Massimo Luciani

Coma Cluster (Image CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA. Image Processing: D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

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An image captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) depicts the Coma Cluster, also known as Abell 1656, so named because it’s part of the constellation Coma Berenices. DECam was designed to conduct a long-term investigation of dark energy but is also useful for other types of astronomical studies. The Coma Cluster is linked to the study of dark matter since the inconsistency between the estimate of its overall mass and the measurement of its gravitational effects stimulated the research that led to today’s dark matter models.

A cutout of the interior of Mars beneath NASA's InSight lander with the dry upper crust and the mid-crust saturated with water

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An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)” reports the results of an analysis of seismic data collected on the planet Mars by NASA’s InSight lander that concludes that the mid-crust of Mars could be filled with liquid water that saturates a layer of igneous rock. Vashan Wright and Matthias Morzfeld of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Michael Manga of the University of Berkeley used models similar to those used to map aquifers and oil fields to try to understand the composition of deep layers of the Martian subsurface.

The best explanation for the data collected by the InSight mission is that between 11.5 and 20 kilometers deep there’s a layer of igneous rock saturated with liquid water. The depth makes it impossible to reach it but if the entire mid-crust of Mars were made like this, there would be enough water to form an ocean between one and two kilometers deep on the surface.

The Caralis Chaos on Mars

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An image captured by ESA’s Mars Express space probe’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) shows the region of the planet Mars called Caralis Chaos. At first glance, it may seem like just another Martian area dotted with craters and wind-carved mounds, but when the red planet was young, it was home to Lake Eridania, larger than all the lakes on Earth. It covered an area of ​​more than a million square kilometers, including Atlantis Chaos, an area close to Caralis Chaos. That lake gradually dried up as the environmental collapse transformed an Earth-like planet into the one we see today.

Artist's illustration of a magnetar surrounded by a plasma bubble (Image S. Dagnello, NSF/AUI/NRAO)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” reports the results of a study on some fast radio bursts linked to persistent emissions that associates that long duration with a bubble of plasma that generates that radiation. A team of researchers led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics registered and studied the fast radio burst with the weakest persistent emission detected so far, cataloged as FRB20201124A, and two other similar events with the VLA radio telescope collecting data that provide evidence of the presence of the plasma bubble at the origin of the radio emissions.

The Cygnus cargo spacecraft captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm on NG-21 mission (Image NASA TV)

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Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, launched last Sunday, August 4, has just reached the International Space Station and was captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Astronaut Matthew Dominick, assisted by his colleague Jeanette Epps, will soon begin the slow maneuver to move the Cygnus until it docks with the Station’s Unity module after about two hours.

The Cygnus cargo spacecraft arrived on schedule despite some issues with a thruster burn that was scheduled to occur about 45 minutes after separation from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket’s last stage. Initial reports indicated that the onboard computer had canceled the burn due to low pressure within the engine systems. Northrop Grumman engineers were able to compensate for the issue with a new burn schedule after reviewing pressure data and determining that it was still acceptable for the thrusters to work.