Astronomy / Astrophysics

Some outbursts on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Image OSIRIS: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; NavCam: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0)

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” describes a research about the outbursts detected by ESA’s Rosetta space probe on the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. During the three months around its closest approach to the Sun, on August 13, 2015, Rosetta’s cameras captured 34 outbursts. A team led by Jean-Baptiste Vincent from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, traced their origin on the comet’s surface.

Galaxies rich in carbon monoxide seen in orange together with the ones seen by Hubble in blue (Image B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); NASA/ESA Hubble)

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A series of articles to be published in “Astrophysical Journal” and “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” describe different parts of a research based on the observation of the Hubble Space Telescope’s Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) using the radio telescope ALMA. These observations show that the rate of star formation in young galaxies is closely related to their total mass in stars.

A part of Sputnik Planum seen by the New Horizons space probe (Photo NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” offers an explanation for the existence of Sputnik Planum, the heart-shaped basin on Pluto. Tanguy Bertrand and François Forget, two researchers at the Laboratoire de dynamique météorologie (CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique/ UPMC/ENS Paris) used computer simulations to show that the peculiar Pluto’s atmosphere and insolation favors condensation near the equator in the lower altitude areas. The result is nitrogen ice accumulation in that basin.

The supernova remnants RCW103 with the magnetar 1E 1613 at its center (Image X-ray: NASA/CXC/University of Amsterdam/N.Rea et al; Optical: DSS)

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Two articles, one published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” and one published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society”, describe as many research on the supernova remnants known as RCW103. At its center a neutron star formed called 1E 161348-5055 – or simply 1E 1613 – that has been puzzling astronomers for decades for its abnormal behavior. Now two teams independently offered the same explanation: the neutron star has the characteristics of a magnetar.

Pluto seen at visible light and at X-rays (not in scale) (Image X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHUAPL/R.McNutt et al; Optical: NASA/JHUAPL)

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Two new research are connected in different ways to emissions coming from the dwarf planet Pluto. An article published in the journal “Icarus” describes a research which, through the use of the NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, detected X-rays emissions from Pluto. Another article published in the journal “Nature” offers an explanation for the reddish color to Charon’s poles, caused by methane ripped from Pluto’s atmosphere and turned into ice by the low temperatures.