To the extent that we can see them, galaxies in the very early universe should look relatively young and unformed. But galaxy ALESS 073.1 is a surprise to astronomers: it looks more mature than we'd have any reason to expect. Why?
Until recently, magnetic fields in the outskirts of galaxies were too faint to be detected. Although it's still not clear what causes them or how they're maintained, astronomers have started to create images of their observations of galaxies' magnetic fields producing beautiful aurora-like effects. See them here.
The Chinese Tianwen-1 mission to Mars successfully entered Mars orbit on February 10, 2021, only one day after the United Arab Emirates mission Hope arrived at the red planet on February 9. They'll be followed soon by NASA's Perseverance mission which is set to arrive and land on February 18.
Astronomers announced this month that a new deep-field survey called JADES will be carried out with the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble's much-anticipated successor. The Webb is due to launch later this year.
FAST's 500-meter (1,640-foot) dish makes it the world's largest single-dish radio observatory. It's expected to open to international observers in 2021.
Theresa Wiegert is a Swedish-Canadian astronomer with a Ph.D. in astrophysics and a master's in physics. She has loved the sky and everything in it and beyond ever since she was four years old and asked her father about the very bright star she saw one early Christmas morning. Learning it wasn’t a star but the planet Venus, she started reading anything astronomy-related she could find. Eventually she ended up as a radio astronomer, researching gas in spiral galaxies. She loves science outreach and teaching, especially showing the night sky to groups of kids (and adults!).
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