News – Page 130 – Astronomy Now

26 August 2026

Juno spacecraft braves the unknown at Jupiter to enter orbit

5 July 2016 Stephen Clark

Setting up post at the king of planets, NASA’s Juno spacecraft fired its main engine for 35 minutes Monday, steering into orbit around Jupiter to peer inside the gas giant and give scientists a better idea of how the solar system took shape 4.6 billion years ago.

Juno Post-Arrival News Conference

5 July 2016 Astronomy Now

Juno programme officials hold a news conference at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory following the successful orbital insertion of the space probe around the gas giant Jupiter.

Mystery solved: Martian moons formed by a giant impact

5 July 2016 Astronomy Now

Where did the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, come from? For a long time, their shape suggested that they were captured asteroids. However, the shape and course of their orbits contradict this hypothesis. Two independent and complementary studies now provide an answer: these satellites formed from the debris of a gigantic collision between Mars and a protoplanet one-third its size.

Scientists on edge awaiting Juno’s perilous encounter with Jupiter

4 July 2016 Stephen Clark

Speeding toward Jupiter at nearly 40 miles per second, NASA’s Juno spacecraft must brave a field of computer-zapping radiation and Jupiter’s tenuous ring of ice and dust particles when it brakes into orbit around the planet Monday and zooms just 2,900 miles from the world’s turbulent cloud tops.

Live coverage: NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter

4 July 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is barreling toward a rendezvous with Jupiter after a 2.8 billion kilometre (1.7-billion-mile), five-year trip from planet Earth. The research probe’s main engine will ignite for 35 minutes to maneuver Juno into orbit, and engineers expect to receive confirmation of burn’s start at 0318 GMT Tuesday.

NASA’s Juno mission is about to peel back the layers on Jupiter

4 July 2016 Stephen Clark

Whether you’re a casual stargazer or armed with a toolkit of observing gadgets, chances are you have caught a glimpse of Jupiter this year beckoning as one of the brightest objects in the night sky. It’s about to get its first visitor in nearly a decade, when NASA’s Juno spacecraft rockets into orbit.

Using gravitational waves to catch runaway intergalactic black holes

4 July 2016 Astronomy Now

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a new method for detecting and measuring one of the most powerful, and most mysterious, events in the universe — a black hole being kicked out of its host galaxy and into intergalactic space at speeds as high as 5,000 kilometres per second (11 million miles per hour).

Juno’s British-built engine ready for all-important firing at Jupiter

3 July 2016 Stephen Clark

Ground controllers have pressurised the Juno spacecraft’s propulsion system in preparation for a 5 July rocket firing by the probe’s UK-made rocket engine that will steer the spinning, solar-powered robot into orbit around Jupiter.

AutoLens steps up for Euclid satellite’s 100,000 gravitational lens challenge

3 July 2016 Astronomy Now

Due for launch in 2020, ESA’s Euclid satellite will set astronomers a huge challenge: to analyse 100,000 strong gravitational lenses. The gravitational deflection of light from distant astronomical sources by interposing massive galaxies can create multiple images of the source that are not just visually stunning, but are also valuable tools for probing our universe.

New Horizons receives mission extension to Kuiper Belt, Dawn to remain at Ceres

2 July 2016 Astronomy Now

Following its historic first-ever flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons mission has received the green light to fly onward to an object deeper in the Kuiper Belt, known as 2014 MU69. The spacecraft’s planned rendezvous with the ancient object — considered one of the early building blocks of the solar system — is 1 January 2019.