The Penguin galaxy, so dubbed because its shape from the perspective of the telescope resembles that flightless bird, including a beak-like region, is formally called NGC 2936. It is a spiral-shaped galaxy, now a bit distorted. The Egg galaxy, also named for its shape, is formally called NGC 2937. It is a compact elliptical-shaped galaxy. …
The planet known as HD 189733b, discovered in 2005, already had a reputation as a rather extreme place, a scorching hot gas giant a bit larger than Jupiter that is a striking cobalt blue colour and has molten glass rain that blows sideways in its fierce atmospheric winds. So how can you top that? Add …
New research indicates the sun’s magnetic field originates much closer to the surface than previously thought, a finding that could help predict periods of extreme solar storms like the ones that slammed Earth earlier this month. The magnetic field appears to generate 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) beneath the sun’s surface. Previous calculations put the roots …
The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy on Thursday announced that astronomers have discovered what could be the earliest building blocks of the Milky Way, named “Shiva” and “ “Shakti. These seem to be the remnants of the two galaxies that merged between 12 and 13 billion years ago with an earlier version of the Milky …
Micromoon 2024: The smallest full Moon of 2024 rose in the night sky on February 24, 2024, at 7:30 am EST (6 pm IST). The Moon, known as a micromoon, will appear full through Sunday evening. Since the micromoon of 2024 is a full Moon, it will be at its highest point in the sky …
Odysseus, the Moon lander which landed on the lunar south pole on February 23, 2024, marking the United States’ return to the Moon for the first time in 50 years, tipped over on landing. While the lander, built by Texas-based aerospace firm Intuitive Machines, is resting on its side, it is still operational, according to …
Intuitive Machines, a Texas-based aerospace firm, has released the first images of the Earth captured by the company’s Odysseus Moon lander. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched Odysseus, also known as NOVA-C, as part of the Intuitive Machines 1 Mission (IM-1), on February 15, 2024. The images were released on February 16, and were captured after …
Black holes are dense astronomical objects with gravity so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. Anything that crosses the boundary of a black hole’s gravitational influence, called the event horizon, will fall into the black hole. Inside this deep, dense pit, it is never to be seen again. Black holes litter the universe. Some …
Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based solar observatory to study the Sun, will reach its destination on January 6, 2024. The spacecraft’s destination is a halo orbit around Lagrange Point 1 (L1), a special point in space where the gravitational forces exerted by the Sun and the Earth on Aditya-L1 will be balanced. S Somanath, Chairman, Indian …
Theoretically, NASA and its collaborators could raise the ISS to an orbit at which it would leave Earth’s atmosphere entirely. But lofting so much mass so high would be extremely expensive. And even if the station were to be abandoned in such a “graveyard orbit,” the ISS would still pose hazards: because it is so …