Astronomy Now

2 months ago | astronomynow.com | Keith Cooper

Euclid embarked on its six-year mission to explore the dark Universe on 1 July 2023. Before the spacecraft could begin its survey, scientists and engineers on Earth needed to ensure all systems were functioning correctly. During this initial testing phase in September 2023, Euclid transmitted a series of images back to Earth. These images were intentionally out of focus, but within one of them, Euclid Archive Scientist Bruno Altieri noticed something intriguing—a hint of a rare phenomenon.

2 months ago | astronomynow.com | Keith Cooper

A bizarre exoplanet whose orbit takes it from the frozen wastelands of its planetary system to the inner edge of its habitable zone is challenging astronomers’ concepts of what kinds of planets can potentially support life. The exoplanet HD 20794d orbits 82 Eridani, a magnitude +4.3 star that lies 19.7 light years away in the constellation of Eridanus, the River. It is the third planet to be found in the system – a fourth world thought to have been discovered in 2011 was subsequently ruled out.

2 months ago | astronomynow.com | Keith Cooper

NGC 2419 appears as a faint globular cluster in Lynx, though in reality it’s a massive and luminous object that’s a distant outlier of our Milky Way Galaxy. The constellation of Lynx is pretty uninspiring deep-sky wise, though one of its saving graces is the presence of NGC 2419 (Caldwell 25), an extremely remote globular cluster that’s very well-known by its nickname the Intergalactic Tramp, or Wanderer.

Jan 24, 2025 | astronomynow.com | Keith Cooper

In the years following the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have tallied over 1 trillion galaxies in the universe. But only one galaxy stands out as the most important nearby stellar island to our Milky Way — the magnificent Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31). It can be seen with the naked eye on a very clear autumn night as a faint cigar-shaped object roughly the apparent angular diameter of our Moon.

Jan 24, 2025 | astronomynow.com | Mark Armstrong

There’s a picturesque early evening scene at the start of February as the Moon passes dazzling Venus and fading Saturn. Breathtaking Venus burns brilliant throughout February in the south-west soon after sunset, in the midst of a dazzling apparition. Lying close by at the start of February is Saturn, by contrast a fading force that will be in conjunction with the Sun in March.