Astronomy / Astrophysics

The TAGSAM mechanism's head

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NASA has announced that the first visual inspection of the OSIRIS-REx space probe’s TAGSAM system, which captured soil samples from asteroid Bennu in the night between 21 and 22 October, has done its job well. In fact, the problem appears to be that the mechanism captured far too many materials and, after OSIRIS-REx moved away from Bennu, they started escaping. For this reason, the mission team decided to skip the various operations that would have allowed more significant examinations of the samples to try to seal them in the Sample Return Capsule to bring them back to Earth.

Io and Jupiter

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An article accepted for publication in “The Planetary Science Journal” reports a study on Io, one of Jupiter’s satellites, which specifically concerns its volcanoes. A team of researchers led by astronomer Imke de Pater of the University of Berkeley, USA, used the ALMA radio telescope to examine Io’s atmosphere as it enters and leaves Jupiter’s shadow, a phenomenon called an eclipse. That’s because during an eclipse it receives no sunlight, temperatures drop to the point that only the sulfur dioxide emitted by volcanoes is warm enough not to solidify. The conclusion is that between 30% and 40% of Io’s atmosphere is generated by volcanic activity. The researchers also found that some volcanoes emit not sulfur compounds but potassium chloride.

Artist's concept of OSIRIS-REx descending to Bennu's surface (Image NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

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A few hours ago NASA’s OSIRIS-REx space probe descended to the surface of the asteroid Bennu to take soil samples in what was called TAG (Touch-And-Go). The selected area is in a crater that was named Nightingale with a diameter of about 16 meters in Bennu’s northern hemisphere. The operation was carried out fully automatically because there’s an 18.5 minute delay in communications due to the fact that OSIRIS-REx is about 334 million kilometers from Earth. If the result is satisfactory, this part of the mission will be over.

Arp 283 (NGC 2799 and NGC 2798) (Immagine ESA/Hubble & NASA, SDSS, J. Dalcanton Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla))

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A photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows Arp 283, which is not a single object but a pair of galaxies classified as NGC 2798 (on the right) and NGC 2799 (on the left). Astronomer Halton Arp put this pair in his catalog of peculiar galaxies because they are two interacting galaxies, which means they’re affected by each other’s force of gravity. Arp 283 was compared to a waterspout with stars from NGC 2799 appearing to fall towards NGC 2798 like drops of water. In the distant future, the two galaxies could merge.

Betelgeuse seen by the SPHERE instrument in December 2019 (Image ESO/M. Montargès et al.)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study of the star Betelgeuse that concludes that it’s smaller and closer to Earth compared to previous measurements. A team of researchers led by Dr. Meridith Joyce of the Australian National University (ANU) used observations conducted using the Coriolis satellite’s SMEI instrument before it started dimming and three different modeling methods to conclude that its radius is about 764 times the Sun’s, its mass is between 16.5 and 19 times the Sun’s and its distance is about 548 light-years from the Earth.