Archive

InSight selfie reveals drab, featureless plain – just what the doctor ordered

11 December 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s InSight Mars lander has snapped its first selfie on the surface of the red planet, revealing a level, almost featureless plain that’s exactlly the sort of landing site mission scientists wanted.

OSIRIS-REx spacecraft detects water-bearing minerals on Bennu

11 December 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft now exploring the asteroid Bennu has spotted hydrated minerals across the rocky surface of the ancient body, indicating the action of water in the distant past

Voyager 2 crosses solar boundary, moves into interstellar space

10 December 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s long-lived Voyager 2 probe, still sending back data 41 years after launch in 1977, has finally moved into interstellar space, joining Voyager 1 in the void between the stars.

Behaviour of fastest-growing white dwarf contradicts accepted theory

9 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Observations of a fast-growing white dwarf suggest an alternative explanation for what triggers X-ray outbursts as gas from a companion star falls onto the dwarf

Comet-like tails seen stretching away from massive young stars

9 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Combining data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array provides a spectacular view of comet-like tails stretching away from massive young stars in a cluster of giant suns, an indicator of the dynamic environment in such stellar assemblies.

A dolphin-shaped cloud formation found in Jupiter’s atmosphere

3 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Finding figures and other shapes in overhead clouds is a familiar pastime on Earth, but on Jupiter? An image from the Juno orbiter features a cloud formation that looks remarkably like a dolphin swimming through the giant planet’s turbulent atmosphere.

InSight selfie reveals drab, featureless plain – just what the doctor ordered

OSIRIS-REx spacecraft detects water-bearing minerals on Bennu

Voyager 2 crosses solar boundary, moves into interstellar space

Behaviour of fastest-growing white dwarf contradicts accepted theory

Comet-like tails seen stretching away from massive young stars

A dolphin-shaped cloud formation found in Jupiter’s atmosphere

LIGO and VIRGO announce four new gravitational-wave detections

Counting all the photons in the universe (spoiler alert: it’s a big number)

NASA thrilled InSight landed on flat, rock-free ‘sandbox’ on Mars

Hubble spots thousands of globular clusters in Coma galaxy group