2015 – Page 60 – Astronomy Now

The seasons of the Sun

8 April 2015 Astronomy Now

A team of researchers has determined that the Sun undergoes a type of seasonal variability with its activity waxing and waning over the course of nearly two years. This behaviour affects the approximately 11-year solar cycle, sometimes amplifying solar storms that can buffet Earth’s atmosphere.

Dawn spacecraft prepares to image dwarf planet Ceres in detail

7 April 2015 Astronomy Now

One month after its capture into orbit around Ceres, NASA engineers working on the Dawn mission state that the spacecraft is performing flawlessly and about to start capturing optical navigation images on April 10th.

Venus meets the Pleiades in the evening sky

6 April 2015 Ade Ashford

Currently unmistakable as a brilliant ‘evening star’ over to west at dusk, planet Venus treks through the constellation of Taurus starting April 7th, leading to a close encounter with the Pleiades star cluster on the 11th.

Rosetta probe disoriented by comet dust

6 April 2015 Stephen Clark

Ground controllers are analyzing a fault aboard Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft after an encounter with comet dust confused the probe’s navigation system, leaving the robot explorer in a temporary safe mode and halting regular science operations.

Black holes may reveal what lies within

6 April 2015 Astronomy Now

The “information loss paradox” in black holes — a problem that has plagued physics for nearly 40 years, since Stephen Hawking first proposed that black holes could radiate energy and evaporate over time — may not exist, according to University at Buffalo scientists.

Celebrating Hubble: Mystic Mountain

5 April 2015 Astronomy Now

Looking like a Tolkienesque painting by John Howe or Alan Lee, this pillar of dust in the Carina Nebula (called the Mystic Mountain) is being assaulted from without and within.

Vixen Optics VSD 100/f3.8 ultra-fast astrograph

4 April 2015 Steve Ringwood

Astrophotographers seeking an ultra-fast refractor designed for exquisite digital Imaging may wish to consider this 100mm aperture, 5-element f/3.8 system from Vixen, appraised by Steve Ringwood.

Hubble finds phantom objects near dead quasars

4 April 2015 Astronomy Now

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a set of enigmatic quasar ghosts — ethereal, looped structures glowing green that orbit their host galaxies marking the graves of quasars that flickered to life and then faded. They offer new insights into the turbulent pasts of these galaxies.

The brief Australasian total lunar eclipse of April 4th-5th

3 April 2015 Ade Ashford

Fifteen days after its crucial rôle in the total solar eclipse of March 20th, its the Moon’s turn to shine — or, rather, fade — as it passes into the shadow of the Earth on Saturday, 4th March, producing a total lunar eclipse best seen from Australasia.

BBC Stargazing Live helped amateur astronomers find supernovae

3 April 2015 Astronomy Now

More than 40,000 amateur astronomers working on a supernova hunt run by the Zooniverse team based at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with BBC Stargazing Live, found five supernovae and catalogued two million unidentified heavenly bodies found by the SkyMapper telescope in Australia.