Artist's concept comparing Mars as it is today and as it was 4 billion years ago (Image NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)

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An article published in the journal “Science” describes a research on the atmosphere of the planet Mars that indicates the Sun’s wind and radiation as the principal culprits of the fact that today that atmosphere is so thin. A team led by Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator of NASA’s MAVEN space probe’s mission, examined the measurements of the existing gases estimating for example that 65% of argon present origininally got lost in space. This research confirms the one published in November 2015.

The galaxy Was 49 (Image DCT/NRL)

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A galaxy merger observed with NASA’s NuSTAR space telescope gave surprising results. The galaxy called Was 49 is being formed from the fusion of a large disk galaxy called Was 49a and a dwarf galaxy called Was 49b. The researchers were surprised when they realized that the supermassive black hole at the center of the dwarf galaxy was much bigger and more powerful than expected, going against current models regarding galactic mergers.

The Falcon 9 rocket with a reused first stage blasting off (Photo SpaceX)

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A few hours ago the SES-10 satellite was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. The innovation compared to regular launches of this type is that the rocket’s first stage was already used in a previous mission. It’s the first time that this happens in an actual mission.

The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage did its job and after the second stage successfully separated it landed for the second time on the “Of course I still love you” dron ship. It will be brought back to the mainland and subjected to a new series of checks and tests to understand how it endured its second mission.

The quasar 3C 186 and its galaxy (Image NASA, ESA, and M. Chiaberge (STScI and JHU))

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” describes the discovery of a supermassive black hole pushed out from its galaxy’s core. A team of astronomers led by Marco Chiaberge of the Space Telescope Science Institute in the USA used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the quasar 3C 186 in which this phenomenon occurred. Another interesting element is that the black hole’s movement may have been accelerated by gravitational waves.

Artist's concept of primordial spiral galaxy with quasar in the background (Image A. Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF))

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An article published in the journal “Science” describes a research about two very young galaxies that probably look very wimilar to the Milky Way 12 billion years ago. Called ALMA J081740.86+135138.2 and ALMA J120110.26+211756.2, they were observed by a team of astronomers using the ALMA radio telescope as a follow-up of previous research conducted using the light from a quasar behind the two galaxies. The new research showed that the two galaxies are surrounded by a halo of gas and that their star formation rate is rather high.