Astronomy / Astrophysics

From right: Orion, Betelgeuse, and a detail of the star candidate Betelgeuse B (Image ESO/M. Montargès et al. Background: N. Rissinger (skysurvey.org))

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” offers the best evidence yet for the existence of a companion to the star Betelgeuse. A team of researchers led by Miguel Montargès of the Paris Observatory – PSL used the SPHERE instrument, and specifically its ZIMPOL polarimeter, mounted on the VLT in Chile to capture a direct image of what appears to be a star close to Betelgeuse. Independent observations will be needed to confirm the existence of the candidate Betelgeuse B. This study suggests it’s a star with a mass between 2.6 and 3.1 times the Sun’s.

The Sextans A galaxy. In the inset, in green, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Image NASA, ESA, CSA, Elizabeth Tarantino (STScI), Martha Boyer (STScI), Julia Roman-Duval (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the results of a study of dust generated by red giant stars towards the end of their lives under conditions similar to those existing in the first galaxies of the universe. A team of researchers led by Claudio Gavetti of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics and the University of Roma Tre used observations conducted with the James Webb Space Telescope to study the Sextans A dwarf galaxy, where the environment is very metal-poor. Observations of a quality unimaginable in the past allowed to understand how these stars produce cosmic dust in environments similar to those of the early universe.

15 of the 31 discovered quasars. Each of them is visible as a dot at the center of its image. The two oldest quasars are shown in red.

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports the discovery of 31 new primordial quasars, including the two oldest known so far. A team of researchers used observations conducted with ESA’s Euclid space telescope as part of the Euclid Wide Survey to find quasars we see as they were when the universe was no more than 800 million years old.

A combination of data collected with the ALMA radio telescope, shown in red, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, shown in blue. Sagittarius A* is at the center.

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” reports evidence of a cosmic wind emanating from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Mark D. Gorski and Lena Murchikova of Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics used observations with the ALMA radio telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to create a high-quality map of the cold carbon monoxide gas surrounding Sagittarius A*. The map shows a cone-shaped cavity where a hot, energetic wind blows and sweeps away the gas.

Abell 2744-QS01. The insets show zooms of three separate views of QS01 generated by gravitational lensing

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Two articles, one published in the journal “Nature” and one in the “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society”, report different aspects of a study of the supermassive black hole cataloged as Abell 2744-QSO1, or simply QSO1, indicating that it’s older than its host galaxy. A team of researchers used observations with the James Webb Space Telescope to study QSO1 and measured its mass at about 50 million times the Sun’s. This means it makes up at least two-thirds of the total mass of the galaxy, an anomaly that betrays its age and leaves open some possible hypotheses about its origin.