News – Page 61 – Astronomy Now

Astronomers find oldest known star in the Milky Way

6 November 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have found what may be the oldest star in the Milky Way, a tiny 13.5-billion-year-old body made up primarily of elements created in the Big Bang.

Data indicate Milky Way smash up 10 billion years ago

4 November 2018 Astronomy Now

Data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft indicate a large galaxy collided with the Milky Way about 10 billion years ago, leaving identifiable stars strewn in its wake to help astronomers piece together our galaxy’s history.

OSIRIS-REx captures first clear images of asteroid Bennu

3 November 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, closing in on asteroid Bennu, has sent back photos showing a body remarkably similar in appearance to the asteroid Ryugu being studied by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft.

NASA’s Dawn mission comes to an end in orbit around Ceres

1 November 2018 Astronomy Now

Like its cousin the Kepler space telescope, NASA’s Dawn mission to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres has run out of gas, ending a remarkably successful 11-year mission to the two largest members of the asteroid belt.

Scientists say observations confirm black hole at Milky Way’s core

31 October 2018 Astronomy Now

New Observations of infrared flares at the heart of the Milky Way confirm the presence of a 4-million-solar-mass black hole lurking in the dust-shrouded core of Earth’s galaxy, scientists say.

Planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft out of fuel, ending mission

30 October 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s exoplanet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has final run out of fuel, forcing its retirement after an extended 9.5-year mission that saw the discovery of 2,681 confirmed planets to date and 2,899 more candidates.

Parker probe now closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft

30 October 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is now closer to the Sun than any spacecraft ever built as it moves in for the first of seven dips into the star’s outer atmosphere, or corona, for unprecedented close-range observations.

IAU recommends renaming Hubble’s law to include Lemaître

29 October 2018 Astronomy Now

The International Astronomical Union has voted to recommend renaming Hubble’s law to the Hubble-Lemaître law to honour the cosmological contributions of Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaitre.

An X-ray ‘cold front’ in Perseus galaxy cluster

29 October 2018 Astronomy Now

A vast cloud of gas being pulled away from the centre of the ancient Perseus galaxy cluster spans an arc stretching some two million light years in an ongoing phenomenon that began five billion years ago.

It looks like volcanic activity on Mars – but it’s not

27 October 2018 Astronomy Now

A long cloud streaming away from a martian volcano gives the appearance of volcanic activity, but scientists say it’s actually a cloud caused by wind moving past the volcano’s leeward side, a familiar phenomenon on the red planet.