Astronomy Now – Page 238 – Astronomy Now

12 October 2025

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Mystery plumes in Martian atmosphere baffle scientists

17 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Research just published in Nature describes two bright, extremely high-altitude plumes observed on Mars by amateur astronomers in March and April 2012, but attempts at explaining the phenomena defy our current understanding of the Martian upper atmosphere.

ALMA sees super stellar nurseries at heart of starburst galaxy

16 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Starburst galaxies transmute gas into new stars up to 1,000 times faster than typical spiral galaxies like the Milky Way. To try and understand why, an international team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimetre Array (ALMA) to dissect a cluster of star-forming clouds at the heart of NGC 253 — one of the nearest starburst galaxies.

‘Interstellar’ technology throws light on spinning black holes

14 February 2015 Astronomy Now

The team responsible for the Oscar-nominated visual effects at the centre of Christopher Nolan’s epic, Interstellar, have turned science fiction into science fact by providing new insights into the powerful effects of black holes.

A Valentine’s rose made of galaxies

14 February 2015 Astronomy Now

A rose made of galaxies, pictured by the Hubble Space Telescope, makes the perfect Valentine’s gift for the astronomer in your life!

New imaging technique reveals Titan in unprecedented detail

13 February 2015 Astronomy Now

A new way to process radar data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft gives researchers much clearer and easier to interpret views of the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

Astronomers catch multiple-star system in first stages of formation

11 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Scientists studying a dense core of gas called Barnard 5 that lies 800 light-years away in the constellation Perseus discover a young protostar and three dense condensations that will give birth to four stars in ~40,000 years.

Google gives Lick Observatory $1 million

10 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Recent budget cuts suggested a bleak outlook for Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton in California, but a substantial gift from internet giant Google gives this historic teaching and research facility hope for a brighter future.

First pair of merging stars destined to become a supernova found

10 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and instruments in the Canary Islands have discovered a close orbiting pair of white dwarf stars destined to become a Type Ia supernova.

Hubble captures rare triple-moon conjunction

9 February 2015 Astronomy Now

On 24th January 2015, three of Jupiter’s Galilean moons were in simultaneous transit across the face of their parent planet. The Hubble Space Telescope captured this rare event in amazing detail.

Milky Way’s dark-matter-dominated companion galaxy found

9 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Analysis of near-infrared data from the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope provides evidence for a dark-matter-dominated dwarf galaxy 300,000 light-years away predicted to exist in 2009.

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