Armagh Observatory
February 2004
Earth sows its seeds in space
The Earth could be scattering the seeds of life throughout our galaxy. Microbes could ride on specks of dust, powered by the sun's rays, says William Napier, an astronomer at Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
November 1999
Heavenly hopes of a light fantastic
The Leonids, enigmatic visitors from outer space, will arrive after midnight on Thursday, slamming into the Earth's atmosphere at 158,000 mph - 40 times the speed of a bullet - and burn up. If astronomers' predictions are right, the shooting stars could light up the heavens at the rate of 20 a minute.