News – Page 16 – Astronomy Now

Engineers troubleshoot Mars rover sample collection failure

7 August 2021 Astronomy Now

Engineers are assessing an initial, unsuccessful attempt by the Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first rock sample from the floor of Jezero Crater.

Jupiter’s high temperature traced to planet’s powerful auroras

4 August 2021 Astronomy Now

A 50-year-old mystery solved: a detailed analysis shows Jupiter’s intense auroras heat the atmosphere on a global scale.

“Mountains” on neutron stars just fractions of a millimetre tall

28 July 2021 Astronomy Now

Computer modelling suggests neutron stars are gravitationally compressed into near-perfect spheres.

InSight finds frigid Mars has molten core

27 July 2021 Astronomy Now

An ultra-sensitive seismometer aboard NASA’s InSight Mars lander finds a huge molten core at the heart of the red planet.

In a first, ALMA spies huge moon-forming disc around exoplanet

24 July 2021 Astronomy Now

ALMA confirms the presence of a possible moon-forming disc of dusty debris around a Jupiter-size exoplanet 400 light years from Earth.

Perseverance Mars rover poised to collect first rock samples

23 July 2021 Astronomy Now

Five months after landing in Jezero Crater, the Perseverance Mars rover is finally ready to begin collecting samples for eventual return to Earth.

Whew! Hubble Space Telescope back in operation

17 July 2021 Astronomy Now

After a month of complex troubleshooting, engineers have successfully restored the Hubble Space Telescope to normal operations.

Astronomers spot two stars locked in supernova death spiral

13 July 2021 Astronomy Now

Astronomers spot a teardrop-shaped star indicating the distorting presence of a white dwarf as the two spiral toward a supernova blast.

Smallest, most massive white dwarf on verge of collapse to neutron star

2 July 2021 Astronomy Now

Astronomers find smallest, most massive white dwarf, possibly on threshold to evolve into a neutron star.

Gravity waves show black hole-neutron star mergers

30 June 2021 Astronomy Now

Gravitational wave detectors confirm two instances of black holes consuming neutron stars in cataclysmic mergers.