June 2015 – Page 3 – Astronomy Now

Brightest early galaxy likely to contain first generation stars discovered

18 June 2015 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using the several of the largest telescopes on Earth and in space have discovered CR7, a galaxy three times brighter than the brightest distant galaxy in the early universe known up to now. The scientists also found strong evidence that examples of the first generation of stars lurk within it.

A globular cluster where stars collide

17 June 2015 Astronomy Now

Using the advanced adaptive optics system GeMS, on the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have imaged a beautiful stellar jewel-box — a tightly packed cluster of stars that is one of the few places in our galaxy where astronomers think stars can actually collide.

Engineers seek to stabilise radio link with comet lander

16 June 2015 Stephen Clark

Emboldened by renewed contact with Europe’s comet lander, engineers are repositioning the mission’s Rosetta mothership this week to establish a reliable a communications link with the dishwasher-sized Philae landing craft, a prerequisite for resuming a science campaign abbreviated by a power shortfall last year.

New study favours cold, icy — not warm, wet — early Mars

16 June 2015 Astronomy Now

The high seas of Mars may never have existed, according to a new study that looks at two opposite climate scenarios of early Mars and suggests that a cold and icy planet billions of years ago better explains water drainage and erosion features seen on the planet today.

See Earth-crossing asteroid Icarus in closest approach for 75 years

15 June 2015 Ade Ashford

For over half a century, Apollo asteroid 1566 Icarus held the record for the minor planet that passed closest to the Sun. From 16th-22nd June you can see this one-kilometre-wide space rock in backyard telescopes as it makes its closest pass to our planet until 2090.

Europe’s Philae comet lander phones home

14 June 2015 Astronomy Now

The European Space Agency reports it has received signals from the Philae lander on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

NGC 6503: a lone galaxy lost in space

14 June 2015 Astronomy Now

Most galaxies are clumped together in groups or clusters. A neighbouring galaxy is never far away. But this galaxy, known as NGC 6503, has found itself in a lonely position, at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void.

Hubble detects ‘sunscreen’ layer on distant exoplanet

13 June 2015 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected a stratosphere, one of the primary layers of Earth’s atmosphere, on a massive and blazing-hot exoplanet known as WASP-33b orbiting a star in Andromeda 380 light-years away.

The origins of an emerging bipolar planetary nebula revealed

12 June 2015 Kerry Hebden

Astronomers have for the first time captured what appears to be the moment when a red giant star evolves into a stunning butterfly-like planetary nebula, using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).

Helium-shrouded planets may be common in our Galaxy

12 June 2015 Astronomy Now

Planets having atmospheres rich in helium may be common in our Galaxy, according to a new theory based on data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. These planets would be around the mass of Neptune, or lighter, and would orbit close to their stars, basking in their searing heat.