CfA – Page 5 – Astronomy Now

19 February 2026

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[ 26 January 2026 ] Dr Allan Chapman (1946-2026) News
[ 16 January 2026 ] Potentially bright ‘sungrazing’ comet discovered News
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[ 25 October 2025 ] Hubble revisits a cosmic yardstick News
[ 21 October 2025 ] Europe’s planet hunting spacecraft complete and ready for final testing News

The closest rocky, transiting exoplanet found in Cassiopeia

31 July 2015 Astronomy Now

Northern Hemisphere astronomers are familiar with the W-shaped star pattern of Cassiopeia, a circumpolar constellation near the Pole Star that never sets for latitudes north of 35°. Tucked next to one leg of the W lies a modest 5th-magnitude star named HD 219134 that has been hiding a secret.

Was water abundant in the first billion years of the universe?

29 April 2015 Astronomy Now

Bok globules are dark knots of gas and dust in larger molecular clouds that we see today. New theoretical work shows that similar islands of gas enriched in heavy elements in the early universe could have held as much water vapour as we find in our galaxy today.