January 2022 – Astronomy Now

Catch up with comet 19P/Borrelly

31 January 2022 Mark Armstrong

Comet 19P/Borrelly is presently the brightest and best looking comet on show at mid-northern latitudes. It passes through perihelion passage on Tuesday, 1 February, when it lies around 195.4 million kilometres (1.306 AU) from the Sun.

Venus burns bright with a lowly Mercury and Mars

31 January 2022 Mark Armstrong

At the start of February, Venus is a brilliant and beautiful ‘morning star’ that’s reasonably well placed in the pre-dawn sky on the south-eastern horizon.

MeerKAT paints a mesmerising portrait of the Milky Way

26 January 2022 Astronomy Now

The MeerKAT radio telescope has produced a stunning mosaic of the Milky Way’s central regions, providing a new view of known and newly-discovered phenomena.

Webb reaches Lagrange Point 2, setting stage for mirror alignment

25 January 2022 Astronomy Now

The James Webb Space Telescope slips into orbit around Lagrange Point 2, setting the stage for the next critical step in its commissioning: mirror alignment.

Astronomers mining an increasingly rich trove of TESS exoplanet data

24 January 2022 Astronomy Now

NASA’s TESS spacecraft has now found more than 5,000 exoplanet candidates, including three newly-confirmed worlds that face uncertain futures.

Rippling sand dunes across the floor of a crater at zero longitude on Mars

24 January 2022 Astronomy Now

Rippling sand dunes across the floor of a martian crater provide an intriguing backdrop for map makers using the depression to identify zero longitude on the red planet.

Black hole contains nearly all the mass at the heart of the Milky Way

17 January 2022 Astronomy Now

New observations indicate the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way contains almost all the mass at the very center of the galaxy.

A 150-million-year-old look at a spectacular spiral

17 January 2022 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope is adept at spotting supernova blasts in remote galaxies, helping astronomers pin down the cosmic distance scale. Galaxy NGC 976 it a typically spectacular example of a Hubble target.

Webb mirrors fully deployed, clearing the way for alignment

10 January 2022 Astronomy Now

Two weeks after its Christmas Day launch, engineers completed the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror deployment, clearing the way for alignment and focusing.

The Flame Nebula shines in mesmerising SuperCam image of Orion

5 January 2022 Astronomy Now

The Flame Nebula in Orion, photobombed by the Horsehead Nebula, blazes in a newly processed image captured by the SuperCam instrument at the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment.