March 2024

The area around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, seen in polarized light

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Two articles published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” report different aspects of a study of Sagittarius A*, or simply Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which led to the creation of an image in polarized light of the area around it. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration used again a combination of various radio telescopes to detect polarized light thanks to the fact that particles rotating around the magnetic field lines determine a polarization pattern perpendicular to it.

Dantu crater on the dwarf planet Ceres (Image courtesy Maria Cristina De Sanctis et al., Communications Earth & Environment, 2024)

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An article published in the journal “Communications Earth & Environment” reports the discovery of ammonium-rich areas in the famous bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres. A team of researchers composed of Maria Cristina De Sanctis, Filippo Giacomo Carrozzo, Mauro Ciarniello, Simone De Angelis, Marco Ferrari, Alessandro Frigeri, and Andrea Raponi from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics’ Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology in Rome and Eleonora Ammanito of the Italian Space Agency examined data collected by NASA’s Dawn space probe focusing on Dantu crater to identify these compounds, which include a new ammonium salt.

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft approaching the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, which blasted off about two days ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, has reached the International Space Station carrying one new crew member and two visitors. Astronaut Tracy Dyson of NASA is part of Expedition 70/71 while cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and the Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya will remain on the Station for a few days.

The Dragon 2 spacecraft docking with the International Space Station in its CRS-30 mission (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago, SpaceX’s Dragon 2 spacecraft docked with the International Space Station’s Harmony module completing the first part of its CRS-30 mission. Astronauts Loral O’Hara and her colleague Mike Barratt monitored the operation but the cargo spacecraft, which blasted off when it was Thursday afternoon in the USA, completed the maneuvers automatically without any problem.