News – Page 71 – Astronomy Now

A new volcano on Io? Juno data indicate ‘hot spot’ on active moon

14 July 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Juno spacecraft now orbiting Juno has spotted what could be a new volcano on Io, the innermost Galilean moon, a tortured world featuring hundreds of volcanoes and lava flows powered by Jupiter’s crushing gravity

Cosmic mystery deepens with conflicting measurements of Hubble constant

13 July 2018 Astronomy Now

The Hubble constant indicates how fast the Universe is expanding in the wake of the Big Bang. New observations using two independent techniques have come up with different values, signs of possible problems with current theory.

Astronomers trace cosmic ray neutrino back to remote blazar

13 July 2018 Astronomy Now

For the first time, a ghostly neutrino detected at the IceCube observatory in Antarctica has been traced back to its source, a super-massive black hole in a “blazar” galaxy four billion light years away.

Cassini ‘hears” plasma waves connecting Saturn to Enceladus

10 July 2018 Astronomy Now

Data recorded by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shortly before it was directed to crash into Saturn at the end of its historic mission reveal powerful plasma waves moving from Saturn to its icy moon Enceladus.

Quasar provides clues about conditions in the early Universe

10 July 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have found a brilliant quasar harbouring a super-massive black hole some 13 billion light years away, one of the most distant ever discovered, providing a tool of sorts to study conditions in the very early Universe.

Kepler spacecraft, nearly out of fuel, suspends exoplanet search

9 July 2018 Astronomy Now

The Kepler spacecraft, nearly out of fuel, has suspended its search for exoplanets pending the downlink of stored data. Flight controllers hope to resume observations in August for as long as the dwindling propellant holds out.

Computer simulations confirm massive impact knocked Uranus off kilter

6 July 2018 Astronomy Now

Supercomputer simulations confirm a cataclysmic impact with a body at least twice the size of Earth knocked Uranus on its side during the solar system’s formation, possibly explaining the evolution of its rings and moons.

Yet another test for general relativity; yet another “A” for Einstein

5 July 2018 Astronomy Now

In yet another success for Einstein’s theory of general relativity, astronomers studying the motions of a triple star system have again confirmed that objects fall at the same rate regardless of mass or composition.

Cataclysmic collision re-shaped Milky Way in distant past

4 July 2018 Astronomy Now

A head-on collision between the Milky Way and a smaller body dubbed the “Sausage” galaxy eight to 10 billion years ago had a profound effect on the structure and evolution of Earth’s home in space, astronomers say.

NuSTAR X-ray telescope shows Eta Carinae source of cosmic rays

4 July 2018 Astronomy Now

The origins of high-energy cosmic rays are difficult to trace because of the effects of magnetic fields, but data from NASA’s NuSTAR X-ray telescope indicates the massive binary star Eta Carinae is one likely source.