Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2020

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 2020 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 16 20 24 48 Small molecules, big questions – the detection of Venusian phosphine On the local morning of September 14 th , the Royal Astronomical Society tweeted an announcement for an afternoon press briefing about a significant discovery. Within hours, “phosphine” and “Venus” were being proposed by some on social media as the discussion topic. In combination with shared links to the... A planet-forming disc torn apart by its three central stars A team of astronomers have identified the first direct evidence that groups of stars can tear apart their planet-forming disc, leaving it warped and with tilted rings. This new research suggests exotic planets, not unlike Tatooine in Star Wars, may form in inclined rings in bent discs around multiple stars. The... The Anthropocene as an interstellar messenger It seems incredible, but in an age when humans communicated remotely using horseback couriers, car- rier pigeons, fires and mirrors, the first signals were already being transmitted into space. The Roman, Chinese and Spanish empires unwittingly added traces of their existence to the light reflected from the... A spectacular supernova time-lapse The NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope has tracked the fading light of a supernova in the spiral galaxy NGC 2525, located 70 million light-years away. Supernovae like this one can be used as cosmic tape mea- sures, allowing astronomers to calculate the distance to their galaxies. Hubble captured these images... Hubble captures crisp new image of Jupiter and Europa This latest image of Jupiter, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 25 August 2020, was cap- tured when the planet was 653 million kilometres from Earth. Hubble’s sharp view is giving researchers an updated weather report on the monster planet’s turbulent atmosphere, including a remarkable new... Good morning Earth. This is ET radio! The patchy search for alien civilizations in the Milky Way continues tirelessly. Nearly all surveys are fo- cused on radio waves, and will continue to be in the future, thanks largely to the planning of gigantic networks of radio telescopes, such as the Square Kilometer Array, soon to be built in Australia and... Hubble maps a giant halo around the Andromeda galaxy In a landmark study, scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have mapped the immense enve- lope of gas, called a halo, surrounding the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large galactic neighbor. Scien- tists were surprised to find that this tenuous, nearly invisible halo of diffuse plasma extends 1.3 million... 34 38