November 2016

Summary of the research on K2-3d (Image courtesy National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

An article published in “The Astronomical Journal” describes a research on the exoplanet K2-3d. This is a super-Earth discovered using the Kepler space telescope. An international team of researchers added more data collected later by the Spitzer space telescope and the Okayama Astrophysical Observatory’s telescope to get a more accurate measurement of this potentially habitable planet’s orbital period.

Area around the Milky Way's center (Image courtesy Alex Mellinger)

An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” describes the discovery of a new family of stars at the center of the Milky Way tha are unusually nitrogen-rich. A team of astronomers from the Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) made this discovery working on the APOGEE (the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment) project, which aims to collect infrared data of hundreds of thousands of stars in the Milky Way.

Cygnus X-3 and little friend (Image X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.McCollough et al, Radio: ASIAA/SAO/SMA)

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” describes a research on Cygnus X-3, a binary system consisting of a massive star slowly consumed by its companion, a black hole or a neutron star that is gas continuously taking gas away from it. A team of researchers used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Smithsonian’s Submillimeter Array (SMA) to detect the emissions generated from Cygnus X-3, reflected by a star-forming cloud.

Utopia Planitia (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

An article published in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters” describes the discovery of a kind of subterranean lake in Utopia Planitia on Mars. A team of researchers led by Cassie Stuurman of the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas, Austin, used the data gathered by the SHARAD instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) space probe to examine the subsoil of this basin located in the red planet’s northern hemisphere.

Perspective view of the area near Rembrandt basin compared to a photo (Image NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/DLR/Smithsonian Institution.)

An article published in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters” describes the discovery of a great valley on the planet Mercury. A team of scientists led by Thomas R. Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. used topographic maps created thanks to NASA’s MESSENGER space probe to discover it. It’s considered evidence of the planet’s contraction.