Astronomy Now – Page 114

Astronomers detect orbital motion in pair of supermassive black holes

28 June 2017 Astronomy Now

Using the supersharp radio “vision” of the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array, astronomers have made the first detection of orbital motion in a pair of supermassive black holes in a galaxy some 750 million light-years from Earth.

Artificial brain helps Gaia catch speeding stars

27 June 2017 Astronomy Now

With the help of software that mimics a human brain, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six stars zipping at high speed from the centre of our galaxy to its outskirts. This could provide key information about some of the most obscure regions of the Milky Way.

Chandra samples galactic goulash

27 June 2017 Astronomy Now

What would happen if you took two galaxies and mixed them together over millions of years? A new image including data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals the cosmic culinary outcome.

Jupiter’s “String of Pearls”

26 June 2017 Astronomy Now

This enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s bands of light and dark clouds was created by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

Hubble captures massive dead disc galaxy

25 June 2017 Astronomy Now

By combining the power of a “natural lens” in space with the capability of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers made a surprising discovery—the first example of a compact yet massive, fast-spinning, disk-shaped galaxy that stopped making stars only a few billion years after the big bang.

The curious case of the warped Kuiper Belt

22 June 2017 Astronomy Now

An unknown, unseen “planetary mass object” may lurk in the outer reaches of our solar system, according to new research on the orbits of minor planets to be published in the Astronomical Journal. This object would be different from — and much closer than — the so-called Planet Nine, a planet whose existence yet awaits confirmation.

Articles by Astronomy Now

Astronomers detect orbital motion in pair of supermassive black holes

Artificial brain helps Gaia catch speeding stars

Chandra samples galactic goulash

Jupiter’s “String of Pearls”

Hubble captures massive dead disc galaxy

The curious case of the warped Kuiper Belt

Martian crater provides reminder of Apollo moonwalk

NuSTAR’s first five years in space

Titan’s north pole in summertime

Hubble applauds waltzing dwarfs