https://www.icrar.org/cosmic-collision/

Astronomers have discovered that our nearest big neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy, is roughly the same size as the Milky Way.

It had been thought that Andromeda was two to three times the size of the Milky Way, and that our own galaxy would ultimately
be engulfed by our bigger neighbour. But the latest research, published today, evens the score between the two galaxies.

ESOcast 152 Light: ESO’s VLT Working as Single Huge Telescope for First Time (4K UHD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgzzqFXenJ4


Dalekohledy VLT mohou pracovat jako jeden teleskop o průměru 16 metrů | ESO Česko
http://www.eso.org/public/czechrepublic/news/eso1806/?lang

Přístroj ESPRESSO poprvé zachytil světlo ze všech čtyř hlavních teleskopů systému VLT pracujících na observatoři ESO/Paranal v Chile. Kombinace světla
získaného současně čtveřicí dalekohledů s primárními zrcadly o průměru 8,2 m učinila z VLT optický teleskop s největší sběrnou plochou na světě.

Dark Energy: A New Assignment for a 45-Year-Old Telescope
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/...g-the-dark-energy-mystery-a-new-assignment-for-a-45-year-old-telescope/

Berkeley Lab scientists prepare for the installation of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument in Arizona

The Life of a Lens: Chronicling the Creation of a Single Lens for DESI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u1CMwRUDrI


Forty-five years ago this month, a telescope tucked inside a 14-story, 500-ton dome atop a mile-high peak in Arizona took in the night sky for the first time and recorded
its observations in glass photographic plates. Today, the dome closes on the previous science chapters of the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope so that it can prepare for its
new role in creating the largest 3-D map of the universe. This map could help to solve the mystery of dark energy, which is driving the accelerating expansion of the universe.

The temporary closure sets in motion the largest overhaul in the telescope’s history and sets the stage for the installation of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI),
which will begin a five-year observing run next year at the National Science Foundation’s Kitt Peak National Observatory – part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

R.I.P.
Joseph Polchinski, 63, Leading Theorist on Multiple Universes, Dies - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/...ies/joseph-polchinski-63-leading-theorist-on-multiple-universes-dies.html

Joseph Polchinski, one of the most creative physicists of his generation, whose work helped lay the mathematical foundation for the controversial proposition that
our universe is only one in an almost endless assemblage that cosmologists call the “multiverse,” died on Friday at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 63.

His death was announced by the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was a longtime professor and a permanent member of the Kavli Institute for
Theoretical Physics. He had been treated for brain cancer since late 2015.

Nádhera!
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-captures-record-breaking-images-in-the-kuiper-belt

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft recently turned its telescopic camera toward a field of stars, snapped an image – and made history.

The routine calibration frame of the “Wishing Well” galactic open star cluster, made by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on Dec. 5, was taken when New
Horizons was 3.79 billion miles (6.12 billion kilometers, or 40.9 astronomical units) from Earth – making it, for a time, the farthest image ever made from Earth.

New Horizons was even farther from home than NASA’s Voyager 1 when it captured the famous “Pale Blue Dot” image of Earth. That picture was part of a composite of 60
images looking back at the solar system, on Feb. 14, 1990, when Voyager was 3.75 billion miles (6.06 billion kilometers, or about 40.5 astronomical units [AU]) from
Earth. Voyager 1’s cameras were turned off shortly after that portrait, leaving its distance record unchallenged for more than 27 years.

LORRI broke its own record just two hours later with images of Kuiper Belt objects 2012 HZ84 and 2012 HE85 – further demonstrating how nothing stands still when
you’re covering more than 700,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) of space each day.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/tiny-crystal-shapes-get-close-look-from-mars-rover

Star-shaped and swallowtail-shaped tiny, dark bumps in fine-layered bright bedrock of a Martian ridge are drawing close inspection by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.

This set of shapes looks familiar to geologists who have studied gypsum crystals formed in drying lakes on Earth, but Curiosity's science team is considering multiple
possibilities for the origin of these features on "Vera Rubin Ridge" on Mars.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia22241/crater-tadpoles

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows an impact crater looking amusingly like a tadpole because of the valley that was carved by water that used to fill it.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 32.9 centimeters (12.9 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects
on the order of 99 centimeters (38.9 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/juno-completes-tenth-science-orbit-of-jupiter

Juno accomplished a close flyby over Jupiter’s churning atmosphere on Wednesday, Feb. 7, successfully completing its tenth science orbit. The closest approach was at 6:36 a.m. PST (9:36 a.m. PST) Earth-
received time. At the time of perijove (the point in Juno's orbit when it is closest to the planet's center), the spacecraft will be about 2,100 miles (3,500 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops.

This flyby was a gravity science orientation pass. During orbits that highlight gravity experiments, Juno is in an Earth-pointed orientation that allows both the X-band and Ka-Band transmitter to downlink
data in real-time to one of the antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California. All of Juno’s science instruments and the spacecraft’s JunoCam were in operation during the flyby, collecting
data that is now being returned to Earth.

Creating a hotspot for understanding Venus – the Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory – Europlanet Outreach
http://www.europlanet-eu.org/...tspot-for-understanding-venus-the-planetary-spectroscopy-laboratory/

A new simulation facility at the Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) could help revolutionise
our understanding of the hot, hidden surface of Venus. The Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory (PSL) can analyse rock samples similar to those found on the surface of Venus
at temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius, enabling researchers to interpret accurately data acquired by space missions and ground-based observations.