2022

The Dragon cargo spacecraft departing the International Space Station to end its CRS-24 mission (Image NASA)

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Yesterday, in the American afternoon, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-24 (Cargo Resupply Service 24) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly in the Gulf of Mexico, near Panama City. The Dragon left the International Space Station last Sunday. For SpaceX, this was the 4th mission of the 2nd contract with NASA to transport supplies to the Station with the new version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, which splashes down near the East coast of the USA instead of the Pacific Ocean.

Shortly after the splashdown, SpaceX’s “Go Searcher” recovery ship went to retrieve the Dragon to transport it to the coast. The cargo brought back to Earth will be delivered to NASA within a few hours. The Dragon spacecraft reached the International Space Station on December 22, 2021.

The dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10

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An article published in the journal “Nature” reports a study on the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10 that offers evidence that the supermassive black hole at its center stimulated star formation. Zachary Schutte and Amy Reines relied on observations conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope to find a kind of hot gas bridge that connects the black hole to a region of intense star formation and to connect the black hole’s outflow to that star nursery. These conclusions are useful to understand the influence of supermassive black holes on their host galaxies and their origin.

The jet MHO 2147 (Image International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA. Acknowledgments: PI: L. Ferrero (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba))

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy and Astrophysics” reports observations of stellar jets cataloged as MHO 2147 and MHO 1502 emitted by two protostellar sources. A team of researchers used the Gemini South telescope in Chile to study those jets, which have an appearance that is likely influenced by the gravitational pull of companion stars. The quality of the observations is due to the adaptive optics system designed to compensate for the distortion caused by the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Stimson formation on Mars (Image NASA/Caltech-JPL/MSSS)

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An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” reports the detection of samples rich in carbon-12, which on Earth is associated with biological processes, in Gale crater on Mars by NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity. A team of researchers used the TLS instrument, part of Curiosity’s SAM mini-laboratory, to analyze the samples to check the amount of isotopes as well. The result is a limited presence in some samples of carbon-13 compared to that detectable in the atmosphere and in Martian meteorites. On Earth, such a result indicates that the sample was produced by some biological process. However, the researchers also offered alternative explanations related to non-biological processes.

A composite image of the central area of ​​the Shapley Concentration within the Shapley supercluster

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An article accepted for publication in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports the observations of an interaction within the Shapley supercluster, one of the largest known structures in the universe, with collisions between galaxies within it. A team of researchers used in particular observations conducted with three radio telescopes: the Australian ASKAP, the South African MeerKat, and the Indian GMRT. That data was complemented with optical frequency observations conducted with the VST in Chile and X-ray observations with NASA’s XMM-Newton space telescope. Galaxy merger processes are occurring among relatively small groups but offer information on consequences at various scales, with influences even on large structures of galaxy clusters.