lenses in the sky – without diamonds

and finally a new story about cosmology and a good old friend of yours truly, i.e. gravitational lensing... yay!

New method reveals gravitationally lensed galaxies in Herschel-ATLAS first survey

Astronomers using early data from one of the largest projects to be undertaken with the ESA Herschel Space Observatory have demonstrated that virtually all bright sub-millimetre galaxies in the distant Universe are subject to gravitational lensing, which amplifies their flux thus easing their detection and characterisation. Analysis of less than three per cent of the entire Herschel-ATLAS survey, which probes the distant and hidden Universe, yielded a first sample of five lensed galaxies and paves the way for the compilation, in the near future, of a rich catalogue of distant, star-forming and dust-obscured galaxies. More...

Image credits: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Keck/SMA

hidden magnetism

lots of new stories these days – yay!
this one's about a really curious object... enjoy :-)

Are most pulsars really magnetars in disguise?

Astronomers using XMM-Newton and other world-class X-ray telescopes have probed a curious source, which emits flares and bursts just like a magnetar but lacks the extremely high external magnetic field typical of these objects. The detection of this source, which could be powered by a strong, internal magnetic field hidden to observations, may mean that many 'ordinary' pulsars are dormant magnetars waiting to erupt. More...

Image credits: ESA

you rock — you rule!

here's a new story about rocks, I mean, asteroids :-)

Hubble and Rosetta unmask nature of recent asteroid wreck

High-resolution images from the Hubble Space Telescope and a rare view obtained, from a unique perspective, by the Rosetta spacecraft provide a comprehensive picture of P/2010 A2, a puzzling body in the asteroid main belt. Although similar in appearance to a comet, this object and its diffuse trail have been exposed as the remnant of an asteroid crash that happened only one and a half years ago. More...

Image credits: ESA – OSIRIS-Team; MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Venus' draggin' and twistin' atmosphere

here's a new story I wrote in the last couple of days for ESA about some cool experiments to study the atmosphere of our sister planet Venus:

Venus Express probes the planet's atmosphere by flying through it

ESA's Venus Express is exploring the density of the Venusian upper atmosphere by measuring how much the planet's atmosphere itself slows down or twists the pointing of the spacecraft. New density measurements, centred on the Northern Pole and obtained during these atmospheric drag experiments, show an unexpected inhomogeneous pattern in the atmosphere of our neighbouring planet. More...

Image credit: ESA

It's always sunny in SOHO

well, I actually meant to write "on SOHO" as in the Sun-watching telescope I just wrote a new story about for ESA... of course it's always sunny there, being outside of the Earth's atmosphere! but since it's been unusually sunny here in Munich for quite some days, the title seemed more than appropriate :-)

and if you want to find out more about observations of the Sun in the past decade and a half... here are a few fun facts:

A change of pace for EIT, the ground-breaking Sun-watching camera

For almost 15 years, the EIT camera on board SOHO transmitted a picture of the solar corona every 12 minutes, providing ground-breaking observations of the Sun that changed our perception and understanding of our star. After a remarkable career, this instrument has now eased into semi-retirement. Although no longer as active as during its heyday, EIT will still provide snapshots of the Sun - at a more leisurely pace. More...

Image credits: ESA/NASA - SOHO/EIT

Planck & clusters: SO cool

Here is a new story I just wrote for ESA about my favourite satellite, Planck, and its newest observations of big, huge, beautiful galaxy clusters... enjoy :-)

Planck's first glimpse at galaxy clusters and a new supercluster

Surveying the microwave sky, Planck has obtained its very first images of galaxy clusters, amongst the largest objects in the Universe, by means of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, a characteristic signature they imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background. Joining forces in a fruitful collaboration between ESA missions, XMM-Newton followed up Planck's detections and revealed that one of them is a previously unknown supercluster of galaxies. More...

Image Credits: ESA/ LFI & HFI Consortia

Eau de étoile

here's a new story about water being unexpectedly found in an old star dominated by carbon... and a possible explanation for that:

Herschel detection explains the origin of water in a carbon star

ESA's Herschel Space Observatory has detected water vapour in a location previously thought to be impossible - in the atmosphere of an ageing, red giant carbon star. The rich and detailed data provided by Herschel can be explained within a new framework in which ultraviolet photons play a key role. More...

Image credits: ESA/PACS/SPIRE/MESS Consortia