Archive – Page 105 – Astronomy Now

Dramatic Jupiter

26 February 2019 Astronomy Now

Dramatic atmospheric features in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere are captured in this view from NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Israeli moon lander

24 February 2019 Astronomy Now

A small privately-funded Israeli spacecraft is on its way to the moon, the first non-superpower attempt to land on the surface of another world.

Japanese probe lands on asteroid to capture sample

24 February 2019 Stephen Clark

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft briefly landed on an asteroid Thursday more than 200 million miles from Earth and fired a bullet to scoop up a rocky sample, successfully accomplishing one of the mission’s most challenging manoeuvres before returning the asteroid specimen to scientists on the ground in December 2020.

New Horizons returns best view yet of Ultima Thule

23 February 2019 Astronomy Now

NASA’s New Horizons probe has sent back its best view yet of Ultima Thule, taken just 6.5 minutes before closest approach on New Year’s Day.

NASA orbiter spots Chinese lander on the Moon

21 February 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted China’s Chang’e 4 lander and rover on the far side of the Moon in new images, as the Chinese robots explore the floor of Von Kármán crater.

How’s the weather on Mars? Cold, with a chance of dust devils

19 February 2019 Astronomy Now

Weather data from NASA’s InSight Mars lander is now posted daily, allowing armchair astronauts to better appreciate conditions on the red planet.

New radio map reveals huge number of previously unseen galaxies

19 February 2019 Astronomy Now

A new radio map showing a small portion of the northern sky gives researchers a powerful new tool for studying galaxy clusters and supermassive black holes.

Don’t miss Mercury’s best evening show of the year at dusk from 20 February

18 February 2019 Ade Ashford

The innermost planet’s best evening showing of the year for northern observers occurs during the fortnight starting 20 February. Skywatchers will get optimal views by sourcing a location that offers an unobstructed view of the horizon from west-southwest through west at the end of civil twilight, which is about 40 minutes after sunset for the heart of the British Isles.

Hubble looks into the heart of the Whirlpool Galaxy

18 February 2019 Astronomy Now

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as M51, is familiar to legions of amateur astronomers as a relatively faint face-on spiral with a smaller companion galaxy, but the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Whirlpool in all its splendour, a magnificent spiral studded with countless clusters and dust lanes.

Gravity waves may help resolve Hubble constant conundrum

16 February 2019 Astronomy Now

Over the next 10 years, researchers say, gravitational waves from merging neutron stars may resolve discrepancies in the value of the Hubble constant.