An article published in “Journal of Geophysical Research” describes a research that may have found new traces of liquid water on Mars. A team of researchers led by Matthew Chojnacki of the University of Arizona examined images from NASA’s MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) space probe’s HiRise instrument, finding what look like wet sand strips in some regions of the Valles Marineris canyon network.
An international team of astronomers discovered the dwarf planet identified for now only as 2015 RR245. Using the telescope on Mount Maunakea, Hawaii, as part of the OSSOS survey, they found 2015 RR245, whose orbit is in the Kuiper belt, the area of the solar system beyond Neptune where there are many icy celestial bodies.
The diameter of the dwarf planet 2015 RR245 has been estimated at around 700 kilometers (about 435 miles), which means it’s a bit smaller than Ceres. In the Kuiper belt there are 17 objects larger that that so this discovery is not at the level of that of a planet or at least of a dwarf planet the size of Pluto or Eris. However, each object discovered out there can tell us something more about the history of the solar system.
An article published in the journal “Nature Geoscience” describes a research conducted by scientists from Université Paris Diderot and Royal Observatory of Belgium, in collaboration with the CNRS, Université de Rennes 1 and the Japanese Institute ELSI on Deimos and Phobos, Mars moons, which supports the theory of an ancient impact as their origin. It’s complementary to another, independent, led by scientists of the French space agency CNRS and Aix-Marseille Université whose results will be published in “The Astrophysical Journal”.
An article published in the journal “Science” describes the discovery of the exoplanet HD 131399Ab, the first ever found in a system with three suns. A team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona used the SPHERE instrument mounted on ESO’s VLT to obtain a direct image of HD 131399Ab and its system’s three stars. Scientists thought that such an orbit was unstable but this case seems to contradict that idea.
NASA has confirmed that the Juno space probe successfully entered the planet Jupiter’s orbit. In the last hours it conducted a series of maneuvers to reach the correct trajectory and speed to be captured by Jupiter’s gravity. In this period, Juno’s radio signals take about 48 minutes to reach Earth but in the end came the confirmation that the probe is in orbit and its solar panels are properly pointed toward the Sun.
