William Harwood – Astronomy Now

Ultima Thule comes into focus with latest New Horizons image

3 January 2019 William Harwood

New images of Ultima Thule, the small chunk of primordial debris NASA’s New Horizons probe zoomed past on New Year’s Day, came into much sharper focus on Wednesday, revealing a snowman-shaped object.

A holiday “star wreath” from the Hubble Space Telescope

21 December 2018 William Harwood

In a holiday Hubble image, the Cepheid variable star RS Puppis, 10 times more massive than the sun and 200 times larger, shines in a wreath-like “gossamer cocoon” of dust, brightening and dimming over a 41.5-day cycle.

Mars lander on course for Monday touchdown

25 November 2018 William Harwood

After a six-month voyage from Earth, NASA’s InSight Mars lander, streaking through space at at some 12,300 mph, will slam into the thin martian atmosphere Monday to begin a nail-biting six-and-a-half-minute descent to the surface, kicking off a billion-dollar mission to probe the red planet’s hidden interior.

Ariane 5 launches two satellites on 7-year voyage to Mercury

21 October 2018 William Harwood

A powerful European Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from French Guiana late Friday and boosted a pair of satellites into space for a seven-year plunge into the inner solar system, a voyage requiring seven planetary flybys to slow down enough in the sun’s gravitational clutches to slip into orbit around hellish Mercury.

Chandra X-ray Observatory to resume observations after gyro swap

15 October 2018 William Harwood

The Chandra X-ray Observatory should be out of ‘safe mode’ and back in operation soon after engineers traced a recent problem to one of the telescopes gyroscopes. A backup has been activated that should resolve the matter.

Now you see it, now you don’t; before and after a global dust storm

20 July 2018 William Harwood

Images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provide dramatic before-and-after shots of Mars showing the impact of a global dust storm that has obscured the surface.

The Hubble Space Telescope’s jaw-dropping Messier catalogue

28 June 2018 William Harwood

Amateur astronomers the world over routinely use the Messier catalog as a guide to deep space targets visible in relatively small telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope provides an altogether different experience.

The Hubble Space Telescope and globular clusters – a match made in heaven

26 June 2018 William Harwood

The Hubble Space Telescope routinely snaps breath-taking views of densely packed globular clusters, but astronomers don’t yet understand the role these vast assemblies might have played in the Milky Way’s evolution.

X-rays, at least, no problem for planets orbiting Alpha Centauri AB

7 June 2018 William Harwood

More than a decade of observations shows any planets orbiting the two main stars in the nearby Alpha Centauri system are not being blasted by dangerous levels of radiation that would be hostile to life.

Evidence found for ‘giant comet’ theory of Pluto’s origin

26 May 2018 William Harwood

Data collected by NASA’s New Horizons probe and ESA’s Rosetta mission suggest Pluto might have formed from the accretion of a billion or so smaller bodies similar to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and other Kuiper Belt objects.