Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2019

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. Via San Clemente, 53 24036 Ponte San Pietro - BG - 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 copy- right law. A single copy of the materi- als available through this course may be made, solely for personal, noncom- mercial use. Users may not distribute such copies to others, whether or not in electronic form, whether or not for a charge or other consideration, with- out prior written consent of the copy- right holder of the materials. The publisher makes available itself with having rights for possible not charac- terized iconographic sources. Advertising - Administration Astro Publishing di Pirlo L. Via Bonomelli, 106 25049 Iseo - BS - ITALY email admin@astropublishing.com ASTROFILO l’ May-June 2019 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 4 8 38 42 46 The Event Horizon Telescope captures the first image of a black hole This breakthrough was announced on April 10 th in a series of six papers published in a special issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a mas- sive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth... 50 years ago, we walked on the Moon (Part One of Two) It is unavoidable. This year, all magazines dealing with astronomy and astronautics cannot help but devote considerable space to the fiftieth anniversary of the conquest of the Moon. In July and November 1969, Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions delivered the first men to walk on the surface of our natural satellite... Hubble helps uncover origin of Neptune’s smallest moon Hippocamp A team of astronomers, led by Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study the origin of the smallest known moon orbiting the planet Neptune, discovered in 2013. The first thing we realised was that you wouldn’t expect to find such a tiny moon right next to... ALMA differentiates two birth cries from a single star Astronomers have unveiled the enigmatic origins of two different gas streams from a baby star. Using ALMA, they found that the slow outflow and the high speed jet from a protostar have misaligned axes and that the former started to be ejected earlier than the latter. The origins of these two flows have... Hubble & Gaia accurately weigh the Milky Way The mass of the Milky Way is one of the most fundamental measurements astronomers can make about our galactic home. However, despite decades of intense effort, even the best available estimates of the Milky Way’s mass disagree wildly. Now, by combining new data from the European Space Agency (ESA)... Hiding black hole found Astronomers have detected a stealthy black hole from its effects on an interstellar gas cloud. This inter- mediate mass black hole is one of over 100 million quiet black holes expected to be lurking in our galaxy. These results provide a new method to search for other hidden black holes and help us understand the... A new galaxy in the cosmic neighbourhood An international team of astronomers recently used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study white dwarf stars within the globular cluster NGC 6752. The aim of their observations was to use these stars to measure the age of the globular cluster, but in the process they made an unexpected discovery... Astronomers study mysterious new type of cosmic blast When astronomers discovered a cosmic explosion in a galaxy nearly 200 million light-years from Earth last June 16, they soon realized it was something different. While still debating the details, scientists now believe they may have gotten their first glimpse of the birth of a powerful phenomenon seen... Liberal sprinkling of salt discovered around a young star A team of astronomers and chemists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has detected the chemical fingerprints of sodium chloride (NaCl) and other similar salty compounds emanat- ing from the dusty disk surrounding Orion Source I, a massive, young star in a dusty cloud behind the... Retreating snow line reveals organic molecules around young star Astronomers using ALMA have detected various complex organic molecules around the young star V883 Ori. A sudden outburst from this star is releasing molecules from the icy compounds in the planet form- ing disk. The chemical composition of the disk is similar to that of comets in the modern Solar System... 48 50 52 54 56