Posts by

Andy Briggs

What are red giants?

What are red giants? Most main-sequence stars, like our sun, will become one. Red giants swell to such a large size they can swallow their inner planets.

Andy Briggs

September 17, 2021

What is a magnetar?

Magnetic magnetars Can you imagine a magnet so powerful that it could wipe every credit card on Earth from a...

Andy Briggs

June 13, 2021

Why does a variable star brighten and dim?

A variable star is one that brightens and dim in a cycle that might last hours, or weeks, or months, or longer. What makes a star change its brightness?

Andy Briggs

June 6, 2021

What is a quasar?

A quasar is an extremely bright and distant point-like source visible to radio telescopes. The source is a so-called Active Galactic Nucleus, fueled by a supermassive black hole.

Andy Briggs

February 28, 2021

What is the Milky Way?

When someone says "Milky Way," do you think of the starry pathway across our sky, or of the great pinwheel-shaped galaxy in space? Both are correct!

Andy Briggs

February 16, 2021

What is a supernova?

A supernova is a star's colossal explosion at the end of its life, potentially outshining its entire galaxy. Read about the causes and types of supernovae here.

Andy Briggs

November 12, 2020

What is a galaxy?

We live in a galaxy called the Milky Way. But there is so much more to know about these grand and glorious star islands in space! Click in here, and prepare to have your mind expanded.

Andy Briggs

September 25, 2020

Unlike the open star clusters - containing sibling stars, scattered through the disk of our galaxy and presumably other galaxies - globular clusters are big, symmetrical and old, like an earthly city's oldest and most staid citizens.

Andy Briggs

August 9, 2020

What is the Big Bang?

In the view of modern cosmologists, the Big Bang is the event that marked the birth of our universe.

Andy Briggs

June 11, 2020

What’s a constellation? What’s an asterism?

Both constellations and asterisms are patterns of stars. What's the difference?

Andy Briggs

May 5, 2020

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Andy Briggs

Andy Briggs has spent the past 30 years communicating astronomy, astrophysics and information technology to people. You can hear his weekly astronomy and space news update, on Mondays, on the global internet radio channel AstroRadio (http://www.astroradio.earth), where he also contributes to other programmes. He has been active in many astronomy societies in the UK and is a frequent contributor to Astronomy Ireland magazine. Andy also lectures regularly on astrophysics-related themes such as gravitational waves and black holes. He lives in Catalonia, Spain, with his daughter.