Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2016

Editor in chief Michele Ferrara Scientific advisor Prof. Enrico Maria Corsini Publisher Astro Publishing di Pirlo L. Via Bonomelli, 106 25049 Iseo - BS - ITALY email info@astropublishing.com Internet Service Provider Aruba S.p.A. Loc. Palazzetto, 4 52011 Bibbiena - AR - ITALY Copyright All material in this magazine is, unless otherwise stated, property of Astro Publishing di Pirlo L. or included with permission of its author. Reproduction or retransmission of the materials, in whole or in part, in any manner, with- out the prior written consent of the copyright holder, is a violation of copyright law. A single copy of the materials available through this course may be made, solely for personal, non- commercial use. Users may not distrib- ute such copies to others, whether or not in electronic form, whether or not for a charge or other consideration, without prior written consent of the copyright holder of the materials. The publisher makes available itself with having rights for possible not characterized iconographic sources. Advertising - Administration Astro Publishing di Pirlo L. Via Bonomelli, 106 25049 Iseo - BS - ITALY email admin@astropublishing.com ASTROFILO l’ January-February 2016 BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION FREELY AVAILABLE THROUGH THE INTERNET English edition of the magazine S U M M A R Y The new face of Pluto’s system The downloading of data memorized by the New Horizons spacecraft continues non-stop, along with the growing number of new discoveries made in the amazing Pluto system. Almost nothing of what scientists had unanticipated to find was found, while something completely unexpected has emerged. 4 MAVEN reveals speed of solar wind stripping martian atmosphere The MAVEN mission has identified the process that appears to have played a key role in the transition of the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet environment that might have supported surface life to the cold, arid planet Mars is today. MAVEN data have enabled researchers to determine the... 14 First observations from SEPIA A new instrument attached to the 12-metre Atacama Path-finder Experiment (APEX) telescope at 5000 metres above sea level in the Chilean Andes is opening up a previously unexplored window on the Universe. The Swedish–ESO PI receiver for APEX (SEPIA) will detect the faint signals from water and... 18 The glowing halo of a zombie star The remains of a fatal interaction between a dead star and its asteroid supper have been studied in detail for the first time by an international team of astronomers using the Very Large Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This gives a glimpse of the far-future fate of the Solar System. Led by Christopher... 20 LISA Pathfinder and gravitational waves Gravitational waves, one of the phenomena predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, could help re- searchers understand the mechanisms that generate some of the most energetic events of the universe, namely those that not even the theory of General Relativity of the same Einstein is able to investigate... 26 Cool, dim dwarf star is magnetic powerhouse Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that a dim, cool dwarf star is generating a surprisingly powerful magnetic field, one that rivals the most intense magnetic regions of our own Sun. The star’s extraordinary magnetic field is potentially associated with... 34 Diversity of exoplanet atmospheres revealed To date, astronomers have discovered nearly 2000 planets orbiting other stars. Some of these planets are known as hot Jupiters — hot, gaseous planets with characteristics similar to those of Jupiter. They orbit very close to their stars, making their surface hot, and the planets tricky to study in detail without being... 38 “Born again” stars, a solved mystery University of Texas astronomer Natalie Gosnell has used Hubble Space Telescope to better understand why some stars aren’t evolving as predicted. These so-called “blue stragglers” look hotter and bluer than they should for their advanced age. It’s almost as if they were somehow reinvigorated to look... 40 The birth of monsters Just counting the number of galaxies in a patch of sky provides a way to test astronomers’ theories of galaxy formation and evolution. However, such a simple task becomes increasingly hard as astronomers attempt to count the more distant and fainter galaxies. It is further complicated by the fact that the... 44 Curiosity visits the sand dunes of Mars Just as in terrestrial deserts, also on Mars there are areas covered with sand dunes, which are slowly transformed by the wind action. The Mars Curiosity rover has reached one of these dunes and has begun analyzing it to see if the wind is able to sort out sand grains according to their size and weight... 46