21 September 2014
A team of astronomers, using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope HST) and ground-based observatories, has unexpectedly found a monster black hole residing inside one of the smallest known galaxies
18 September 2014
This magnificent close-up image of Comet 67P, acquired by the European Rosetta spacecraft, from a distance of about 67 km from the comet, shows the site targeted for the landing of the Philae probe on 11 November 2014. The site, termed Site J, is marked by a plus sign.
16 September 2014
On the morning of Friday, 20 March 2015, a total solar eclipse will be visible in northern Atlantic Ocean, Europe, northern and western Africa, and northern and western Asia. The totality stage will be observable only in the northern Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Svalbard. The maximum duration of the brief totality will be 2 minutes 47 seconds, off the coasts of the Faroe Islands.
15 September 2014
The European Space Agency (ESA) recently published a magnificent image (Fig. 1) of Comet 67P, obtained by the comet-bound Rosetta spacecraft. Rosetta was only 62 km above 67P. The image, taken on 5 September 2014, reveals, in breathtaking detail, rugged terrain and huge rocks.
14 September 2014
On Mars, the Red Planet, from an elevated portion of the west rim of the Endeavour Crater, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recently recorded a scene (Fig. 1) looking back over its own tracks made during almost 700 meters of southward driving.
10 September 2014
German astronaut Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) recently posted a wonderful photograph (Fig. 1) of the aurora, taken from the International Space Station (ISS). The aurora is a spectacular colorful glow that occurs when energetic particles coming from the Sun collide with particles of Earth’s upper atmosphere. The auroras are often visible over the polar regions, but sometimes may extend away from the poles.
08 September 2014
The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile has acquired an exquisite image (Fig. 1) of the spiral galaxy Messier 33, the second closest large galaxy to our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Messier 33 is studded with dazzling star clusters and glowing clouds of gas and dust. VST’s picture of Messier 33 is among the most detailed wide-field views of this cosmic island ever obtained, as it particularly shows numerous reddish gas clouds in twirling spiral arms of the galaxy.
02 September 2014
Astronomers, observing with the giant ALMA telescope in Chile, which observes the radio waves coming from the universe, have found planet-forming gas discs (protoplanetary discs) around the two young stars in a double star system, HK Tauri, consisting of two stars in orbit around each other.
01 September 2014
Planets orbiting outside our solar system are known as exoplanets or extrasolar planets. Since the 1990s, astronomers have discovered more than 1,800 exoplanets belonging to over 1,130 planetary systems, consisting of planets around stars or multiple star systems. Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have found that the atmospheres of three exoplanets are almost devoid of water vapor
31 August 2014
Astronomers using data from the Integral space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA), have revealed that a white dwarf, a small, extremely dense stellar object, which is created during the death of a Sun-like star, can reignite and explode as a supernova. Supernovas are tremendous explosions of stars. They are among the most spectacular and most violent cosmic phenomena.