Space and astronomy news
Because stars are just points of light in the sky, it’s very difficult to know how far away they are. Astronomers use several techniques to measure distance, but they’ve got a new one now. By measuring echos of light bouncing off a distant nebula, researchers have fine-tuned their accuracy to an amazing level of …
Continue reading “Astronomers Use Light Echos to Measure the Distance to a Star”
It’s a day meant for celebrating love, and what better way to mark the occasion than to take a look at asteroid Eros! While its mythical name is fitting of the holiday, exploring the famous asteroid went into history on February 14, 2000 when the NEAR spacecraft was successfully inserted into orbit around 433 Eros, …
Have you ever named a space mission? Well, here’s your chance. NASA announced today that they’re looking for help from the public to rename their upcoming Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) before it launches in mid-2008. Think you’ve got a good idea for a name? Here’s what the mission’s going to be doing: – …
One of the biggest discoveries made by Cassini is at Saturn’s moon Enceladus, where great plumes of icy material were seen spewing from its southern pole. Now scientists think that this material is traveling all the way inward to get trapped into Saturn’s A-ring. Scientists had already linked together Saturn’s E-ring with the material spewed …
Continue reading “Enceladus is Supplying Ice to Saturn’s A-Ring”
It’s one of the big mysteries in astronomy. There are stellar mass black holes and the supermassive variety, but nothing in between. Where are all the intermediate mass black holes? Astronomers theorize that they could be located in globular star clusters, but nothing definitive has turned up yet. A team of researchers think they’ve come …
Continue reading “New Technique for Finding Intermediate Mass Black Holes”
Astronomers used to think that brief stellar eruptions called novae generated massive amounts of dust. But new observations of a well known nova system called RS Ophiuchus shows that isn’t the case. The dust was there already, and a nova blast just clears it all away. The discovery was made using the massive Keck Interferometer, …
This picture is too gorgeous not to share it. A new Chandra X-ray telescope image shows a beautiful, dense region of massive stars in the Centaurus constellation. It almost appears as though someone threw a handful of colored candies out into space. Known as Westerlund 2, this star cluster has been a mysterious region of …
Greetings, Fellow SkyWatchers! Have you missed me? All you have to do is take a look around the web for the retailer of your choice and you’ll find The Night Sky Companion. Thanks to the great folks at Springer Press (and Sir Patrick Moore), this incredible 674 page, full-color glossy book filled with astronomy pictures, …
An asteroid between 150-160 meters in diameter will pass within 540,000 kilometers (334,000 miles) of Earth on January 29 at 08:33 UT (3:33 EST). Hopefully this news won’t cause any alarmist cries of doom, as the asteroid has no chance of hitting Earth. But there is one reason to get excited about this close approach …
Continue reading “Near Earth Asteroid 2007 TU24 Will Make a Close Approach on January 29, 2008”
2008 will be a busy year throughout the world and our solar system as various robotic and human missions are slated to begin their journeys of exploration and science. One of the most exciting and nail biting times of a mission is the launch, and following is a list of mission launches that will occur …