Featured News
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)
4 Oct 2018, 14:00 UTC
Astronomers comparing data from an ongoing major survey of the sky using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to data from earlier surveys likely have made the first discovery of the afterglow of a powerful gamma ray burst that produced no gamma rays detectable at Earth. The unprecedented discovery of this “orphan” gamma ray burst (GRB) offers key clues to understanding the aftermath of these highly energetic events.“GRBs emit their gamma rays in narrowly focused beams. In this case, we believe the beams were pointed away from Earth, so gamma ray telescopes did not see this event. What we found is the radio emission from the explosion’s aftermath, acting over time much as we expect for a GRB,” said Casey Law, of the University of California, Berkeley.While searching through data from the first epoch of observing for the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS) in late 2017, the astronomers noted that an object that appeared in images from an earlier VLA survey in 1994 did not appear in the VLASS images. They then searched for additional data from the VLA and other radio telescopes. They found that observations of the object’s location in the sky dating back ...
VLA Sky Survey Reveals First “Orphan” Gamma Ray Burst
4 Oct 2018, 14:00 UTC
Astronomers comparing data from an ongoing major survey of the sky using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to data from earlier surveys likely have made the first discovery of the afterglow of a powerful gamma ray burst that produced no gamma rays detectable at Earth. The unprecedented discovery of this “orphan” gamma ray burst (GRB) offers key clues to understanding the aftermath of these highly energetic events.“GRBs emit their gamma rays in narrowly focused beams. In this case, we believe the beams were pointed away from Earth, so gamma ray telescopes did not see this event. What we found is the radio emission from the explosion’s aftermath, acting over time much as we expect for a GRB,” said Casey Law, of the University of California, Berkeley.While searching through data from the first epoch of observing for the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS) in late 2017, the astronomers noted that an object that appeared in images from an earlier VLA survey in 1994 did not appear in the VLASS images. They then searched for additional data from the VLA and other radio telescopes. They found that observations of the object’s location in the sky dating back ...
Hubble Space Telescope News
3 Oct 2018, 18:00 UTC
Science Release: Hubble finds compelling evidence for a moon outside the Solar System
3 Oct 2018, 18:00 UTC
Square Kilometer Array
2 Oct 2018, 14:47 UTC
Breakthrough Listen, the global initiative to seek signs of intelligent life in the universe – announced today at the International Astronautical Congress the commencement of a major new programme with the MeerKAT telescope in partnership with the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).
New partnership between SKA precursor telescope MeerKAT & SETI programme Breakthrough Listen
2 Oct 2018, 14:47 UTC
Breakthrough Listen, the global initiative to seek signs of intelligent life in the universe – announced today at the International Astronautical Congress the commencement of a major new programme with the MeerKAT telescope in partnership with the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).
ESA Science & Technology
2 Oct 2018, 09:00 UTC
A team of astronomers using the latest set of data from ESA's Gaia mission to look for high-velocity stars being kicked out of the Milky Way were surprised to find stars instead sprinting inwards – perhaps from another galaxy.
Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
2 Oct 2018, 09:00 UTC
A team of astronomers using the latest set of data from ESA's Gaia mission to look for high-velocity stars being kicked out of the Milky Way were surprised to find stars instead sprinting inwards – perhaps from another galaxy.
Universe Awareness - Space Scoop
1 Oct 2018, 08:41 UTC
Until recently, dust storms have only ever been seen in two places — Earth and Mars. But we’ve just discovered they also happen on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. One of the most exciting things about this discovery is that it was made by the Cassini spacecraft, which crashed into the Saturn in 2017.
Titan's Kicking Up Dust
1 Oct 2018, 08:41 UTC
Until recently, dust storms have only ever been seen in two places — Earth and Mars. But we’ve just discovered they also happen on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. One of the most exciting things about this discovery is that it was made by the Cassini spacecraft, which crashed into the Saturn in 2017.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
28 Sep 2018, 11:53 UTC
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image contains a veritable mix of different galaxies, some of which belong to the same larger structure: At the middle of the frame sits the galaxy cluster SDSS J1050+0017.
Hubble’s Warped View of the Universe
28 Sep 2018, 11:53 UTC
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image contains a veritable mix of different galaxies, some of which belong to the same larger structure: At the middle of the frame sits the galaxy cluster SDSS J1050+0017.
ESA Top News
27 Sep 2018, 10:10 UTC
On 21 September 2018, 280 million km from Earth, a roughly 1.5 square-metre cube descended towards a primitive space rock. After years of planning and 4 years in flight, this tiny spacecraft captured this ‘shadow selfie’ as it closed in on asteroid Ryugu, just 80 metres from the remnant of our Solar System’s formation, 4.6 billion years ago.
A shadowy selfie
27 Sep 2018, 10:10 UTC
On 21 September 2018, 280 million km from Earth, a roughly 1.5 square-metre cube descended towards a primitive space rock. After years of planning and 4 years in flight, this tiny spacecraft captured this ‘shadow selfie’ as it closed in on asteroid Ryugu, just 80 metres from the remnant of our Solar System’s formation, 4.6 billion years ago.
