Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2018

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’ November-December 2018 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 18 20 22 32 Hayabusa2 at work on Ryugu A space mission that sees a group of small probes exploring a primordial asteroid, largely made up of pristine material possibly unchanged for billions of years, is underway. One of the most important goals of the mission is to bring back to Earth samples of that material. Analyzed in the laboratory, the... Ireland to join the European Southern Observatory Irish astronomers are set to gain access to the world’s most advanced ground-based astronomical tele- scopes following the signature of Ireland’s Accession Agreement in Dublin today, 26 September 2018. The signing of the Agreement follows the unanimous approval of Irish membership by the ESO Council... The mystery of Sacramento Peak In September, a famous astronomical observatory located on the Sacramento Mountains, in New Mexico, was the scene of a mysterious operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For about ten days, all the facilities of the scientific institute and the surrounding residences were evacuated. The secrecy... Superflares from young red dwarf stars imperil planets The word “HAZMAT” describes substances that pose a risk to the environment, or even to life itself. Imagine the term being applied to entire planets, where violent flares from the host star may make worlds uninhabitable by affecting their atmospheres. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is observing... Largest galaxy proto-supercluster found A team of astronomers, led by Olga Cucciati of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) Bologna, have used the VIMOS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to identify a gigantic proto-supercluster of galaxies forming in the early Universe, just 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang. This structure, which the... Astronomers propose a new method for detecting black holes A stellar-mass black hole is a compact object with a mass greater than 3 solar masses. It is so dense and has such a powerful force of attraction that not even light can escape from it. That is why it cannot be observed directly, but only via the effects it produces, in the present case on its companion star, from... The first exomoon awaits validation One of the new frontiers of astrobiology is the search for habitable moons beyond the Solar System. For some years now, a few projects have been carried out to identify natural satellites in orbit around giant planets, which in turn orbit in the habitable zone of stars not very dissimilar to the Sun. So far, we have... A Universe aglow An unexpected abundance of Lyman-alpha emission in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) region was discovered by an international team of astronomers using the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The discovered emission covers nearly the entire field of view — leading the team to... First science with ALMA’s highest frequency capabilities A team of scientists using the highest-frequency capabilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has uncovered jets of warm water vapor streaming away from a newly forming star. The researchers also detected the “fingerprints” of an astonishing assortment of molecules near this stellar... ALMA observed an unstoppable monster in the early Universe Astronomers obtained the most detailed anatomy chart of a monster galaxy located 12.4 billion light- years away. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the team revealed that the molecular clouds in the galaxy are highly unstable, which leads to runaway star formation. Monster... 34 36 38 48 50