Archive – Page 177 – Astronomy Now

Mysterious cosmic explosion puzzles astronomers

3 April 2017 Astronomy Now

A mysterious flash of X-rays has been discovered by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in the deepest X-ray image ever obtained. This source likely comes from some sort of destructive event, but may be of a variety that scientists have never seen before.

See a trio of comets in the April sky

2 April 2017 Ade Ashford

Despite the glow of a waxing Moon, early April is a good time to catch a glimpse of comets 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák and C/2015 V2 (Johnson) that are currently circumpolar and visible throughout the UK hours of darkness. And if you’re an early riser, there’s seventh-magnitude C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) low in the pre-dawn eastern sky too!

The International Space Station appears to pass close to the Moon

2 April 2017 Steven Young

This video was captured from Astronomy Now Headquarters and shows the International Space Station appearing close to the waxing crescent Moon as it passed 405 km (252 miles) high overhead at 1926 UT on 2 April 2017.

Ancient Stardust

2 April 2017 Astronomy Now

This spectacular image of the Milky Way by Gianni Krattli from France, is just one of this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition entrants released in a sneak peek by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Curiosity rover shows new signs of wheel wear

2 April 2017 Stephen Clark

Engineers have spotted two small breaks in the treading on the left middle wheel on NASA’s Curiosity rover, one of six wheels that have moved the robot nearly 16 kilometres (10 miles) across the Martian surface since landing in August 2012.

Gravitational wave kicks monster black hole out of galactic core

28 March 2017 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have uncovered a supermassive black hole that has been propelled out of the centre of a distant galaxy by what could be the awesome power of gravitational waves.

Juno orbiter races by Jupiter on fourth science pass

28 March 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Juno spacecraft sailed over Jupiter’s cloud tops early Monday, the fourth time the solar-powered probe has approached the giant planet and collected science data since its arrival last July 4.

MAVEN data show thinning atmosphere drove the drying and cooling of Mars

28 March 2017 Stephen Clark

Data collected by NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft in its first two years at Mars confirm suspicions that the solar wind is blasting away the planet’s atmosphere and helped transform the world from a warmer, wetter and potentially habitable world into the barren landscape seen today, scientists said.

Dark Spot and Jovian ‘Galaxy’

26 March 2017 Astronomy Now

This image taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft of a mysterious dark spot on Jupiter seems to reveal a Jovian “galaxy” of swirling storms.

See Mercury at its best in the evening sky

26 March 2017 Ade Ashford

Mercury attains a greatest easterly elongation of 19 degrees from the Sun on 1 April. This solar separation combined with a favourable inclination of the ecliptic to the western horizon an hour after sunset, means that the period 25 March to around 8 April offers the year’s best evening showing of the innermost planet for Northern Hemisphere observers.