April 2018 – Page 3 – Astronomy Now

Globular clusters may host multiple generations of black hole mergers

10 April 2018 Astronomy Now

Dense star clusters may serve as breeding grounds for successive generations of black hole mergers, resulting in gargantuan holes, generating gravitational waves that researchers hope to detect.

Super-cooled SQUIDs may help detect elusive dark matter

10 April 2018 Astronomy Now

Super-cooled quantum detectors have demonstrated the sensitivity needed to detect telltale microwave photons from dark matter axions, if they exist, kicking off the latest high-tech hunt for the elusive particles.

Astronomers locate isolated neutron star beyond our galaxy

9 April 2018 Astronomy Now

New images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and other telescopes reveal a rich landscape of stars and glowing clouds of gas in one of our closest neighbouring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud. The pictures have allowed astronomers to identify an elusive stellar corpse buried among filaments of gas left behind by a 2000-year-old supernova explosion.

Saturn’s clouds run deep, rings may rain organics

6 April 2018 Stephen Clark

Saturn’s clouds have roots deeper inside the planet’s atmosphere than scientists previously thought, and Saturn’s rings — now believed to have formed in the last 200 million years — appear to be raining organic molecules down on the planet, according to observations made by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft last year in the final weeks of its mission.

Hubble uncovers the farthest star ever seen

5 April 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope were able to pinpoint a faraway star more than halfway across the Universe and set a new distance record.

Rare metals on Mars and Earth implicate colossal impacts

4 April 2018 Astronomy Now

New research has revealed that a giant impact on Mars more than four billion years ago would explain the unusual amount of “iron loving” elements in the Red Planet.

Comet provides rare chance to study Solar System’s origins

4 April 2018 Astronomy Now

More samples of comets are urgently required to better understand the early history of the Solar System, say researchers analyzing comet dust brought back to Earth by NASA’s Stardust mission in 2006.

Taking a shine to Enceladus

3 April 2018 Astronomy Now

Saturn’s rings cast shadows on the planet’s cloud tops, providing a perfect backdrop for the brilliant sphere of the moon Enceladus in this image taken by NASA’s Cassini probe.

Martian moons appear in motion

1 April 2018 Astronomy Now

The Martian moons Phobos and Deimos appear to be in motion in this animation created from 19 images taken by NASA’s orbiting Mars Odyssey probe.