Major African Radio Telescope Will Help to Image Black Holes

Astronomers across Africa and Europe have reacted with delight to news that Africa’s first millimetre-range radio telescope is to be built. The Africa Millimetre Telescope will fill a gap in the coverage of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global network of telescopes that can receive and analyse radio waves of around 1 millimetre in … Read more

Major African Radio Telescope Will Help to Image Black Holes

Astronomers across Africa and Europe have reacted with delight to news that Africa’s first millimetre-range radio telescope is to be built. The Africa Millimetre Telescope will fill a gap in the coverage of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global network of telescopes that can receive and analyse radio waves of around 1 millimetre in … Read more

Astronomers Join Forces to Push Back Against Satellite ‘Pollution’ Ruining The Skies

The number of active satellites in the night sky has more than doubled since 2019 – from around 2,200 to 5,000. That is mostly due to Starlink, a SpaceX project aimed at providing internet anywhere in the world through ‘mega-constellations’ of satellites.   Since it began, Starlink has launched over 2,000 satellites. Unfortunately, the thousands of … Read more

Megaconstellations like SpaceX’s Starlink may interfere with search for life by world’s largest radio telescope

The search for traces of life on distant planets will be more difficult for the world’s largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), because of interference from SpaceX’s Starlink and other megaconstellation satellites.  Also affected will be the hunt for exoplanets and the study of the most distant galaxies, Federico di Vruno, radio … Read more

Neutron stars: Mysterious object blasts out radio waves every 18 minutes

Something extraordinarily bright in space is pulsing far slower than most similar cosmic objects, and it may be a strange type of neutron star that we have never seen before Space 26 January 2022 By Leah Crane A view of the Milky Way from the Murchison Widefield Array. The star icon shows the position of … Read more

Jaw-Dropping View of The Milky Way Reveals Mysterious Structures Dangling in Space

A new image of the heart of the Milky Way is revealing mysterious structures we’ve never seen before. Taken using the ultra-sensitive MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, the images show nearly 1,000 strands of magnetic filaments, measuring up to 150 light-years in length, in surprisingly neat and regular arrangements.   That’s 10 times the … Read more

Astronomers Detect Strange Signals We’ve Never Seen Before in Our Cosmic Vicinity

Something in Earth’s cosmic neighborhood is emitting weird signals of a kind we’ve never seen before. Just 4,000 light-years away, something is flashing radio waves. For roughly 30 to 60 seconds, every 18.18 minutes, it pulses brightly, one of the most luminous objects in the low-frequency radio sky. It matches the profile of no known … Read more

What’s The Deal With 5G And Plane Safety? Here’s What You Need to Know

Several international airlines recently cancelled flights into certain US airports over concerns the rollout of 5G mobile communication technology could interfere with some planes’ equipment.   After warnings about the potential problem from aviation bosses and the Federal Aviation Administration, telecommunications companies AT&T and Verizon delayed activating some 5G masts around US airports. But how … Read more

The mystery deepens: Ghostly neutrinos and fast radio bursts don’t come from the same place

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of “Ask a Spaceman” and “Space Radio,” and author of “How to Die in Space.” Sutter contributed this article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The universe is a pretty busy place, with stars blowing up, black holes consuming … Read more

The Tonga Volcanic Eruption Was So Powerful It Sent Ripples Out Into Space

The ongoing volcanic eruption in Tonga began in December 2021, but it wasn’t until 5:15 pm local time on January 15, 2022, that the powerful explosion occurred. It generated an enormous cloud of ash, earthquakes, and tsunamis that reached as far as the distant coastlines of Peru on the other side of the Pacific.   … Read more