NASA’s Spitzer space telescope ended its mission with its final shutdown, which happened when in the USA it was afternoon. Launched on August 15, 2003, it’s been an instrument crucial for infrared astronomy in studies of various kinds ranging from those of solar system’s objects to those of distant galaxies passing through those of exoplanets.
NASA has published a new image of the Tarantula Nebula, a region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite dwarf galaxies. The image combines data from multiple observations conducted with the Spitzer space telescope, whose activity is about to cease. The Tarantula Nebula was one of the first targets studied with this instrument in 2003, after it was put into orbit, and demonstrated its capabilities. Once again, Spitzer offers a view of the structures existing in that area and above all of the many star formation processes taking place.
An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” reports a study of the exoplanet KELT-9b with evidence that the conditions are so extreme as to break hydrogen molecules. A team of researchers led by Megan Mansfield of the University of Chicago used NASA’s Spitzer space telescope to find evidence that KELT-9b is an extreme example even in the hot Jupiter planet class due to the conditions existing on its surface. Not accidentally, it’s the hottest known planet and on its dayside hydrogen molecules are broken and then recompose when the atoms move on its nightside.
Two articles, one published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” and one in “The Astrophysical Journal”, report the results of studies on ancient quenching galaxies, which means that they strongly reduced or even finished their star-formation activity. Two teams of researchers with many of them in common used data collected with various telescopes to study these galaxies and establish that we see the oldest as it was about 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. These studies offer new information to improve galaxy formation models.
An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports the observation of natural masers that revealed a heat wave in the protostar G358.93-0.03-MM1, or simply G358-MM1. A team of researchers led by Ross Burns of NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) carried out the detections as part of the M2O (Maser Monitoring Organization) network of astronomers, specialized in the study of astrophysical masers to understand their nature. In the specific case, it’s a massive protostar and the heat wave coming from it confirms that this type of star passes through a non-linear formation process.
