
The Pillars of Creation viewed by the James Webb Space Telescope
© NASA
#astrodon #NASA #photography
#Tag
The Pillars of Creation viewed by the James Webb Space Telescope
© NASA
#astrodon #NASA #photography
The Pillars of Creation viewed by the James Webb Space Telescope
© NASA
#astrodon #NASA #photography
Can Japan's #Hayabusa2 touchdown on asteroid 1998 KY26?
A new study that includes VLT observations reveals the mission’s target asteroid to be three times smaller and rotating much faster than previously thought.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2515/
Video summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFCsw-mcg18
Artist's impression by ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA).
Can Japan's #Hayabusa2 touchdown on asteroid 1998 KY26?
A new study that includes VLT observations reveals the mission’s target asteroid to be three times smaller and rotating much faster than previously thought.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2515/
Video summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFCsw-mcg18
Artist's impression by ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA).
🚨 #JOB ALERT 🚨 (yes, another one!)
Are you passionate about astronomy communication? How about working as Media Officer at @esoastronomy in #Chile ?
You should be fluent in English and Spanish, and have a background in #media, comms, #journalism, #astronomy or related fields. More details here:
https://recruitment.eso.org/jobs/2025_0067
and at vacchile@eso.org.
Deadline: 13 October 2025.
Bonus pic I took at Paranal Observatory, my home away from home for many years 🤩
🚨 #JOB ALERT 🚨 (yes, another one!)
Are you passionate about astronomy communication? How about working as Media Officer at @esoastronomy in #Chile ?
You should be fluent in English and Spanish, and have a background in #media, comms, #journalism, #astronomy or related fields. More details here:
https://recruitment.eso.org/jobs/2025_0067
and at vacchile@eso.org.
Deadline: 13 October 2025.
Bonus pic I took at Paranal Observatory, my home away from home for many years 🤩
Remember the first image of the black hole in the M87 galaxy taken by @ehtelescope ?
New analysis shows that some features of the ring around the black hole don't change over the years, but others do!
Why? Find out with #ChasingStarlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P04NXrNp5U
You remember the iconic picture of a black hole from the @ehtelescope? Now there are three - a mini-movie so to speak. The structure of magnetic fields changes, the brightness wobbles, but the ring remains rock solid. That seals the case for it being a black hole and we are learning the astrophysics near the event horizon.
https://eventhorizontelescope.org/new-eht-images-reveal-unexpected-polarization-flips-at-m87
Proud our group @Radboud_uni made significant contributions via Michael Janssen and two ERC Synergy grants that I co-led.
#astrodon #astronomy
Remember the first image of the black hole in the M87 galaxy taken by @ehtelescope ?
New analysis shows that some features of the ring around the black hole don't change over the years, but others do!
Why? Find out with #ChasingStarlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P04NXrNp5U
You remember the iconic picture of a black hole from the @ehtelescope? Now there are three - a mini-movie so to speak. The structure of magnetic fields changes, the brightness wobbles, but the ring remains rock solid. That seals the case for it being a black hole and we are learning the astrophysics near the event horizon.
https://eventhorizontelescope.org/new-eht-images-reveal-unexpected-polarization-flips-at-m87
Proud our group @Radboud_uni made significant contributions via Michael Janssen and two ERC Synergy grants that I co-led.
#astrodon #astronomy
This is the "Ann Plate", a photograph that was taken during the commissioning of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 1974 as a demonstration of the capabilities of new telescope.
The AAT was the first large telescope to be completely computer controlled, which resulted in an unprecedented level of control over the pointing of the telescope. The Ann plate demonstrated this by moving the telescope in complex patterns during a long photographic exposure of the night sky, tracing out circles, raster scan patterns, Lissajous figures and the name Ann in starlight. The ability to do this may sound trivial now, but it represented a big leap forward at the time and the Ann plate caused quite a stir when it was published.
So, who was Ann? The Ann in question was Ann Savage, an astronomer who was at the time a DPhil student studying quasars with the Parkes, UK Schmidt and AAT telescopes. She was at the AAT while this was going on, and allegedly suggested her own name on the basis it would be easy to programme into the telescope control system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Savage_(astronomer)
2/n
With the building move imminent a number of items are being given away to staff, and today that included a pile a good quality A3 photo prints.
As you'd expect there were a bunch of photos of nebulae, galaxies, comets, etc., but I nabbed for myself some Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) memorabilia.
The old AAT with star trails photo and AAT cutaway diagram are straightforward enough, but the 3rd one requires a bit of explanation.
1/n
With the building move imminent a number of items are being given away to staff, and today that included a pile a good quality A3 photo prints.
As you'd expect there were a bunch of photos of nebulae, galaxies, comets, etc., but I nabbed for myself some Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) memorabilia.
The old AAT with star trails photo and AAT cutaway diagram are straightforward enough, but the 3rd one requires a bit of explanation.
1/n
This is the "Ann Plate", a photograph that was taken during the commissioning of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 1974 as a demonstration of the capabilities of new telescope.
The AAT was the first large telescope to be completely computer controlled, which resulted in an unprecedented level of control over the pointing of the telescope. The Ann plate demonstrated this by moving the telescope in complex patterns during a long photographic exposure of the night sky, tracing out circles, raster scan patterns, Lissajous figures and the name Ann in starlight. The ability to do this may sound trivial now, but it represented a big leap forward at the time and the Ann plate caused quite a stir when it was published.
So, who was Ann? The Ann in question was Ann Savage, an astronomer who was at the time a DPhil student studying quasars with the Parkes, UK Schmidt and AAT telescopes. She was at the AAT while this was going on, and allegedly suggested her own name on the basis it would be easy to programme into the telescope control system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Savage_(astronomer)
2/n
With the building move imminent a number of items are being given away to staff, and today that included a pile a good quality A3 photo prints.
As you'd expect there were a bunch of photos of nebulae, galaxies, comets, etc., but I nabbed for myself some Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) memorabilia.
The old AAT with star trails photo and AAT cutaway diagram are straightforward enough, but the 3rd one requires a bit of explanation.
1/n
Does Trappist-1e have a substantial atmosphere that allow habitable conditions?
A simple yes-no answer would be great. Unfortunately, this graph is what we get -- a lot of uncertainty, but it is still a HUGE advance.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf62e #science #astronomy#astrodon
Happy birthday to GW150914, our first (of many) #GravitationalWave discoveries, detected 10 years ago today!
🖼️: S Colloms/ @span UofGravity
A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate