Astronomy Now – Page 237

Twinkle satellite’s fast-track mission to unveil exoplanet atmospheres

7 February 2015 Astronomy Now

A team of UK scientists and engineers announce plans to launch a small satellite called “Twinkle” within four years, an ambitious mission to provide insights into the chemistry, formation and evolution of planets orbiting other stars.

Planck reveals first stars were born later

6 February 2015 Astronomy Now

New maps from ESA’s Planck satellite uncover the ‘polarised’ light from the early universe across the entire sky, revealing that the first stars formed much later than previously thought.

Dawn gets closer views of Ceres

5 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Now just one month away from entering into orbit around Ceres, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft reveals new pictures and a movie — the sharpest images to date of the Texas-sized dwarf planet.

A new VISTA through the Milky Way

4 February 2015 Astronomy Now

While mapping the central regions of the Milky Way in infrared light searching for new and hidden objects, the 4.1-metre VISTA telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile looked through a familiar object to wonders beyond.

‘Live fast, die young’ galaxies run out of gas

3 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Most galaxies age slowly as they run out of raw materials needed for growth over billions of years, but a pilot study has found some might shoot out this gas early on, causing them to redden and die prematurely.

4 billion-year-old meteorite reveals Mars’ darker side

1 February 2015 Astronomy Now

A new spectroscopic analysis of “Black Beauty,” a 4.4 billion-year-old meteorite found in the Moroccan desert, has given scientists a better picture of the crust beneath Mars’ red dust.

Primordial gravitational waves remain elusive

31 January 2015 Astronomy Now

Despite earlier reports of a possible detection, a joint analysis of data from ESA’s Planck satellite and the ground-based BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments has found no conclusive evidence of primordial gravitational waves.

Cassini catches Titan naked in the solar wind

30 January 2015 Astronomy Now

Researchers analysing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft were able to study the effect of a powerful solar outburst on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, when it was unprotected from a raging stream of energetic solar particles.

The tell-tale signs of a galactic merger

29 January 2015 Astronomy Now

NGC 7714 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces that drifted too close to its companion. The gravitational interaction has twisted its spiral arms out of shape, dragged streams of material out into space, and triggered bright bursts of star formation.

Gully patterns document Martian climate cycles

29 January 2015 Astronomy Now

A new analysis of gullies carved into Martian impact craters suggests the Red Planet has undergone several ice ages in the last several million years. The driver of these climate swings is likely the planet’s wobbly axis tilt.