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News: January 2009

Methane rain fills

Titan’s lakes

Changes in the appearance of hydrocarbon lakes and the presence of extensive cloud systems provide strong evidence for rainfall and changing seasons on Saturn’s largest moon Titan.
   FULL STORY

Black hole outflows from Centaurus A revealed

Using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment’s submillimetre wavelength capabilities, new insight has been gained into the jets and lobes flowing from Centaurus A’s central black hole.
   FULL STORY

Sizzling weather report from an eccentric exoplanet

By observing an exoplanet’s rapid rise in temperature as it approached its parent star, astronomers were able to map its atmospheric properties to generate realistic images of what it would look like if you were there.
   FULL STORY

Wall of gas divides

cosmic metropolis

A new study from the Chandra X-ray Observatory unveils the star-forming factory NGC 604 as a divided neighbourhood.
   FULL STORY

Milky Way’s black hole twin discovered in nearby galaxy

Exploiting the Very Large Telescope’s acute infrared capabilities, astronomers have uncovered intense star-forming regions and a supermassive black hole in nearby galaxy NGC 253.
   FULL STORY

C1XS takes first taste of lunar X-rays

The UK-built C1XS instrument flying aboard the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter has successfully detected its first X-ray signature from the Moon.
 FULL STORY

Supermassive black holes not guilty of shutting down star formation

According to a team lead by Yale University astronomers, galaxies cease star formation long before their supermassive black holes have the power to do the job themselves.
 FULL STORY

Astronomers discover super-Neptune

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have discovered a planet 4.7 times the size of Earth and 25 times more massive, earning it the nickname of a “super-Neptune”.
 FULL STORY

Special Report:

Eminent speakers gather for IYA kick-off

The International Year of Astronomy officially kicked off with a grand opening in Paris last week. Astronomy Now’s Keith Cooper and Emily Baldwin joined representatives from over 130 countries to mark the first 400 years of modern Astronomy.
 FULL STORY

Moon once had internal dynamo

New analysis of an Apollo sample rock suggests that the Moon once had a liquid core with a dynamo that produced a strong magnetic field, adding fuel to a debate that has lasted 30 years.
 FULL STORY

Dusty stars point to Universe’s early years

Striking new evidence suggests that large volumes of cosmic dust was forged by gradually dying carbon stars, contradicting theories that it forms solely in massive stellar explosions.
   FULL STORY

IBEX mapping Solar System's unseen boundary

NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission has begun building the first maps of the edge of our Solar System, something that has never been done until now.
   FULL STORY

Spin seen for soft gamma-ray repeater

For the first time ever, the spin rate of an elusive soft gamma-ray repeater has been detected, which could allow scientists to infer more of its properties. The reason that this is so important is because only five of these objects are currently known; four in the Milky Way, and one in the Large Magellanic Cloud, making for an incredibly small sample to study.
   FULL STORY

Is Mars methane the 'breath of life'?

Localised plumes of methane detected on Mars could be coming from life forms under the planet’s surface according to NASA and academic scientists. The findings were revealed in a live webcast yesterday at 19:00 GMT. Though there could be other possible, non-biological processes responsible for the methane, it is the strongest clue to date that the red planet may not be a dead world.
   FULL STORY

Radiation pressure mystery solved for massive stars

Stars larger than 100 solar masses shouldn’t exist, as radiation pressure should prevent any more infalling material. And yet they do. A study published this week in Science explains why.
   FULL STORY

 

Mars rocks are on the move

Contrary to a previous explanation that suggested high speed winds were responsible for rolling rocks around the red planet, a new model shows that a much more ordered system transports rocks upwind.
   FULL STORY

Keeping our skies safe

The Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), which has discovered around 70 percent of all Near Earth Objects (NEOs) in the past three years, has been awarded a substantial NASA grant to continue its search through to 2012.
   FULL STORY

Cassiopeia A, the movie

Using eight year’s worth of data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have released a movie tracking changes in the dynamic supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.
   FULL STORY

Stars form perilously close to Milky Way’s black hole

Two stars have been located just a few light years from the galactic centre, confirming that stars can form perilously close to a black hole.
   FULL STORY

Tuning in to the

cosmic radio

According to scientists presenting their work at the American Astronomical Society meeting this week, cosmic radio noise booms six times louder than expected, potentially drowning out the sounds of the early Universe.
   FULL STORY

Hubble catches

ballistic stars

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured 14 young, runaway stars slicing through regions of dense interstellar gas, creating brilliant bow shocks and leaving glowing tendrils in their wake.
   FULL STORY

Black holes lead

galaxy growth

New research may have solved the cosmic chicken-and-egg problem of which formed first in the early Universe: galaxies, or the supermassive black holes seen at their cores.
   FULL STORY

First detection of gas molecules in GRB galaxy

Using a combination of space- and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have, for the first time, identified molecular gas in the host galaxy of gamma-ray burst 080607.
   FULL STORY

Brown dwarfs don't hang out with stars

According to the results of a Hubble Space Telescope survey, brown dwarfs and normal stars don’t like to hang out together.
   FULL STORY

Active galaxies vary across the Universe

In an on-going X-ray survey, NASA’s Swift spacecraft is revealing that nearby active galaxies are more alive than those located halfway across the Universe.
   FULL STORY

Fermi unveils a dozen

new pulsars

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered 12 new gamma-ray-only pulsars and has detected gamma-ray pulses from 18 others, adding vital new information to our understanding of how these stellar powerhouses operate.
   FULL STORY

Milky Way a swifter spinner and more massive

New high precision measurements of the Milky Way suggest that our home Galaxy is spinning a dizzy 100,000 miles per hour faster than previously believed.
   FULL STORY

Baby Jupiters gain

weight fast

According to a new study of planet formation around young stars, gas giants have to form in under five million years, or they probably won’t form at all.
   FULL STORY

Dead stars tell story of planet birth

Astronomers have turned to an unexpected place to study the evolution of planets: dead stars.
   FULL STORY

The Universe is yours

to discover

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) promises to make the Universe yours to discover, in a year that celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first astronomical observation of the Moon through a telescope and the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landings.
   FULL STORY

Mars rovers celebrate fifth year of three month mission

NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers celebrate their fifth year exploring the Red Planet this month, in a mission that was only expected to last three months.
   FULL STORY

 
 
 
 

Back to latest news

2010 Yearbook
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.
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Take the tour!
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?"
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Infinity Rising
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.
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Guide to the Constellations
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.
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Exploring Mars
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!
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