Archive – Page 71 – Astronomy Now

Evidence of Uranus’ leaking atmosphere found hidden in Voyager 2 observations

27 March 2020 Keith Cooper

By going over old data collected by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986, two scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have made the startling discovery that Uranus’ atmosphere is gradually escaping into space.

High-stakes search in a galaxy cluster for an elusive particle

25 March 2020 Keith Cooper

A search within a distant galaxy cluster for ghost-like particles that could provide evidence for String Theory and be a candidate for mysterious dark matter has turned up nothing – so far.

How to ‘seed’ supermassive black holes in the early universe

24 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Researchers in Italy have come up with a testable explanation for how supermassive black holes were able to grow so fast in the early universe.

Curiosity climbs its steepest slope so far

23 March 2020 Keith Cooper

The intrepid Curiosity rover has scaled its greatest challenge so far, a steep slope inclined at 31 degrees to the horizontal, leading to a cliff-top region known as Greenheugh Pediment.

Astronomers use Hubble to learn more about the birth of massive suns

23 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Astronomers are using the Hubble Space Telescope to study massive stars in a stellar nursery near the Tarantula Nebula to learn why most form in clusters but some appear to form in isolation.

NASA assesses impact of coronavirus on space science missions

21 March 2020 Astronomy Now

NASA assesses impact of COVID-19 on space science missions; work on James Webb telescope suspended, but Mars 2020 work continues for now.

Analysis shows black hole images feature data-rich substructure

20 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Theoretical analysis suggests higher-resolution images of nested photon rings will provide a direct measure of a black hole’s size and spin.

Star Epsilon (ε) Tauri plays hide and seek with the crescent Moon on 29 March

19 March 2020 Ade Ashford

On Sunday, 29 March around civil dusk, observers throughout the British Isles with suitably steadied binoculars and small telescopes can watch naked-eye star Epsilon (ε) Tauri disappear behind the darkened hemisphere of the almost 5-day-old waxing crescent Moon, reappearing again slightly more than an hour later. Here’s our where and when guide to viewing it.

New research pins down the size of ultra-dense neutron stars

17 March 2020 Astronomy Now

A new analysis shows a typical neutron star crams 1.4 times the mass of the Sun into a sphere just 22 kilometres (14 miles) across.

A massive middle-age star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud

16 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Massive middle age star clusters like NGC 339 resemble more common globulars, but they are much younger and it’s not yet known how they might be related. This remarkably detailed view comes from the Hubble Space Telescope.