News – Page 31 – Astronomy Now

9 June 2026

Patrick Moore reports on the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope

24 April 2020 Astronomy Now

In the June 1990 issue of Astronomy Now, Patrick Moore reported on the launch of the space shuttle Discovery which carried into orbit the long-awaited Hubble Space Telescope.

Now you see it, now you don’t: The case of the vanishing exoplanet

21 April 2020 Astronomy Now

A presumed exoplanet orbiting the star Fomalhaut now appears to have been a dissipating cloud of debris in the aftermath of a collision between two asteroids.

Earth-size habitable-zone planet found in archived Kepler data

19 April 2020 Astronomy Now

Researchers taking a second look at archived Kepler data find a mislabled Earth-size exoplanet in a red dwarf’s habitable zone.

Star’s orbit around black hole more proof Einstein was right

16 April 2020 Astronomy Now

After decades of observation, researchers confirm the orbit of a star in close orbit around the Milky Way’s central black hole obeys Einstein’s predictions.

Observations show shock waves likely key to nova’s brightness

15 April 2020 Astronomy Now

Observations indicate the visible brightness of a nova is driven by gamma ray emissions from shockwaves in the post-explosion environment.

’Oumuamua was a unique object. Now astronomers think there could be trillions just like it

14 April 2020 Keith Cooper

The mysterious interstellar object 1I/‘Oumuamua, and trillions of others like it, could have formed when its parent body was pulled apart by gravitational tides from a star, resulting in elongated shards being ejected into interstellar space.

The Universe may not look the same in all directions after all

13 April 2020 Astronomy Now

X-ray observations of more than 800 galaxy clusters suggest the expansion of the universe may be faster in some regions than in others.

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.