Astrophysics
Astronomers capture first image of black hole’s event horizon
A century after Einstein’s equations predicted the existence of black holes, a virtual telescope the size of planet Earth has captured the first direct image of a black hole, or rather the mysterious region defined by the hole’s event horizon, the point beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape, astronomers announced Wednesday.
Hubble’s premier camera resumes observations
The most-used instrument on the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope is back in business after engineers on the ground determined a fault that halted the camera’s science observations earlier this month was caused by erroneous telemetry data, and was not a symptom of a hardware failure as initially suspected.
Controllers troubleshoot problem with Hubble camera
The partial shutdown of the U.S. government could complicate efforts to troubleshoot a suspected hardware problem with the Hubble Space Telescope’s premier science instrument, but officials are optimistic the camera will eventually be restored to operations, the head of the observatory’s science operations team said Wednesday.
Astronomers announce first exoplanets discovered by NASA’s TESS mission
Six months into its mission scanning the sky for planets around other stars, NASA’s orbiting TESS observatory has found three previously-undiscovered worlds and hundreds more exoplanet candidates, the first batch of a potential haul of up to 10,000 exoplanet detections over TESS’s planned two-year mission, astronomers announced this week.
