News – Page 58 – Astronomy Now

Tangled magnetic fields may power jets from supermassive black holes

14 December 2018 Astronomy Now

New computer simulations show tangled magnetic fields in jets streaming away from supermassive black holes may be creating powerful electric fields and currents accelerating particles to enormous energies

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spots InSight on red planet

13 December 2018 Astronomy Now

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured a bird’s eye view of NASA’s InSight lander on the surface of Mars, along with the spacecraft’s heat shield, backshell and parachute.

ALMA finds well-developed protoplanetary discs around young suns

12 December 2018 Astronomy Now

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array has captured stunning views of 20 protoplanetary discs around young, nearby stars, all of them suggesting planets are forming faster than expected

InSight selfie reveals drab, featureless plain – just what the doctor ordered

11 December 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s InSight Mars lander has snapped its first selfie on the surface of the red planet, revealing a level, almost featureless plain that’s exactlly the sort of landing site mission scientists wanted.

OSIRIS-REx spacecraft detects water-bearing minerals on Bennu

11 December 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft now exploring the asteroid Bennu has spotted hydrated minerals across the rocky surface of the ancient body, indicating the action of water in the distant past

Voyager 2 crosses solar boundary, moves into interstellar space

10 December 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s long-lived Voyager 2 probe, still sending back data 41 years after launch in 1977, has finally moved into interstellar space, joining Voyager 1 in the void between the stars.

Behaviour of fastest-growing white dwarf contradicts accepted theory

9 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Observations of a fast-growing white dwarf suggest an alternative explanation for what triggers X-ray outbursts as gas from a companion star falls onto the dwarf

LIGO and VIRGO announce four new gravitational-wave detections

3 December 2018 Astronomy Now

The LIGO and VIRGO collaboration has announced the detection of gravitational waves from four previously unseen black hole mergers, including one that happened nine billion years ago

Counting all the photons in the universe (spoiler alert: it’s a big number)

3 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Studying interactions between extragalactic light and gamma rays emitted by blazars has allowed astronomers to calculate how much light has been emitted across the age of the cosmos.

NASA thrilled InSight landed on flat, rock-free ‘sandbox’ on Mars

2 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Analysis of photographs showing the area around NASA’s InSight Mars lander shows no signs of any large rocks or depressions that might affect placement of the spacecraft’s science instruments.