News – Page 210 – Astronomy Now

Four billion-year-old meteorite reveals climate of ancient Mars

27 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Recovered from an Antarctic ice field exactly 30 years ago, a 4 billion-year-old Martian meteorite named ALH84001 reveals a detailed record of the Red Planet’s climate, back when water likely washed across its surface.

Scientific riches await Philae comet lander, if it wakes up

25 December 2014 Stephen Clark

Optimistic Europe’s hibernating Philae comet lander can be revived, mission controllers plan to try and contact the spacecraft as soon as January as the search narrows for the probe’s final resting place — a site within arm’s reach of pristine ice and organic matter ripe for analysis if the mission gets a new lease on life.

Sun sizzles in high-energy X-rays

23 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Designed to study black holes, supernova remnants and other extreme objects beyond our Solar System, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has captured the most sensitive portrait of the Sun ever taken in high-energy X-rays.

The Milky Way’s new neighbour

22 December 2014 Astronomy Now

The Local Group of galaxies has just grown in number with the Hubble Space Telescope discovery of KKs 3 — a dwarf spheroidal some 7 million light-years away in the far southern constellation of Hydrus.

Did Earth receive its water from comets, or geologically from within?

21 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Was the Earth dry and inhospitable to life until icy comets pelted the planet and deposited water on the surface? Two researchers at Ohio State University believe that Earth was formed with water in its interior and propose a mechanism for bringing it to the surface.

Europe’s Venus Express mission is at its end

19 December 2014 Stephen Clark

The European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft has run out of fuel and will burn up in the atmosphere of Venus in January after a successful eight-year mission.

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft proves it can still find planets

19 December 2014 Astronomy Now

When the primary mission of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft ended in May 2013 due to a failure of its stabilisation system, a team of scientists and engineers developed an ingenious strategy to control the spacecraft. The resulting second mission, K2, has a newfound planet — HIP 116454b

Mars rover detects methane spike, organic molecules

17 December 2014 William Harwood

Carefully analyzing data collected by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, scientists discovered a sudden, unexpected spike in methane levels in the martian atmosphere over a two-month period one year ago.

Carnegie hosts Mercury crater-naming contest

16 December 2014 Astronomy Now

To celebrate MESSENGER’s highly successful ten-year mission, you’re invited to immortalise five famous artists, composers or writers by naming craters on Mercury in their honour — but hurry, the contest closes 15th January 2015!

Swarms of Pluto-size objects kick up dust around adolescent Sun-like star

14 December 2014 Astronomy Now

ALMA observations of the dusty protoplanetary disc surrounding a star known as HD 107146 provides evidence for an entire family of orbiting Pluto-size objects, a solar system in transition from early life to maturity where planets have finished forming.