While fireworks only last a short time here on Earth, a bundle of cosmic sparklers in a nearby cluster of stars will be going off for a very long time. NGC 1333 is a star cluster populated with many young stars that are less than 2 million years old — a blink of an eye in astronomical terms for stars … Read the rest of this article
AAVSO Alert Notice 523In AAVSO Alert Notice 522 on the upcoming observations of the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cyg by HST, the date of the detection by the Swift satellite was incorrectly given as 2015 June 16.77197 UT (Barthelmy et al., GCN Circular 17929). The correct date is … Read the rest of this article
AAVSO Alert Notice 522The dramatic outburst of the black hole X-ray transient LMXB V404 Cyg continues. It was detected 2015 June 16.1688 UT at 16.18 CV +/-0.035 by E. Muyllaert (MUY, Oostende, Belgium); the first satellite detection was by Swift on June 16.77197 UT (Barthelmy et al., GCN Circular 17929… Read the rest of this article
The ExoMars spacecraft is almost complete. A joint mission between ESA and Roscosmos, it begins with the launch of the ExoMars orbiter in 2016 and carries an aerodynamically designed capsule containing a robotic lander.
Getting to Mars, landing there safely and searching for life is a huge scientific and technical challenge.
ExoMars 2016 will send back information about the Martian … Read the rest of this article
Astronaut John Mace Grunsfeld remembers a quirky discovery back in 1999. He had just arrived at the Hubble Space Telescope and climbed out of the airlock of Space Shuttle Discovery to begin a servicing mission. Clinging to a handrail running down the side of Hubble’s gleaming exterior, he ran his eyes over the blue planet 350 miles below and tried … Read the rest of this article
For a planet, this would be like a day at the spa. After years of growing old, a massive planet could, in theory, brighten up with a radiant, youthful glow. Rejuvenated planets, as they are nicknamed, are only hypothetical. But new research from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has identified one such candidate, seemingly looking billions of years younger than its … Read the rest of this article
AAVSO Alert Notice 521The symbiotic variable AG Peg is in outburst, the first one observed since its only known outburst, which occurred in 1860-1870. Currently at visual/V magnitude 7.2 (B=7.8), it is an excellent target for visual, PEP, CCD, and DSLR observers and spectroscopists. The current outburst … Read the rest of this article
Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered the largest and brightest set of rings from X-ray light echoes ever observed. These extraordinary rings, produced by an intense flare from a neutron star, provide astronomers a rare chance to determine how far across the Milky Way galaxy the star is from Earth.
The rings appear as circles around Circinus X-1, … Read the rest of this article
The adventure continues: ESA today confirmed that its Rosetta mission will be extended until the end of September 2016, at which point the spacecraft will most likely be landed on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Rosetta was launched in 2004 and arrived at the comet in August 2014, where it has been studying the nucleus and its environment as the … Read the rest of this article
The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also reveal a pyramid-shaped peak towering over a relatively flat landscape.
“The surface of Ceres has revealed many interesting and unique features. For example, icy moons in the outer … Read the rest of this article
The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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Aurora Oval
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