2021

Farfarout (2018 AG37) seen on January 15, 2018, by the Subaru telescope (Image courtesy S. Sheppard)

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A team of astronomers announced that they obtained observations confirming that 2018 AG37, nicknamed Farfarout, is the most distant object from the Sun within the solar system. Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and his colleagues Chad Trujillo and David Tholen are specialists in researching objects in the Kuiper Belt and had identified this object already in 2018. However, it’s so far away that there were uncertainties about its measurements. and only now have astronomers announced that it’s currently at a distance from the Sun estimated at 132 times the Earth’s. Its distance exceeds that of 2018 VG18, nicknamed Farout, discovered by the same astronomers.

Mars seen by Tianwen 1 (Photo courtesy CNSA/CASC)

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Yesterday, the Tianwen 1 mission reached the planet Mars, and the spacecraft which includes a space probe, a lander, and a rover entered its orbit correctly. Launched on July 23, 2020, it’s an ambitious mission for China with plans to explore Mars in various ways after successfully starting various missions to the Moon. The main spacecraft engined burned for about 15 minutes to perform the braking maneuver needed to enter an orbit that will reach up to 400 kilometers of altitude. The landing timeline and location in the Utopia Planitia region of the lander and rover will be decided later for a phase of the mission that could take place in May or June.

Infographic of the Hope space probe's journey

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Yesterday, the Arab space probe Hope, or Al Amal, correctly entered the planet Mars orbit. Launched on July 20, 2020, Hope kept its six engines burning for 27 minutes to slow down to the speed needed to enter orbit, an automated maneuver that required absolute precision to prevent the spacecraft from going over Mars or crashing to the Martian surface. The lights of the tallest skyscraper in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, were switched on to celebrate the success of the first Arab mission.

Sagittarius A East, or simply Sgr A East

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An article to be published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study on supernova remnants cataloged as Sagittarius A East, or simply Sgr A East. A team of researchers used observations conducted with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the VLA radio telescope to study those remnants and concluded that they were generated by a rare type of supernova, the type Iax. The results can help astronomers understand the different ways a white dwarf can explode.

Artist's concept of a gas filament disrupted by a star

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” reports the detection of a hydrogen filament about three trillion kilometers long in the cosmic neighborhood. A team of researchers led by Yuanming Wang, a doctoral candidate at the Australian University of Sydney, and Dr. Artem Tuntsov of Manly Astrophysics, used the ASKAP radio telescope to discover this ultra-low-temperature gas just 13 light-years from the Earth. In recent years, a lot of gas that forms the baryonic matter considered to be missing has been discovered in filaments that unite different galaxies, in this case it’s inside the Milky Way and in astronomical terms very close.