William Harwood – Astronomy Now

New computer simulation brings black holes to life

26 September 2019 William Harwood

A new computer simulation shows how a black hole’s titanic gravity warps space and bends the light emitted by super-heated debris in a surrounding accretion disc.

A hot planet, shaped like a football, spews heavy metals

5 August 2019 William Harwood

The Hubble Space Telescope has detected iron and magnesium gas spewing from a hellish exoplanet being gravitationally warped by its nearby host star.

MAVEN’s orbit lowered to support Mars 2020 data relay

16 February 2019 William Harwood

NASA is using aerobraking to lower the orbit of the agency’s MAVEN Mars orbiter to support data relay operations with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover.

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.

Articles by William Harwood