An article published in the journal “Nature” describes a study following the discovery of repeating fast radio bursts. For the first time, this kind of phenomenon repeated and a team of researchers led by Laura Spitler of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, was able to identify a sequence of signals coming from the same source using the Arecibo radio telescope.
An article published in the journal “Astrophysical Journal Letters” describes a study that used data from NASA’s IBEX space probe and various simulations of the boundary of the magnetic bubble called the heliosphere, created by the flow of particles emitted by the Sun, to improve our knowledge of the interstellar magnetic field. In particular, this study sought to determine the strength and direction of the magnetic field outside the heliosphere to understand the forces acting in the galactic neighborhood.
NASA’s New Horizons space probe sent photographs of the area around the dwarf planet Pluto’s north pole taken during the extraordinary July 14, 2015 flyby. The images reveal a series of canyons long and wide in the polar area that at its bottom is about 1,200 km (750 miles) wide. It’s part of the region informally called Lowell Regio after the astronomer Percival Lowell, the founder of the observatory where Pluto was discovered.
An article published in the journal “Nature” describes research that has uncovered the place of origin of a Fast Radio Burst (FRB). These radio signals that last only a few milliseconds are picked up with no phenomenon that might warn about its arrival. An international team of astronomers used observations made by optical and radio telescopes to trace the origin of this phenomenon.
The Hubble Space Telescope took a picture of the star WR 31a, which has the characteristic of being surrounded by a bubble nebula. It’s estimated to have been created about 20,000 years ago by the impact of the strong stellar winds emitted by WR 31a and materials, especially hydrogen, ejected from it in the earlier stages of its life.
