X-Headlines – Page 8 – Astronomy Now

Cassini spacecraft makes final plunge into Saturn

15 September 2017 Astronomy Now

A thrilling epoch in the exploration of our solar system came to a close today, as NASA’s Cassini spacecraft made a fateful plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn, ending its 13-year tour of the ringed planet.

Cassini spacecraft makes its final approach to Saturn

14 September 2017 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is on final approach to Saturn, following confirmation by mission navigators that it is on course to dive into the planet’s atmosphere on Friday, Sept. 15.

Explosive birth of stars can swell galactic cores

12 September 2017 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have found that active star formation upswells galaxies, like yeast helps bread rise. Using three powerful telescopes on the ground and in orbit, they observed galaxies from 11 billion years ago and found explosive formation of stars in the cores of galaxies. This suggests that galaxies can change their own shape without interaction with other galaxies.

Jupiter’s aurora presents a powerful mystery

9 September 2017 Astronomy Now

Scientists on NASA’s Juno mission have observed massive amounts of energy swirling over Jupiter’s polar regions that contribute to the giant planet’s powerful aurora – only not in ways the researchers expected.

‘Extreme’ telescopes find the second-fastest-spinning pulsar

6 September 2017 Astronomy Now

By following up on mysterious high-energy sources mapped out by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Netherlands-based Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope has identified a pulsar spinning at more than 42,000 revolutions per minute, making it the second-fastest known.

X-rays reveal temperament of possible planet-hosting stars

6 September 2017 Astronomy Now

A new X-ray study has revealed that stars like the Sun and their less massive cousins calm down surprisingly quickly after a turbulent youth. This result has positive implications for the long-term habitability of planets orbiting such stars.

Radar reveals two moons orbiting asteroid Florence

5 September 2017 Astronomy Now

Radar images of asteroid 3122 Florence obtained at the 70-metre antenna at NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex between August 29 and September 1 have revealed that the asteroid has two small moons, and also confirmed that main asteroid Florence is about 4.5 kilometres in size.

Shocking discovery explains powerful novae

5 September 2017 Astronomy Now

In a typical year, there are around 50 novae, nuclear explosions on the surface of white dwarf stars, in our galaxy. Some of these explosions are so bright and powerful, they exceed the scale of scientific explanation. Employing two powerful telescopes, astronomers at Michigan State University have proven a theory that explains these super-luminous novae and other astronomical explosions.

Astronomers investigate distant galaxy’s magnetic field

30 August 2017 Astronomy Now

With the help of a gigantic cosmic lens, astronomers have measured the magnetic field of a galaxy nearly five billion light-years away. The achievement is giving them important new clues about a problem at the frontiers of cosmology — the nature and origin of the magnetic fields that play an important role in how galaxies develop over time.

Kepler space telescope discovers variability in the Seven Sisters

29 August 2017 Astronomy Now

The Seven Sisters, as they were known to the ancient Greeks, are now known to modern astronomers as the Pleiades star cluster – a set of stars which are visible to the naked eye and have been studied for thousands of years by cultures all over the world. A new algorithm to analyse data from NASA’s Kepler telescope has revealed insights about the behaviour of the stars.