April 2020

Illustration of brown dwarf and Jupiter

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An article published in the journal “Science” reports the first measurement of the winds blowing in the atmosphere of the brown dwarf cataloged as 2MASS J10475385+2124234. A team of researchers led by Katelyn Allers of Bucknell University combined observations conducted with the Very Large Array (VLA) and NASA’s Spitzer space telescope to achieve this result. The method was already used for planets like Jupiter, so the news is its extension to a brown dwarf, and could also concern gaseous exoplanets.

The blazar 3C 279

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports the creation of images of the blazar 3C 279 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration. One year after the presentation of the photo of the area around the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Virgo A, also known as M87, the international collaboration that used a series of radio telescopes to obtain the most detailed astronomical image of the history of an object millions of light years away offers the results of another observation campaign. Again, an object of that type was at the center of the attention, but 3C 279 is about a hundred times farther away than Virgo A. Despite this, EHT captured the sharpest details ever obtained of a relativistic jet produced by a supermassive black hole, of which it was also possible to trace the origin.

The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft docking with the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and after a little more than six hours reached the International Space Station with three astronauts on board. In the period preceding a launch, it’s normal for astronauts and cosmonauts to remain in quarantine. In this case it was also extended to the personnel who managed the launch, with limits to the people who could have been in Baikonur.

The Dragon cargo spacecraft departing International Space Station to end its CRS-20 mission (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-20 (Cargo Resupply Service 20) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly in the Pacific Ocean a bit more than 800 kilometers (about 500 miles) off the coast of California. The Dragon left the International Space Station yesterday. For SpaceX, this is the conclusion of the first contract with NASA to transport resupplies to the Station with the first version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft.

Shortly after landing, SpaceX boats went to retrieve the Dragon to transport it to the coast. The cargo brought back to Earth will be delivered to NASA soon, probably tomorrow. The Dragon spacecraft reached the International Space Station on March 9, 2020.

Artist's concept of white dwarf pair

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An article to be published in the “Astrophysical Journal Letters” reports the discovery of a binary system formed by two white dwarfs with helium cores orbiting each other in 1201 seconds, one of the shortest orbital periods known in binary systems. A team of researchers led by astronomer Warren Brown of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (Cfa) used data collected by ESA’s Gaia space probe and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) of the pair cataloged as SDSS J232230.20+050942.06, or simply J2322+0509, conducting follow-up observations with others instruments to examine their characteristics. It’s a possible source of gravitational that will be detected by the LISA sallite currently being designed by ESA.