October 2019

New organic compounds discovered on Saturn's moon Enceladus

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” reports the identification of organic compounds on Enceladus, the moon of Saturn which became famous in the last decade after the discovery of an underground ocean. A team of researchers led by Nozair Khawaja used data collected by the Cassini space probe’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) to identify compounds that could be (di)methylamine, ethylamine and carbonyls in ice grains from the surface of Enceladus. They aren’t the first organic compounds that are formed on Enceladus and represent another interesting discovery in the search for life forms on that moon.

Nick Hague, Alexey Ovchinin and Hazzaa Ali Almansoori assisted after their landing (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin returned to Earth on the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft, that landed in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-12 landed on its side but that created no problems to its crew. The two of them spent a bit more than 6 months on the International Space Station, where they arrived on March 15, 2019 as part of Expedition 59. Together with them there was Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, who spent 8 days on the Station.

The protocluster z66OD with its galaxies in the insets (Image courtesy NAOJ/Harikane et al.)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of a galaxy protocluster dating back to about 13 billion years ago. A team of astronomers led by Yuichi Harikane of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), used the Subaru, Keck and Gemini telescopes to find a group of 12 early galaxies including a giant one nicknamed Himiko that form a precursor of today’s galaxy clusters cataloged as z66OD. Its study will help to better understand the evolution of these cosmic structures and the influences among the galaxies that form them, especially the more massive ones.