Stars

The area around Calvera (in the circle) observed by the Fermi space telescope's LAT instrument

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An article accepted for publication in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study on the pulsar cataloged as 1RXS J141256.0+792204 and nicknamed Calvera, a reference to the movie “The Magnificent Seven” due to the fact that it’s an isolated pulsar like the previously known ones, nicknamed the magnificent seven. A team of researchers from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics and the University of Padua used the NICER instrument on the International Space Station to study Calvera. The conclusions are that this pulsar is in the Milky Way’s halo, much farther than estimated after its discovery, and is much younger than the magnificent seven.

Artist impression of exoplanet GJ 367 b (Image courtesy SPP 1992 (Patricia Klein))

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An article published in the journal “Science” reports the discovery of the exoplanet GJ 367 b, about the size of Mars, with a year lasting only eight hours. A team of researchers led by Kristine Lam and Szilárd Csizmadia of DLR, the German aerospace agency, used observations conducted by NASA’s TESS space telescope and follow-up detections conducted with the ESO’s 3.6-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile’s HARPS instrument to obtain information on GJ 367 b. You could say that it’s a super-Mercury since the two planets have a similar iron core but on the side of GJ 367 b facing its star, a red dwarf, the estimated temperature is about 1,500° Celsius.

The traces of various molecules in the protostar's emissions seen by ALMA along with an infrared view

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of complex organic molecules around a protostar at the edge of the Milky Way. A team of researchers led by astronomer Takashi Shimonishi of the Niigata University, Japan, used the ALMA radio telescope to examine the area around a protostar in the region cataloged as WB89-789 detecting the presence of molecules such as methanol, ethanol, methyl formate, dimethyl ether, formamide, propanenitrile, and others. This is the first time that complex organic molecules, the kind that can form prebiotic molecules, have been discovered at the edge of the Milky Way, and this suggests that they can form with an efficiency similar to that existing within the galaxy, in the Sun’s “neighborhood”.

Scheme of TRAPPIST-1 planets' orbits (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports a study on the formation of the planets of the ultra-cool star TRAPPIST-1’s system. A team of researchers exploited the particular configuration of the seven rocky planets to calculate how long their formation may have taken, obtaining a maximum value of a few million years, only a tenth of the time it took for the Earth to form. That’s because the resonance that exists between the planets can only have been maintained in the absence of a late bombardment of the kind that occurred in the solar system that completed its planets’ formation. One consequence is that water must have been absorbed by TRAPPIST-1’s planets during their formation in the protoplanetary disk.

Artist concept of J0240+1952 and its companion (Image courtesy University of Warwick/Mark Garlick)

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters” reports the discovery of the white dwarf with the fastest known rotation speed. A team of researchers used the HiPERCAM instrument mounted on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) to measure the rotation speed of the white dwarf cataloged as Lamost J024048.51+195226.9, or simply J0240+1952. Its rotation in 24.93 seconds makes it the fastest in its class. The examination also made it possible to establish that it’s a magnetic propeller system in which the white dwarf steals gas from a companion and then ejects it into space at very high speeds because of its intense magnetic field.