Tag Archive for 'Telescope'

Ramiro Saide et al. explored how hidden electromagnetic leakage might look to extraterrestrials up to 200 light-years from Earth, if they had state-of-the-art radio telescopes like our own. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Civilian and Military Radar Leakage is Revealing Our Existence to Alien Civilizations, Study Suggests

Jul 8, 2025 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of researchers from the University of Manchester performed comprehensive simulations of Earth’s radar systems as potential technosignatures...

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 3470 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Mid-Phanerozoic Exoplanets Might Be Easier to Detect than Modern Earth

Nov 2, 2023 by News Staff

In the search for life in the Universe, Earth provides a template of evolution for the one habitable planet we know. Earth’s atmospheric composition...

NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array is collecting data that astronomers will analyze for the type of emissions that only artificial transmitters make. Image credit: VLA / SETI.

VLA to Search for Radio Signals from Alien Civilizations

May 4, 2023 by News Staff

NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), a powerful radio telescope situated about 80.5 km (50 miles) west of Socorro, New Mexico, is joining the...

This image of the Tarantula Nebula was taken by the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT). Image credit: NASA / SuperBIT.

SuperBIT Captures Stunning Images of Antennae Galaxies and Tarantula Nebula

Apr 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) — a collaboration between Durham University, the University of Toronto, Princeton University,...

The demonstration of the metalens telescope proves the exciting potential lying in the metasurfaces and could bring new possibilities for areas involving large optical systems, including geosciences, planetary observation, and astrophysical science. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03561.

Scientists Create First Ultrathin, Compact Metalens Telescope Capable of Imaging Far-Away Objects

Mar 7, 2023 by News Staff

Metalenses promise potential for a paradigm shift of conventional optical devices. They comprise tiny, antenna-like surface patterns that can focus light...

These Spitzer and Webb images show part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Webb’s MIRI Camera Focuses on Large Magellanic Cloud

May 10, 2022 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four of its science instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image. The Webb team...

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 414 system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Solar Gravity Telescope Could Directly Image Exoplanetary Atmospheres

May 4, 2022 by News Staff

In a new paper in the Astrophysical Journal, a duo of astronomers from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University...

Engineering images of sharply focused stars in the field of view of each instrument demonstrate that the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is fully aligned and in focus. For this test, Webb pointed at part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, providing a dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars across all the observatory’s sensors. The sizes and positions of the images shown here depict the relative arrangement of each of Webb’s instruments in the telescope’s focal plane, each pointing at a slightly offset part of the sky relative to one another. Webb’s three imaging instruments are NIRCam (images shown here at a wavelength of 2 microns), NIRISS (image shown here at 1.5 microns), and MIRI (shown at 7.7 microns, a longer wavelength revealing emission from interstellar clouds as well as starlight). NIRSpec is a spectrograph rather than imager but can take images, such as the 1.1 micron image shown here, for calibrations and target acquisition. The dark regions visible in parts of the NIRSpec data are due to structures of its microshutter array, which has several hundred thousand controllable shutters that can be opened or shut to select which light is sent into the spectrograph. Lastly, Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor tracks guide stars to point the observatory accurately and precisely; its two sensors are not generally used for scientific imaging but can take calibration images such as those shown here. This image data is used not just to assess image sharpness but also to precisely measure and calibrate subtle image distortions and alignments between sensors as part of Webb’s overall instrument calibration process. Image credit: NASA / STScI.

Webb Successfully Completes Alignment Phase

Apr 29, 2022 by News Staff

After full review, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has been confirmed to be capable of capturing well-focused images with each of its four...

While the purpose of this image was to focus on the bright star at the center for alignment evaluation, Webb’s optics and NIRCam are so sensitive that the galaxies and stars seen in the background show up. At this stage of Webb’s mirror alignment, known as fine phasing, each of the primary mirror segments have been adjusted to produce one unified image of the same star using only the NIRCam instrument. This image of a star called 2MASS J17554042+6551277 uses a red filter to optimize visual contrast. Image credit: NASA / STScI.

Webb’s Optics Works Successfully, NASA Says

Mar 16, 2022 by News Staff

Following the completion of mirror alignment steps, the Webb team expects that the telescope’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed its...

During this phase of Webb’s alignment known as image stacking, individual segment images are moved so they fall precisely at the center of the field to produce one unified image instead of 18. Image credit: NASA / STScI.

Webb Continues On Its Path to Becoming Focused Observatory

Mar 2, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists and engineers on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope team have successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases...

This mosaic, taken by the NIRCam instrument onboard the James Webb Space Telescope, shows 18 images of the same star. Image credit: NASA.

James Webb Space Telescope Spots Its First Star

Feb 14, 2022 by News Staff

Each dot visible in this image mosaic from the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is the same...

An artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. Image credit: ESA.

Webb’s Camera Captures Its First Photons of Starlight

Feb 8, 2022 by News Staff

On February 3, 2022, astronomers saw the first photons of starlight that traveled through the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and were detected...

Webb Arrives at Second Lagrange Point of Sun-Earth System

Jan 25, 2022 by News Staff

On January 24, 2021, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope fired its thrusters for 297 seconds to complete the final post launch course correction...

Webb’s mirror consists of a honeycomb-like pattern of 18 hexagonal, gold-coated mirror segments. Image credit: ESA.

Webb Successfully Deploys Its Primary Mirror

Jan 10, 2022 by News Staff

On January 7 and 8, 2021, two wings of 6.4-m (21-foot) gold-coated primary mirror of the NASA/ESA/CA James Webb Space Telescope were deployed and latched...

Webb Telescope’s Sunshield Fully Deployed

Jan 5, 2022 by News Staff

The Webb team has successfully completed tensioning for the five layers of the observatory’s kite-shaped sunshield. An artist’s impression of the James...

James Clark and Dr. Kerri Cahoy propose that laser technology on Earth could emit a beacon strong enough to attract attention of alien astronomers from as far as 20,000 light-years away. Image credit: A. Fitzsimmons, ESO / Sci-News.com.

Megawatt-Class Lasers from Earth Could Attract Alien Astronomers, Says New Study

Nov 9, 2018 by News Staff

A new study, published in the Astrophysical Journal, suggests that if a 1- to 2-megawatt (MW) laser were focused through a 30- to 45-m telescope and aimed...

Palmer et al found that spatial vision in the scallop is achieved through precise control of the size, shape, and packing density of the tiles of guanine that together make up an image-forming mirror at the back of each of the eyes. This image shows the great scallop (Pecten maximus). Image credit: Ceri Jones, Haven Diving Services.

Scallop Eyes Work Like Little Reflecting Telescopes, Researchers Find

Dec 1, 2017 by News Staff

An international group of biologists from Israel and Sweden has obtained a detailed view of a scallop’s visual system — an arrangement of up to...

The view towards the east from the Carregal do Sal megalithic cluster, at dawn at the end of April around 4,000 BC, as reconstructed using a Digital Elevation Model and Stellarium. Aldebaran, the last star to rise before the Sun, is rising directly above Serra da Estrela, the ‘mountain range of the star.’ Image credit: Fabio Silva.

Iberian Megalithic Tombs: 6,000-Year-Old Lensless Telescopes?

Jun 30, 2016 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the UK is exploring what might be described as the first astronomical observing tool, potentially used by humans around 4,000...