Archive – Page 320 – Astronomy Now

Celestial Messengers – Cosmic Rays

24 April 2015 Astronomy Now

Mario Bertolotti’s book on cosmic rays can also be read as the scientific process in action, a story that goes hand-in-hand with research into particle physics.

Deep-Sky Companions: Southern Gems

24 April 2015 Astronomy Now

Well-known astronomer and writer Stephen James O’Meara has taken James Dunlop’s 19th century opus as the basis for his survey of 120 southern sky objects for the modern astronomer.

Celestial fireworks celebrate Hubble’s silver anniversary

24 April 2015 Astronomy Now

A brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the Hubble Space Telescope image chosen to commemorate the orbiting observatory’s quarter century of exploring the Solar System and beyond.

Cosmic tsunami wakes up comatose galaxies

24 April 2015 Astronomy Now

An international team of astronomers have discovered sleeping galaxies that stopped forming stars in the distant past can be rejuvinated when clusters of galaxies merge, generating a cosmic shock wave that triggers the birth of a new generation of stars.

Space scientists pay homage to 25 years of the Hubble Space Telescope

23 April 2015 Astronomy Now

On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery achieved orbit with the Hubble Space Telescope in its payload bay. Since then, the HST has been serviced and upgraded five times, giving scientists the means to look farther out into the universe in greater detail and father back in time than ever before.

Binary black holes found verging on merging

22 April 2015 Keith Cooper

Twin black holes, so close that they are gravitationally bound and orbiting around one another in the final stages before they merge to form one colossal black hole, have been found in a quasar that existed around 10.3 billion years ago.

Sky-Watcher Star Discovery 150P Newtonian

22 April 2015 Steve Ringwood

Steve Ringwood appraises Sky-Watcher’s computerised yet easy-to-use starter ‘scope that features FreedomFind™ dual-encoder technology, allowing you to move the instrument manually or electronically without losing alignment.

First visible light spectrum from exoplanet observed

22 April 2015 Astronomy Now

The first ever direct detection of reflected light from an exoplanet, namely 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet ever discovered around a normal star, has been made by astronomers at the ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Clusters of monster stars lit up the early universe

22 April 2015 Astronomy Now

The first stars were born at the end of the cosmological ‘dark ages’ several hundred million years after the Big Bang. Two Canadian researchers have calculated that clusters of these protostars may have been as luminous as 100 million Suns.

Enjoy the Lyrid meteor shower

21 April 2015 Astronomy Now

With a young crescent Moon setting around midnight for the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower, prospects are good for this annual display that can produce medium-speed fireballs.