Massimo Luciani

Nick Hague, Alexey Ovchinin and Hazzaa Ali Almansoori assisted after their landing (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin returned to Earth on the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft, that landed in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-12 landed on its side but that created no problems to its crew. The two of them spent a bit more than 6 months on the International Space Station, where they arrived on March 15, 2019 as part of Expedition 59. Together with them there was Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, who spent 8 days on the Station.

The protocluster z66OD with its galaxies in the insets (Image courtesy NAOJ/Harikane et al.)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of a galaxy protocluster dating back to about 13 billion years ago. A team of astronomers led by Yuichi Harikane of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), used the Subaru, Keck and Gemini telescopes to find a group of 12 early galaxies including a giant one nicknamed Himiko that form a precursor of today’s galaxy clusters cataloged as z66OD. Its study will help to better understand the evolution of these cosmic structures and the influences among the galaxies that form them, especially the more massive ones.

Artist's concept of tidal destruction event (Image NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the study of an event cataloged as ASASSN-19bt in which a supermassive black hole destroyed a star that came too close to it. A team of researchers led by Patrick Vallely and Tom Holoien discovered the start of the event thanks to the ASAS-SN network, obtained observations thanks to the NASA TESS space telescope, which was aimed at that area, and conducted follow-up observations using NASA’s Swift and ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescopes and the network of ground-based Las Cumbres Observatories.

The HTV-8 cargo spacecraft captured by the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago the HTV-8 “Kounotori” spacecraft was captured by the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm, operated by Christina Koch with the assistance of Andrew Morgan. The Japanese space cargo ship, which blasted off last Tuesday, carries a huge amount of supplies and experiments. After its capture, the HTV-8 got slowly moved to its berthing location on the Harmony module, where it was safely installed.