News

UK scientists seal deal on European Extremely Large Telescope’s first-light spectrograph

23 September 2015

An artist's impression of the E-ELT. Image credit: ESO

UK researchers have just signed an agreement to lead one of the first instruments for what will become the World’s largest visible and infrared telescope, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The spectrograph, called HARMONI, will provide the European Southern Observatory’s telescope with a sensitivity that is up to hundreds of times better than any current telescope of its kind.

Hot, dense material surrounds O-type star with largest magnetic field known

23 September 2015

The magnetic field of the O-type star called NGC 1624-2 is unusually large for its class. Image credit: SOHO/[instrument] Consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

O-type stars are the hottest and brightest stars known. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed that the magnetic field at the surface of NGC 1624-2 is 20,000 times stronger than at the surface of our Sun. NGC 1624-2 contains a raging storm of extreme stellar winds and dense plasma that gobbles up X-rays before they can escape into space.

Radio telescopes could spot supersonic stars hidden in the galactic centre

22 September 2015

In this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, stellar winds flowing out from the fast-moving star Zeta Ophiuchi are creating a bow shock seen as glowing gossamer threads, which, for this star, are only seen in infrared light. A similar process in the galactic centre could allow us to find stars we can't see any other way, according to new research. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The centre of our Milky Way galaxy is a mysterious place. Not only is it thousands of light-years away, it's also cloaked in so much dust that most stars within are rendered invisible. Harvard researchers are proposing a new way to clear the fog and spot stars hiding there. They suggest looking for radio waves coming from supersonic stars.

Pairs of supermassive black holes in galaxies may be rarer than previously thought

22 September 2015

An artist's depiction of two lack holes merging. Image credit: NASA / Wikimedia Commons.

There may be fewer pairs of supermassive black holes orbiting each other at the cores of giant galaxies than previously thought, according to a new study. When two massive galaxies harbouring supermassive black holes collide, their black holes ultimately combine — a process that could be the strongest source of elusive gravitational waves, still yet to be directly detected.

China aims for landing on Moon’s far side by 2020

22 September 2015

A rover and landing platform developed as a backup for China's Chang'e 3 Moon mission will be repurposed to attempt the first touchdown on the lunar far side by the end of the decade, Chinese officials said.

Astronomers identify a new class of medium-sized black holes

21 September 2015

This image, taken with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, shows the central region of galaxy NGC 1313. This galaxy is home to the ultraluminous X-ray source NCG1313X-1, which astronomers have now determined to be an intermediate-mass black hole candidate. NGC 1313 is 50,000 light-years across and lies about 14 million light-years from the Milky Way in the southern constellation Reticulum. Image credit: ESO.

Nearly all black holes come in one of two sizes: stellar mass black holes that weigh up to a few dozen times the mass of our Sun, or supermassive black holes ranging from a million to several billion times the Sun's mass. A team led by astronomers at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has found evidence for a new intermediate-mass black hole about 5,000 times the mass of our star.

Launch of European Mars mission delayed two months

20 September 2015

Officials expect to delay next year’s launch of a European Mars orbiter and lander about two months — from January to March — to remove faulty pressure transducers from the landing craft’s braking system, the European Space Agency announced Friday.

The surface of Rosetta’s comet is changing

20 September 2015

Views from Europe’s Rosetta comet orbiter show mysterious markings appearing on the nucleus of Comet 67P in recent months, with new surface features forming within a matter of weeks, and scientists are digging into the complex causes of the cometary erosion.

Mysterious energy bursts provide new way to chart the cosmos in 3-D

20 September 2015

A lone meteor pierces the night above the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) pathfinder telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory. Image credit: Keith Vanderlinde.

In deep space, some unknown astrophysical phenomenon is causing mysterious bursts of energy that appear as short flashes of radio waves. In a University of British Columbia study, researchers propose a new way to calculate cosmological distances using these fast radio bursts. The method allows researchers to position distant galaxies in three dimensions and map out the cosmos.

Historic Brashear telescope saved for restoration in NZ Dark Sky Reserve

19 September 2015

Earth & Sky director Graeme Murray (in green overalls) helps with the removal of the two cast iron sections that form the 8-metre-long tube of the 18-inch (46-cm) Brashear telescope. When fully assembled, the 7-ton instrument will sit atop a 5.4-metre high cast iron pedestal crowned by a German equatorial mount. Image credit: E&S.

A 125-year-old, 18-inch (46-cm) aperture Brashear refracting telescope with an illustrious history that has languished in storage for half a century has found a new Antipodean home. It marks the first step on the road to restoring the 7-ton, 8-metre-long instrument to its former glory, destined to become the centrepiece of a public outreach Astronomy Centre near the shore of Lake Tekapo in the heart of New Zealand's South Island.

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