William Harwood – Page 3

Gaia takes a fingerprint of the Large Magellanic Cloud

3 May 2018 William Harwood

The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft collected proper motion data for several million stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, allowing astronomers to visualize its rotation in a unique fingerprint-like pattern.

Hubble spots surviving companion to a supernova

26 April 2018 William Harwood

For the first time, the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed the surviving companion of a star that exploded in a supernova blast 17 years ago, evidence that supernovas can originate in binary star systems.

Large galaxies may host multiple supermassive black holes

24 April 2018 William Harwood

Many, if not all, large galaxies host supermassive black holes, including the Milky Way. A new study predicts such galaxies likely host more than one, far from the galactic core, the result of earlier mergers.

Astronomers collect spectra in search for Sun’s lost siblings

20 April 2018 William Harwood

Australian astronomers are in the process of collecting the spectra of a million stars across the Milky Way in a project to study galactic evolution. In the process, they hope to track down at least some of the sun’s lost siblings.

Hubble captures extremely remote galaxy cluster

16 April 2018 William Harwood

The Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 captured an image of a massive galaxy cluster some six billion light years from Earth, part of a program to find targets for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Juno peers beneath Jupiter’s cloud tops, revealing wonders

11 April 2018 William Harwood

Using infrared data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, scientists have assembled a 3D map of Jupiter’s north polar region, showing details of a huge central cyclone and eight surrounding storms. Juno also is shedding light on Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field.

Jupiter’s red spot might be shrinking, but it’s still great!

10 April 2018 William Harwood

The Juno probe’s public-outreach camera routinely captures stunning views of Jupiter cloudtops and storms, including the Great Red Spot, seen here in an image processed by graphic artist Seán Doran. The GRS has been shrinking for years, but it remains easily the largest storm in the solar system and one still worthy of its name.

New instrument built to search for Earth-like exo-planets

14 March 2018 William Harwood

New high precision spectrometers are expected to help ground-based telescopes detect the presence of Earth-size planets orbiting other stars by measuring subtle changes in starlight caused by the gravitational tugs of orbiting exoplanets.

Ancient ‘red and dead’ galaxy sheds light on big bang relics

12 March 2018 William Harwood

Astronomers have identified a relatively nearby “relic galaxy,” a massive collection of ancient stars that may shed light on galaxy formation in the ancient universe.

A ringside seat for a slow-motion galactic train wreck

8 March 2018 William Harwood

The Hubble Space Telescope captures a snapshot of a collision between two galaxies 350 million light years away in the constellation Cetus, giving astronomers a ringside seat to a slow-motion merger that eventually will result in a single combined galaxy. Gravitational interactions are distorting the barred spirals, ripping away stars and dust.