An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the discovery of a ring around the dwarf planet Haumea. A team led by astronomers at the Astrophysical Institute of Andalucía (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, IAA-CSIC) in Spain used observations of several telescopes to find the ring, the first located around a trans-neptunian object, and to get better estimates of other Haumea characteristics.
A little while ago the Progress MS-7 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about nine minutes it successfully separated 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 68 or 68P.
A few hours ago, the Sentinel-5P satellite of the Copernicus / GMES program, blasted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia, on a Rockot with a Briz-KM upper stage rocket. The satellite regularly separated from the rocket’s last stage and after about an hour and a half started sending signals.
The Sentinel-5P – where “P” stands for Precursor – satellite is the first of the Copernicus constellation devoted to atmospheric monitoring. The term Precursor is due to the fact that it’s the forerunner of the future Sentinel-5 satellite and represents a step forward compared to Envisat. It will complement the EUMETSAT’s MetOp meteorological satellites and work in coordination with the Suomi-NPP American mission, which began in 2011 with similar aims.
An article published in the journal “Nature” describes a research that provides evidence that the explosion of a supernova was triggered by the detonation of a helium layer on the surface of a white dwarf. A team of researchers led by Ji-an Jiang of the University of Tokyo used the Subaru telescope with follow-up observations using the Gemini-North telescope to study MUSSES1604D, a type Ia supernova. Their conclusion is that a white dwarf stole helium from a companion star and it formed a layer that at one point exploded, triggering the supernova.
An article published in the journal “Nature Communications” describes the discovery of evidence of the existence of very ancient hydrothermal deposits on a seabed in the Eridania region on Mars. A team of researchers studied data collected by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) space probe to reconstruct the presence of massive deposits in a basin in the red planet’s southern hemisphere. It’s a type of environment favorable to the birth of life forms, similar to that in which scientists think life on Earth was born.
