2021

Artist's concept of the exoplanet L 98-59b and its star (Image ESO/M. Kornmesser)

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports a study on the planets orbiting the red dwarf star L 98-59. A team of researchers used the ESPRESSO instrument mounted on ESO’s VLT in Chile to study the characteristics of three already known exoplanets and concluded that the innermost one has a mass that is approximately half of Venus’s. There was some doubt about the nature of the outermost planet, and this study suggests that it’s a rocky planet that contains a large amount of water. The researchers found evidence of a fourth planet and clues that there might be a fifth planet.

Artist's concept of what the Sun looked like 4 billion years ago (Image NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study on the star Kappa 1 Ceti, very similar to the Sun in size and mass but much younger having an estimated age between 600 and 750 million years. A team of researchers coordinated by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center predicted some hard-to-measure features of Kappa 1 Ceti using computer models based on data collected by various NASA and ESA space telescopes. The results help to understand what the Sun looked like nearly four billion years ago, when it could emit superflares, to reconstruct the influence of its activity on early Earth and early life.

The process that was called nuclear feeding of the galaxy NGC 1566's supermassive black hole

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” reports a study on the feeding process of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy NGC 1566. A team of researchers led by Almudena Prieto of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) used observations conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope, the VLT, and the ALMA radio telescope in Chile to be able to visualize filaments of interstellar dust that separate and subsequently head towards the supermassive black hole, approaching it in a spiral trajectory that eventually leads them to be swallowed. Those filaments could obscure the center of many galaxies with active galactic nuclei.

Andromeda seen from the Sardinia Radio Telescope

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports a study on the Andromeda galaxy based on the best image captured in the microwave band. A team of researchers coordinated by Professor Elia Battistelli of the physics department at Sapienza used the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) and its ability to work at high radio frequencies to create a map of Andromeda at 6.6 GHz, a frequency detected for the first time that fills a gap in the studies of the galaxy considered a sort of sister of the Milky Way. This helped to better understand the processes taking place within Andromeda identifying areas of star formation.

The satellites Star One D2 and Eutelsat Quantum blasting off atop an Ariane 5 rocket (Image courtesy Arianespace)

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A few hours ago, the telecommunications satellites Star One D2 and Eutelsat Quantum were launched from the Kourou spaceport, in French Guiana, to be sent into a geostationary orbit. Of the two satellites, Eutelsat Quantum was the very special one as it’s the first fully commercial satellite that can be reprogrammed in orbit to respond to changing broadcast needs and upgrade the security of encrypted communications. It has an expected useful life of 15 years.