* Astronomy

GSLV-Mk-III to place communication satellite in orbit The GSLV (Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle)-Mk (Mark)-III that is to be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for experimental purposes next year is designed to place a communication satellite in orbit, according to K. N...

Window to a watery past on Mars The scene, captured by ESA's Mars Express, is a composite of two images taken in March 2007 and February 2017. It focuses on a large crater in the Margaritifer Terra region in the southern hemisphere of Mars, and includes a portion of Erythraeum Chaos to the north (right i...

Galileo grows: two more satellites join working constellation Two further satellites have formally become part of Europe's Galileo satnav system, broadcasting timing and navigation signals worldwide while also picking up distress calls across the planet. These are the 15th and 16th satellit...

Hubble Astronomers Develop a New Use for a Century-Old Relativity Experiment to Measure a White Dwarf's Mass Hubble observed the nearby white dwarf star Stein 2051 B as it passed in front of a background star. During the close alignment, the white dwarf's gravity bent the light from the distant star...

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged the Boomerang Nebula with the Advanced Camera for Surveys. This reflecting cloud of dust and gas has two nearly symmetric lobes (or cones) of matter that are being ejected from a central star. Over the last 1,500 years, nearly one and a half times the ma...

ATel 10464: PS17dfh: a bright, nearby transient discovered by PSST. Ed ~ in galaxy UGC 5369

Some of the worlds rarest and most precious metals, including platinum and iridium, could owe their presence in the Earths crust to iron and stony-iron meteorites, fragments of a large number of asteroids that underwent significant geological processing in the early Solar System. Dr Gerhard Sch...

The chances of finding life somewhere else in the Universe depends on how many planets are capable of supporting life. According to new calculations by astronomers at Open University, as many as half of all star systems cou...

Title: The Young L Dwarf 2MASS J11193254-1137466 is a Planetary-Mass Binary Author: William M. J. Best, Michael C. Liu, Trent J. Dupuy, Eugene A. Magnier We have discovered that the extremely red, low-gravity L7 dwarf 2MASS J11193254-1137466 is a 0.14" (3.6 AU) binary using Keck laser guide star a...

Image of sunspot 12661 captured with a 100mm f5 Helios refractor and Vesta pro webcam.

Orbital elements: S/2017 J 1 Epoch 2017 Sept. 4.0 TT = JDT 2458000.5 MPC M 161.32649 (2000.0) P Q n 0.48965383 Peri. 79.73238 -0.31399774 -0.90701199 a 0.1569807 Node 326.77425 -0.93870913 +0.34086171 e 0.3968680 Incl. 149.19651 +0.14223425 +0.24727019 P 2.01 H 16.5 P/d 735.21 From 14 o...

Orbital elements: S/2016 J 1 Epoch 2017 Sept. 4.0 TT = JDT 2458000.5 MPC M 25.52802 (2000.0) P Q n 0.59619561 Peri. 328.15054 +0.71132205 -0.38156323 a 0.1376723 Node 293.75814 -0.42885867 -0.90098610 e 0.1404545 Incl. 139.83916 -0.55686729 +0.20647894 P 1.65 H 16.8 P/d 603.83 From 15 o...

A magnitude 17.2 (and rising) type Ia supernova was discovered on the 24th August, 2011, by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), in the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101) in the constellation Ursa Major. The supernova is located 58.6" west and 270.7" south from the center of the galaxy. The g...

ATel 10372: Confirmation of AT 2017eaw, a Probable Supernova in NGC 6946

The Spitzer Space Telescope has observed a rare population of colliding galaxies whose entangled hearts are wrapped in tiny crystals resembling crushed glass. The crystals are essentially sand, or silicate, grains that were formed like glass, probably in the stellar equivalent of furnace...