Astronomy Now – Page 131

Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Our Moon

18 September 2016 Astronomy Now

The award winning entries in the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 competition in the category ‘Our Moon’. The winners of the competition’s nine categories and two special prizes were announced at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Light echoes reveal supermassive black holes eating stars

17 September 2016 Astronomy Now

When a star passes within a certain distance of a black hole, the stellar material gets stretched and compressed as the black hole swallows it, briefly releasing an enormous amount of energy as a flare. Astronomers have now observed infrared light echoes from these “stellar tidal disruption” events reflected by dust encircling a black hole.

Countdown begins for Cassini’s final plunge into Saturn

16 September 2016 Astronomy Now

After more than 12 years studying Saturn, its rings and moons, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has entered the final year of its epic voyage. The Grand Finale will come on 15 September 2017 as Cassini dives into Saturn’s cloud tops, where friction with the atmosphere will cause the spacecraft to burn up like a meteor.

A very subtle eclipse of the Moon

16 September 2016 Astronomy Now

Watch out for a Moonrise with a subtle difference this evening as our satellite undergoes a penumbral eclipse. This observation sees the Moon enter Earth’s outer shadow, sadly missing the deeper umbra and denying us a total or even partial lunar eclipse.

Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners announced

16 September 2016 Astronomy Now

Chinese photographer Yu Jun has beaten thousands of amateur and professional photographers from around the globe to win the title of Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016.

Astronomers capture best view ever of disintegrating comet

16 September 2016 Astronomy Now

The sharpest, most detailed observations of a comet breaking apart have been captured with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The images suggest that the roughly 4.5-billion-year-old comet, named 332P/Ikeya-Murakami, may be spinning so fast that material is ejected from its surface. The resulting debris is now scattered along a 3,000-mile-long trail.

Pluto ‘paints’ its largest moon red

15 September 2016 Astronomy Now

In June 2015, when the cameras on NASA’s approaching New Horizons spacecraft first spotted the large reddish polar region on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, mission scientists knew two things: they’d never seen anything like it elsewhere in our Solar System, and they couldn’t wait to get the story behind it.

Parallel Mountains by Sean Goebel

15 September 2016 Astronomy Now

The shadow of Manua Kea, the highest peak in the state of Hawaii, is projected by the rising sun over the volcano, Hualalai, whilst the Full Moon soars above them, higher again.

What happened after the lights came on in the universe?

15 September 2016 Astronomy Now

The National Science Foundation has approved funding to expand the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array (HERA) in South Africa. Upgrading the number of antennas from 19 to 240 by the year 2018 will enable HERA to study more clearly the impact of cosmic dawn, the moment a few hundred million years after the Big Bang when the first stars and galaxies blazed awake.

Celestial Veil by Yuyun Wang

14 September 2016 Astronomy Now

The natural light of the Milky Way battles with the light pollution over the fishing village, or kelong, in Batu Pahat, Malaysia. In the lower right hand corner, there is also bioluminescence in the waters at the bottom of the kelong.