Telescopes

Artists rendition of the SKA-mid dishes that shows how these 15m wide dish telescopes may eventually look when completed (Image courtesy SKA Organisation)

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The Chinese government announced its intent to enter into a new phase of its involvement in the development project of the SKA radio telescope by signing a letter of intent with the SKA Organisation that runs it. Vice Minister Jianlin Cao from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) signed the letter of intent on behalf of his government. With this act, China the joins nations that are turning the SKA into an intergovernmental organization with a treaty to formalize the relationship between the project and its members.

At left is the galaxy J0702+5002, which the researchers concluded is not an X-shaped galaxy whose form is caused by a merger. At right is the galaxy J1043+3131, which is a "true" candidate for a merged system (Image Roberts, et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF)

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While in the field of astrophysics are still talking about a pair of supermassive black holes that will clash in the future, a new study suggests that these situations are rarer than expected. A team of astronomers led by David Roberts of Brandeis University analyzed data collected with the VLA (Very Large Array) to examine cases in which possible galaxy mergers the brought supermassive black holes at their centers to form a pair. The conclusion is that in many cases the galaxy merger is only apparent.

An earlier iteration of Team Mopra in front of the Mopra radio telescope (Photo courtesy team Mopra. All rights reserved)

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The Mopra telescope, with its 22 meters in diameter and the suite of specialized instruments, is the only one able to quickly map large areas of the sky. The name comes from a geological formation in the vicinity, in the area near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia. Its closure was decided after severe budget cuts by the Australian federal government but a fundraiser on Kickstarter could save it.

The Astro-E2, then renamed Suzaku, satellite during its test phase (Photo NASA)

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In recent days, the Japanese Suzaku space observatory has been deactivated. On August 26, 2015, JAXA, the Japanese space agency, communicated the decision to terminate the mission of this satellite specialized in X-ray astronomy. Communications between the mission control center and Suzaku had become intermittent since June 1, 2015 and JAXA, after trying to restore them, decided to start the deactivation procedures.

Composition of multiwavelength images of the galaxy cluster Abell 1033 and the surrounding area (Image NASA/CXC/Univ of Hamburg/F. de Gasperin et al; Optical: SDSS; Radio: NRAO/VLA)

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An article in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” describes a research on the galactic cluster Abell 1033. Combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands, NSF’s Karl Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a team of astronomers reconstructed the history of a cloud of electrons at the cluster’s center. It was reignited after a cosmic collision and for this reason it’s been compared to the legendary phoenix.