2017

Artist's concept of Haumea with its ring (Image courtesy IAA-CSIC/UHU)

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.

The Sentinel-5P satellite blasting off atop a Rockot vehicle (Photo ESA)

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.

The supernova MUSSES1604D (Image courtesy Institute of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)

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.