2020 – Page 15 – Astronomy Now

Hubble at 30: A cosmic legacy

24 April 2020 Keith Cooper

Amid flame and smoke, the Hubble Space Telescope blasted off the launch pad aboard the space shuttle Discovery 30 years ago today, ushering in a new era for astronomy that has transformed our understanding of the Universe around us.

Patrick Moore reports on the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope

24 April 2020 Astronomy Now

In the June 1990 issue of Astronomy Now, Patrick Moore reported on the launch of the space shuttle Discovery which carried into orbit the long-awaited Hubble Space Telescope.

Now you see it, now you don’t: The case of the vanishing exoplanet

21 April 2020 Astronomy Now

A presumed exoplanet orbiting the star Fomalhaut now appears to have been a dissipating cloud of debris in the aftermath of a collision between two asteroids.

Beginners’ astronomy: how to see the Lyrid meteor shower

20 April 2020 Keith Cooper

If you’ve never seen a meteor shower, then with no work or school for many people in the morning thanks to the continuing COVID-19 lockdown, the Lyrids are a great opportunity to stay up late and witness nature’s own fireworks.

How do you give ESO’s Very Large Telescope an eye exam? Very, very carefully.

19 April 2020 William Harwood

Cleaning the four 8.2-metre mirrors used by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope complex requires high technology and great care to keep the optical systems free of contamination or any other defects.

Earth-size habitable-zone planet found in archived Kepler data

19 April 2020 Astronomy Now

Researchers taking a second look at archived Kepler data find a mislabled Earth-size exoplanet in a red dwarf’s habitable zone.

Beginners’ astronomy: That bright light you can see in the western sky? That’s Venus

17 April 2020 Keith Cooper

During the warm evenings and clear skies of recent weeks, you may have noticed a brilliant, shining beacon towards the west, far brighter than anything else in the night sky other than the Moon. That’s the planet Venus.

Star’s orbit around black hole more proof Einstein was right

16 April 2020 Astronomy Now

After decades of observation, researchers confirm the orbit of a star in close orbit around the Milky Way’s central black hole obeys Einstein’s predictions.

Observations show shock waves likely key to nova’s brightness

15 April 2020 Astronomy Now

Observations indicate the visible brightness of a nova is driven by gamma ray emissions from shockwaves in the post-explosion environment.

’Oumuamua was a unique object. Now astronomers think there could be trillions just like it

14 April 2020 Keith Cooper

The mysterious interstellar object 1I/‘Oumuamua, and trillions of others like it, could have formed when its parent body was pulled apart by gravitational tides from a star, resulting in elongated shards being ejected into interstellar space.