Astronomy / Astrophysics

The 5 H.E.S.S. telescopes (Photo H.E.S.S., MPIK/Christian Foehr)

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An article published in the journal “Physical Review Letters” describes a new interpretation of observations made with NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) observatory in Namibia. According to a team of Italian researchers led by Daniele Gaggero of the University of Amsterdam, at the center of the Milky Way there’s a kind of trap that focuses there some of the highest energy cosmic rays, the fastest particle of the galaxy.

Libya Montes (Image ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, , CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

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ESA has published images of the area of the planet Mars known as Libya Montes taken by its Mars Express space probe. It’s a mountain range near the Martian equator and is one of the oldest in Mars, altered by volcanic processes and impacts but also by processes associated with the existence of rivers. In the pictures it’s possible to identify various channels and valleys, traces of the ancient water streams.

Maps of Pluto and Charon (Image NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/LPI)

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On the occasion of the second anniversary of the New Horizons space probe’s Pluto flyby, NASA has published a map of the dwarf planet and its largest moon, Charon. The American Space Agency has also created two videos that partially reproduce that flight concentrating one on Pluto and one on Charon. They provide a truly unique perspective, giving the impression of being on board a spaceship flying by those celestial bodies.

EBLM J0555-57Ab compared to TRAPPIST-1, Jupiter and Saturn (Image courtesy Amanda Smith)

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” describes the discovery of the star EBLM J0555-57Ab. It’s the smallest star ever discovered, with a size very to the planet Saturn’s. Its mass is about 85 times Jupiter’s but, despite being concentrated in a relatively small volume, has barely enough mass and density to maintain nuclear fusion of hydrogen and thus be a true star.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot (Photo NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Jason Major)

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Yesterday NASA started publishing the first raw photos of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot taken by the Juno space probe during its July 10 flyby. All the scientific instruments were active but JunoCam is the one that has obtained the most spectacular results with the pictures of the iconic storm larger than the Earth. From now on, many fans started processing the images by contributing to the NASA database.