2020 – Page 21 – Astronomy Now

Mars 2020 rover moved to Cape Canaveral for July launch preparations

14 February 2020 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, designed to collect soil samples for eventual return to Earth, is now in Cape Canaveral for final launch preparations.

NASA evaluates four ‘concept studies’ for possible planetary missions

13 February 2020 Astronomy Now

NASA has selected four possible planetary science missions for further evaluation, two focused on Venus, one on volcanic Io and one on icy Triton.

Voyager 1’s famous look back at Earth – a ‘pale blue dot’ – 30 years later

13 February 2020 Astronomy Now

NASA releases a reprocessed version of the iconic “pale blue dot” portrait of Earth as imaged by the Voyager 1 probe in 1990.

Hubble captures captivating view of spiral galaxy’s picturesque ‘open arms’

12 February 2020 Astronomy Now

Spiral galaxies make up nearly three quarters of all known galaxies, some with tightly wound arms and other, like NGC 2008, with more wide-open arms wrapped around a compact central bulge.

IAU offers provisional details of threat due to satellite constellations

12 February 2020 Astronomy Now

The International Astronomical Union raises more red flags about the possible impact of large satellite constellations on Earth-based astronomy.

Solar Orbiter launched, promises first looks at sun’s hidden poles

11 February 2020 Astronomy Now

ESA’s Solar Orbiter begins its mission to study the Sun from a unique vantage point: an eventually tilted orbit that allows a look at the star’s poles.

Revisiting a tortured moon where cliffs tower miles above a bizarre surface

5 February 2020 Astronomy Now

Uranus’ small moon Miranda, as revealed by NASA’s Voyager 2 probe in 1986, is one of the strangest bodies in the solar system, with a unique patchwork appearance and cliffs towering 20 kilometres (12 miles) high.

Transition from red giant to white dwarf interrupted in unusual binary system

5 February 2020 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have found a binary star system in which a swelling red giant swallowed a smaller companion that then spiralled inward, triggering unusual outbursts.

White dwarf in pulsar binary “drags” space as Einstein predicted

5 February 2020 Astronomy Now

Scientists measure spacetime ‘frame dragging’ around white dwarf by measuring its effects on a companion radio pulsar.

Let Venus be your guide to Mercury at its best in February

1 February 2020 Ade Ashford

Mercury is poised to put on a fine evening show for Northern Hemisphere observers at dusk, attaining a greatest elongation 18.2 degrees east of the Sun on Monday, 10 February 2020. For ten evenings starting 3 February, the innermost planet and its brightest sibling, Venus, maintain an almost constant angular separation low in the west-southwest 40 minutes after UK sunset.