2020

The Cygnus Kalpana Chawla starts its NG-14 mission blasting off atop an Antares rocket (Photo Wallops/Patrick Black)

0

A few hours ago Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage went en route to its destination. This is its 14th official mission, called NG-14 or CRS NG-14, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

Titan's Lakes

0

An article published in the journal “The American Astronomical Society” reports a study on the hydrocarbon lakes existing on Titan, the great moon of Saturn, showing its similarities with the Earth’s lakes. A team of researchers led by Jordan Steckloff analyzed data collected by the Cassini space probe and discovered that the lakes of Titan composed of methane, ethane, and nitrogen form layers similar to the ones on Earth. The stratification mechanisms are different because on Earth layers are the consequence of temperature while on Titan they exist because of the particular chemical interactions between the surface liquids and the atmosphere.

Radar map of the Mars area where the lake system was found (Image courtesy Sebastian Emanuel Lauro et al. Nature Astronomy, 2020)

0

An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports the discovery of new underground lakes of very salty liquid water under the planet Mars’ south pole cap. A team of researchers led by Elena Pettinelli and Sebastian Lauro, both of the Italian Roma Tre University, used data collected by ESA’s Mars Express space probe’s Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument to discover what form a lake system consisting of three main lakes surrounded by other smaller lakes. This confirms the discovery of a lake announced in July 2018 and offers evidence that this is not a unique case. It remains an extreme environment, so it takes some speculation to imagine life forms in those lakes, but the authors of this new research also recommend increasing the exploration of those areas to understand their potential is to host life.

Jupiter's South Pole (Image NASA-JPL/Caltech)

0

An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” reports a study on storms at the planet Jupiter’s south pole and their regular geometric pattern. A team of researchers from the University of Berkeley and Caltech used mathematical models derived from 19th-century research by Lord Kelvin based on experiments by physicist Alfred Mayer to explain why those storms concentrated in that area and why on Jupiter they’re arranged in that geometric formation.

Simulations and observations of M87*

0

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study on the data collected during the years of the area around the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M87, the one in the image presented in April 2019 by the Event Horizon Telescope project (EHT) project. A team of researchers led by Maciek Wielgus of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) also analyzed data not published but was part of the observations carried out between 2009 and 2013 with fewer radio telescopes. Those observations were very useful to show the changes in that area, with the shadow of the black hole M87* wobbling and with a variation in its orientation.