Archive – Page 112 – Astronomy Now

Astronomers find most distant Solar System body to date

19 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have found the most distant body yet discovered in Earth’s solar system, a dwarf planet 120 times farther from the Sun than Earth.

Galaxies peek through star clouds in massive cluster

19 December 2018 Astronomy Now

A middle-age star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud is populated by countless stars, but galaxies in the far distance peak through, giving viewers at least a sense of the overwhelming scale of the cosmos.

New Horizons’ path to Ultima Thule clear of hazards

19 December 2018 Astronomy Now

After a careful analysis of the path ahead, no rings or moons have been found that could threaten the New Horizons probe on its approach to Ultima Thule.

Binary star ‘odd couple’ spotted by ALMA

16 December 2018 Astronomy Now

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array has spotted a young binary star system in which two very different size suns are in the process of forming in a swirling cloud of gas and dust.

Filling in the blanks in Hubble’s ‘deep field’ view of cosmos

14 December 2018 Astronomy Now

A newly released “deep field” image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures galaxies during the epoch of massive star formation three billion years after the Big Bang.

Tangled magnetic fields may power jets from supermassive black holes

14 December 2018 Astronomy Now

New computer simulations show tangled magnetic fields in jets streaming away from supermassive black holes may be creating powerful electric fields and currents accelerating particles to enormous energies

M100 shows just how far Hubble has come since spherical aberration

14 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Twenty-five years ago this month, spacewalking astronauts installed corrective optics aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, correcting its famously blurred vision. Galaxy M100 was used to demonstrate the success of the repair, and the imagery has steadily improved since then.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spots InSight on red planet

13 December 2018 Astronomy Now

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured a bird’s eye view of NASA’s InSight lander on the surface of Mars, along with the spacecraft’s heat shield, backshell and parachute.

Don’t miss the Geminid meteor shower 13–14 December 2018

13 December 2018 Ade Ashford

The December Geminid meteor shower is generally regarded as the richest and most reliable of the major annual shooting star displays. This year the predicted peak occurs close to 12h UT on 14 December, though high rates of activity should be encountered between 8pm GMT on Thursday, 13 December and 5pm GMT the following evening.

ALMA finds well-developed protoplanetary discs around young suns

12 December 2018 Astronomy Now

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array has captured stunning views of 20 protoplanetary discs around young, nearby stars, all of them suggesting planets are forming faster than expected