Category Archives: News and Updates

News about Astronomy and Space Science. Find every news item and update here, in blog format. You can get these updates sent straight to your mailbox by subscribing here, or you can subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking the link.

Hubble strengthens case for Dark Energy

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Researchers using new data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have refined our estimates of the rate at which the Universe is expanding to an uncertainty of only 3%.  This new figure invalidates the idea that our region of space is situated in a vast unusually empty bubble, or void, which has up till now stood as an alternative to the Dark Energy hypothesis. Albert Einstein recognised that the Universe could not be static, based on physics as he … Continue reading →

X-37B launch delayed by weather

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The US Airforce’s X-37B spaceplane, which was supposed to begin its second mission yesterday, has been temporarily grounded after poor weather caused mission controllers to scrub the launch.  At the initial time planned for launch, strong winds at ground level caused the flight be postponed for several hours.  By the time the second launch window appeared, clouds had swept in bringing heavy rain and the decision was made to scrub the launch.  The new plan is to try again today, … Continue reading →

SASRA launched

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On 19 February 2011, shortly before noon, the founding members of the South African Space Resources Association (SASRA) signed the association’s constitution, making its formation official.  SASRA was founded by Michael Neale, a graduate of the Mining Engineering Department at the University of Pretoria, to involve South Africa in the rapidly growing field of In-situ Space Resources Utilisation (ISRU). ISRU is built on the idea that if humanity is ever to spread beyond planet Earth, then our presence in space … Continue reading →

Record number of Near Earth asteroids discovered

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Richard Wainscoat (left) and Marco Micheli study one of the near-Earth asteroids found on January 29. The asteroid is the roundish dot near Wainscoat’s finger.  photo by Karen Teramura A new record was set on 29 January 2011 when the science team operating a new prototype telescope discovered not one Near-Earth Asteroid, not two, but nineteen in a single night!  “This record number of discoveries shows that PS1 is the world’s most powerful telescope for this kind of study,” said … Continue reading →

Globe at Night campaign

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Regular readers will be well aware of the growing problem of Light Pollution, and the increasing influence of groups working to restore our night skies.  An important part of any such efforts is understanding just how bad the problem is, and Globe at Night gives everybody a chance to help gather this information.  The current campaign started yesterday and runs through till 6 March. So what do you have to do to participate?  Not much!  First, find your exact location … Continue reading →