Astronomy / Astrophysics

The galaxy NGC 4993 seen from several different ESO telescopes (Image VLT/VIMOS. VLT/MUSE, MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope/GROND, VISTA/VIRCAM, VST/OmegaCAM)

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Yesterday ESO and LIGO/VIRGO collaboration held a press conference to present the results of a complex research that led to the discovery of the merger of two neutron stars observed in the emission of both electromagnetic and gravitational waves. These findings were collected in a series of articles that were published or will be published in the magazines “Nature”, “Nature Astronomy”, “Astrophysical Journal Letters” and “Physical Review Letters”.

Artist's concept of Haumea with its ring (Image courtesy IAA-CSIC/UHU)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the discovery of a ring around the dwarf planet Haumea. A team led by astronomers at the Astrophysical Institute of Andalucía (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, IAA-CSIC) in Spain used observations of several telescopes to find the ring, the first located around a trans-neptunian object, and to get better estimates of other Haumea characteristics.

The supernova MUSSES1604D (Image courtesy Institute of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes a research that provides evidence that the explosion of a supernova was triggered by the detonation of a helium layer on the surface of a white dwarf. A team of researchers led by Ji-an Jiang of the University of Tokyo used the Subaru telescope with follow-up observations using the Gemini-North telescope to study MUSSES1604D, a type Ia supernova. Their conclusion is that a white dwarf stole helium from a companion star and it formed a layer that at one point exploded, triggering the supernova.

The Eridania basin (Image NASA)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Communications” describes the discovery of evidence of the existence of very ancient hydrothermal deposits on a seabed in the Eridania region on Mars. A team of researchers studied data collected by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) space probe to reconstruct the presence of massive deposits in a basin in the red planet’s southern hemisphere. It’s a type of environment favorable to the birth of life forms, similar to that in which scientists think life on Earth was born.

Illustration of the possible dust cloud around Tabby's star (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” describes a research that offers an explanation of the many sudden brightness changes observed in Tabby’s star in recent years. A team of researchers co-ordinated by the University of Arizona used data collected by NASA’s Spitzer and Swift space telescopes and the Belgian AstroLAB IRIS observatory concluding that this phenomenon is caused by a dense cloud of dust orbiting the star.