NASA survey seen as steppingstone for astronomy

more »
By studying dust in the habitable zones of nearby stars, the HOSTS Survey is helping to determine how big future telescopes should be, which stars are likely candidates for harboring Earth-like planets and what the average star system looks like.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Cosmic lens helps Hubble capture image of most distant star ever seen

more »
Peering through the gravitational lens of a massive galaxy cluster 5 billion light years from Earth, astronomers have discovered a single, blue supergiant star 9 billion light years away, farther than any other normal star seen before. The star, dubbed Icarus, was magnified more than 2,000 times when it passed directly behind a sun-like star in the lensing cluster. This demonstrates a new way of studying stars in the earliest years of the universe.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Hubble Uncovers the Farthest Star Ever Seen

Cosmic Quirk Boosts Far-Off Star’s Faint Glow

Through a quirk of nature called “gravitational lensing,” a natural lens in space amplified a very distant star’s light. Astronomers using Hubble took advantage of this phenomenon to pinpoint the faraway star and set a new distance record for the farthest individual star ever seen. They also used the distant star to test one theory of dark matter, and to probe the make-up of a galaxy cluster. The team dubbed the star “Icarus,” after the Greek mythological character who flew too near the Sun on wings of feathers and wax that melted. Its official name is MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1.

via Hubble - News feed
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-13

China’s Space Station Has Finally Fallen Back to Earth

more »
China lost control of Tiangong-1 in 2016, and sky-watchers had been waiting for it to re-enter the atmosphere for months, unsure precisely where or when it would land.
via New York Times