Indisputable physical calculations state that approximately 27 percent of the universe is dark matter, but there are indications that we might never see it. Now researchers in Denmark turn this somehow depressing scenario into an advantage and propose a new model for what dark matter might be — and how to test it.
MACS J0717, some 5.4 billion light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Auriga (The Charioteer), is the result of four galaxy clusters colliding. This image is a combination of observations in visible light, X-rays and radio waves from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the NRAO Jansky Very Large Array.
A powerful Proton booster launched at 0931:42 GMT Monday with the first part of a multibillion-dollar Mars mission led by the European Space Agency. The Mars orbiter and lander will search for signs of methane on the red planet, and demonstrate technologies to be used on a future European Mars rover.
Now just ten weeks from opposition, Mars is growing in both apparent size and brightness in the pre-dawn sky as the distance between our two worlds decreases. On the morning of Wednesday, 16 March, around the onset of UK nautical twilight, the Red Planet passes just 0.15 degrees from double star Graffias in the constellation Scorpius.
Steve Ringwood casts his expert eye over and into a 2-inch push-fit dielectric mirror diagonal for refractors and catadioptrics from Explore Scientific. This star diagonal delivers optical fidelity since it has a mirror that has been honed to 1/12th wave and reflects 99 percent of incoming light to the eyepiece.
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