May 2015 – Page 5 – Astronomy Now

Lopsided star explosion holds the key to other supernova mysteries

8 May 2015 Astronomy Now

New observations of the remnant of supernova (SN) 1987A are confirming supercomputer model predictions made at Caltech that the deaths of stellar giants are lopsided affairs in which debris and the stars’ cores hurtle off in opposite directions.

Hubble finds giant halo around the Andromeda Galaxy

7 May 2015 Astronomy Now

Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the immense halo of gas enveloping the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest massive galactic neighbour, is about six times larger and 1,000 times more massive than previously measured.

Geochemical process on Saturn’s moon Enceladus linked to life’s origin

7 May 2015 Astronomy Now

Researchers have revealed the pH of water spewing from geyser-like plumes on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Their findings are an important step toward determining whether life could exist, or could have previously existed, on the sixth planet’s sixth-largest moon.

Exo-asteroid debris shows how water reached Earth

7 May 2015 Astronomy Now

New research strongly suggests that water delivery via asteroids or comets is likely taking place in many other planetary systems, adding further support to the possibility water can be delivered to Earth-like planets via such bodies to create a suitable environment for the formation of life.

NASA’s LRO moves closer to Moon’s mysterious South Pole

6 May 2015 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed a manoeuvre that lowered the spacecraft’s orbit to within 12 miles (20 kilometres) above areas near the Moon’s South Pole, the closest the spacecraft has ever been to the lunar surface.

Pearls of the Southern Skies

5 May 2015 Astronomy Now

Have you encountered the ‘War and Peace Nebula’, the ‘Furious Dancer Galaxy’ or the ‘Carina Smile Nebula’? These objects and a wealth of Southern Hemisphere deep-sky treasures feature in this well-written landscape-format coffee table book, says Nik Szymanek.

Astronomers set a new galaxy distance record

5 May 2015 Astronomy Now

An international team of astronomers has pushed back the cosmic frontier of galaxy exploration to a time when the universe was only 5 percent of its present age with the discovery of an exceptionally luminous galaxy more than 13 billion light-years from Earth. The galaxy existed so long ago, it appears to be only 100 million years old.

Hubble’s Universe

5 May 2015 Owen Brazell

Rather than choosing to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope’s silver anniversary with another coffee table book of iconic images, author Terence Dickinson offers his own take on the orbiting observatory’s top discoveries, says Owen Brazell.

The Science of Interstellar

5 May 2015 Keith Cooper

It is not often that a major Hollywood science fiction film uses hard science as one of its primary drivers. In Interstellar, this is thanks primarily to the involvement of Professor Kip Thorne of Caltech, writes reviewer Keith Cooper.

First evidence of volcanic activity on a super-Earth?

5 May 2015 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have detected wildly changing temperatures on a super-Earth — the first time any atmospheric variability has been observed on a rocky planet outside the Solar System — and believe it could be due to huge amounts of volcanic activity, further adding to the mystery of what had been nicknamed the ‘diamond planet.’