News – Page 20 – Astronomy Now

Live coverage: United Arab Emirates to place probe into orbit around Mars today

9 February 2021 Stephen Clark

The Emirates Mars Mission, the first deep space probe from the Arab world, is set to swing into orbit around the Red Planet on Tuesday to cap a 494 million-kilometre, 205-day interplanetary voyage from Earth and begin a science mission studying the Martian climate. The critical Mars Orbit Insertion manoeuvre is scheduled to begin at 1530 GMT.

Three spacecraft home in on Mars to open new era of exploration

8 February 2021 Astronomy Now

Three’s a crowd: UAE’s Hope orbiter, China’s Tianwen 1 and NASA’s Perseverance rover reach Mars

Einstein@Home helps researchers confirm ‘black widow’ pulsar in binary system

5 February 2021 Astronomy Now

Astronomers confirm a rapidly spinning pulsar in an unusual binary system using a network of home computers in a citizen science initiative.

NASA’s Psyche mission passes key milestone on road to launch

5 February 2021 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Psyche probe passes a key milestone on the road to a trail-blazing mission to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name.

Sextuple star system fascinates with three eclipsing binaries

29 January 2021 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have found a rare sextuple star system made up of three eclipsing binaries.

The case of the missing supermassive black hole

25 January 2021 Astronomy Now

Despite careful searches with the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes, astronomers have been unable to find a presumed supermassive black hole at the heart of a giant galaxy.

Researchers spot whirlwind marking possible exoplanet in the making

21 January 2021 William Harwood

Astronomers have spotted an intriguing concentration of warm, dusty debris around a nearby star that may indicated a planet in the making.

NASA InSight’s ‘Mole’ no longer digging the red planet

14 January 2021 Astronomy Now

Engineers have given up trying to coax a German “mole,” deployed by NASA’s InSight Mars lander, to hammer a heat probe into red planet’s soil.

Most distant quasar – and youngest supermassive black hole – identified

13 January 2021 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have discovered the youngest supermassive black hole to date, challenging theories about how such monsters grow.

Researchers find strong hints of background ‘sea’ of gravity waves

12 January 2021 Astronomy Now

By measuring subtle changes in the timing of millisecond pulsar flashes, researchers are close to confirming the presence of a background “sea” of gravity waves.