Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 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’ May-June 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 Stranger and more unpredictable worlds The originality of nature in creating planetary systems far exceeds the researchers’ imagination in predict- ing their characteristics through mathematical models. The variety of new worlds that are being dis- covered appears endless, so much so that many of the more recently studied planets should not even... 4 ALMA spots baby star’s growing blanket A team led by Yusuke Aso (a graduate student at the University of Tokyo) and Nagayoshi Ohashi (a pro- fessor at the Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) observed the baby star named TMC-1A located 450 light years away from us, in the constellation Taurus (the Bull). TMC-1A is... 12 The realm of buried giants In this huge new image clouds of crimson gas are illuminated by rare, massive stars that have only recently ignited and are still buried deep in thick dust clouds. These scorching-hot, very young stars are only fleeting characters on the cosmic stage and their origins remain mysterious. The vast nebula where these giants... 18 2060: postcards from Alpha Centauri A preliminary in-depth study is currently underway for an ambitious project called Breakthrough Starshot, whose aim is the exploration of the Alpha Centauri system within an incredible short time, supposed inconceivable thus far. A flotilla of miniprobes will reach this target in just 20 years from its launch... 22 Planet formation in Earth-like orbit around young star This new image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows the finest detail ever seen in the planet-forming disc around the nearby Sun-like star TW Hydrae. It reveals a tantalising gap at the same distance from the star as the Earth is from the Sun, which may mean that an infant... 28 Hubble breaks cosmic distance record Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope an international team of astronomers has measured the distance to this new galaxy, named GN-z11. Although extremely faint, the galaxy is unusually bright considering its distance from Earth. The distance measurement of GN-z11 provides additional strong... 30 ExoMars: is this our best chance? After 40 years from the first Viking probe landing on Mars, the search for life on the red planet is now continuing with the ExoMars mission, that within 3-4 years could tell us if certain surface regions, which seem ideal habitats for basic forms of life, had been or still are affected by the presence of microorganisms. 38 ATLASGAL survey of Milky Way completed APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment telescope, is located at 5100 metres above sea level on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile’s Atacama region. The ATLAS-GAL survey took advantage of the unique characteristics of the telescope to provide a detailed view of the distribution of cold dense gas along... 44 NASA introduces Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope After years of preparatory studies, NASA is formally starting an astrophysics mission designed to help un- lock the secrets of the universe — the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). With a view 100 times bigger than that of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, WFIRST will aid researchers in their efforts... 48 Behemoth black hole found in an unlikely place Astronomers have uncovered a near-record-breaking supermassive black hole, weighing 17 billion suns, in an unlikely place: in the center of a galaxy in a sparsely populated area of the universe. The observations, made by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini telescope in Hawaii, could indicate that these... 16