Jan 10 - News from the Universe

January 10 News from the Universe by:

The 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society - the major organization of professional astronomers in North America - is going on this week in Seattle, Washington. Here are a few of the best stories from that meeting so far.   Illustration of a magnetar - a rotating neutron star with incredibly powerful magnetic fields. Image via NASA/CXC/M.Weiss Probing the magnetar at the center of our galaxy A new study analyzes pulses of radio waves coming from a magnetar - a rotating, dense, dead star with a strong magnetic field - located near the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Read more. Astronomers find the brightest quasar yet It shines with a brightness equivalent to 600 trillion suns. "We don’t expect to find many quasars brighter than that in the whole observable universe," said the astronomers. Read more. New tool reveals 'missing' merging galaxies Astronomers see many breathtaking merging galaxies, with their giant tidal streams of stars and unusual shapes. But some normal-looking galaxies might be merging, too. Now astronomers have a new tool to find out. Read more and see a video. This montage of images from the Hubble Space Telescope shows 6 pairs of galaxies in different stages of the merger process. Image via Hubble Heritage Team/NASA/ESA/A. Evans/SDSS.

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Achernar marks the end of the River The bright, southerly star Achernar marks the end of the River in the constellation Eridanus. Many at northerly latitudes make a game of trying to catch a glimpse of it.

Farthest, average, nearest sun Because Earth's orbit isn't precisely circular, the size of the sun in our sky changes slightly throughout the year. This image from Gowrishankar Lakshminarayanan of New York shows that small variation in sun size.  Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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