Stars

VIPERS survey's map (Image B. Granett, L. Guzzo & the VIPERS Collaboration)

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In recent days, two groups of researchers have published their cosmic maps. The VIPERS project used the VIMOS spectrograph installed on ESO’s VLT (Very Large Telescope) to examine 90,000 galaxies and create a wide and highly accurate three-dimensional map of the distant universe. The Pan-STARRS project used the telescope at Haleakala, Hawaii, to obtain repeated images of three-quarters of the visible sky and create a map of billions of space objects.

Artistic concept of a star getting close to a supermassive black hole (Image ESO, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” describes a research about ASASSN-15lh, which had been classified as a superluminous supernova after it was discovered in 2015. An international team led by Giorgos Leloudas of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and the Dark Cosmology Centre, Denmark, examined the observations made with various telescopes and concluded that it was actually a star destroyed by a supermassive black hole.

The HD 163296 system (Image ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); A. Isella; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF))

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An article published in the journal “Physical Review Letters” describes the evidence of the presence of two newborn planets in the HD 163296 star system. A team of astronomers led by Andrea Isella of the Rice University in Houston used the ALMA radio telescope to study two major gaps that have left a mark in both the dust and in gas portion of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the star.

Artistic representation of millisecond pulsar deforming its compaion star (Image NASA)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” describes a study of a binary system consisting of a millisecond pulsar known as PSR J1723-2837 and a small common star. Astrophysicist John Antoniadis of the University of Toronto and the amateur astronomer André van Staden discovered for the first time starspots and a powerful magnetic field in a millisecond pulsar’s companion. It’s a research that can help better understand this type of pulsar’s behavior.

Protoplanetary disk in the HD 142527 system (Image ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Kataoka et al.)

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” describes a new research on young system HD 142527. The ALMA radio telescope had already been used in the past to study the protoplanetary disk around the star but this time an international team of astronomers led by Akimasa Kataoka measured with precision the size of the dust particles that form it.