Archive – Page 86 – Astronomy Now

Best view yet of flickering jets in black hole feeding frenzy

13 October 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers capture the most detailed view yet of the titanic flickers and millisecond flashes generated by material swirling around a black hole.

Watch the Moon hide naked-eye star Zeta (ζ) Tauri on 19 October

11 October 2019 Ade Ashford

When a nearby astronomical body passes between the observer and a more distant object, see say that an occultation is taking place. Since the Moon is our nearest celestial neighbour, it regularly passes in front of planets and stars. Observers in the British Isles can see naked-eye star Zeta (ζ) Tauri glide behind the Moon on Saturday, 19 October 2019.

Curiosity closing in on Mars’ transition from wet to dry

9 October 2019 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is closing in on finding out when the martian environment transitioned from a habitable era to the inhospitable desert seen today.

Saturn now boasts Solar System’s most known moons: 82

7 October 2019 Astronomy Now

Planetary astronomer Scott Sheppard leads team in discovery of 20 new moons around Saturday, pushing the ringed planet’s total to a record 82.

See the waxing Moon meet the outermost planet on 10 October

6 October 2019 Ade Ashford

The 12-day-old Moon lies in the same low-power binocular field as Neptune late into the evening of Thursday, 10 October 2019 when observers in the UK can find the pair highest in the southern sky against the constellation of Aquarius. The glare of the gibbous Moon will present a challenge, but well worth the attempt to find the outermost planet with modest optical aid.

Infant stars dine on a ‘cosmic pretzel’ of dusty debris

4 October 2019 Astronomy Now

Two young stars in a binary system weave an unusual tapestry as surrounding gas and dust are pulled into looping filaments and swirls.

NASA, DLR continue work to salvage martian “mole”

4 October 2019 Astronomy Now

NASA and the German Aerospace Center continue exhaustive efforts to help a stalled heat probe hammer its way below the martian surface.

Across the Sky of History

4 October 2019 Astronomy Now

Wang Zheng of China was named winner of the Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2019 in the category Skyscapes with a mystical image of the night sky as a meteor falls.

Record rocket firing avoids mission-ending eclipse for Juno

2 October 2019 Astronomy Now

A record 10.5-hour thruster firing nudged the solar-powered Juno spacecraft’s orbit just enough to avoid a mission-ending eclipse.

See the young Moon meet the gas giants at dusk, 3–5 October

1 October 2019 Ade Ashford

Skywatchers in Western Europe and the UK should look low to the south-southwest at nautical dusk on 3 and 5 October 2019 to view the waxing Moon pass close to Jupiter and Saturn, the Solar System’s largest gas giant planets. Observers at northern temperate latitudes should make the most of any opportunities to view these planets before they are lost in twilight.