News: October 2009
Fermi caps first year with glimpse of space-time
In its first year of operations, NASA's Fermi telescope has captured more than one thousand gamma ray sources and mapped the gamma ray sky in unprecedented detail, providing rare evidence on the structure of space and time.
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Distant GRB blueprint of early Universe
A powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by NASA's Swift satellite in April – the most distant object ever discovered – continues to provide tantalizing insight into the nature of objects born in the early Universe.
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Opening the lid on a
cosmic jewel box
Combined images from ESO's Very Large Telescope, MPG/ESO 2.2 metre telescope at La Silla, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have revealed the Jewel Box cluster in a new light.
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Ares 1-X rocket launches on one-of-a-kind test flight
Amid mounting questions and debate about the future of U.S. human spaceflight, the world's tallest rocket was successfully launched Wednesday on a $445 million test flight for NASA's moon program.
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MESSENGER gets closest
look at solar flare
On 31 December 2007 NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft made the first detection of solar neutrons at less than one astronomical unit from the Sun.
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Galaxy cluster smashes distance record
Joining forces with ground-based telescopes, NASA's Chandra and Spitzer space telescopes have uncovered the most distant galaxy cluster yet at 10.2 billion light years, beating the previous record holder by one billion light years.
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Life's ingredients found around exoplanet
A gas giant orbiting a sun 150 light years away boasts water, methane and carbon dioxide, the second planet outside our Solar System displaying signs of life's basic building blocks.
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HARPS discovers 32
new exoplanets
At an international exoplanet conference held in Porto today, HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) scientists announce a hand of 32 new exoplanets, boosting the count to over 400.
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LCROSS captures all phases of Centaur impact
Data from the nine LCROSS instruments successfully captured each phase of the impact sequence from impact flash through ejecta plume generation to the formation of a crater, say NASA scientists.
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Get ready for a
Galilean experience!
The International Year of Astronomy Cornerstone project Galilean Nights kicks off tomorrow with over 1,000 public observing events scheduled across the world.
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Orionid meteor shower peaks this week
This year's best viewing will be in the hours before dawn on 21 October. Check out our weekly night sky guide for more information.
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IBEX maps edge of
Solar System
The first all sky maps from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) reveal intense, theory-defying interactions occurring between the edge of the Solar System and interstellar space.
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The Milky Way's tiny but tough neighbour
ESO has today released a stunning new image of our neighbouring Barnard's Galaxy, revealing curious bubble-like nebulae and regions of rich star formation.
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The water-generating Moon
Analysis of data from Chandrayaan-1's SARA instrument confirms how water is likely being generated on the Moon, with some surprising results.
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New website aims to identify unknown objects
A new website was launched today to create a forum for astronomers to submit reports of unknown objects. The aim is to two-fold: to educate the public about natural phenomena in the sky that could be misidentified, and collect data that could reveal previously unknown scientific phenomena.
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Sky merger yields
sparkling dividends
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a striking galaxy, revealing the celestial oddity as the product of a high-speed galactic collision between two Milky Way-like galaxies.
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LCROSS mission concludes but science continues
The LCROSS mission concluded with two deliberate impacts into a permanently shadowed crater at the lunar south pole on Friday. Scientists will now study the data to determine if water was thrown up in the impacts.
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PREVIEW STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTRE- live updates and video!
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Spitzer spies giant ring around Saturn
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected a gigantic ring around Saturn that spans a diameter equivalent to 300 Saturns lined up side by side.
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NASA refines asteroid's path toward Earth
Using updated information, NASA scientists have recalculated the path of the large asteroid Apophis that significantly reduces its chances of striking Earth in 2036.
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Shorter days on Saturn
Saturn has been found to be spinning slightly faster than previously believed, changing what we know about the planet's mysterious interior.
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'Inverse energy cascade' powers Jupiter's storms
The transfer of energy from local winds to large scale circulations – an inverse energy cascade – could power and maintain Jupiter's intense jet streams, say scientists analysing Cassini observations of the giant planet.
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Ring environment discolours Saturn's moons
New global colour maps of Saturn's five large innermost moons reveal complex patterns that provide fresh constraints on the dynamics of particles and grains within the Saturnian system.
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Forensic examination of asteroid crash scene
The four metre-wide asteroid that blew up in the sky above Sudan on 7 October 2008 was a tumbling, irregularly shaped piece of shrapnel from a larger body that had been bombarded with impacts billions of years ago before being destroyed.
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Combined Herschel images reveal hidden Galaxy
Combining the observing power of the SPIRE and PACs cameras, the Herschel Space Observatory has produced stunning new images of interstellar material and star-forming regions in our home Galaxy.
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MESSENGER gains gravity assist for Mercury orbit
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft successfully completed its third and final swing by Mercury this week, gaining a critical gravity assist that will allow it to enter orbit around Mercury in 2011, and snapping images of five percent of the planet never before seen along the way.
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She is an Astronomer launches web forum
'She is an Astronomer', the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone Project, has launched a web forum for female professional and amateur astronomers, students, and those interested in the gender equality problem in science.
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Cosmic rays hit
space age high
According to NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), our Solar System is awash with a record number of galactic cosmic rays.
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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!