News – Page 96 – Astronomy Now

24 August 2026

BepiColombo Mercury mission tested for journey into ‘pizza oven’

10 July 2017 Stephen Clark

Three spacecraft built in Europe and Japan have completed their final joint tests to ensure they are ready for departure to Mercury on an Ariane 5 rocket late next year on the nearly £1.5 billion BepiColombo mission to survey the Solar System’s innermost planet.

Hubble pushed beyond limits to spot clumps of new stars in distant galaxy

10 July 2017 Astronomy Now

When it comes to the distant Universe, even the keen vision of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope can only go so far. Teasing out finer details requires clever thinking and a little help from a cosmic alignment with a gravitational lens.

JAXA, NASA approve replacement for failed Hitomi astronomy satellite

6 July 2017 Stephen Clark

The Japanese space agency is moving ahead with a smaller-scale X-ray astronomy satellite to replace the failed Hitomi observatory, which spun out of control about a month-and-a-half after its launch last year.

NASA marks 20 years of continuous Mars exploration

4 July 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Mars Pathfinder probe dropped to the surface of Mars for an airbag-cushioned landing 20 years ago Tuesday, bouncing 15 times across an ancient flood plain before deploying a mobile robot to usher in two decades of uninterrupted Martian exploration.

Surprise methanol detection points to evolving story of Enceladus’s plumes

4 July 2017 Astronomy Now

A serendipitous detection of the organic molecule methanol around an intriguing moon of Saturn suggests that material spewed from Enceladus undertakes a complex chemical journey once vented into space. This is the first time that a molecule from Enceladus has been detected with a ground-based telescope.

Earth-based views of Jupiter to enhance Juno flyby

30 June 2017 Astronomy Now

Telescopes in Hawaii have obtained new images of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot, which will assist the first-ever close-up study of the Great Red Spot, planned for July 10.

Mars rover Opportunity on walkabout near crater rim

28 June 2017 Astronomy Now

NASA’s senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is examining rocks at the edge of Endeavour Crater for signs that they may have been either transported by a flood or eroded in place by wind.

Astronomers detect orbital motion in pair of supermassive black holes

28 June 2017 Astronomy Now

Using the supersharp radio “vision” of the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array, astronomers have made the first detection of orbital motion in a pair of supermassive black holes in a galaxy some 750 million light-years from Earth.

Artificial brain helps Gaia catch speeding stars

27 June 2017 Astronomy Now

With the help of software that mimics a human brain, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six stars zipping at high speed from the centre of our galaxy to its outskirts. This could provide key information about some of the most obscure regions of the Milky Way.

Chandra samples galactic goulash

27 June 2017 Astronomy Now

What would happen if you took two galaxies and mixed them together over millions of years? A new image including data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals the cosmic culinary outcome.