#Ground system for NASA’s Roman Space Telescope completes major review

“#Ground system for NASA’s Roman Space Telescope completes major review” High-resolution illustration of the Roman spacecraft against a starry background. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center When it launches in the mid-2020s, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will create enormous panoramic pictures of space in unprecedented detail. The mission’s wide field of view will…

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#Image: Hubble snaps ghostly galaxy

“#Image: Hubble snaps ghostly galaxy” Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gregg A notable feature of most spiral galaxies is the multitude of arching spiral arms that seemingly spin out from the galaxy’s center. In this image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the stunning silvery-blue spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 4848 are observed in immense detail….

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#Hubble Space Telescope captures summertime on Saturn

“#Hubble Space Telescope captures summertime on Saturn” NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn on July 4, 2020. Two of Saturn’s icy moons are clearly visible in this exposure: Mimas at right, and Enceladus at bottom. This image is taken as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping…

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#Spectacular UV flash may explain how white dwarfs explode

“#Spectacular UV flash may explain how white dwarfs explode” Blue dot indicates the location of SN2019yvq in a relatively nearby galaxy 140 million light-years from Earth. Credit: Northwestern University For only the second time ever, astrophysicists have spotted a spectacular flash of ultraviolet (UV) light accompanying a white dwarf explosion. An extremely rare type of…

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#Study illuminates fates of distant planetary atmospheres

“#Study illuminates fates of distant planetary atmospheres” An artist’s rendering of L98-59b, a planet spotted in another star system which may have an atmosphere. Two scientists simulated thousands of such planets to better understand how atmospheres form. Credit: Chris Smith—NASA Goddard Space Flight Center When telescopes became powerful enough to find planets orbiting distant stars,…

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#First image of a multi-planet system around a sun-like star

“#First image of a multi-planet system around a sun-like star” The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) has taken the first ever image of a young, sun-like star accompanied by two giant exoplanets. Images of systems with multiple exoplanets are extremely rare, and — until now — astronomers had never directly observed more…

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