre-alien-...908963242.html

https://assets.rbl.ms/6783731/980x.jpg

^^ Love the way they put it in the seeker.com article:

"the discovery has sent orbital dynamics experts into a spin."

I imagine it would be very much harder for life to develop and survive in a system like that, than in a nice stable orbit around a single star.

A reminder that the Sky at Night programme about Juno starts at 8:30.

Was just about to post the same thing.

I'll just add that it's on BBC Four. Or if you prefer you can watch it on iPlayer.

It used to be thought that Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, were captured asteroids not least because Mars is near the asteroid belt.

However, there's a new theory based upon a collision early on in Mars' history:

For years astronomers have been trying to determine the origin of Mars’ moons, Phobos and Deimos. The long standing argument that they were captured asteroids may fall by the wayside in lieu of a new theory.

New! Pluto’s largest moon may have once had an ocean

More New!! Astronomers discover distant dwarf planet beyond Neptune. Currently designated 2015 RR245, the giant ball of ice and rock lies nine billion kilometres away in the the most distant reaches of the solar system (Note: it's not the the discovery of the Planet Nine hugeness but an icy rocklet)

Good stuff.

Some nice stories from National Geographic.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...pace-pictures/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...jupiter-image/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...space-science/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...pace-pictures/

Still think the gather small pieces of dust theory still stands.

It's about time we had a Planet Nine update:

A jealous Planet Nine may have shoved its siblings for attention. If a massive ninth planet exists in our solar system, it might explain why the planets are out of line with the sun. The eight major planets still circle the sun in the original plane of their birth. The sun rotates on its own axis, but surprisingly, that spin is tilted: the axis lies at an angle of 6 degrees relative to a line perpendicular to the plane of the planets.

And now it's galaxy time:

The drizzle of stars scattered across this image forms a galaxy known as UGC 4879. UGC 4879 is an irregular dwarf galaxy — as the name suggests, galaxies of this type are a little smaller and messier than their cosmic cousins, lacking the majestic swirl of a spiral or the coherence of an elliptical. This galaxy is also very isolated. There are about 2.3 million light years between UGC 4879 and its closest neighbor, Leo A, which is about the same distance as that between the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.

...followed by a new take on a more familiar galaxy -----> http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...&postcount=265

One way to solve this question is to examine the composition of Phobos and Deimos in a few decades' time. If they resemble Mars' lithosphere in composition, then it's likely that they originated via the impact of a body with Mars but if they resemble other existing asteroids then the asteroid capture route is the more likely answer - we shall see.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the solar system:

Jupiter's Great Red Spot - a hurricane three times bigger than Earth - is blasting the planet's upper atmosphere with heat, astronomers have found. Using measurements from an infrared telescope in Hawaii, a UK and US team found evidence for temperatures as high as 1,500C - hundreds of degrees warmer than anywhere else on the planet.

Just a quick reminder - this site seems to update the latest astronomy stories the quickest.

http://phys.org/space-news/

I have a couple of lunar stories to report:

China's Jade Rabbit has bid its final farewell and shut down after 31 months exploring the Moon, far outliving its expected lifespan. Jade Rabbit arrived on the Moon in December 2013 in the Chang'e-3 space mission, and has been exploring the surface in search of natural resources.

Moon Express has become the first private firm to win US approval for an unmanned mission to the moon. The two-week mission was given the go-ahead by the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation.

Now off to Mars to read about a new development:

The findings showed no mineralogical evidence for abundant liquid water or its by-products, thus pointing to mechanisms other than the flow of water — such as the freeze and thaw of carbon dioxide frost — as being the major drivers of recent gully evolution.

Finally, I quite like this short video about the formation of the solar system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9uxjeVosfc

Thanks for those.

This is an excellent thread.

Not astronomy exactly - but the trailer for the re-release of arguably the greatest science-fiction film ever made.

Look at the utterly stunning visuals - and remember that this film is 48 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHjIqQBsPjk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2c_rSLXq6U

A nice BBC article on Pluto.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zqhmsg8