* The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread *

Cosimo · 6 Jun 2015 at 06:38

Hubble can in an inspiration:

Cosimo · 8 Jun 2015 at 12:26

How Hubble is used to examine the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres:

Cosimo · 8 Jun 2015 at 15:09

A look at the dwarf planet Ceres which is in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter:

The source of the animation:

The images come from Dawn's first mapping orbit at Ceres, at an altitude of 8,400 mile (13,600 kilometers), as well as navigational images taken from 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) away. The images provided information for a three-dimensional terrain model. The vertical dimension has been exaggerated by a factor of two, and a star field has been added in the background.

Cosimo · 10 Jun 2015 at 08:09

Getting closer to Pluto, an update on the New Horizons mission:

Flyby of Pluto is on July 14.

More:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

Cosimo · 11 Jun 2015 at 07:04

NGC 6503 a dwarf spiral galaxy located at the edge of a region of space called the Local Void:

Cosimo · 12 Jun 2015 at 06:42

Venus and Jupiter are converging during the month:

UK: June 30th after sunset: A close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter.

As Jupiter moves slowly towards Regulus in Leo throughout the month of June, Venus is moving more quickly across the heavens from Cancer into Leo and, on the 30th of the month, catches up with Jupiter when they come just 21 arc minutes from each other. Interestingly, both planets will then have the same angular diameter of 32 arc seconds, but whilst Jupiter sports an almost fully illuminated disk, that of Venus will be a thin crescent just 34% illuminated. Low above the horizon, they will dominate the sky in the west-northwest from around 22:30 BST until they set around an hour later.

Cosimo · 12 Jun 2015 at 11:48

Getting closer to Pluto. A look at New Horizons:

Flyby on July 14!

Cosimo · 13 Jun 2015 at 08:11

All about Pluto and New Horizons, long but worth watching:

Cosimo · 17 Jun 2015 at 06:58

New Horizons Update:

Cosimo · 19 Jun 2015 at 06:46

Zooming through the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster) to the galaxy group HCG 16.:

This quartet is composed of NGC 839, NGC 838, NGC 835, and NGC 833, four of the seven galaxies that make up the group.

Cosimo · 20 Jun 2015 at 16:43

New Horizons sends back fuzzy, colour 'movies' of Pluto:

The New Horizons spacecraft is carrying a "Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera" that takes stills in blue, red, and near-infrared, then puts them together for a color picture. It took a series of pictures between May 29th and June 3rd that show the dwarf planet and its largest moon, Charon revolving around their shared centre of gravity.

You can see them here:

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-and-its-moon-charon-now-in-color

Cosimo · 24 Jun 2015 at 06:30

New Horizon's update:

Cosimo · 24 Jun 2015 at 07:37

A new computer simulation tracking dark matter particles in the extreme gravity of a black hole shows that strong and potentially observable gamma-ray light can be produced:

More:

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-simulation-suggests-black-holes-may-make-ideal-dark-matter-labs

Cosimo · 25 Jun 2015 at 07:07

Evidence of life on Mars:

Cosimo · 27 Jun 2015 at 08:12

Making waves:

Cosimo · 27 Jun 2015 at 09:02

Using light echoes to determine distance:

Cosimo · 30 Jun 2015 at 13:38

Today is Asteroid Day:

Catanonia · 30 Jun 2015 at 14:42

Started up imaging again after nearly 2 years absence.

A quick 2 hour LRGB shakedown image and quick processing of the Crescent Nebula NGC 6888

Have a few guiding issues to sort out and should be good to go.

Cosimo · 1 Jul 2015 at 07:13

In 2016 a spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx wiil explore asteroid Bennu and bring a sample back to Earth:

Cosimo · 1 Jul 2015 at 07:54

Pluto, two weeks to go:

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