November 2017

The HD 135344B system

0

An article published in the magazine “The Astrophysical Journal” describes a research on the protoplanetary disk surrounding the star HD 135344B. A team led by Tomas Stolker of the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland, used the SPHERE instrument mounted on ESO’s VLT (Very Large Telescope) to monitor the evolution of that dust and gas disk and of the dark bands that appear as shadows projected on it. Probably there are processes in the disk’s inner area that cause shadows on its outer area.

The Cygnus spece cargo ship blasting off atop an Antares rocket (Photo NASA/Bill Ingalls)

1

A little while ago Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage went en route to its destination. This is its eighth official mission, called Orbital-8 or simply Orb-8 but also CRS OA-8, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

The first iPTF14hls explosion (Image courtesy Arcavi et ​al. ​2017, ​Nature)

0

An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the discovery of a supernova that seems to have exploded more than once. Called iPTF14hls, it was identified in 2014 by the Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory but in that position a supernova had already been recorded in 1954. It could be the first case discovered of a type of supernova called a pulsational pair-instability supernova, in which a star is so hot and massive that it produces in its core antimatter that causes periodic explosions.

The galaxy NGC 253 with its molecules (Image ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Ando et al. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit)

0

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” describes the discovery of 8 molecular clouds within the galaxy NGC 253 in which 19 different complex molecules have been identified. A team of researchers led by Ryo Ando of the University of Tokyo used the ALMA radio telescope to detect the “signatures” of those molecules including thioformaldehyde, methanol, acetic acid, hydrogen cyanide, propyne and other organic molecules, the first detection of that kind outside the Milky Way.