Using telescopes that study the sky in the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum, astronomers have successfully mapped the structure of the magnetic field of the Milky Way galaxy. While magnetic fields are difficult to measure in space, an international team of astronomers used the Teide Observatory on Tenerife in the Canary Islands to conduct 10 years of observations.
Continue reading “You’re Looking at a Map of the Milky Way’s Magnetic Field”Why Does the Butterfly Nebula Look Like This?
The Butterfly Nebula is changing, and astronomers are puzzled as to why these changes are occurring. Observations of this planetary nebula show dramatic changes in the butterfly’s ‘wings’ in just 11 years.
“I’ve been comparing Hubble images for years and I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” said Bruce Balick, a professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Washington.
Continue reading “Why Does the Butterfly Nebula Look Like This?”Need a Project? You can Build a Paper Model of the Extremely Large Telescope
The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will be the world’s largest optical/near-infrared telescope. It is under construction on top of a mountain named Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Now you can build your own slightly smaller, incredibly lower cost version of your own ELT – using paper.
Continue reading “Need a Project? You can Build a Paper Model of the Extremely Large Telescope”China Unable to Reestablish Contact With its Zhurong Mars Rover
China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) has been hoping to reestablish communications with the Zhurong Mars rover, but so far, their efforts have been unsuccessful. Zhurong was put into hibernation over six months ago as it hunkered down in attempts to survive the Martian winter.
Continue reading “China Unable to Reestablish Contact With its Zhurong Mars Rover”Here's a new Image of the Carina Nebula From Hubble
Like a famous (and photogenic) actor followed by paparazzi, the Carina Nebula is one of the most photographed objects in space because of its stunning beauty. Over the years, the Carina Nebula has been one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s most-imaged objects.
Continue reading “Here's a new Image of the Carina Nebula From Hubble”Watch a NASA Supercut of the Entire Artemis I Mission, From Launch to Landing
In case you missed any of the 25-day flight of Artemis 1, NASA has compiled a 25-minute highlight reel that showcases the top moments of the mission, from launch to splashdown.
Continue reading “Watch a NASA Supercut of the Entire Artemis I Mission, From Launch to Landing”Sierra Space Inflated a Habitat to Destruction, Testing its Limits Before Going to Orbit
Normally, it would be a very bad day if your space station habitat module blew up. But it was all smiles and high-fives in mission control when Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat was intentionally over-inflated until it popped spectacularly in an Ultimate Burst Pressure (UBP) test. This video shows the moment of boom from several different viewpoints.
Continue reading “Sierra Space Inflated a Habitat to Destruction, Testing its Limits Before Going to Orbit”Perseverance Heard a Dust Devil on Mars, and Now You Can Too
For years, we’ve seen images from various Mars rovers and landers of dust devils churning across the dusty landscape of the Red Planet. But now, thanks to a microphone on the Perseverance rover and a whirling dust storm that passed directly over the rover, we know what a dust devil on Mars sounds like, too.
Continue reading “Perseverance Heard a Dust Devil on Mars, and Now You Can Too”In Case you Missed it, Here are Some Amazing Pictures of Mars Hiding Behind the Moon
Last week gave us a celestial triple header, all in one night. The Moon was full and Mars was at opposition (at its closest point to Earth). But the pièce de résistance was when the Moon occulted or passed in front of Mars on the evening/morning of December 7th/8th. Our astrophotographer friends were out in full force to capture the event.
Our lead image comes from prolific amateur astronomer and photographer Alan Dyer, who observed the occultation from his home in Alberta, Canada, and created this composite view of the night’s activities. “While this composite makes it look like Mars was doing the moving,” Dyer explained on Flickr, “it was really the Moon that was passing in front of Mars. But for this sequence I set the telescope mount to track the Moon at its rate of motion against the background stars and Mars, to keep the Moon more or less stationary on the frame while Mars and the background sky passed behind it.”
Here are some more great views from around the world:
Continue reading “In Case you Missed it, Here are Some Amazing Pictures of Mars Hiding Behind the Moon”SOFIA Fails to Find Phosphine in the Atmosphere of Venus, But the Debate Continues
The on-again, off-again detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus appears to be off-again – for now. The latest study, based on data from the SOFIA telescope, reveals that the flying observatory didn’t see any signs of phosphine. According to the results, if there is any phosphine present in Venus’s atmosphere at all, it’s a maximum of about 0.8 parts per billion, much smaller than the initial estimate.
However, the team that made the initial detection of phosphine, which was announced in 2020, disagrees with the researchers’ interpretation of the SOFIA data.
Continue reading “SOFIA Fails to Find Phosphine in the Atmosphere of Venus, But the Debate Continues”