September 2016 – Page 5

South by Phil Hart

13 September 2016 Astronomy Now

The Southern Cross constellation of the Milky Way, visible in the southern sky creates a guiding light along Bucklands Lane in Central Goldfields Shire, Victoria, Australia.

Astronomers observe star reborn in a flash within the Stingray Nebula

13 September 2016 Astronomy Now

An international team of astronomers has been able to study stellar evolution in real time. Over a period of 30 years, dramatic increases in the temperature of the star SAO 244567 have been observed. Now the star is cooling again, having been reborn into an earlier phase of stellar evolution.

Barely bisected rings

13 September 2016 Astronomy Now

Saturn’s shadow stretched beyond the edge of its rings for many years after the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft first arrived at Saturn, casting an ever-lengthening shadow that reached its maximum extent at the planet’s 2009 equinox. This image captured the moment in 2015 when the shrinking shadow just barely reached across the entire main ring system.

Discovery nearly doubles known quasars from the ancient universe

12 September 2016 Astronomy Now

Quasars are supermassive black holes that sit at the centre of enormous galaxies, accreting matter. They shine so brightly that they are among the most distant objects in the universe that we can currently study. New work from a team led by Carnegie’s Eduardo Bañados has discovered 63 new quasars from when the universe was just 7 percent of its present age.

Monster lurks at the core of a lenticular galaxy

12 September 2016 Astronomy Now

This scene captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows PGC 83677, a lenticular galaxy — a galaxy type that sits between the more familiar elliptical and spiral varieties in the Hubble sequence. Studies have uncovered signs of a monstrous black hole in the core of PGC 83677 that is spewing out high-energy X-rays and ultraviolet light.

Alone by Lee Cook

10 September 2016 Astronomy Now

With temperatures close to –15 degrees, it’s not surprising that the photographer was the only soul in the vicinity of Plateau Hut in Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand. This image is one of those shortlisted in the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

The space station under Venus and the Moon by Philippe Jacquot

9 September 2016 Astronomy Now

Taken from atop the Semnoz Mountain, the International Space Station arcs over the city of Annecy, France, as Venus and the Moon loom overhead.

OSIRIS-REx probe launched to asteroid in compelling search for the origins of life

9 September 2016 Justin Ray

Like reaching back in time to examine the conditions that existed in the ancient solar system, NASA has launched a robotic probe to visit Asteroid Bennu and return an unspoiled sample of the primitive body that may hold the seeds of life.

Young magnetar likely slowest pulsar ever detected

9 September 2016 Astronomy Now

Using X-ray observatories, astronomers have found evidence for what is likely one of the most extreme pulsars, or rotating neutron stars, ever detected. The source exhibits properties of a highly magnetised neutron star, or magnetar, yet its deduced spin period of 6⅔ hours is thousands of times longer than any pulsar ever observed.

Antarctic Space Station by Richard Inman

8 September 2016 Astronomy Now

A view of the Halley 6 Research Station situated on the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica, which is believed to be the closest thing you can get to living in space without leaving Earth, making it perfect to be used for research by the European Space Agency.