July 2016

Artistic representation of the possible impact of a planetoid with Mars (Image courtesy Université Paris Diderot / Labex UnivEarthS. All rights reserved)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Geoscience” describes a research conducted by scientists from Université Paris Diderot and Royal Observatory of Belgium, in collaboration with the CNRS, Université de Rennes 1 and the Japanese Institute ELSI on Deimos and Phobos, Mars moons, which supports the theory of an ancient impact as their origin. It’s complementary to another, independent, led by scientists of the French space agency CNRS and Aix-Marseille Université whose results will be published in “The Astrophysical Journal”.

Artistic representation of the HD 131399 system with its exoplanet and its three stars (Image ESO/L. Calçada)

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An article published in the journal “Science” describes the discovery of the exoplanet HD 131399Ab, the first ever found in a system with three suns. A team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona used the SPHERE instrument mounted on ESO’s VLT to obtain a direct image of HD 131399Ab and its system’s three stars. Scientists thought that such an orbit was unstable but this case seems to contradict that idea.

A model of the Juno space probe with a picture of Jupiter in the background (Photo NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

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NASA has confirmed that the Juno space probe successfully entered the planet Jupiter’s orbit. In the last hours it conducted a series of maneuvers to reach the correct trajectory and speed to be captured by Jupiter’s gravity. In this period, Juno’s radio signals take about 48 minutes to reach Earth but in the end came the confirmation that the probe is in orbit and its solar panels are properly pointed toward the Sun.