October 2018 – Astronomy Now

Scientists say observations confirm black hole at Milky Way’s core

31 October 2018 Astronomy Now

New Observations of infrared flares at the heart of the Milky Way confirm the presence of a 4-million-solar-mass black hole lurking in the dust-shrouded core of Earth’s galaxy, scientists say.

Planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft out of fuel, ending mission

30 October 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s exoplanet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has final run out of fuel, forcing its retirement after an extended 9.5-year mission that saw the discovery of 2,681 confirmed planets to date and 2,899 more candidates.

Aurora provides spectacle, and Insight photography award

30 October 2018 Astronomy Now

France’s Nicolas Lefaudeux won top honours in the 2018 Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition’s aurorae category with this view of a gossemar-like auroral band above Sirkka, Finland, a view that lasted about one minute and gave the impression of speeding toward a greenish horizon.

Parker probe now closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft

30 October 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is now closer to the Sun than any spacecraft ever built as it moves in for the first of seven dips into the star’s outer atmosphere, or corona, for unprecedented close-range observations.

IAU recommends renaming Hubble’s law to include Lemaître

29 October 2018 Astronomy Now

The International Astronomical Union has voted to recommend renaming Hubble’s law to the Hubble-Lemaître law to honour the cosmological contributions of Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaitre.

An X-ray ‘cold front’ in Perseus galaxy cluster

29 October 2018 Astronomy Now

A vast cloud of gas being pulled away from the centre of the ancient Perseus galaxy cluster spans an arc stretching some two million light years in an ongoing phenomenon that began five billion years ago.

A dust-strewn starscape wins Insight photography award

28 October 2018 Astronomy Now

Italian photographer Mario Cogo captured this view of the Corona Australis dust complex with a six-hour exposure under a dark sky in Namibia, winning first place in the “Stars and Nebulae” category of the 2018 Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

It looks like volcanic activity on Mars – but it’s not

27 October 2018 Astronomy Now

A long cloud streaming away from a martian volcano gives the appearance of volcanic activity, but scientists say it’s actually a cloud caused by wind moving past the volcano’s leeward side, a familiar phenomenon on the red planet.

A swarm of robots assembled to detect effects of dark energy

27 October 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers, engineers and students are busy building a complex instrument that will be used with the 4-metre Mayall Telescope to probe the nature of dark energy by collecting the spectra of millions of galaxies.

A mesmerising – and award winning – image of the Sun in eclipse

26 October 2018 Astronomy Now

French photographer Nicolas Lefaudeux captured this remarkable view of the August 2017 solar eclipse from Unity, Oregon, showing the mesmerising streamers of the Sun’s corona extending outward more than 30 solar radii. The photo won first prize in the “Our Sun” category of the 2018 Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.