2022

13.6 TeV collisions detected by the LHC ATLAS experiment (Image courtesy ATLAS Collaboration/CERN)

0

CERN announced that yesterday, when it was afternoon in Switzerland, the detectors of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) began detecting collisions between particles at an energy that reached 13.6 TeV (Tera-electronVolts). These are energy levels never reached before, which mark the beginning of Run 3, the third LHC research campaign.

At the end of April, after the Long Shutdown 2, the period of more than three years in which the LHC equipment was updated, the slow restart of the largest particle accelerator in the world began. The detectors and other systems of the LHC experiments were updated as well to increase the quantity and quality of data that will be collected in the new research campaign.

The galaxy CGCG 396-2 (Image ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel)

0

An image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy CGCG 396-2, out of the ordinary thanks to its many arms. It’s a galaxy that has become an object of interest by the Galaxy Zoo project, one of the astronomical projects that involve the public, in this case, to classify galaxies observed by various telescopes. CGCG 396-2 was selected for follow-up observations with Hubble, whose ACS instrument made it possible to examine the arms that have an unusual configuration because there’s a galaxy merger taking place and consequently an unusual shape that is changing over time.

The ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Pegasus V

0

An article submitted for publication in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” reports the identification of an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy that was named Pegasus V near the Andromeda galaxy. A team of researchers conducted follow-up observations following the discovery made by an amateur astronomer and, using the GMOS instrument mounted on the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, confirmed its existence. An interesting result of the observations is the very limited presence of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, a discovery that led to the conclusion that it’s a kind of fossil of a primordial galaxy.

A comparison between the Earth and the exoplanet TOI-1807 b (Image Nardiello/NASA – Eyes-on-exoplanets)

0

An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports a study of the exoplanet TOI-1807 b, a rocky planet discovered in 2020 thanks to NASA’s TESS space telescope. A team of researchers led by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics and the University of Padua used the HARPS-N spectrograph installed on the Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands to conduct follow-up examinations of TOI-1807 b. The conclusion is that it’s a slightly larger exoplanet than Earth but the main peculiarity is that it’s the youngest of the type with an ultra-short period orbit, as it’s estimated to be around 300 million years old and its year lasts about 13 hours.

The CAPSTONE satellite blasting off atop an Electron rocket (Image NASA TV)

0

A little while ago, NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite was launched atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the base in New Zealand. For about six days, the rocket’s upper Photon stage will carry CAPSTONE toward the Moon and then separate and let it travel for more than four months. Eventually, this CubeSat-class satellite will enter a so-called near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) to study its dynamics for at least six months. This is the orbit into which NASA’s Lunar Gateway, a crucial element of the Artemis program, is scheduled to be placed, so there’s the need to check for unexpected problems, which includes communications.