Astronomy: Get Started
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This guide is designed to help students do research for PCC astronomy classes. Use the tabs to navigate through the other pages of the guide:
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The Biggest Explosion in The Cosmos
"For three years, telescopes have monitored “one of the most luminous” events ever: a supermassive black hole consuming a gigantic cloud of interstellar gas...
Eight billion light-years from Earth, in the darkness beyond the constellation Vulpecula, a black hole perhaps a billion times as massive as the sun seems to be gorging on a humongous cloud of gas. A study of the phenomenon appeared Friday in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society...
Astronomers said the explosion is a fireball 100 times the size of our Solar System that suddenly began blazing in the distant universe more than three years ago. “Most supernovae and tidal disruption events only last for a couple of months before fading away,” said Philip Wiseman, an astrophysicist at the University of Southampton and the lead author of the new paper. “For something to be bright for two-plus years was immediately very unusual.”
Source: New York Times, May 2023
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Latest Astronomy News from Sky and Telescope
- Watch the Total Lunar Eclipse Tonight (March 13-14)This link opens in a new windowMar 13, 2025
After more than two years, the Americas score a lunar eclipse bullseye.
The post Watch the Total Lunar Eclipse Tonight (March 13-14) appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
- ESA's Hera Mission Swings Past Mars, Sees DeimosThis link opens in a new windowMar 13, 2025
The Hera mission sent back unprecedented views of the Martian moon Deimos as a prelude to the mission's final destination: the asteroid Didymos.
The post ESA's Hera Mission Swings Past Mars, Sees Deimos appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
- First Thermal Images of Mercury from BepiColomboThis link opens in a new windowMar 13, 2025
The European BepiColombo mission made a detailed heat map of a large swath of Mercury's surface during its most recent flyby.
The post First Thermal Images of Mercury from BepiColombo appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
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