News – Page 31 – Astronomy Now

BepiColombo flies by Earth, completing first leg of journey to Mercury

12 April 2020 Stephen Clark

Working with a reduced staff due to coronavirus-related restrictions, European Space Agency flight controllers monitored the BepiColombo spacecraft during a flyby of Earth on Friday, a maneuver that used our planet’s gravity to steer the mission on a course toward Mercury.

Swarm of NASA nanosats to probe source of solar eruptions

10 April 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected a mission to dispatch six CubeSats, each the size of a toaster oven, to an orbit more than 32,000 kilometres from Earth to study massive particle ejections from the sun.

Event Horizon Telescope reveals inner workings of quasar’s jet

8 April 2020 Astronomy Now

One year after capturing an image of a black hole’s shadow, the Event Horizon Telescope captures best view yet of a quasar’s powerful jets.

Perseverance Mars rover gets its wheels as launch preps continue

6 April 2020 Astronomy Now

Despite coronovirus restrictions, engineers at the Kennedy Space Center continue work to ready the Perseverance Mars rover for launch in July.

Intermediate mass ‘missing link’ black hole identified

2 April 2020 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope provides strong evidence that a presumed tidal disruption event was caused by an intermediate-mass black hole.

Scientists plan for BepiColombo fly-by despite coronavirus limitations

30 March 2020 Keith Cooper

Scientists are still preparing for the crucial fly-by of Earth by the joint European–Japanese BepiColombo mission to Mercury on 10 April, despite the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc.

Using Earth templates to hunt for life-supporting exoplanets

29 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have put together spectral templates of Earth at key points in its evolution to help next-generation telescopes identify similar exoplanets.

Hubble anniversary events impacted by COVID-19 pandemic

29 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Events marking the 30th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch on 24 April 1990 are being rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evidence of Uranus’ leaking atmosphere found hidden in Voyager 2 observations

27 March 2020 Keith Cooper

By going over old data collected by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986, two scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have made the startling discovery that Uranus’ atmosphere is gradually escaping into space.

High-stakes search in a galaxy cluster for an elusive particle

25 March 2020 Keith Cooper

A search within a distant galaxy cluster for ghost-like particles that could provide evidence for String Theory and be a candidate for mysterious dark matter has turned up nothing – so far.