Neptune as a Mirror for the Sun
http://aasnova.org/2017/01/11/neptune-as-a-mirror-for-the-sun/

How would the Kepler mission see a star like the Sun? We now know the answer to this question due to a creative approach:
a new study has used the Kepler K2 mission to detect signals from the Sun reflected off of the surface of Neptune.

(update)
UCLA Galactic Center Group
http://www.galacticcenter.astro.ucla.edu/animations.html

Animation of the Stellar Orbits around the Galactic Center
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZhUQl-wmq0

Photons struggle to escape distant galaxies
http://www.ras.org.uk/...truggle-to-escape-distant-galaxies-creates-giant-halos-of-scattered-photons

Astronomers led by David Sobral and Jorryt Matthee, of the Universities of Lancaster in the UK and Leiden in the Netherlands, have discovered giant halos
around early Milky Way type galaxies, made of photons (elementary particles of light) that have struggled to escape them. The team reports its findings
in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In order to understand how our own Milky Way galaxy formed and evolved, astronomers rely on observing distant galaxies. As their light takes billions of
years to reach us, telescopes can be used as time machines, as long as we have a clear indicator to pinpoint the distance to the objects being observed.
As with closer galaxies, stars and planets, astronomers use the technique of spectroscopy to analyse their light, dispersing it into a spectrum.

Scientists then look for characteristic features (spectral lines) that tell them about properties including the composition, temperature and movement of
the object. With the most distant galaxies, only one spectral feature typically stands out, the so-called Lyman-alpha line associated with hydrogen gas.

[1701.02534] Visible spectra of (474640) 2004 VN112-2013 RF98 with OSIRIS at the 10.4 m GTC: evidence for binary dissociation near aphelion among the extreme trans-Neptunian objects
https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.02534

A new scientific paper reports on the spectra via a large telescope in the Canary Islands of some of the Extreme Trans-Neptunian
Objects (ETNO's) referred to in a number of Planet Nine science papers. Some of these ETNO's appear to have a common origin and
two of them seem to have originally been part of a binary asteroid that was disrupted by a massive Planet Nine-like object.

Cosmos on Nautilus: The Not-So-Fine Tuning of the Universe
http://cosmos.nautil.us/feature/113/the-not-so-fine-tuning-of-the-universe
There’s more than one way to build a universe suitable for life.

Before there is life, there must be structure. Our universe synthesized atomic nuclei early in its history. Those nuclei ensnared electrons to form atoms.
Those atoms agglomerated into galaxies, stars, and planets. At last, living things had places to call home. We take it for granted that the laws of physics
allow for the formation of such structures, but that needn’t have been the case.

Over the past several decades, many scientists have argued that, had the laws of physics been even slightly different, the cosmos would have been devoid of
complex structures. In parallel, cosmologists have come to realize that our universe may be only one component of the multiverse, a vast collection of universes
that makes up a much larger region of spacetime. The existence of other universes provides an appealing explanation for the apparent fine-tuning of the laws of
physics. These laws vary from universe to universe, and we live in a universe that allows for observers because we couldn’t live anywhere else.

Astrophysicists have discussed fine-tuning so much that many people take it as a given that our universe is preternaturally fit for complex structures. Even
skeptics of the multiverse accept fine-tuning; they simply think it must have some other explanation. But in fact the fine-tuning has never been rigorously
demonstrated. We do not really know what laws of physics are necessary for the development of astrophysical structures, which are in turn necessary for the
development of life. Recent work on stellar evolution, nuclear astrophysics, and structure formation suggest that the case for fine-tuning is less compelling
than previously thought. A wide variety of possible universes could support life. Our universe is not as special as it might seem.

A Too-Hot Pulsar Speeding Through the Galaxy | astrobites
https://astrobites.org/2017/01/10/a-too-hot-pulsar-speeding-through-the-galaxy/
Hubble Space Telescope detection of the millisecond pulsar J2124-3358 and its far-ultraviolet bow shock nebula

Pulsars — the rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron stars that beam radiation from their magnetic axes — are as mysterious as they are exotic.
They’re most often observed at radio frequencies using single-dish telescopes, and are sometimes glimpsed in X-ray and gamma-ray bands. Far rarer
are pulsar observations at “in-between” frequencies, such as ultraviolet (UV), optical, and infrared (IR) (collectively, UVOIR); in fact, only about
a dozen pulsars have been detected this way. However, their study in this frequency range has proved enlightening, as we will see in today’s post.

A pulsar too hot to handle

While one would expect a neutron star to cool with age if an internal heating mechanism does not operate throughout its lifetime, observations of
the millisecond pulsar J0437–4715 (an interesting object in its own right) yielded surprising results. In a 2016 study, far-UV observations revealed
the 7-billion-year-old pulsar to have a surface temperature of about 2 × 105 K — about 35 times the temperature of the Sun’s photosphere. This
finding inspired Rangelov et al. to observe another millisecond pulsar, J2124-3358 (a 3.8-billion-year-old pulsar with a spin period of 4.93 ms), in
the far-UV and optical bands using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

The biggest 'big idea' that JWST has is to reveal to us the very first luminous objects in the Universe,
including stars, supernovae, star clusters, galaxies, and luminous black holes.
http://www.forbes.com/...ebb-space-telescope-will-truly-do-what-hubble-only-dreamed-of/#13bb8ae4202b

Legendary radio telescope hangs in the balance : Nature News & Comment
http://www.nature.com/news/legendary-radio-telescope-hangs-in-the-balance-1.21268
US National Science Foundation looks to slash funding for Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory.

It is the radio telescope that hunts killer asteroids, probes distant cosmic blasts and decades ago sent Earth’s most powerful message to the stars.
Yet the storied Arecibo Observatory, an enormous aluminium dish nestled in a Puerto Rican sinkhole, might soon find itself out of the science game.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF), which owns the observatory, wants to offload the facility to free up money for newer ones. In the coming weeks,
it will ask for ideas about how Arecibo might be managed if the NSF reduces its current US$8.2-million annual contribution. By May, the agency plans to
release a final environmental-impact statement, a federally mandated analysis of the effects of various scenarios — from continuing to run Arecibo to
mothballing or even demolishing its iconic dish. Soon after that, the NSF will decide which path to take.

Arecibo advocates are not going to let the telescope die without a fight. On 4 January, they pressed their case at a meeting of the American Astronomical
Society in Grapevine, Texas — arguing that Arecibo is putting out some of the best science it has ever done, and that the NSF is moving too quickly to
divest itself of an astronomical treasure.


The US National Science Foundation is planning to divest itself of older telescopes to free up money for newer facilities.