August 2019

The Vela Pulsar at the center of a nebula with the emission of a jet of particles (Image X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et al; Optical: DSS/Davide De Martin)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports an analysis of an irregularity in the spin, a phenomenon called glitch in jargon, in the Vela Pulsar. A team of researchers led by Gregory Ashton of Monash University, Australia, analyzed the data collected by the Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory of the glitch detected on December 12, 2016. Probably this phenomenon is caused by internal interactions in the pulsar materials so studying it can provide information on the internal composition and on the processes taking place in an extreme object of this type.

39 ancestors of massive elliptical galaxies discovered in the early universe

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An article published in the journal “Nature” reports the discovery of 39 galaxies in the early universe. A team of researchers combined data from different telescopes to identify a group of galaxies dating back to the first two billion years after the Big Bang that were invisible to previous observations in their areas conducted at optical frequencies. Their study could offer new information on the evolution of galaxies, on the supermassive black holes at their center and also on the distribution of dark matter.

A heavily obscured primordial supermassive black hole discovered

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports the discovery of a supermassive black hole in an initial phase of growth in which it’s heavily obscured and that dates back to around 850 million after the Big Bang, the oldest of that type discovered so far. A team of researchers used data collected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to carry out this study but even putting together other data collected with the ALMA radio telescope it’s not certain whether that black hole matches the quasar cataloged as PSO167-13 or a nearby galaxy.

The galaxy Holmberg 15A (Image courtesy Juan P. Madrid & Carlos J. Donzelli)

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An article submitted for publication in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of an ultramassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Holmberg 15A, a supergiant elliptical galaxy that is the dominant central member of the Abell 85 galaxy cluster. A team of astronomers led by Kianusch Mehrgan of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching bei München, Germany, used the MUSE instrument mounted on ESO’s VLT in Chile to study that galaxy estimating that the mass of that black hole is about 40 billion times the Sun’s.

In ancient times there was a dynamic environment in Gale Crater on Mars

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NASA has provided an update of its Mars Rover Curiosity’s activities in what was called a clay-bearing unit of ​​Mount Sharp on Mars. Clay is associated with water, so the goal of current research is to offer new information to reconstruct the history of Mars, in this case of Gale Crater, where in ancient times there was a lake and now there’s Mount Sharp. Lately, Curiosity has been working near an outcrop that was named “Teal Ridge” and near a rock that was named “Strathdon”, formed by dozens of sedimentary layers that suggest a more dynamic environment than other typical lake sediments.