News – Page 205 – Astronomy Now

Rosetta approaches comet 67P for a closer look

14 February 2015 Stephen Clark

The Rosetta spacecraft neared its comet Saturday, targeting a close flyby within six kilometres of the tiny world’s jagged nucleus to gain new up-close views of the comet and taste the growing vaporous cloud surrounding it.

‘Interstellar’ technology throws light on spinning black holes

14 February 2015 Astronomy Now

The team responsible for the Oscar-nominated visual effects at the centre of Christopher Nolan’s epic, Interstellar, have turned science fiction into science fact by providing new insights into the powerful effects of black holes.

New imaging technique reveals Titan in unprecedented detail

13 February 2015 Astronomy Now

A new way to process radar data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft gives researchers much clearer and easier to interpret views of the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

Astronomers catch multiple-star system in first stages of formation

11 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Scientists studying a dense core of gas called Barnard 5 that lies 800 light-years away in the constellation Perseus discover a young protostar and three dense condensations that will give birth to four stars in ~40,000 years.

Google gives Lick Observatory $1 million

10 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Recent budget cuts suggested a bleak outlook for Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton in California, but a substantial gift from internet giant Google gives this historic teaching and research facility hope for a brighter future.

First pair of merging stars destined to become a supernova found

10 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and instruments in the Canary Islands have discovered a close orbiting pair of white dwarf stars destined to become a Type Ia supernova.

Japanese craft to get second chance after missing Venus in 2010

9 February 2015 Stephen Clark

Five years after a balky valve kept it from entering orbit around Venus, Japan’s Akatsuki space probe is again approaching the sweltering planet for another shot at completing its science mission in December.

Milky Way’s dark-matter-dominated companion galaxy found

9 February 2015 Astronomy Now

Analysis of near-infrared data from the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope provides evidence for a dark-matter-dominated dwarf galaxy 300,000 light-years away predicted to exist in 2009.

Twinkle satellite’s fast-track mission to unveil exoplanet atmospheres

7 February 2015 Astronomy Now

A team of UK scientists and engineers announce plans to launch a small satellite called “Twinkle” within four years, an ambitious mission to provide insights into the chemistry, formation and evolution of planets orbiting other stars.

Planck reveals first stars were born later

6 February 2015 Astronomy Now

New maps from ESA’s Planck satellite uncover the ‘polarised’ light from the early universe across the entire sky, revealing that the first stars formed much later than previously thought.