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Gravity wave’s detected in Sun’s interior reveal rapidly rotating core

8 August 2017 Astronomy Now

Scientists using the ESA/NASA SOHO solar observatory have found long-sought gravity modes of seismic vibration that imply the Sun’s core is rotating four times faster than its surface.

New Horizons’ next target might be a binary pair

8 August 2017 Stephen Clark

Ground observations of the New Horizons spacecraft’s next target last month revealed the distant object, lurking in the outer Solar System more than four billion miles from Earth, might have an unconventional elongated shape, or even consist of two icy bodies orbiting one another in an age-old cosmic dance.

Survey reveals most accurate measurement of dark matter structure in the Universe

5 August 2017 Astronomy Now

Scientists have unveiled the most accurate measurement ever made of the present large-scale structure of the Universe by studying the mysterious forces of dark matter and dark energy.

Cassini finds molecule in Titan’s atmosphere that could give rise to organics

3 August 2017 Astronomy Now

The international Cassini-Huygens mission has made a surprising detection of a molecule that is instrumental in the production of complex organics within the hazy atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Hubble detects exoplanet with glowing water atmosphere

2 August 2017 Astronomy Now

Scientists have discovered the strongest evidence to date for a stratosphere on a planet outside our solar system, or exoplanet. A stratosphere is a layer of atmosphere in which temperature increases with higher altitudes.

Astronomers discover ‘heavy metal’ supernova rocking out

2 August 2017 Astronomy Now

Many rock stars don’t like to play by the rules, and a cosmic one is no exception. A team of astronomers has discovered that an extraordinarily bright supernova occurred in a surprising location. This “heavy metal” supernova discovery challenges current ideas of how and where such super-charged supernovas occur.

Possible exomoon signal found

29 July 2017 Keith Cooper

Strong hints have been found of a possible exomoon candidate orbiting a gas giant planet over 4,000 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. Should the moon be confirmed later this year by the Hubble Space Telescope, it will be the first moon ever discovered around a planet beyond our Solar System.

A tale of three stellar cities

28 July 2017 Astronomy Now

Using new observations from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope, astronomers have discovered three different populations of young stars within the Orion Nebula Cluster. This unexpected discovery adds very valuable new insights for the understanding of how such clusters form.

Gamma-ray burst captured in unprecedented detail

27 July 2017 Astronomy Now

Gamma-ray bursts are among the most energetic and explosive events in the universe. They are also short-lived, lasting from a few milliseconds to about a minute, making it tough for astronomers to observe a gamma-ray burst in detail. Using a wide array of ground- and space-based telescope observations, an international team constructed one of the most detailed descriptions of a gamma-ray burst to date.

Large, distant comets more common than previously thought

27 July 2017 Astronomy Now

Comets that take more than 200 years to make one revolution around the Sun are notoriously difficult to study, but NASA’s WISE spacecraft, scanning the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, has delivered new insights about these distant wanderers.