August 2018

Fermi gamma-ray map

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” describes a research that offers new confirmations that the anomalous gamma-ray detected for the first time in 2009 by NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope come from millisecond pulsars. The first hypothesis was that they were collisions of dark matter particles but millisecond pulsars that are found in the Milky Way nucleus with emissions mixed up in the signal detected by Fermi seem more and more probable.

Artist's concept of SIMP J01365663+0933473 (Image Caltech/Chuck Carter; NRAO/AUI/NSF)

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An article published in the “Astrophysical Journal” describes a study on the magnetic fields of five brown dwarfs, objects at the limit between the planet and the star, cold even by the standards of their category. A team of researchers used the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope to examine the brown dwarfs chosen due to their radio wave emissions. The one cataloged as SIMP J01365663+0933473 is especially interesting because it’s at the limit between the planet and the brown dwarf and has a magnetic field over 200 times stronger than Jupiter’s.

Perhaps in the Eta Carinae system there were three stars and one of them was destroyed

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Two articles published in the journal “The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” describe different aspects of a research that offers an explanation to the Great Eruption, an event in which the brightness of the Eta Carinae system increased between 1820 and 1843. A team of astronomers used various telescopes to gather new information about what’s happened in that area, concluding that originally there were three stars whose interaction ended up leading to the destruction of one of them.

Artist's illustration of the Cygnus X-1 system (Image NASA/ESA Hubble)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” describes unprecedented observations of matter around a black hole. A team of researchers used the data detected using an X-ray polarimeter on board the PoGO+ satellite to obtain information on the part of hard X-rays that are reflected from the accretion disk around the black hole of the Cygnus X-1 system and identify the shape of the matter that composes it.