News: August 2010
Exoplanet clouds out atmospheric models
Astronomers studying a young gas giant planet with the W. M. Keck Observatory have found that the planet sports an atmosphere unusually thick with dust clouds.
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Short solar cycle detected
on distant star
Scientists using the Convection Rotation and Planetary Transits (CoRoT) space mission have uncovered a short solar magnetic cycle on a distant star using stellar seismology. READ MORE
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Kepler finds first double planet transiting systems
The Kepler space mission has discovered two new Saturn-sized planets and a possible third planet one and a half times bigger than Earth orbiting a star over 2,200 light years away in the constellation Lyra. The discovery also heralds the first time that it has been possible to measure the masses of planets using transit observations. READ MORE
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Fast spinning asteroids spawn new generation
New observations conducted with the one-metre telescope at the Wise Observatory in Israel and the Danish 1.54-metre telescope at La Silla, Chile, conclude that fast spinning asteroids can split to spawn asteroid pairs. READ MORE
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Dusty double stars aftermath of planetary collisions
Large amounts of dust observed around closely orbiting stellar pairs by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that the systems' planets may have met a violent fate. READ MORE
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Astronomers discover
new solar system
Using ESO's sensitive HARP instrument, astronomers have discovered a solar system containing at least five planets, with indications that two more, including a hot, rocky world, might also be present. READ MORE
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A new way to weigh planets
Instead of determining the mass of a planet by measuring the orbits of moons or spacecraft around them, astronomers have come up with a new method using radio signals from pulsars. READ MORE
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Another Jupiter fireball!
A third Jupiter impact event in thirteen months has been captured by yet another diligent amateur observer. READ MORE
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Mysterious magnetar
had big daddy
The explosive supernova of a massive star that should have created a black hole has been found to have created a highly magnetic neutron star instead, perplexing astronomers using the Very Large Telescope (VLT). READ MORE
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Galactic supervolcano
spews into space
A new image created from data from the Chandra X-ray Telescope Observatory and Very Large Telescope Array (VLA) reveal a giant eruption of gas blasting from the core of massive galaxy M87.
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Cosmic lens magnifies
dark energy
Astronomers have taken an important step forward in the quest to solve the mystery of dark energy by using galaxies to magnify the distant Universe.
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The Moon is shrinking
Evidence that the Moon is shrinking has been found by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has discovered thrust faults all over the Moon where the surface has crumpled upwards as the Moon has contracted.
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Never before seen view of the Earth’s magnetosphere
A team of scientists have used NASA’s IBEX satellite to further our understanding of the solar wind's interaction with our Earth’s magnetic field and outer atmosphere. READ MORE
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Galaxies' glory days revealed
Observations of one of the Universe's most distant galaxy clusters reveal that a signification population of its galactic inhabitants are still churning out stars. READ MORE
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Eclipsing pulsar sheds light on Universe's densest objects
Using NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), astronomers have discovered the first fast X-ray pulsar to be eclipsed by its companion star. READ MORE
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Born-again galaxies with ultraviolet rings
NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) has uncovered ‘old, red and dead’ galaxies that appear to have risen from the grave and grown rings of newborn stars, confounding expectations of what happens when a galaxy matures. READ MORE
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Solving the mystery of the long solar minimum
A team of researchers led by Mausumi Dikpati from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Roger Ulrich from the University of California, Los Angeles have suggested a cause for the unusually long lull in solar activity in the last decade. READ MORE
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Citizen scientists
make pulsar discovery
The citizen science project Einstein@home has made its first discovery thanks to the computing power volunteered by three members of the public: an unusual lone pulsar spinning 41 times per second. READ MORE
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Surprise gamma-ray
blast from nova
The idea that nova explosions lack the power to emit high-energy radiation has been dramatically overturned with the surprise detection of gamma-rays blasting from a nova in the constellation Cygnus. READ MORE
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Trojan asteroid found in Neptune's gravity 'void'
Astronomers have found the first Trojan asteroid in Neptune's difficult-to-detect gravitationally stable point known as Lagrangian 5. READ MORE
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Into the Tarantula's web
Using the UK built VISTA telescope, astronomers have captured a new view of the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. READ MORE
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A cosmic question mark
Things are not as serene as they may first seem in this elliptical galaxy, for behind its dark dust lane lies hidden turmoil. READ MORE
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Breathing life into the
Coma Cluster
A long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image of the Coma Cluster reveals a stunning look at spiral galaxy NGC 4911 as it dances through space with a companion galaxy. READ MORE
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The Sun strikes again
The Earth's magnetosphere could receive a glancing blow from an M-Class flare that erupted from the Sun on 7 August, possibly lighting up the skies with aurora again tonight or tomorrow.
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A lop-sided stellar explosion
The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a stellar explosion has been obtained by astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope, showing that the explosion was more concentrated in one particular direction. READ MORE
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Get ready for a second blast
The first of two coronal mass ejections blasted out from the Sun at the weekend arrived in Earth's neighbourhood last night, lighting up the skies across Europe and North America. A second blast is expected to arrive tonight. READ MORE
Solar blast heads for Earth
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Illuminating Saturn's
auroral heartbeat
Using the Hubble Space Telescope to collect images of Saturn's glowing ultraviolet aurorae, space scientists have found that these displays pulse in time with Saturn's rotation. READ MORE
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Our latest 132-page Astronomy Now special edition is an extravaganza of astronomy for the year ahead, with a complete 30-page guide to observing the planets, moon, meteor showers, two solar eclipses, and the deep sky in 2010.
A 100-page special edition from the creators of Astronomy Now magazine, The Grand Tour of the Universe takes readers from one end of the Universe to the other and, in doing so, asks the question "just how big is the Universe?"
This special publication features the photography of British astro-imager Nik Szymanek and covers a range of photographic methods from basic to advanced. Beautiful pictures of the night sky can be obtained with a simple camera and tripod before tackling more difficult projects, such as guided astrophotography through the telescope and CCD imaging.
Astronomy Now presents
this 100-page, full-colour guide to the 68 constellations visible from the British
Isles by Neil Bone, the respected amateur astronomer and writer.
Astronomy Now is pleased to announce the publication of Exploring Mars. The very best images of Mars taken by orbiting spacecraft and NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers fill up the 98 glossy pages of this special edition!