Archive – Page 128 – Astronomy Now

InSight lander now halfway to Mars, on track for November landing

20 August 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s InSight spacecraft has passed the halfway point to Mars and remains on track for a 26 November landing in the Elysium Planitia region where it will become the first probe to study the red planet’s deep interior.

Putting a young exoplanet on the scales for the first time

20 August 2018 Astronomy Now

Using data from ESA’s Gaia and Hipparcos satellites, astronomers have managed to deduce the mass of a giant exoplanet orbiting Beta Pictoris by studying subtle changes in the star’s motion over a quarter of a century.

Nothing special about ingredients making up our Solar System

19 August 2018 Astronomy Now

Analysis of more than two dozen relatively nearby solar systems shows the elements that went into their construction are broadly similar to what is found in Earth’s solar family, increasing confidence that Earth-like exoplanets may be common.

NASA stands by for Mars Opportunity wake up as dust storm abates

18 August 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA has not heard from the Opportunity Mars rover since it fell silent 10 June as a global dust storm blanketed the red planet, but engineers are hopeful the long-lived robot will wake up soon as the storm abates.

Find Barnard’s Star, the Sun’s closest stellar neighbour visible from the UK

17 August 2018 Ade Ashford

Barnard’s Star is a familiar name in both the history of astronomy and popular culture, but did you realise that it’s the closest stellar body to the Sun that you can see from the British Isles and similar latitudes? We tell you some fascinating facts about this famous runaway star and show you how to locate it.

Molecules ripped apart in giant close-orbiting exoplanet

17 August 2018 Astronomy Now

Computer simulations and spectroscopic analysis show molecular bonds in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-class exoplanet orbiting so close to its star that temperatures reach some 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,200 F) are ripped asunder.

Hundreds of galaxies hidden in quasar’s 46-billion-sun glare

17 August 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers discover a huge cluster of galaxies ‘hidden in plain sight’ in the glare of a quasar and its voracious central black hole, raising the possibility the universe contains more mass than previously suspected

One Hubble picture is worth 15,000 words (make that galaxies)

17 August 2018 Astronomy Now

Famous for its “deep field” views of the cosmos, the Hubble Space Telescope has produced another stunning image combining ultraviolet, visible and infrared light, capturing 15,000 galaxies in various stages of evolutionary development in a single frame .

A family portrait of the Very Large Telescope facility in Chile

14 August 2018 Astronomy Now

A full-sky view of the four 8.2-metre (27-foot) telescopes making up the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile, complete with brilliant laser beam guide star to offset atmospheric turbulence

Excavation begins for Giant Magellan Telescope observatory

14 August 2018 Astronomy Now

Construction crews have begun excavating an estimated 5,000 cubic metres (13,300 tons) of rock – 330 dump truck loads – atop a mountain in the Atacama Desert in Chile to make way for the foundation supporting the Giant Magellan Telescope.