Laser-wielding robot probes exoplanet systems

(Phys.org) —An international team, including Dr. Christoph Baranec of the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Institute for Astronomy, is using the world's first robotic laser adaptive optics system—Robo-AO— to explore ...

Testing completed on James Webb Space Telescope backplane

(Phys.org) —NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has reached another development milestone with the completion of static load testing of its primary mirror backplane support structure (PMBSS) moving the telescope one step ...

The economic impact of a Very Large Telescope

The European Southern Observatory's VLT, Very Large Telescope, is a group of four 8.2-metre diameter optical telescopes located in northern Chile. It also has four movable 1.8-metre diameter auxiliary telescopes and they ...

Shocks in the Cygnus Loop supernovae remnant

(Phys.org) —Supernova remnants (SNRs) play a vital role in the lifecycle of dust in the interstellar medium. As shockwaves from supernovae sweep up interstellar material, they heat the gas and dust, and destroy a significant ...

Professional and amateur astronomers join forces

(Phys.org) —Long before the term "citizen science" was coined, the field of astronomy has benefited from countless men and women who study the sky in their spare time. These amateur astronomers devote hours exploring the ...

Telescope tech using membrane optics moves to Phase 2

(Phys.org) —The United States military's advanced research arm (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA) never bored with the topic of finding smaller, less expensive launch vehicles, is now in Phase 2 of a ...

Image: X-raying the cosmos

When we gaze up at the night sky, we are only seeing part of the story. Unfortunately, some of the most powerful and energetic events in the Universe are invisible to our eyes – and to even the best optical telescopes.

page 10 from 24