January 2021

Sun's plumelets (Image NASA/SDO/Uritsky, et al)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study on some structures that make up the solar plumes which are called plumelets in jargon. A team of researchers led by Vadim Uritsky of the Catholic University of America and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center applied cutting-edge image processing algorithms to NASA data to obtain unprecedented resolution images of solar plumelets. These structures are small but this study suggests they may play a crucial role in the solar wind, whose influence extends to the border with interstellar space.

The planetary nebulae NGC 6302, also known as the Butterfly Nebula

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At the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, new data were presented regarding the planetary nebulae NGC 6302, also known as the Butterfly Nebula, and NGC 7027, also known as the Jewel Bug Nebula. A team of researchers used observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope at different wavelengths ranging from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared to study their properties. This made it possible to obtain new details that offer new insights into the ongoing processes in which dying stars are ejecting layers of ionized gas in a chaotic way.

A portion of the radio map of the sky in the MIGHTEE survey with the two giant radio galaxies in the insets

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” reports the discovery of two giant radio galaxies in a small portion of the sky, a discovery in theory very unlikely. A team of researchers led by Jacinta Delhaize of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, used data collected during the MIGHTEE survey conducted with the MeerKAT radio telescope. Giant radio galaxies are considered very rare, but are perhaps much more common than expected, a possibility that could have an impact on studying the formation and evolution of galaxies.

1E 0102.2-7219 (Image NASA, ESA, and J. Banovetz and D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University))

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An article under review for publication reports a study on the supernova remnants cataloged as 1E 0102.2-7219 which estimate its place of origin and its age. A team of researchers led by John Banovetz and Danny Milisavljevic of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, used observations conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope to reconstruct the history of that supernova that occurred in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The conclusion is that the light from the progenitor star’s explosion reached Earth about 1,700 years ago.

The galaxy ESO 253-G003 seen by the MUSE instrument (Michael Tucker (University of Hawai’i) and the AMUSING survey)

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An article under review for publication reports a study on the galaxy ESO 253-G003 that classifies it among the ones with an active galactic nucleus that is consuming a star orbiting the central supermassive black hole. A team of researchers led by Anna Payne of the University of Hawaii used observations conducted with various telescopes to study the phenomenon, cataloged as ASASSN-14ko, detecting a series of regular cosmic outbursts that were interpreted as energy emissions linked to the passage of a star too close to the black hole, which destroys a part of it at each orbit.