News – Page 55 – Astronomy Now

New Horizons sends back best picture yet of Ultima Thule

25 January 2019 Astronomy Now

NASA’s New Horizons probe has beamed back the highest resolution view yet of Ultima Thule, the twin-lobe Kuiper Belt body it flew by on 1 January.

Opportunity rover logs 15 years on Mars

24 January 2019 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover landed on the red planet 15 years ago 24 January; engineers are still attempting contact in the wake of a global dust storm last year.

Jet from Milky Way’s central black hole may be facing Earth

24 January 2019 Astronomy Now

High-resolution virtual views of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole indicate one if its powerful jets could be aimed roughly in the direction of Earth.

A recent uptick in impact events on the Moon and on Earth

20 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate the number of impact events on the Moon nearly tripled over the past 290 million years.

Cassini data shows Saturn’s rings likely a recent phenomenon

18 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Analysis of data collected near the end of the Cassini spacecraft’s mission to Saturn indicate the planet’s spectacular rings are a relatively recent phenomenon.

Hypernova sheds new light on how massive stars die

17 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers observing a hypernova 500 million light years away have found an explanation for why some generate gamma ray bursts and others do not.

Binary star system found with polar dust disc

17 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have found a binary star system with a ring of debris tilted at right angles to the plane of the stars’ orbit, indicating planets likely can form in a wide variety of orientations.

A star’s death sheds light on black hole’s spin

14 January 2019 Astronomy Now

The remains of a destroyed star in a disc of shredded debris around a supermassive black hole showed the hole was spinning at more than half the speed of light.

Astronomers debate an unprecedented “holy cow” outburst

13 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers are debating what triggered an explosion of light in a galaxy 200 million like years away that was 10 to 100 times brighter than a typical supernova.

Hubble spies brightest known quasar in the early universe

11 January 2019 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the brightest quasar ever seen in the early universe, an active galactic nucleus shining 11 trillion times brighter than the Sun.