July 2016

The Progress MS-3 cargo spacecraft blasting off atop a Soyuz U rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago the Progress MS-3 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz U rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about nine minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and was placed on its route. The cargo spacecraft began its resupply mission to the International Space Station also called Progress 64. The spacecraft was launched in the route that requires two days of travel.

Artistic concept of the V883 Orionis system with its protoplanetary disc and the snow in it (Image A. Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF)/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the first observation ever of the water snow line in the V883 Orionis system. Using the ALMA radio telescope, a team led by Lucas Cieza of the Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile, identified the distance from the star beyond which the temperature drops enough for water to freeze.

The galaxy cluster 3C 129 observed by various telescope (Image NRAO, ROSAT satellite; the Two Micron All Sky Survey)

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” is the first produced thanks to a study that includes observations of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). Its target was a supermassive black hole at the center of an elliptical galaxy about 300 million light years away from Earth that is falling toward the galaxy cluster 3C 129.

In blue the RSL (recurring slope lineae) in the Valles Marineris canyon network (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

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An article published in “Journal of Geophysical Research” describes a research that may have found new traces of liquid water on Mars. A team of researchers led by Matthew Chojnacki of the University of Arizona examined images from NASA’s MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) space probe’s HiRise instrument, finding what look like wet sand strips in some regions of the Valles Marineris canyon network.

Scheme of the orbits of 2015 RR245 and the objects brighter than it (Image courtesy Alex Parker, OSSOS)

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An international team of astronomers discovered the dwarf planet identified for now only as 2015 RR245. Using the telescope on Mount Maunakea, Hawaii, as part of the OSSOS survey, they found 2015 RR245, whose orbit is in the Kuiper belt, the area of ​​the solar system beyond Neptune where there are many icy celestial bodies.

The diameter of the dwarf planet 2015 RR245 has been estimated at around 700 kilometers (about 435 miles), which means it’s a bit smaller than Ceres. In the Kuiper belt there are 17 objects larger that that so this discovery is not at the level of that of a planet or at least of a dwarf planet the size of Pluto or Eris. However, each object discovered out there can tell us something more about the history of the solar system.