India’s largest and the world’s highest gamma-ray telescope is set to go live later this year, aiming to provide a new window into distant stars and galaxies in the universe. From a report: The Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment Telescope (MACE) in Hanle, Ladakh, is placed at an altitude of 4,300 metres above sea level. It is the world’s second-largest, ground-based gamma-ray…
Tag: Stars and Galaxies
How NASA’s Webb Telescope will continue Spitzer’s legacy
As one window to the universe closes, another will open with an even better view. Some of the same planets, stars and galaxies we first saw through the first window will appear in even sharper detail in the one that will soon open. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-nasa-webb-telescope-spitzer-legacy.html…
Hubble detects smallest known dark matter clumps
When searching for dark matter, astronomers must go on a sort of “ghost hunt.” That’s because dark matter is an invisible substance that cannot be seen directly. Yet it makes up the bulk of the universe’s mass and forms the scaffolding upon which galaxies are built. Dark matter is the gravitational “glue” that holds galaxies as well as galaxy clusters together….
Scientists inch closer than ever to signal from cosmic dawn
Around 12 billion years ago, the universe emerged from a great cosmic dark age as the first stars and galaxies lit up. With a new analysis of data collected by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope, scientists are now closer than ever to detecting the ultra-faint signature of this turning point in cosmic history. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-11-scientists-inch-closer-cosmic-dawn.html…
Does SpaceX’s Starlink Project Pose an Existential Threat to Astronomy?
Earlier this week Forbes reported on two Chilean astronomers “expecting to see images of distant stars and galaxies. Instead, they saw a train of SpaceX satellites crossing the night sky, a worrying sign of what might be to come for astronomy.” Now Digital Trends decries SpaceX’s “proposed launch of tens of thousands of satellites into low-Earth orbit where they will form…
Putting the ‘bang’ in Big Bang
Physicists have pondered how the cold, uniform matter of the inflationary early universe became the ultrahot, complex mixture of matter, space and time that led to the universe we know. New work simulates a bridge between cosmic inflation and … everything else. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/big-bang-simulation-inflation-reheating-period…
NASA to demonstrate new star-watching tech with thousands of shutters
NASA scientists plan to demonstrate a revolutionary technology for studying hundreds of stars and galaxies at the same time—a new capability originally created for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-10-nasa-star-watching-tech-thousands-shutters.html…
Saturn Overtakes Jupiter As Host To Most Moons In Solar System
Astronomers have spotted 20 more moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the total number of Saturnian moons to 82, surpassing the 79 that are known to orbit Jupiter. The Guardian reports: The scientists discovered the moons when they set algorithms to work on decade-old images captured from the powerful Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. By comparing images taken over hours and…
Giant Hawaii telescope to focus on big unknowns of universe
Is there life on planets outside our solar system? How did stars and galaxies form in the earliest years of the universe? How do black holes shape galaxies? Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-07-giant-hawaii-telescope-focus-big.html…
Astronomers ponder halos around galaxies
Galaxies are massive and beautiful islands of stars. But did you know that most galaxies are surrounded by halos? A complex instrument on the Very Large Telescope is giving astronomers new views of these galactic rings of light. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/galaxies-halos-muse-very-large-telescope-eso…