Latest Telescopes Stories
This new picture from ESO's Very Large Telescope shows NGC 3521, a spiral galaxy located about 35 million light years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). Spanning about 50 000 light-years, this spectacular object has a bright and compact nucleus, surrounded by richly detailed spiral structure.The most distinctive features of the bright galaxy NGC 3521 are its long spiral arms that are dotted with star-forming regions and interspersed with veins of dust. The arms are rather irregular...
ESO's infrared survey telescope digs deep into star-forming regions in our Milky WayUsing data from the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory, an international team of astronomers has discovered 96 new open star clusters hidden by the dust in the Milky Way. These tiny and faint objects were invisible to previous surveys, but they could not escape the sensitive infrared detectors of the world's largest survey telescope, which can peer through the dust. This is the first...
GREENBELT, Md., July 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Even while construction of the James Webb Space Telescope is underway on the most advanced infrared vision of any space observatory, its technologies are already proving useful to human eye health here on Earth. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "The Webb telescope program has enabled a number of improvements in measurement technology for astronomy, mirror fabrication, and measurement of human eyes,...
Getting ready for ALMA's first scientific observationsThe first European antenna for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has reached new heights, having been transported to the observatory's Array Operations Site (AOS) on 27 July 2011. The 12-meter diameter antenna has arrived at the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters above sea level. Here, it joins antennas from the other international ALMA partners, bringing the total number at the AOS to 16.Although 16 sounds like just...
Celestron starts shipments on the new SkyProdigy intelligent line of telescopes. (PRWEB) July 27, 2011 The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is always a big event where the newest and most innovative products are brought out to showcase to the world. While astronomy gear companies make up a very small portion of the exhibitors, Celestron, the company that brought the world the amazing SkyScout, is always there pushing the boundaries of innovative technical applications for...
A huge image, from the new VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and its camera OmegaCAM at ESO's Paranal Observatory, shows a triplet of bright galaxies in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). But the faint objects in the background, rather than the foreground galaxies, are what may capture an astronomer's attention. The VST's sharp view of these dim objects hints at the power of the telescope and OmegaCAM for mapping the distant Universe.The VST [1] is the newest addition to ESO's Paranal Observatory....
ESO's Very Large Telescope captured this striking view of the nebula around the star cluster NGC 1929 within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. A colossal example of what astronomers call a superbubble dominates this stellar nursery. It is being carved by the winds from bright young stars and the shockwaves from supernova explosions.The Large Magellanic Cloud is a small neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way. It contains many regions where clouds of gas and dust...
A Russian radio telescope intended to be the largest of its kind in space, has started its stellar orbit around planet Earth for the first time since being launched, reports BBC News. The radio telescope, named RadioAstron, part of the Russian space observatory -- Spectrum-R -- will travel in an elliptical orbit that at its farthest point from Earth will take it close to the Moon. It was carried into orbit by the Zenith-3M rocket, taking off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday...
GREENBELT, Md., July 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Secondary" may not sound as important as "primary" but when it comes to the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope a secondary mirror plays a critical role in ensuring the telescope gathers information from the cosmos. The Webb's secondary mirror was recently completed, following polishing and gold-coating.(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) There are four different types of mirrors that...
The discovery potential of the future international SKA radio telescope has been glimpsed following the commissioning of a working optical fibre link between CSIRO's Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope in Western Australia, and other radio telescopes across Australia and New Zealand.The achievement will be announced at the 2011 International SKA Forum, taking place this week in Banff, Canada.On 29 June, six telescopes "“ ASKAP, three CSIRO telescopes in New South Wales, a University...
Latest Telescopes Reference Libraries
Radio telescopes, used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes, are a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. They operate on the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum where they detect radio sources. Radio telescopes are large parabolic antennas used singly or in an array and are located far from major centers of population in order to avoid electromagnetic interference. Karl Guthe Jansky built the first radio antenna used to...
A telescope, designed to aid the observation of remote objects, collects some form of electromagnetic radiation (such as visible light). The Netherlands developed the first known practical telescope in the 17th century. The term "telescope" was termed in order to describe Galileo's instruments in 1611. However, Galileo was not the inventor of the telescope. It was Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Janssen, and Jacob Metius who are credited with the creation of the telescope. In 1668, Isaac Newton...
The Reverend Thomas William Webb (December 14, 1807 "“ May 19, 1885) was a British astronomer and faithful clergyman. The lone son of a clergyman, the Rev. John Webb was raised and educated by his father in absence of his mother who died in Webb's early childhood. He travelled to Oxford to attend Magdalen College. Soon after, he was ordained a minister by the Anglican Church in 1829. In 1843, he married Henrietta Montague. Mrs. Webb died on September 7, 1884. Webb followed shortly...
Very Large Telescope -- The Very Large Telescope (VLT) consist of four optical telescopes that have 8.4 meter aperture. The VLT is a project of the European Southern Observatory organization. It is located at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635-m high mountain in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. The VLT consists of a cluster four of large telescopes, and an interferometer (VLTI) which will be used to resolve fine features. The telescopes have been named after the...
Telescope -- A telescope is an instrument composed of one or more lenses or mirrors to gather and focus electromagnetic radiation. Telescopes increase the observed angular size of objects, as well as their apparent brightness. The largest telescopes are used in astronomy. A telescope was first turned on the sky by Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist. (Telescopes used for non-astronomical purposes may be called "transits," "monoculars," "binoculars," "camera lenses," or "spyglasses".)...
![Protostar G35 Imagery From the SOFIA\](/media/gallery/sofia-stratospheric-observatory-for-infrared-astronomy/thumbs/thumbs_742079main_protostar_g35_fig_1a_1b_150_full_0.jpg "Protostar G35 Imagery From the SOFIA\")
![Protostar G35 Imagery From the SOFIA\](/media/gallery/sofia-stratospheric-observatory-for-infrared-astronomy/thumbs/thumbs_742079main_protostar_g35_fig_1a_1b_150_full.jpg "Protostar G35 Imagery From the SOFIA\")
![NASA\](/media/gallery/sofia-stratospheric-observatory-for-infrared-astronomy/thumbs/thumbs_741421main_ed13-0099-1_full.jpg "NASA\")
