September 2019

Six galaxies were observed as they became quasars in a very short time

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of six galaxies with active galactic nuclei (AGN) which showed a remarkable change in their brightness within a few months becoming quasars. A team of researchers used data collected during the first nine months of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey to discover those galaxies that were classified as LINERs, fairly common galaxies that are generally bright but far from quasars. It could be a new kind of activity of the supermassive black holes at the center of those LINER galaxies.

Collapsing cliffs and bouncing boulders on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

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At the EPSC-DPS conference taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, new evidence was presented that on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko there are collapsing cliffs and bouncing boulders. Some scientists examined the approximately 76,000 high-resolution photographs taken by the ESA’s Rosetta space probe’s OSIRIS camera to study the activity on the comet’s surface in the period in which it was active.

The VISTA telescope offers new details of the Magellanic Clouds

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An article accepted for publication in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” reports the results of a study of the two Magellanic Clouds, satellite dwarf galaxies of the Milky Way. A team of researchers used data collected during the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC) exploiting the ability of ESO’s VISTA telescope to detect the near infrareds to show new details of the Magellanic Clouds.

Artist's concept of the pulsar PSR J1023+0038 with its companion on its left (Image ESA)

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An article published in “The Astrophyiscal Journal” reports a study of the pulsar PSR J1023+0038, which showed a peculiar behavior given that for the first time both visible light and X-ray emissions were detected. A team of researchers led by Alessandro Papitto of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics used the Galileo National Telescope in the Canaries and ESA’s XMM-Newton Space Telescope to capture the different emissions of what’s classified as a millisecond pulsar for its very fast rotation speed and offer an explanation to his behavior.

C/2019 Q4 seen by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (Image courtesy C/2019 Q4 seen by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope)

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An object cataloged as C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) and identified as a comet discovered on August 30 by the amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov has a strongly hyperbolic trajectory that suggests its interstellar origin. This could be the first identified interstellar comet, with the advantage that it was discovered while it was still approaching the Sun so it will be possible to conduct more observations for months.