NASA

WISEA J181006.18-101000.5

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of two brown dwarfs thanks to the help of citizen scientists who participated in the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 program. Cataloged as WISEA J041451.67-585456.7 and WISEA J181006.18-101000.5, those are two objects with masses that fall within the range typical of brown dwarfs but with other characteristics more similar to those of gas giant planets. They could be the first extreme T-type subdwarfs, and resemble ancient exoplanets, with very little iron, having an estimated age of around 10 billion years. Their characteristics make them useful to better understand exoplanets.

Jezero Crater on Mars

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Two articles published in the journal “Icarus” report as many studies on Jezero Crater on Mars. Two teams of researchers used data collected by ESA’s Mars Express space probe to reconstruct various parts of the history of Jezero Crater which, with its approximately 49 kilometers in diameter, in the past used to host a lake. It dried out long ago, but left traces such as clay materials that only form in the presence of water. The diversity of minerals is also due to an ancient volcanic activity that affected the entire region. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, with the Mars Rover Perseverance, will land in Jezero Crater, if all goes well, in February 2021 to also look for possible traces of life, present or past.

Artist's concept of Kelt-9b and its star in the background (Image NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA))

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An article published in “The Astronomical Journal” reports a study on the characteristics of the orbit of the exoplanet KELT-9b, an ultra-hot Jupiter very close to its star. A team of researchers led by John Ahlers of the Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center used data collected by NASA’s TESS space telescope to create a model of the interaction between star and exoplanet that allowed to understand better the peculiar characteristics of the star and the extreme ones of KELT-9b. For example, it turned out that the star spins so fast that its poles are flattened making them hotter, and the exoplanet orbits around those poles with the consequence that it has two summers when it passes over them while it has two winters when it passes over the star’s equator.

Proxima Centauri seen from Earth and the New Horizons space probe

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NASA has released images obtained by its New Horizons space probe during the interstellar parallax experiment conducted on April 22 / 23, 2020. The LORRI camera was aimed at Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, two of the stars closest to the system solar, obtaining images that show how they appear in different positions from the ones we see from Earth. It’s an application of the parallax phenomenon with the apparent movement of the two stars caused by the fact that New Horizons is about 7 billion kilometers from Earth. The combination of images captured by New Horizons and an instrument on Earth shows the parallax effect, which in the future could help interstellar navigation instruments like sailors have been using the positions of stars to navigate the seas of Earth.

The Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft approaching the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft docked to the International Space Station’s Harmony module completing the first part of its SpX-DM2 (SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2), or SpaceX Demo-2, mission that began yesterday with its launch. After checking that the pressure is correctly balanced, the hatch will be opened to allow Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to enter the Station.