News – Page 212 – Astronomy Now

Researchers suggest Martian meteorite contains organic carbon of biological origin

4 December 2014 Astronomy Now

An analysis of a Martian meteorite named Tissint, seen to fall in the Moroccan desert on 18th July 2011, revealed small fissures filled with organic carbon that is possibly biological in origin, according to an international research team.

Hayabusa 2 launches on audacious asteroid adventure

3 December 2014 Stephen Clark

A Japanese H-2A launcher blasted off from an idyllic island spaceport Tuesday, dispatching a daring six-year expedition to bring a piece of an asteroid back to Earth.

US-UK press conference declaration calls for awareness of dangerous asteroids

2 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Experts and luminaries in science, business and entertainment will assemble at simultaneous press conferences in San Francisco & London on 3rd December to officially unveil Asteroid Day 2015, a global day of public awareness about asteroids and the threat they pose to humanity.

Ground team ready to rouse Pluto probe for historic flyby

1 December 2014 Stephen Clark

On the final stretch of a speedy nine-year trek through the solar system, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will be awakened from hibernation Dec. 6 for an encounter with Pluto, a mysterious world that has captured imaginations and will soon be revealed in reality.

Ground-based detection of super-Earth transit

1 December 2014 Astronomy Now

A team of astronomers has measured the passing of a super-Earth in front of a bright, nearby Sun-like star using a ground-based telescope for the first time. Exoplanet 55 Cancri e, some 40 light-years away, is about twice as big and eight times as massive as the Earth.

Japanese “ATERUI” becomes world’s fastest astronomical supercomputer

1 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Capable of performing one thousand trillion calculations per second, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s upgraded “ATERUI” Cray XC30 supercomputer now offers the world’s best performance for astronomical simulations.

Earth’s ‘plasmaspheric hiss’ protects against a harmful radiation belt

27 November 2014 Astronomy Now

Researchers at MIT, the University of Colorado and elsewhere have found that very low-frequency electromagnetic waves in the Earth’s upper atmosphere form a shield, protecting the planet’s surface from the Van Allen belt’s high-energy radiation.

‘Eye of Sauron’ provides new way of measuring distances to galaxies

26 November 2014 Astronomy Now

A team led by Dr. Sebastian Hoenig from the University of Southampton has developed a new way of measuring precise distances to galaxies tens of millions of light-years away, refining the distance to NGC 4151 and providing a way for accurately determining black hole masses.

Dawn spacecraft’s geological maps of asteroid Vesta

25 November 2014 Astronomy Now

Launched in 2007, Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft orbited and surveyed large asteroid Vesta between July 2011 and September 2012. This detailed map is the culmination of a two-and-a-half-year geological mapping campaign.

UK team announces plan to crowd-source moon mission

20 November 2014 Stephen Clark

Scientists hope private backers will kick-start a mission to land a robotic probe on the South Pole of the moon within the next 10 years, drill deep into lunar bedrock and analyze primordial core samples to study the origins of the solar system.