September 2019 – Astronomy Now

ALMA provides a fresh look at a cosmic jellyfish

30 September 2019 Astronomy Now

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array captures the glowing tentacle-like tail of molecular debris streaming away in the wake of a spiral galaxy as it plows through the gas permeating an enormous galactic cluster.

Astronomers spot three supermassive black holes on collision course

30 September 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using X-ray, optical and infrared telescopes have spotted three galaxies – hosting three supermassive black holes – in the process of merging.

View the International Space Station at its best from the UK

28 September 2019 Ade Ashford

If you have never seen the International Space Station (ISS), make the most of clear skies over the next few nights. It’s capable of exceeding Venus at its brightest and visible for up to 7 minutes as it crawls across the sky in an arc from west to east. Find out when and where to see some favourable passes of this 420-tonne, 109-metre-wide spacecraft over the British Isles and Western Europe.

Into the Shadow

28 September 2019 Astronomy Now

Hungarian photographer László Francsics’ composite image of a total lunar eclipse was declared winner of the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2019 and is now on display at a special exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

New computer simulation brings black holes to life

26 September 2019 William Harwood

A new computer simulation shows how a black hole’s titanic gravity warps space and bends the light emitted by super-heated debris in a surrounding accretion disc.

Watch Comet Africano (C/2018 W2) pass closest to Earth in late September

23 September 2019 Ade Ashford

At around magnitude +9, C/201 W2 (Africano) is the brightest comet currently on show, passing closest to Earth on 27 September slightly less than half an astronomical unit away. Speeding through the constellations of Pegasus, Pisces and Aquarius, Comet Africano also lies within a binocular field of view of outermost planet Neptune on the night of 3–4 October.

Month: September 2019

ALMA provides a fresh look at a cosmic jellyfish

Astronomers spot three supermassive black holes on collision course

View the International Space Station at its best from the UK

Into the Shadow

New computer simulation brings black holes to life

Watch Comet Africano (C/2018 W2) pass closest to Earth in late September

Colourful clouds of star-forming gas and dust host stellar nurseries

Study shows Venus may have once enjoyed a temperate climate

Bouncing boulders and collapsing cliffs on comet 67P

Caught in the act: galaxies turning into quasars