Astronomy / Astrophysics

Exoplanets and binary systems (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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An article to be published in the “Astronomical Journal” describes a study of possible errors made in the density estimates of the exoplanets discovered using the transit method. Elise Furlan of Caltech/IPAC-NExScl and Steve Howell of NASA’s Ames Research Center analyzed the effect of the presence of a companion star on estimating the density of exoplanets in those systems, concluding that some of them are actually less dense than calculated.

Remnant of Supernova 1987A seen by ALMA (Image ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); R. Indebetouw; NASA/ESA Hubble)

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Two articles, one published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” and one in the “Astrophysical Journal Letters”, describe different aspects of a research on the supernova 1987A (SN 1987A). Several researchers used the ALMA radio telescope discovering for the first time a series of molecules in the supernova remnants. This allowed to create a 3D map of what was called a dust factory and to find clues even about star birth.

The galaxy SGAS J111020.0+645950.8 (Image NASA, ESA, and T. Johnson (University of Michigan))

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Three articles published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” describe various aspects of the observation of the galaxy SGAS J111020.0+645950.8, 11 billion light years away from Earth, with the Hubble Space Telescope. So much attention is due to the fact that the team of astronomers who conducted this study had to use a gravitational lens to conduct the observations and use a very sophisticated analysis to sharpen the images, which also show star formation areas.

The area around the pulsar Geminga (Image Jane Greaves / JCMT / EAO)

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” describes a research for possible planets in formation orbiting the pulsar Geminga. The astronomers Jane Greaves and Wayne Holland used the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii to conduct observations at submillimetric wavelengths and understand the mechanisms of planet formation in a system after a supernova.

NGC 5194 and NGC 5195

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An article submitted for publication in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” describes a research on the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy NGC 5195, which is undergoing some sort of indigestion. Using data collected with various telescopes, a team of astronomers at the University of Manchester discovered that the black hole causes chaotic events in its galaxy. Among the causes there’s its interaction with a much larger galaxy called NGC 5194 or Whirlpool galaxy.