An article published in the journal “Science” describes a research on the exoplanet HAT-P-26b, a warm Neptune, meaning a planet of size similar to Neptune that orbits near its star HAT-P-26. A team of researchers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the British University of Exeter used the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to discover what is called a primitive atmosphere for HAT-P-26b despite its star being old.
An article published in “The Astronomical Journal” describes a research on the Epsilon Eridani system (eps Eri) that shows similarities to the solar system. A team led by Kate Su of the University of Arizona used the SOFIA flying telescope to observe an asteroid belt and a disk of debris with some similarities to the Kuiper Belt.
The first results of the analysis of the data collected by the Cassini space probe during its dive into the space between the planet Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017 provided a remarkable surprise. The researchers discovered that Cassini’s instruments recorded very few particles during the crossing of that space and all of them were tiny, around a micron across. This is a mystery to which the researchers hope to find an explanation.
NASA started publishing the first photos taken by the Cassini space probe after its descent into the gap between the planet Saturn and its rings. These are the closest photos taken during a risky maneuver for Cassini, performed only because within a few months it will end its mission so it was decided that it’s worth taking risks to collect close-range data.
An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the discovery of a super-Earth called LHS 1140b. A team led by Jason Dittmann of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics used the HARPS instrument installed on ESO’s 3.6-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile, to study that exoplanet after identifying it with the MEarth-South telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Its location in its solar system’s habitable zone makes it particularly interesting.
