Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2017

cover EN:l'astrofilo 29/04/17 15:15 Page 1
THE FREE MULTIMEDIA MAGAZINE THAT KEEPS YOU UPDATED ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SPACE
Bi-monthly magazine of scientific and technical information May-June 2017 issue
Twin spends
340 days in orbit
Bloostar:
space at your
fingertips
New insights into ocean worlds in our Solar System

Stars born in winds from supermassive black holes
Dark matter less influential in galaxies in early Universe
Ancient stardust sheds light on the first stars
A supernova that
is still in the news
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S U M M A R Y
4
BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFIC
AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION Twin spends 340 days in orbit
FREELY AVAILABLE THROUGH In 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first human ever to travel in space; in 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first
THE INTERNET human ever to walk on the Moon; with the construction of space stations in orbit during the last years
of the 20th century, humans became able to spend consecutive days, weeks, even months living in space...
May-June 2017
12
New insights into ocean worlds in our Solar System
Two veteran NASA missions are providing new details about icy, ocean-bearing moons of Jupiter and
Saturn, further heightening the scientific interest of these and other ocean worlds in our Solar System
and beyond. The findings are presented in papers published by researchers with NASAs Cassini mission...
16
Ancient stardust sheds light on the first stars
An international team of astronomers, led by Nicolas Laporte of University College London, have used
the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe A2744_YD4, the youngest and
most remote galaxy ever seen by ALMA. They were surprised to find that this youthful galaxy contained...
24
Bloostar: space at your fingertips
Private companies are intensifying the race to space, and there are already about thirty of them with aero-
space programmes that have started up or are in development. One of them, Zero 2 Infinity, is perfecting
an interesting system to put small satellites into orbit using a hybrid carrier rocket that combines a...
English edition of the magazine
32
ASTROFILO
l
Stars born in winds from supermassive black holes
A UK-led group of European astronomers used the MUSE and X-shooter instruments on the Very Large
Editor in chief Telescope (VLT) at ESOs Paranal Observatory in Chile to study an ongoing collision between two galaxies,
Michele Ferrara known collectively as IRAS F23128-5919, that lie around 600 million light-years from Earth. The group...
Scientific advisor
36
Prof. Enrico Maria Corsini
Search for stellar survivor of a supernova explosion
Publisher
Astro Publishing di Pirlo L. A group of astronomers used Hubble to study the remnant of the Type Ia supernova explosion SNR
Via Bonomelli, 106 0509-68.7 also known as N103B. The supernova remnant is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud,
25049 Iseo - BS - ITALY just over 160,000 light-years from Earth. In contrast to many other supernova remnants N103B does...
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Dark matter less influential in galaxies in early Universe
52011 Bibbiena - AR - ITALY We see normal matter as brightly shining stars, glowing gas and clouds of dust. But the more elusive
dark matter does not emit, absorb or reflect light and can only be observed via its gravitational effects.
Copyright The presence of dark matter can explain why the outer parts of nearby spiral galaxies rotate more...
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A supernova that is still in the news
whole or in part, in any manner, with- To commemorate the 30th anniversary of SN 1987A, new images, time-lapse movies, a data-based
out the prior written consent of the animation based on work led by Salvatore Orlando at INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Italy,
copyright holder, is a violation of and a three-dimensional model are being released. By combining data from NASAs Hubble Space...
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commercial use. Users may not distrib-
ute such copies to others, whether or Protostar blazes bright, reshaping its stellar nursery
not in electronic form, whether or not A massive protostar, deeply nestled in its dust-filled stellar nursery, recently roared to life, shining nearly
for a charge or other consideration, 100 times brighter than before. This outburst, apparently triggered by an avalanche of star-forming gas
without prior written consent of the
crashing onto the surface of the star, supports the theory that young stars can undergo intense growth...
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The publisher makes available itself
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Runaway star yields clues to breakup of multiple-star system
Advertising - Administration As British royal families fought the War of the Roses in the 1400s for control of Englands throne, a group-
Astro Publishing di Pirlo L.
ing of stars was waging its own contentious skirmish a star wars far away in the Orion Nebula. The stars
Via Bonomelli, 106
25049 Iseo - BS - ITALY were battling each other in a gravitational tussle, which ended with the system breaking apart and at least...
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twins EN:l'Astrofilo 29/04/17 15:18 Page 4
4 ASTRONAUTICS
Twin spends 3
in orbit
by Gonalo Magalhes
In 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first human ever to travel in space; in
1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human ever to walk on the
Moon; with the construction of space stations in orbit during the last
years of the 20th century, humans became able to spend consecutive
days, weeks, even months living in space. Now that we dream about
our next big step in space exploration, travelling to Mars, we must
fully understand how the human body and mind are affected by the
environment in space. NASA astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly are
genetically identical twins and they will show us some answers.
MAY-JUNE 2017
ASTRONAUTICS 5
340 days
N
O
ight Earth uter space has one of the harshest ple of this advancement. But there is more
observation environments for human life. Al- to it than space technology. For a very long
of Japan taken by though the International Space Sta- time, the United States of America and Rus-
Expedition 44 tion takes care of the most obvious prob- sia were the only countries with major
crewmember space programs, followed by the European
lems such as proper air pressure, tempera-
Scott Kelly, with a
ture and a lack of oxygen there are also Space Agency, created in 1975. But now,
Soyuz Spacecraft
connected to the
the obstacles of microgravity and cosmic ra- other countries like India and China have
Mini Research diation, which, as we will see, come with created their own space programs and the
Module 1 (MRM1), lots to be concerned about. space exploration industry has attracted
and a Progress One could say that these problems arent private sector companies like SpaceX, Or-
Spacecraft visible. that important to address. However, human bital Sciences and SpaceDev. This has ac-
[NASA] progress leads us to think that space explo- celerated the race for cosmic supremacy.
ration is the future. The increasingly possi- The biggest problem that faces these great
ble upcoming trip to Mars is a great exam- exploratory ambitions is the human body.
MAY-JUNE 2017
Our body is specifically designed for Earths

gravitational pull. When astronauts fly
However, its not that easy to work out in
space. Our normal training uses gravity, I dentical twins,
Scott and Mark
Kelly, are the sub-
through space, they experience a near ab- whether it is doing push-ups, lifting weights
sence of gravity, known as microgravity. In or running. One way astronauts can get jects of NASAs
Twins Study.
an environment with less G-force, whether exercise aboard the ISS is by running on a
Scott (left) spent
its in space, on the Moon or eventually on treadmill with strings pulling them against
a year in space
Mars, the human body suffers various grad- it. This is a small example of how hard it is while Mark (right)
ual changes: bones start getting brittle, the to live in space, but there are many more dif- stayed on Earth
eyeballs lose their normal shape, hearts ficulties, from eating to bathing and sleep- as a control sub-
beat less efficiently, the legs lose muscle ing. Its not just the incredibly beautiful ex- ject. Researchers
tone, and probably much more that we still perience we are used to imagining. Whether are looking at the
dont know about. To fight these physical it is a beautiful palace or the ISS, staying in- effects of space
changes, astronauts must undertake a very side any house for an entire year is rough, travel on the hu-
strict exercise and dietary regimen. and you settle into a routine in no time. man body. Left,
Twins Study Inves-
tigators. [NASA]
ASTRONAUTICS 7
A bove, an im-
age taken by
Scott Kelly, from
Besides the physical changes and difficul-
ties that our bodies present, the astronauts
to the International Space Station and leav-
ing him there for about a year, while the
in space get much more exposure to harm- other twin remained on Earth. Since they
the International ful solar radiation, since they dont have are genetically identical twins, this experi-
Space Station,
the atmosphere to protect them from this ment should show us the genetic changes
on June 27, 2015.
major hazard. This is such a significant dan- caused by the space environment, shedding
[NASA]. Below, a
video that sum-
ger that NASA established a limited period light on how humans change when they
marize the One- of time an astronaut can spend in space, leave our planet.
Year Mission mainly because of this exposure. So, on March 27, 2015, NASA astronaut Scott
and Twins Study. Regardless, we must be prepared to face Kelly and his Russian colleague Mikhail
[CNN, NASA] the challenges of the space environment. Kornienko rode a Russian Soyuz Rocket to
Not only that, we need to
know if such journeys are
even possible for human
beings. Most important-
ly, we should know what
health consequences as-
tronauts face when they
spend a long, uninter-
rupted period in space.
To explore these prob-
lems, years ago NASA an-
nounced a revolutionary
study involving two twin
astronauts, Mark and Scott
Kelly. The study meant
rocketing one of the twins
ASTRONAUTICS
S cott Kelly post-

ed this photo
of a moonrise
from the Interna-
tional Space Sta-
tion to Twitter on
July 17, 2015.
Below, the famed
astronaut speaks
about his historic
mission aboard
the ISS during an
event at the
United States
Capitol Visitor
Center, in Wash-
ington. [NASA/
Bill Ingalls]
the ISS, where Kelly would live for the fol- Kornienko participated in various studies
lowing 340 days, breaking the record for aimed at better understanding how the
the longest consecutive time a US astro- human body responds to long stints in
naut has spent in space. This mission was not space, and many samples of their bodily
going to be a major
threat to Scott Kellys
wellbeing, since (for
example) Russian as-
tronaut Valery Polya-
kov had already spent
437 days aboard the
Mir Space Station in
the 1990s. Medicine,
however, has made
it easier to measure
genetic changes since
then. Although this
incredible enterprise
is known as a one-
year mission, count-
ing the preparation
and results phases
makes it in effect a
three-year mission.
For an entire year be-
fore the launch, NA-
SAs Scott Kelly and
cosmonaut Mikhail
ASTRONAUTICS
N ASA Twins
Study inves-
tigators are look-
fluids were collected for scientists to study.
The Kelly brothers are the only set of astro-
ly lettuce, which is an important step for
space exploration, since plants will be a ne-
naut twins who have flown in space, and cessity if humans ever live on other planets.
ing for meta- both were selected by NASA in 1996. Mark Many samples of Kellys blood, urine, saliva
bolic changes in
Kelly was best known for commanding the and more were taken throughout his 340
retired astronaut
second-to-last shuttle mission, with the En- days in space, along with samples from
Scott Kelly and
studying how it
deavour Space Shuttle, although he also Kornienko. This will help determine wheth-
correlates to the commanded the Discovery in 2008. Scott er the human changes mentioned above
food he ate dur- Kelly was also an experienced NASA astro- keep happening and getting worse or
ing the One-Year naut, but this one-year mission made him eventually stop upon achieving some sort
Mission and Twins famous worldwide, not only because of his of equilibrium. Theres quite a bit of data
Study. He is pho- incredible journey, but also through his for six months in orbit, says space-station
tographed with Twitter account, @StationCDRKelly, where program manager Mike Suffredini. But
oranges, lemons, he posted many stunning photos of our have we reached stasis at six months, or do
and grapefruits planet as seen from space or strange and things change at one year? Is there a knee
floating around funny moments aboard the ISS. in the curve we havent reached yet? A
him on the Inter-
During Scott Kellys journey aboard the ISS, very important aspect of any scientific ex-
national Space
Station. [NASA]
almost 400 science studies were perform- periment is having a control sample. Thats
ed, with him acting as either a subject or a why, when doing experiments with hu-
scientist. One of these studies was experi- mans, its such an incredible advantage to
ment Veg-01, in which the astronauts grew have an opportunity to experiment with
plants in space for the first time, specifical- genetically identical twins. In this one-year
ASTRONAUTICS
mission, it was very important to have Mark

Kelly on Earth as a control subject. The
behavioral and molecular information, one
can draw correlations and see patterns, S cott and Mark
Kelly were part
of a bold experi-
twins didnt come up when we were se- says Tejaswini Mishra, research fellow at
lecting crew for the mission, says Suffre- Stanford University School of Medicine, ment to see how
the human body
dini. But it occurred to us later that we who is creating the integrated database.
fared after a year
had this ground-based truth in Mark. No one has ever looked this deeply at a
in space. [NASA]
Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko returned human subject and profiled them in this
home on March 1, 2016. Since then, a team detail. Most researchers combine maybe
of researchers has been comparing biologi- two to three types of data but this study is
cal samples taken from each twin before, one of the few that is collecting many dif-
during and after the one-year mission, re- ferent types of data and an unprecedented
sulting in an enormous set of data. An in- amount of information. As individual re-
tegrated database is being created with searchers integrate the data and reach con-
the results of various investigations and clusions about various aspects, the sum-
comparisons. This twins study is quite dif- marized compilation is taking shape and
ferent from the usual studies resulting in we get ever closer to a very accurate and
publication. complete view of how the human body
The results are normally published in scien- changes during space flight. The joint sum-
tific journals that kick off discussions of mary publication is planned for later in
findings, but the results of this study are al- 2017, to be followed by research articles by
ready being incorporated before publish- the investigators. However, many conclu-
ing, and the data is being shared instead of sions are already being released at the In-
the research being done individually. vestigators Workshop in Galveston, Texas,
The beauty of this study is when integrat- where preliminary research results were
ing rich data sets of physiological, neuro- presented in late January. In the Biochemi-
ASTRONAUTICS
G alveston Od-
yssey Acade-
my student So-
phia George won
Best in Show for
her portrayal of
Omics in artwork.
Below, Perla Zu-
niga won 2nd
Place with her
portrayal of the
Kelly Twins as
two in one: the
spaceman and the
Earthling. [NASA]
cal Profile investigation, there appeared to on Earth or in space. The overall results of
be a decline in bone formation during the this study are highly anticipated and are
second half of Scott Kellys mission. expected to be very enlightening. Both
In the Genome Sequencing investigation, the universe and the human body are com-
researchers are looking more closely to see plicated systems and we are studying some-
if some sort of space gene could have been thing hard to see, says Chris Mason, asso-
activated while Kelly was in space. Also, re- ciate professor at the Department of Phys-
sults from Andy Feinberg, who studies how iology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Med-
the environment regulates gene expres- ical College. Its like having a new flash-
sion, could indicate genes that are more sen- light that illuminates the previously dark
sitive to a changing environment, whether gears of molecular interactions. It is a more
comprehensive way to conduct research.
This study will be an important key factor
in the international effort to reach Mars.
There is no doubt, the learnings from in-
tegrating our data will be priceless, says
Emmanuel Mignot, director of the Center
for Sleep Science and Medicine at Stanford
University School of Medicine.
As NASA officials say, the orchestra is only
warming up. Much data is yet to be ana-
lysed and lots of results are awaiting publi-
cation and discussion. Indeed, as human-
kind gets closer to conquering new worlds,
our limitations continue to be surpassed.
One can only imagine what amazing mys-
teries will be unravelled thanks to this in-
credible study. n
chronicles EN:l'Astrofilo 29/04/17 15:11 Page 12
12 SPACE CHRONICLES
New insights into

ocean worlds in our
Solar System
by NASA
T his illustration shows Cassini div-

ing through the Enceladus plume
in 2015. New ocean world discover-
ies from Cassini and Hubble will help
inform future exploration and the
broader search for life beyond Earth.
[NASA/JPL-Caltech]
T
wo veteran NASA missions are This is the closest weve come, so of Enceladus from hydrothermal ac-
providing new details about far, to identifying a place with some tivity on the seafloor.
icy, ocean-bearing moons of of the ingredients needed for a hab- The presence of ample hydrogen in
Jupiter and Saturn, further height- itable environment, said Thomas the moons ocean means that mi-
ening the scientific interest of these Zurbuchen, associate administrator crobes if any exist there could
and other ocean worlds in our for NASAs Science Mission Director- use it to obtain energy by combin-
Solar System and beyond. ate at Headquarters in Washington. ing the hydrogen with carbon di-
The findings are presented in papers These results demonstrate the inter- oxide dissolved in the water. This
recently published by researchers connected nature of NASAs science chemical reaction, known as me-
with NASAs Cassini mission to Sat- missions that are getting us closer to thanogenesis because it produces
urn and Hubble Space Telescope. answering whether we are indeed methane as a byproduct, is at the
In the papers, Cassini scientists an- alone or not. root of the tree of life on Earth, and
nounce that a form of chemical en- The paper from researchers with the could even have been critical to the
ergy that life can feed on appears to Cassini mission, published in the origin of life on our planet.
exist on Saturns moon Enceladus, journal Science, indicates hydrogen Life as we know it requires three
and Hubble researchers report addi- gas, which could potentially provide primary ingredients: liquid water; a
tional evidence of plumes erupting a chemical energy source for life, is source of energy for metabolism;
from Jupiters moon Europa. pouring into the subsurface ocean and the right chemical ingredients,
SPACE CHRONICLES 13
T hese composite images show a suspected plume of material erupting two

years apart from the same location on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Both
plumes, photographed in UV light by Hubble, were seen in silhouette as the
moon passed in front of Jupiter. [NASA/ESA/STScI/USGS]
primarily carbon, hydrogen, nitro- search for habitable worlds beyond bon dioxide, methane and ammonia.
gen, oxygen, phosphorus and sul- Earth, said Linda Spilker, Cassini The measurement was made using
fur. With this finding, Cassini has project scientist at NASAs Jet Pro- Cassinis Ion and Neutral Mass Spec-
shown that Enceladus a small, icy pulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasa- trometer (INMS) instrument, which
moon a billion miles farther from dena, California. sniffs gases to determine their com-
the Sun than Earth has nearly all The Cassini spacecraft detected the position. INMS was designed to sam-
of these ingredients for habitability. hydrogen in the plume of gas and ple the upper atmosphere of Sat-
Cassini has not yet shown phospho- icy material spraying from Enceladus urns moon Titan. After Cassinis sur-
rus and sulfur are present in the during its last, and deepest, dive prising discovery of a towering
ocean, but scientists suspect them through the plume on Oct. 28, 2015. plume of icy spray in 2005, emanat-
to be, since the rocky core of Ence- Cassini also sampled the plumes ing from hot cracks near the south
ladus is thought to be chemically composition during flybys earlier in pole, scientists turned its detectors
similar to meteorites that contain the mission. From these observa- toward the small moon.
the two elements. tions scientists have determined that Cassini wasnt designed to detect
Confirmation that the chemical nearly 98 percent of the gas in the signs of life in the Enceladus plume
energy for life exists within the plume is water, about 1 percent is indeed, scientists didnt know the
ocean of a small moon of Saturn hydrogen and the rest is a mixture plume existed until after the space-
is an important milestone in our of other molecules including car- craft arrived at Saturn.
SPACE CHRONICLES
T his graphic illus-

trates how Cassini
scientists think water
interacts with rock at
the bottom of the
ocean of Saturns icy
moon Enceladus, pro-
ducing hydrogen gas.
[NASA/JPL-Caltech]
reports on observa-
tions of Europa from
2016 in which a proba-
ble plume of material
was seen erupting
from the moons sur-
face at the same loca-
tion where Hubble saw
evidence of a plume in
2014. These images
bolster evidence that
the Europa plumes
could be a real pheno-
menon, flaring up in-
termittently in the
same region on the
moons surface.
The newly imaged
plume rises about 62
miles (100 kilometers)
above Europas sur-
face, while the one
observed in 2014 was
estimated to be about
30 miles (50 kilometers)
high. Both correspond
to the location of an
unusually warm region
that contains features
that appear to be
cracks in the moons icy
crust, seen in the late
1990s by NASAs Gali-
Although we cant detect life, weve published in March 2015, suggested leo spacecraft. Researchers speculate
found that theres a food source hot water is interacting with rock that, like Enceladus, this could be evi-
there for it. It would be like a can- beneath the sea; the new findings dence of water erupting from the
dy store for microbes, said Hunter support that conclusion and add moons interior.
Waite, lead author of the Cassini that the rock appears to be reacting The plumes on Enceladus are asso-
study. The new findings are an inde- chemically to produce the hydrogen. ciated with hotter regions, so after
pendent line of evidence that hydro- The paper detailing new Hubble Hubble imaged this new plume-like
thermal activity is taking place in the Space Telescope findings, published feature on Europa, we looked at that
Enceladus ocean. Previous results, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, location on the Galileo thermal map.
SPACE CHRONICLES
T he green oval highlights the plumes Hubble observed on Europa. The area also corresponds to a warm region on Europas
surface. The map is based on observations by the Galileo spacecraft. [NASA/ESA/STScI/USGS]
We discovered that Europas plume let light. As Europa passes in front Europa Clipper we will be ready for
candidate is sitting right on the ther- of Jupiter, any atmospheric features them, said Jim Green, Director of
mal anomaly, said William Sparks of around the edge of the moon block Planetary Science, at NASA Head-
the Space Telescope Science Institute some of Jupiters light, allowing STIS quarters.
in Baltimore, Maryland. Sparks led to see the features in silhouette. Hubbles identification of a site
the Hubble plume studies in both Sparks and his team are continuing which appears to have persistent, in-
2014 and 2016. The researchers say if to use Hubble to monitor Europa for termittent plume activity provides a
the plumes and the warm spot are additional examples of plume candi- tempting target for the Europa mis-
linked, it could mean water being dates and hope to determine the fre- sion to investigate with its powerful
vented from beneath the moons icy quency with which they appear. suite of science instruments. In addi-
crust is warming the surrounding NASAs future exploration of ocean tion, some of Sparks co-authors on
surface. Another idea is that water worlds is enabled by Hubbles moni- the Hubble Europa studies are pre-
ejected by the plume falls onto the toring of Europas putative plume paring a powerful ultraviolet cam-
surface as a fine mist, changing the activity and Cassinis long-term in- era to fly on Europa Clipper that will
structure of the surface grains and al- vestigation of the Enceladus plume. make similar measurements to Hub-
lowing them to retain heat longer In particular, both investigations are bles, but from thousands of times
than the surrounding landscape. laying the groundwork for NASAs closer. And several members of the
For both the 2014 and 2016 observa- Europa Clipper mission, which is Cassini INMS team are developing an
tions, the team used Hubbles Space planned for launch in the 2020s. exquisitely sensitive, next-generation
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph If there are plumes on Europa, as version of their instrument for flight
(STIS) to spot the plumes in ultravio- we now strongly suspect, with the on Europa Clipper. n
16 SPACE CHRONICLES
Ancient stardust
sheds light on the
first stars
by ESO
A
n international team of
astronomers, led by Nicolas
Laporte of University Col-
lege London, have used the Ata-
cama Large Millimeter/submilli-
meter Array (ALMA) to observe
A2744_YD4, the youngest and most
remote galaxy ever seen by ALMA.
They were surprised to find that
this youthful galaxy contained an
abundance of interstellar dust
dust formed by the deaths of an
earlier generation of stars.
Follow-up observations using the
X-shooter instrument on ESOs
Very Large Telescope confirmed the
enormous distance to A2744_YD4.
The galaxy appears to us as it was
when the Universe was only 600
million years old, during the period
when the first stars and galaxies
were forming. This time corre-
sponds to a redshift of z=8.38, du-
ring the epoch of reionisation.
Not only is A2744_YD4 the most
distant galaxy yet observed by
ALMA, comments Nicolas Laporte,
but the detection of so much dust
indicates early supernovae must
have already polluted this galaxy.
MAY-JUNE 2017
SPACE CHRONICLES 17
Cosmic dust is mainly composed of

silicon, carbon and aluminium, in
grains as small as a millionth of a
centimetre across.
The chemical elements in these
grains are forged inside stars and
are scattered across the cosmos
when the stars die, most spectacu-
larly in supernova explosions, the
final fate of short-lived, massive
stars. Today, this dust is plentiful
and is a key building block in the
formation of stars, planets and
complex molecules; but in the
early Universe before the first
generations of stars died out it
was scarce.
The observations of the dusty gal-
axy A2744_YD4 were made possi-
ble because this galaxy lies behind
a massive galaxy cluster called
Abell 2744. Because of a phenome-
non called gravitational lensing,
the cluster acted like a giant cos-
mic telescope to magnify the
more distant A2744_YD4 by about
1.8 times, allowing the team to
peer far back into the early Uni-
verse.
The ALMA observations also detec-
ted the glowing emission of ion-
ised oxygen from A2744_YD4. This
is the most distant, and hence ear-
liest, detection of oxygen in the
Universe, surpassing another ALMA
result from 2016.
The detection of dust in the early
Universe provides new informa-
T his artists impression shows

what the very distant young gal-
axy A2744_YD4 might look like. Ob-
servations using ALMA have shown
that this galaxy, seen when the Uni-
verse was just 4% of its current age,
is rich in dust. Such dust was pro-
duced by an earlier generation of
stars and these observations provide
insights into the birth and explosive
deaths of the very first stars in the
Universe. [ESO/M. Kornmesser]
MAY-JUNE 2017
T his image is dominated by a spectacular view of the rich galaxy cluster Abell
2744 from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. But, far beyond this clus-
ter, and seen when the Universe was only about 600 million years old, is a very
faint galaxy called A2744_YD4. New observations of this galaxy with ALMA,
shown in red, have demonstrated that it is rich in dust. [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO),
NASA, ESA, ESO and D. Coe (STScI)/J. Merten (Heidelberg/Bologna)]
tion on when the first supernovae million years before the epoch at
exploded and hence the time when which the galaxy is being observed.
the first hot stars bathed the Uni- This provides a great opportunity
verse in light. Determining the tim- for ALMA to help study the era
ing of this cosmic dawn is one of when the first stars and galaxies
the holy grails of modern astrono- switched on the earliest epoch
my, and it can be indi-
rectly probed through
the study of early in-
terstellar dust.
The team estimates
that A2744_YD4 con-
tained an amount of
dust equivalent to 6
million times the mass
of our Sun, while the
galaxys total stellar
mass the mass of all
its stars was 2 bil-
lion times the mass of
our Sun. The team al- T
how
his artists impression shows what the very dis-
tant young galaxy A2744_YD4 might look like and
supernovae explosions, the deaths of very mas-
so measured the rate
sive and brilliant stars, polluted it with dust. ALMA
of star formation in
observations of this galaxy, seen when the Universe
A2744_YD4 and found was just 4% of its current age, are providing insights
that stars are forming into the birth and explosive deaths of the very first
at a rate of 20 solar stars in the Universe. [ESO/M. Kornmesser]
masses per year
compared to just one solar mass yet probed. Our Sun, our planet
per year in the Milky Way. This rate and our existence are the products
means that the total mass of the 13 billion years later of this
stars formed every year is equiva- first generation of stars. By stu-
lent to 20 times the mass of the dying their formation, lives and de-
Sun. aths, we are exploring our origins.
This rate is not unusual for such a With ALMA, the prospects for per-
distant galaxy, but it does shed forming deeper and more exten-
light on how quickly the dust in sive observations of similar galaxies
A2744_YD4 formed, explains Rich- at these early times are very prom-
ard Ellis (ESO and University Col- ising, says Ellis.
lege London), a co-author of the And Laporte concludes: Further
study. Remarkably, the required measurements of this kind offer
time is only about 200 million years the exciting prospect of tracing
so we are witnessing this galaxy early star formation and the crea-
shortly after its formation. tion of the heavier chemical ele-
This means that significant star for- ments even further back into the
mation began approximately 200 early Universe. n
SPACE CHRONICLES
ALMA adds a new

dimension to a
HST result
by ALMA Observatory
A
n international team of as-
tronomers, led by Hyosun
Kim in Academia Sinica Insti-
tute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
(ASIAA, Taiwan), has found a way of
deriving the orbital shape of binary
stars that have orbital periods too
long to be directly measured. This
new technique was possible thanks
to an observation toward the old
star LL Pegasi (also known as AFGL
3068) using the state-of-the-art
telescope, the Atacama Large Milli-
meter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
It is exciting to see such a beautiful
spiral-shell pattern in the sky. Our
observations have revealed the ex-
quisitely ordered three-dimensional
geometry of this spiral-shell pattern,
and we have produced a very satis-
fying theory to account for its de-
tails, says Hyosun Kim.
The new ALMA images reveal the
detailed features of spiral-shell pat-
tern imprinted in the gas material
continuously ejected from LL Pegasi.
A comparison of this observation
with computer simulations led the
team, for the first time, to the con-
clusion that a binary system with a
H ST image of LL Pegasi publicized in

2010 (left). [ESA/NASA & R. Sahai]
Right, ALMA image of LL Pegasi. [ALMA
(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / Hyosun Kim et al.]
SPACE CHRONICLES
highly elliptical orbit is responsible implications

for its morphology of gas distribu- in binary re-
tion. In particular, the bifurcation search, says
of the spiral-shell pattern, which is Alfonso Trejo
clearly visible in the ALMA images, (ASIAA, Tai-
is a unique characteristic of elliptical wan), a co-au-
binaries. This quintessential object thor of the
opens a new window on the nature study. Binaries
of central binaries through the re- in elliptical or-
petitive patterns that reside far bits for stars
from the star at distances of a few in late stellar
thousand the stellar radii. evolutionary
The exquisite sensitivity and ability phases may be
of ALMA to image with high preci- ubiquitous
sion such complex spiral patterns over an ex-
were essential for this study. We are tensive period
range. Many
planetary neb-
V isualizing the ALMA image cube of LL Pegasi. Each frame of
the video shows the molecular gas material surround-ing LL
Pegasi for a different line-of-sight velocity. This velocity, advanc-
ulae (stars that ing 1 km/s per frame, is given at the top-right corner. The field
are in the next size is 20,000 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
stage of stel- [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / Hyosun Kim et al.]
lar evolution)
consist of nearly spherical structures can be obtained by a careful inspec-
in the outer part and highly-asym- tion of the outer recurrent patterns,
metric structures in the inner part. which hint at the origin of the tran-
Near-spherical patterns include sition from the near-spherical to
those appearing like spirals, shells, asymmetric structures.
and arcs, while highly non-spherical LL Pegasi is a mass-losing giant star
features are bipolar- or multipolar- with a size of 200 times or more
like. The coexistence of such geo- that of the Sun. Among the stellar
metrically
distinct struc-
tures is enig-
matic because
it hints at the
simultaneous
presence of
both wide and
close binary
interactions.
This phenom-
enon has been
attributed to
the binary
stars with el-
liptical orbits.
As indicated 3D visualization of the molecular gas material surround-
ing LL Pegasi. First as it appears to the Hubble Space
Telescope, and then as it appears in the emission from mole-
by the current
cules, as observed with ALMA. The numerical model appears
research, the
beside the nebula, and both the model and the image are ro-
orbital para- tated to display the excellent three-dimensional agreement.
delighted to see the crisp images meters of cen- [Hyosun Kim et al. / I-Ta Hsieh (ASIAA)]
translated into rich results and their tral binaries
SPACE CHRONICLES
evolutionary phases, it is currently

on the asymptotic giant branch,
which reflects the future of the
Z oom-
ing
into the
Sun a few billion years from now. old star LL
This star was spotlighted about ten Pegasi in
years ago due to a picture of an al- the con-
most-perfect spiral taken with the stellation
of Pega-
Hubble Space Telescope.
sus. [Hyo-
The presence of a spiral surround- sun Kim
ing an old star had never been re- (ASIAA)]
ported before the discovery of this
object. This unusually ordered The regu-
system opens the door to under- larity of
standing how the orbits of such the pat-
systems evolve with time, since tern was
each winding of the spiral samples riod, says Mark Morris (UCLA, USA), quite surprising, leading to being
a different orbit in a different pe- a co-author of the study. considered as a binary system in
a circular orbit. It is now equally
striking that this best-characteriz-
ed, unambiguous, and complete
spiral is influenced by an elliptical-
orbit binary.
While the HST image shows us the
beautiful spiral structure, it is a 2D
projection of a 3D shape, which be-
comes fully revealed in the ALMA
data, says Raghvendra Sahai (JPL,
USA), a co-author of the study. The
new ALMA images reveal the spa-
tiokinematic information of dense
molecular gas in the spiral-shell pat-
tern, unveiling the dynamics of the
mass loss from the giant star modu-
lated by its orbital motion.
The interval of spiral arms yields
the orbital period of LL Pegasi to be
about 800 years, at which the binary
motion can be barely detected even
with continuous observations over
several human lifetimes. Decoding
the spiral-shell pattern is a clever
way to trace back the history of or-
bital motion, adds Sheng-Yuan Liu
(ASIAA, Taiwan), a co-author of the
study.
A n international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-

millimeter Array (ALMA) have unraveled the elliptical nature of the binary orbit
of the old star LL Pegasi and its companion. The figure shows the composite image
By putting this striking spiral-shell
on display, nature has left us some
clear messages. Deciphering those
of molecular gas around LL Pegasi. By comparing this gas distribution depicted in
messages to determine the dynam-
exquisite detail by ALMA with theoretical simulations, the team concluded that the
bifurcation of the spiral-shell pattern (indicated by a white box) is resulted from a
ics of the central stars is the chal-
highly elliptical binary system. [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / Hyosun Kim et al.] lenge that astronomers are facing,
remarks Hyosun Kim. n
zero2 EN:l'Astrofilo 29/04/17 15:20 Page 24
24 ASTRONAUTICS
Bloostar:
space at your
fingertips
by Michele Ferrara
Private companies are intensifying the race to space, and

there are already about thirty of them with aerospace
programmes that have started up or are in development.
One of them, Zero 2 Infinity, is perfecting an interesting
system to put small satellites into orbit using a hybrid
carrier rocket that combines a high-altitude balloon
and a small three-stage rocket.
MAY-JUNE 2017
ASTRONAUTICS 25
W
hen sending an object into space, operation: the cost of transport may total
the tallest hurdle by far to be tens of thousands of dollars per kilo-
overcome is Earths gravitational gramme. On average, about 90% of the
force. It does not make much difference mass that takes off from a surface launch-
whether the object must escape our plan- pad is squandered within the first few min-
ets pull, remain in orbit around it or if it utes: the fuel is burned, the carrier rocket
simply will make a brief suborbital flight. is discarded, the troposphere is polluted:
In any case, the object must be brought all this to take the remaining 10% (or less)
high enough to perform its mission. And to its destination.
that is exactly the problem. More effective solutions have been around
Launching a load into space from the for recovering at least some of the stages
Earths surface is an extremely wasteful of the carrier rockets in order to reuse them
R ender of Bloostar
rocket launcher
moments before its
ignition hanging from
the balloon gondola.
[Zero 2 Infinity]
MAY-JUNE 2017
ASTRONAUTICS
cade that led to the first real

space mission (Sputnik), when a L eft, side view
of Bloostar
with its fairing
probe called Deacon was repea-
tedly launched into suborbital closed. Below, the
flight. It has been about 60 years three stages of
the rocket and the
since those early attempts, and
platform that will
now the idea of a rockoon (a host the payload.
portmanteau of the words rock- [Zero 2 Infinity]
et and balloon) has come to
the fore again, thanks to the
Spanish aerospace company
Zero 2 Infinity.
Founded in 2009 by Jose Ma-
riano Lopez-Urdiales (the cur-
rent CEO), this Barcelona-based
company specialises in the high-
altitude transport of scientif-
ic instruments using these bal-
loons and the recording of data
from these journeys. Using a
system called the near-space
balloon platform, in May 2016,
Zero 2 Infinity successfully car-
ried into the stratosphere 28
km high the first satellite
made by the Aistech company
(also located near Barcelona).
That mission was essentially a
test of the solutions and instru-
(the so-called Reusable Launch System), but mentation the two companies used, but for
these solutions have not been perfected Zero 2 Infinity it was also an important step
and are mostly applicable to light payloads, towards implementing its Bloostar project.
meaning small satellites, headed for low or- Defined as a short-cut into orbit, Bloostar
bits. If the goal is essentially to transport is a hybrid carrier rocket that launches small
small satellites, an-
other trail was, in
fact, blazed around
the middle of the
last century, one
that allows a pay-
load to be launched
with a carrier rocket
of reduced power
and size, brought to
a high altitude us-
ing a balloon capa-
ble of reaching the
stratosphere. It is, in
short, a kind of fly-
ing launchpad.
This solution was
tried during the de-
ASTRONAUTICS
R ight, Bloostar
fairing open-
ing before first
stage separation.
[Zero 2 Infinity]
satellites (up to about

100 kg), consisting of
a stratospheric balloon
designed to take a
special kind of 3-stage
rocket to a maximum
height of 40 km, where
it then must thrust the
payload into its orbit.
For a given weight car-
ried, this launch system
has obvious benefits
over the traditional
rocket that departs
from a launchpad on
the ground: it saves a
lot of propellant; the
sizes of the rocket
stages are significantly
reduced; it is no longer
necessary to construct
and manage a classic
launchpad; most of the
components of the hy-
A bove, Bloo-
star first
stage separation.
Side, last stage
with satellite.
[Zero 2 Infinity]
ASTRONAUTICS
S cheme of the
ascent profile
for the Bloostar
system. [Zero 2
Infinity]
brid carrier rocket can be reused within a centrally to the payload. Each torus works
short time; and the pollution of the air we as a traditional rocket stage, but much less
breathe is reduced to nearly zero. thrust is required, as the carrier rocket be-
The Bloostar rocket consists of a series of gins from an altitude that has already left
engines running on liquid propellant, in behind 95% of the atmospheres mass. The
an arrangement of concentric tori, coupled smaller sizes of the rocket stages are also an
B loostar prototype is
elevated to 25 km.
[Zero 2 Infinity]
ASTRONAUTICS
A bove, Bloo-
star is reach-
ing 25 km. Below,
advantage in terms of their recovery and
reuse, as their modest mass reduces the da-
bulence, allows the payload to be aimed
precisely at the target orbit, up to a maxi-
mage caused by friction with the atmo- mum altitude of 600 km.
ignition close up. sphere during re-entry. Furthermore, being On March 1 of this year, Zero 2 Infinity suc-
[Zero 2 Infinity]
able to ignite the engines in an environ- cessfully tested a Bloostar prototype, launch-
ment with very rarefied air, above any tur- ing the first rocket from the upper atmo-
ASTRONAUTICS
L eft, Bloostar
ignites at 25
km, before flying
away (below).
[Zero 2 Infinity]
sphere, about 25 km
up. Company officials
say that the goals for
this test included as-
sessing the telemetry
systems under condi-
tions like those in
space, which it did
successfully. In addi-
tion to this, the com-
pany tried to control
the ignition and sta-
bilise the rocket, to
monitor the launch
sequence, to open the
parachute and to re-
cover the carrier rock-
et from the ocean.
Having met these ob-
jectives as well, Zero
2 Infinity is now the
only aerospace com-
pany able to offer a
reliable rockoon system to put small satel- ed in 2019. In 2018, it will begin true orbital
lites into orbit in the near future. testing. For the test flight this March, the
Bloostars first commercial launch is expect- rockoons trip began off the coast of conti-
nental Spain, but for
payload launching, the
Bloostar missions will
begin in the sea near
the Canary Islands,
where the geographi-
cal location is more
favourable to the suc-
cessful orbiting of the
satellites it will carry.
Zero 2 Infinity will
handle the rocket igni-
H ere is an amazing
video that illustrates
the Bloostar concept.
[Zero 2 Infinity]
ASTRONAUTICS
R ight, video of
the first flight
test of Bloostar.
increasing, and now
with small payloads
of minimal weight
Below, Jose it is possible to at-
Mariano Lopez- tain data and im-
Urdiales, the CEO
ages previously only
and founder of
Zero 2 Infinity,
accessible to satel-
stands near the lites having signifi-
Bloon module. cant tonnage. In ad-
[Zero 2 Infinity] dition to the great-
ly reduced costs in
comparison to tradi-
tional carrier rock-
ets, the Bloostar sys-
tem will also offer a
greater launch fre-
quency and shorter
tion operations, the release of the pay- reservation times. What is more, it can
loads, their introduction into orbit, and the transport the satellites without needing to
rockoon recovery. fold up any of their component parts to fit
The artificial satellite industry welcomed the capacity of the hold. With traditional
the Bloostar experimentation, enough so carrier rockets, more than one satellite in
that Zero 2 Infinity has already racked up the past was compromised to some degree
more than 250 million dollars in letters of by a failure to unfold solar panels or cer-
intent for future launches. tain scientific instruments. Bloostar is
Under these conditions, it is quite likely warding off this danger, because its satel-
that the Barcelona aerospace company will lites can be released in their final configu-
form a stable part of the market for small ration.
launchers, because, while it is true that As we await future developments of the
Bloostar has a limit in payload mass, it is Zero 2 Infinity rockoons, it may be of inter-
also true that satellite miniaturisation is est to note that this is not the only field of
business this company is op-
erating in. Zero 2 Infinity also
offers services for testing the
reliability of satellites and
scientific instruments under
different environmental con-
ditions, and it is also devel-
oping a space tourism pro-
gramme that anticipates car-
rying people on board the
stratospheric balloons to an
altitude of 36 km, not far
from black sky, where one
can view the Earth in its en-
tirety and see its fragility and
uniqueness against the depths
of the cosmos. The space tour-
ists will stay in a special cabin
called Bloon, which was al-
ready tested last January with
very satisfactory results. n
32 SPACE CHRONICLES
Stars born in winds

from supermassive
black holes
by ESO
A
UK-led group of European some galaxies cease forming new
astronomers used the MUSE stars as they age. Although these
and X-shooter instruments on outflows are most likely to be driven
the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at by massive central black holes, it is
ESOs Paranal Observatory in Chile to also possible that the winds are pow-
study an ongoing collision between ered by supernovae in a starburst nu-
two galaxies, known collectively as cleus undergoing vigorous star for-
IRAS F23128-5919, that lie around mation.
600 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers have thought for a
The group observed the colossal while that conditions within these
winds of material or outflows outflows could be right for star for-
that originate near the supermassive mation, but no one has seen it ac-
black hole at the heart of the pairs tually happening as its a very dif-
southern galaxy, and have found the ficult observation, comments team
first clear evidence that stars are leader Roberto Maiolino from the
being born within them. Stars are University of Cambridge. Our results
forming in the outflows at a very are exciting because they show un-
rapid rate; the astronomers say that ambiguously that stars are being
stars totalling around 30 times the created inside these outflows.
mass of the Sun are being created The group set out to study stars in
every year. This accounts for over a the outflow directly, as well as the
quarter of the total star formation in gas that surrounds them. By using
the entire merging galaxy system. two of the world-leading VLT spec-
Such galactic outflows are driven by troscopic instruments, MUSE and X-
the huge energy output from the ac- shooter, they could carry out a very
tive and turbulent centres of gal- detailed study of the properties of
axies. Supermassive black holes lurk the emitted light to determine its
in the cores of most galaxies, and source. Radiation from young stars is
when they gobble up matter they known to cause nearby gas clouds to
also heat the surrounding gas and glow in a particular way.
expel it from the host galaxy in pow- The extreme sensitivity of X-shooter
erful, dense winds. The expulsion of allowed the team to rule out other
gas through galactic outflows leads possible causes of this illumination,
to a gas-poor environment within including gas shocks or the active nu-
the galaxy, which could be why cleus of the galaxy.
MAY-JUNE 2017
SPACE CHRONICLES 33
The group then made an unmis-

takable direct detection of an in-
fant stellar population in the out-
flow. This was achieved through
the detection of signatures charac-
teristic of young stellar popula-
tions and with a velocity pattern
consistent with that expected
from stars formed at high velocity
in the outflow. These stars are
thought to be less than a few tens
of millions of years old, and prelim-
inary analysis suggests that they
are hotter and brighter than stars
formed in less extreme environ-
ments such as the galactic disc.
As further evidence, the astrono-
mers also determined the motion
and velocity of these stars.
The light from most of the regions
stars indicates that they are travel-
ling at very large velocities away
from the galaxy centre as would
make sense for objects caught in a
stream of fast-moving material.
Co-author Helen Russell (Institute
of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK) ex-
pands: The stars that form in the
wind close to the galaxy centre
might slow down and even start
heading back inwards, but the
stars that form further out in the
flow experience less deceleration
and can even fly off out of the gal-
axy altogether.
The discovery provides new and
exciting information that could
better our understanding of some
astrophysics, including how cer-
tain galaxies obtain their shapes;
how intergalactic space becomes
enriched with heavy elements; and
A rtists impression of a galaxy
forming stars within powerful
outflows of material blasted out
even from where unexplained cos-
mic infrared background radiation
from supermassive black holes at its may arise.
core. Results from ESOs Very Large Maiolino is excited for the future:
Telescope are the first confirmed ob- If star formation is really occur-
servations of stars forming in this ring in most galactic outflows, as
kind of extreme environment. The
some theories predict, then this
discovery has many consequences
for understanding galaxy properties
would provide a completely new
and evolution. [ESO/M. Kornmesser] scenario for our understanding of
galaxy evolution. n
MAY-JUNE 2017
SPACE CHRONICLES
ALMA confirms ability

to see a cosmic hole
by ALMA Observatory imaged a radio hole around a gal- age proves ALMAs high capability
axy cluster 4.8 billion light-years to investigate the distribution and
away from the Earth. This is the high- temperature of gas around galaxy
R
esearchers using the Atacama est resolution image ever taken of clusters through the SZ effect.
Large Millimeter/submillime- such a hole caused by the Sunyaev- A research team led by Tetsu Kita-
ter Array (ALMA) successfully Zel'dovich effect (SZ effect). The im- yama, a professor at Toho Univer-
T his cluster of galaxies, RX J1347.51145, was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as part of the
Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). The cluster is one of most massive known galaxy clus-
ters in the Universe. [ESA/Hubble, NASA]
SPACE CHRONICLES
sity, Japan, used The Morita Ar-

ALMA to investi- rays smaller
gate the hot gas diameter an-
in a galaxy clus- tennas and the
ter. The hot gas close-packed
is an essential antenna confi-
component to guration pro-
understand the vide a wider
nature and evo- field of view.
lution of galaxy By using the da-
clusters. Even ta from the Mo-
though the hot rita Array, as-
gas does not tronomers can
emit radio waves precisely mea-
detectable with sure the radio
ALMA, the gas waves from ob-
scatters the radio jects subtend-
waves of the Cos- ing a large an-
mic Microwave gle on the sky.
Background and With ALMA,
makes a hole the team ob-
around the gal- tained an SZ
axy cluster. Cos- effect image of
mic Microwave RX J1347.5-1145,
Background (CMB) with twice the
radio waves come resolution and
from every direc- ten times bet-
tion. When CMB ter sensitivity
radio waves pass than previous
through the hot observations.
gas in a galaxy
cluster, the radio
T he image shows the measurement of the SZ effect in the galaxy cluster
RX J1347.5-1145 taken with ALMA (blue). The background image was taken
by the Hubble Space Telescope. A hole caused by the SZ effect is seen in the
This is the first
image of the SZ
waves interact ALMA observations. [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Kitayama et al., NASA/ESA effect with AL-
with high-energy Hubble Space Telescope] MA. The ALMA
electrons in the SZ image is con-
hot gas and gain energy. As a re- Japan, has revealed an uneven dis- sistent with the previous observa-
sult, the CMB radio waves shift to tribution of the hot gas in this gal- tions and better illustrates the
higher energy. Observing from the axy cluster, which was not seen in pressure distribution of hot gas. It
Earth, the CMB in the original X-ray observations. proves that ALMA is highly capable
energy range has less intensity near To better understand the uneven- of observing the SZ effect and clear-
the galaxy cluster. This is called the ness, astronomers need higher res- ly shows that a gigantic collision is
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, first olution observations. But relative- ongoing in this galaxy cluster.
proposed by Rashid Sunyaev and ly smooth and widely-distributed It was nearly 50 years ago that the
Yakov Zel'dovich in 1970. objects, such as the hot gas in gal- SZ effect was proposed for the first
The team observed the galaxy clus- axy clusters, are difficult to image time, explains Kitayama.
ter RX J1347.5-1145, known among with high-resolution radio interfer- The effect is pretty weak, and it
astronomers for its strong SZ effect ometers. has been tough to image the ef-
and which has been observed many To overcome this difficulty, ALMA fect with high resolution. Thanks
times with radio telescopes. For utilized the Atacama Compact to ALMA, this time we made a
example, the Nobeyama 45-m Ra- Array, also known as the Morita Ar- long-awaited breakthrough to
dio Telescope, operated by the Na- ray, the major Japanese contribu- pave a new path to probe the
tional Astronomical Observatory of tion to the project. cosmic evolution. n
SPACE CHRONICLES
Search for stellar

survivor of a
supernova explosion
by ESA/NASA the veil on questions surrounding would ultimately lead to a super-
this type of supernova. The predict- nova explosion of type Ia.
able luminosity of Type Ia superno- The second theory proposes that
A
group of astronomers used vae means that astronomers can only one star in the system is a
Hubble to study the rem- use them as cosmic standard can- white dwarf, while its companion
nant of the Type Ia super- dles to measure their distances, is a normal star. In this theory ma-
nova explosion SNR 0509-68.7 making them useful tools in study- terial from the companion star is
also known as N103B. The super- ing the cosmos. Their exact nature, accreted onto the white dwarf
nova remnant is located in the however, is still a matter of de- until its mass reaches a limit, lead-
Large Magellanic Cloud, just over bate. Astronomers suspect Type Ia ing to a dramatic explosion.
160,000 light-years from Earth. In supernovae occur in binary sys- In that scenario, the theory indi-
contrast to many other supernova tems in which at least one of the cates that the normal star should
remnants N103B does not appear stars in the pair is a white dwarf. survive the blast in at least some
to have a spherical shape but is There are currently two main the- form. However, to date no residual
strongly elliptical. Astronomers as- ories describing how these binary companion around any type Ia su-
sume that part of material ejected systems become supernovae. pernova has been found.
by the explosion hit a denser cloud Studies like the one that has pro- Astronomers observed the N103B
of interstellar material, which slow- vided the new image of N103B supernova remnant in a search for
ed its speed. The shell of expand- that involve searching for rem- such a companion. They looked at
ing material being open to one nants of past explosions can the region in H-alpha which high-
side supports this idea. The rela- help astronomers to finally con- lights regions of gas ionised by the
tive proximity of N103B allows firm one of the two theories. radiation from nearby stars to
astronomers to study the life cycles One theory assumes that both stars locate supernova shock fronts.
of stars in another galaxy in great in the binary are white dwarfs. If They hoped to find a star near the
detail. And probably even to lift the stars merge with one another it centre of the explosion which is in-
dicated by the
T his video starts with a wide-field

view of the night sky, as seen from
the ground, displaying the Large and the
curved shock
fronts. The dis-
covery of a sur-
Small Magellanic Clouds. It zooms in on
viving compan-
the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite
ion would put
galaxy of the Milky Way, and onto the
an end to the
star cluster NGC 1850. Just next to the
ongoing dis-
bright cluster Hubble observed the su-
cussion about
pernova remnant N103B. In the remnant
of this supernova astronomers hope to
the origin of
find the surviving star of a supernova type Ia super-
explosion. [ESA/Hubble, Nick Risinger nova. And in-
(skysurvey.org), R. Gendler & ESO] deed they
found one can-
explosion. This star has approxi-

T his image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the supernova
remnant SNR 0509-68.7, also known as N103B. The orange-red filaments vis-
ible in the image show the shock fronts of the supernova explosion. These fila-
mately the same mass as the Sun,
but it is surrounded by an enve-
ments allow astronomers to calculate the original centre of the explosion. The lope of hot material that was like-
filaments also show that the explosion is no longer expanding as a sphere, but is ly ejected from the pre-supernova
elliptical in shape. Astronomers assume that part of material ejected by the ex- system. Although this star is a rea-
plosion hit a denser cloud of interstellar material, which slowed its speed. The sonable contender for N103Bs sur-
gas in the lower half of the image and the dense concentration of stars in the viving companion, its status can-
lower left are the outskirts of the star cluster NGC 1850. [ESA/Hubble, NASA] not be confirmed yet without fur-
ther investigation and a spectro-
didate star that meets the criteria minosity and distance from the scopic confirmation. The search is
for star type, temperature, lu- centre of the original supernova still ongoing. n
SPACE CHRONICLES
Dark matter less

influential in galaxies
in early Universe
by ESO
W
e see normal matter
as brightly shining
stars, glowing gas
and clouds of dust. But the
more elusive dark matter does
not emit, absorb or reflect
light and can only be observed
via its gravitational effects.
The presence of dark matter
can explain why the outer
parts of nearby spiral galaxies
rotate more quickly than
would be expected if only the
normal matter that we can see
directly were present.
Now, an international team of
astronomers led by Reinhard
Genzel at the Max Planck Insti-
tute for Extraterrestrial Physics
in Garching, Germany have
used the KMOS and SINFONI
instruments at ESOs Very
Large Telescope in Chile to
measure the rotation of six
massive, star-forming galaxies
in the distant Universe, at the
peak of galaxy formation 10
billion years ago.
What they found was intrigu-
ing: unlike spiral galaxies in
the modern Universe, the out-
er regions of these distant
galaxies seem to be rotating
more slowly than regions clos-
er to the core suggesting
SPACE CHRONICLES
there is less dark matter present were much more turbulent than the
S chematic representation of rotat-
ing disc galaxies in the early Uni-
verse (right) and the present day
than expected.
Surprisingly, the rotation velocities
spiral galaxies we see in our cosmic
neighbourhood.
(left). Observations with ESO's Very are not constant, but decrease fur- Both effects seem to become more
Large Telescope suggest that such ther out in the galaxies, comments marked as astronomers look further
massive star-forming disc galaxies Reinhard Genzel, lead author of the and further back in time, into the
in the early Universe were less influ- Nature paper. There are probably early Universe. This suggests that 3
enced by dark matter (shown in two causes for this. Firstly, most of to 4 billion years after the Big Bang,
red), as it was less concentrated. As
these early massive galaxies are the gas in galaxies had already effi-
a result the outer parts of distant
strongly dominated by normal mat- ciently condensed into flat, rotating
galaxies rotate more slowly than
comparable regions of galaxies in ter, with dark matter playing a much discs, while the dark matter halos
the local Universe. [ESO/L. Calada] smaller role than in the Local Uni- surrounding them were much larg-
verse. Secondly, these early discs er and more spread out. Apparently
it took billions of years lon-
ger for dark matter to con-
dense as well, so its dominat-
ing effect is only seen on the
rotation velocities of galaxy
discs today.
This explanation is consistent
with observations showing
that early galaxies were much
more gas-rich and compact
than todays galaxies.
The six galaxies mapped in
this study were among a
larger sample of a hundred
distant, star-forming discs
imaged with the KMOS and
SINFONI instruments at ESOs
Very Large Telescope at the
Paranal Observatory in Chile.
In addition to the individual
galaxy measurements de-
scribed above, an average ro-
tation curve was created by
combining the weaker signals
from the other galaxies. This
composite curve also showed
the same decreasing velocity
trend away from the centres
of the galaxies. In addition,
two further studies of 240 star
forming discs also support
these findings. Detailed mod-
elling shows that while nor-
mal matter typically accounts
for about half of the total
mass of all galaxies on aver-
age, it completely dominates
the dynamics of galaxies at
the highest redshifts. n
SN1987A EN:l'Astrofilo 29/04/17 15:17 Page 40
40 SUPERNOVAE
A supernova
that is still
in the news
by Krishna Bharadwaj
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of SN

1987A, new images, time-lapse movies, a data-
based animation based on work led by Salva-
tore Orlando at INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico
di Palermo, Italy, and a three-dimensional mod-
el are being released. By combining data from
NASAs Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra
X-ray Observatory, as well as the international
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
(ALMA), astronomers and the public can
explore SN 1987A like never before. [NASA]
3
decades ago, on February 24, 1987, astronomers Ian Shelton and
Oscar Duhalde discovered one of the brightest supernovae ever re-
corded by humans. Supernova 1987A, with an apparent magnitude
of +2.9, was observed at about 163,000 light years away from Earth in
the Large Magellanic Cloud, at the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula. Su-
pernova 1987A blazed with the power of 100 million suns, becoming vis-
ible to the naked eye, which made it a worldwide sensation, stimulating
MAY-JUNE 2017
SUPERNOVAE 41
T his Hubble Space Telescope image shows

Supernova 1987A within the Large Ma-
gellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy to our
Milky Way. [NASA, ESA, R. Kirshner (Har-
vard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation),
and M. Mutchler and R. Avila (STScI)]
MAY-JUNE 2017
SUPERNOVAE
the interest of researchers and astronomy

enthusiasts. Being one of the nearest su- T he sequence
on the left,
taken between
pernovae to have been recorded, SN 1987A
was and is still the best opportunity for 1994 and 2016 by
NASA's Hubble
astronomers to study the phases before
Space Telescope,
and after the death of a star.
chronicles the
The 30 years' worth of observations of SN brightening of a
1987A are important because they provide ring of gas
insight into the last stages of stellar evo- around an explo-
lution, said Robert Kirshner of the Har- ded star. [NASA,
vard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ESA, and R. Kir-
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Gor- shner (Harvard-
don and Betty Moore Foundation in Palo Smithsonian
Alto, California. Center for Astro-
The Hubble telescope has been observing physics and Gor-
supernova 1987A since 1990 and has pro- don and Betty
Moore Founda-
duced hundreds of images along with the
tion), and P.
Chandra telescope, which was deployed in
Challis (Harvard-
1999, and the ALMA telescope has been Smithsonian
gathering high-resolution millimetre and Center for Astro-
sub-millimetre data on SN 1987A since its physics)]
inauguration in 2013.
Besides Hubble and Chandra, whose focus
is on the relatively warm debris, Herschel
Observatory has its attention on the cold
dust scattered by the supernova. As point-
ed up by NASA: The latest data from these
T his video begins with a nighttime view of the Small and Large Magella-
nic clouds, satellite galaxies of our Milky Way. It then zooms into a rich
star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Nestled between moun-
tains of red-colored gas is the odd-looking structure of Supernova 1987A,
the remnant of an exploded star that was first observed in February 1987.
The site of the supernova is surrounded by a ring of material that is illumi-
nated by a wave of energy from the outburst. Two faint outer rings are also
visible. All three rings existed before the explosion as fossil relics of the
doomed stars activity in its final days. [NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)]
A stronomers combined observations from three different observatories to produce this colorful, multiwavelength image
of the intricate remains of Supernova 1987A. The red color shows newly formed dust in the center of the supernova
remnant, taken at submillimeter wavelengths by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in
Chile. The green and blue hues reveal where the expanding shock wave from the exploded star is colliding with a ring of
material around the supernova. The green represents the glow of visible light, captured by NASA's Hubble Space Tele-
scope. The blue color reveals the hottest gas and is based on data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The ring was
initially made to glow by the flash of light from the original explosion. Over subsequent years the ring material has bri-
ghtened considerably as the explosion's shock wave slammed into it. Supernova 1987A resides 163,000 light-years away in
the Large Magellanic Cloud, where a firestorm of star birth is taking place. The ALMA, Hubble, and Chandra images at the
bottom of the graphic were used to make up the multiwavelength view. [NASA, ESA, and A. Angelich (NRAO)]
powerful telescopes indicate that SN 1987A has pas- The details of this transition will give astronomers a
sed an important threshold. The supernova shock wave better understanding of the life of the doomed star,
is moving beyond the dense ring of gas produced late and how it ended, said Kari Frank of Penn State Uni-
in the life of the pre-supernova star when a fast out- versity who led the latest Chandra study of SN 1987A.
flow or wind from the star collided with a slower Studies by Hubble have revealed that the gas surroun-
wind generated in an earlier red giant phase of the ding the supernova glows in visible light and has a
star's evolution. What lies beyond the ring is poorly diameter of a light year. Astronomers estimate that
known at present, and depends on the details of the the gas must have been around for at least 20,000
evolution of the star when it was a red giant. years before the supernova outburst.
SUPERNOVAE
I mage of the intri-

cate remains of
Supernova 1987A
taken in submillime-
ter wavelengths by
the Atacama Large
Millimeter/submilli-
meter Array (ALMA)
telescope in Chile.
The red color shows
newly formed dust
in the center of the
supernova remnant.
[NASA, ESA, and A.
Angelich (NRAO)]
The ring of gas

glows due to the
late burst of ul-
traviolet rays dur-
ing the explosion.
Powerful super-
novae such as SN
1987A stir up sur-
rounding gases
rich in elements
like carbon, oxy-
gen, nitrogen and
iron, leading to
the formation of
new stars and planets
which might in time
sustain life.
The subsequent stars,
forged with heavy ele-
ments, further disperse
the gases throughout
the galaxy in the su-
pernova phase of their
respective lives.
A detailed study of SN
1987A therefore pro-
vides an insight into
the early stages of dis-
persal, which are very
crucial in understand-
T his time-lapse video sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images re-
veals dramatic changes in a ring of material around the exploded star
Supernova 1987A. The images, taken from 1994 to 2016, show the effects
ing the life cycle of the
star.
of a shock wave from the supernova blast smashing into the ring. The A supernova remnant
ring begins to brighten as the shock wave hits it. The ring is about one cools quickly, so within
light-year across. [NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian a few years the heavy
Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation), and elements formed in the
P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)] star can form mole-
SUPERNOVAE
T he first spatially resolved submillimeter continuum observations of SN 1987A, obtained with the Atacama Large Milli-
meter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). Top row: continuum images of SN 1987A in ALMA bands 3, 6, 7, and 9 (2.8 mm, 1.4
mm, 870 m and 450 m respectively). The spatial resolution is marked by dark-blue ovals. In band 9 it is 0.33x0.25, 15%
of the diameter of the equatorial ring. At bands 7, 6, and 3 the beams are 0.69x0.42, 0.83x0.61, and 1.56x1.12, respec-
tively. At long wavelengths, the emission is a torus associated with the supernova shock wave; shorter wavelengths are
dominated by the inner supernova ejecta. [R. Indebetouw et al.]
cules and condense into dust, turning the ally end up becoming neutron stars. How-
remnant into a veritable dust factory, ever, an absence of X-rays and gamma-
said Remy Indebetouw of the National rays has prompted researchers to recon-
Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlot- sider the original theory that the star was
tesville, Virginia. ALMA is now able to of the core-collapse type, hinting at the
see this newly formed dust directly, and possibility of the star evolving into a black
ongoing studies will help us understand hole.
how it forms and how supernovae seed in- SN 1987A took the world of science by
terstellar space with the raw material for storm and has left us with a more sophis-
new planetary systems. ticated understanding of the life cycle of
The SN 1987A star is classified as a core- stars. Though SN 1987A is a supernova
collapse type of star, and these stars gener- outside of our galaxy, it is celebrated as
one of the few
celestial events
of that type vis-
ible to the naked
eye. The mere
fact that we are
observing and
studying the su-
pernova as it was
163,000 years
ago is astound-
ing. We humans
are so confined
and limited in
our understand-
ing, and yet it
seems that our
insignificant con-
his scientific visualization, using data from a computer simulation, shows sciousness is all
T Supernova 1987A, as the luminous ring of material we see today. [NASA,
ESA, and F. Summers and G. Bacon (STScI); Simulation Credit: S. Orlando
the universe has
to marvel at its
(INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo)] beauty. n
SPACE CHRONICLES
Protostar blazes
bright, reshaping its
stellar nursery
by ALMA Observatory lottesville, Virginia, USA, and lead years from Earth in the direction of
author on a paper published in The the southern constellation Scorpius.
Astrophysical Journal Letters. By This nebula is similar in many re-
A
massive protostar, deeply nes- studying a dense star-forming cloud spects to its northern cousin, the
tled in its dust-filled stellar with both ALMA and the SMA, we Orion Nebula, which is also brim-
nursery, recently roared to could see that something dramatic ming with young stars, star clusters,
life, shining nearly 100 times bright- had taken place, completely chang- and dense cores of gas that are on
er than before. This outburst, appar- ing a stellar nursery over a surpris- the verge of becoming stars.
ently triggered by an avalanche of ingly short period of time. The Cats Paw Nebula, however, is
star-forming gas crashing onto the In 2008, before the era of ALMA, forming stars at a faster rate.
surface of the star, supports the Hunter and his colleagues used the The initial SMA observations of this
theory that young stars can undergo SMA to observe a small but active portion of the nebula, dubbed NGC
intense growth spurts that reshape portion of the Cats Paw Nebula (also 6334I, revealed what appeared to be
their surroundings. Astronomers known as NGC 6334), a star-forming a typical protocluster: a dense cloud
made this discovery by comparing complex located about 5500 light- of dust and gas harboring several
new observa- still-growing
tions from the stars. Young
Atacama Large stars form in
Millimeter/ these tightly
submillimeter packed regions
Array (ALMA) when pockets
with earlier ob- of gas become
servations from so dense that
the Submillime- they begin to
ter Array (SMA) collapse under
in Hawaii. We their own grav-
were amazing- ity. Over time,
ly fortunate to disks of dust
detect this spec- and gas form
tacular trans- around these
formation of a nascent stars
young, massive and funnel
star, said Todd material onto
Hunter, an as- their surfaces
tronomer at the helping them
National Radio
Astronomy Ob-
I nside the Cats's Paw Nebula as seen in an infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope (left), ALMA discovered that an infant star is undergoing an intense growth
spurt, shining nearly 100 brighter than before and reshaping its stellar nursery (right).
grow. This pro-
cess, however,
s e r v a t o r y [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), T. Hunter; C. Brogan, B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); NASA Spitzer] may not be en-
(NRAO) in Char- tirely slow and
SPACE CHRONICLES
steady. Astro- Astronomy

nomers now Observatory in
believe that South Africa.
young stars This single-
can also expe- dish observa-
rience specta- tory was moni-
cular growth toring the ra-
spurts, periods dio signals
when they from masers in
rapidly acquire the same re-
mass by gorg- gion. Masers
ing on star- are the natu-
forming gas. rally occurring
The new ALMA cosmic radio
observations equivalent of
of this region, lasers.
taken in 2015 They are pow-
and 2016, re- ered by a va-
veal that dra- riety of ener-
matic changes getic processes
occurred to- throughout
ward a portion
of the proto-
C omparing observations by two different millimeter-wavelength telescopes, ALMA
and the SMA, astronomers noted a massive outburst in a star-forming cloud. Be-
cause the ALMA images are more sensitive and show finer detail, it was possible to use
the universe,
including out-
cluster called them to simulate what the SMA could have seen in 2015 and 2016. By subtracting the bursts from
NGC 6334I-MM1 earlier SMA images from the simulated images, astronomers could see that a significant rapidly grow-
in the years change had taken place in MM1 while the other three millimeter sources (MM2, MM3, ing stars.
since the origi- and MM4) are unchanged. [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); SMA, Harvard/Smithsonian CfA] The data from
nal SMA obser- the Hartebees-
vations. This region is now about ferences in the telescopes or simply thoek observatory reveal an abrupt
four times brighter at millimeter a data-processing error, Hunter and and dramatic spike in maser emis-
wavelengths, meaning that the cen- his colleagues used the ALMA data sion from this region in early 2015,
tral protostar is nearly 100 times as a model to accurately simulate only a few months before the first
more luminous than before. what the SMA with its more mod- ALMA observation. Such a spike is
The astronomers speculate that lead- est capabilities would have seen if precisely what astronomers would
ing up to this outburst, an uncom- it conducted similar operations in expect to see if there were a proto-
monly large clump of material was 2015 and 2016. star undergoing a major growth
drawn into the stars accretion disk, By digitally subtracting the actual spurt.
creating a logjam of dust and gas. 2008 SMA images from the simu- These observations add evidence
Once enough material accumulated, lated images, the astronomers con- to the theory that star formation is
the logjam burst, releasing an ava- firmed that there was indeed a punctuated by a sequence of dy-
lanche of gas onto the growing star. significant and consistent change namic events that build up a star,
This extreme accretion event greatly to one member of the protocluster. rather than a smooth continuous
increased the stars luminosity, heat- Once we made sure we were com- growth, concluded Hunter. It also
ing its surrounding dust. Its this hot, paring the two sets of observations tells us that it is important to mon-
glowing dust that the astronomers on an even playing field, we knew itor young stars at radio and milli-
observed with ALMA. that we were witnessing a very spe- meter wavelengths, because these
Though similar events have been ob- cial time in the growth of a star, wavelengths allow us to peer into
served in infrared light, this is the said Crystal Brogan, also with the the youngest, most deeply embed-
first time that such an event has NRAO and co-author on the paper. ded star-forming regions. Catching
been identified at millimeter wave- Further confirmation of this event such events at the earliest stage may
lengths. To ensure that the observed came from complementary data reveal new phenomena of the star-
changes were not the result of dif- taken by the Hartebeesthoek Radio formation process. n
SPACE CHRONICLES
Supermassive black
hole kicked out of
galactic core
by ESA/NASA unusual. The images of the galaxy, getic signature of an active black
located 8 billion light-years away, hole, located far from the galactic
revealed a bright quasar, the ener- core. Black holes reside in the cen-
T
hough sever-
al other sus-
pected run-
away black holes
have been seen
elsewhere, none
has so far been
confirmed.
Now astronomers
using the Hubble
Space Telescope
have detected a
supermassive
black hole, with a
mass of one billion
times the Suns,
being kicked out
of its parent gal-
axy. We estimate
that it took the
equivalent energy
of 100 million su-
pernovae explod-
ing simultaneous-
ly to jettison the
black hole, de-
scribes Stefano
Bianchi, co-author
of the study, from
the Roma Tre Uni-
versity, Italy. T he galaxy 3C186, located about 8 billion years from Earth, is most likely the result of a merger
of two galaxies. This is supported by arc-shaped tidal tails, usually produced by a gravitation-
al tug between two colliding galaxies, identified by the scientists. The merger of the galaxies also
The images taken
led to a merger of the two supermassive black holes in their centres, and the resultant black hole
by Hubble provid-
was then kicked out of its parent galaxy by the gravitational waves created by the merger. The
ed the first clue bright, star-like looking quasar can be seen in the centre of the image. Its former host galaxy is
that the galaxy, the faint, extended object behind it. [NASA, ESA, and M. Chiaberge (STScI/ESA)]
named 3C186, was
SPACE CHRONICLES
tres of galaxies, so its unusual to

see a quasar not in the centre, re-
calls team leader Marco Chiaberge,
T his illustration shows how two su-
permassive black holes merged to
form a single black hole which was
ESA-AURA researcher at the Space then ejected from its parent galaxy.
Telescope Science Institute, USA. Panel 1: Two galaxies are interacting
The team calculated that the black and finally merging with each other.
hole has already travelled about The supermassive black holes in their
35,000 light-years from the centre, centres are attracted to each other.
which is more than the distance Panel 2: As soon as the supermassive
between the Sun and the centre of black holes get close they start orbiting
the Milky Way. And it continues its each other, in the process creating
strong gravitational waves. Panel 3: As
flight at a speed of 7.5 million ki-
they radiate away gravitational energy
lometres per hour. At this speed
the black holes move closer to each
the black hole could travel from other over time and finally merge.
Earth to the Moon in three min- Panel 4: If the two black holes do not
utes. As the black hole cannot be have the same mass and rotation rate,
observed directly, its mass and they emit gravitational waves more
speed were determined via spec- strongly along one direction. When the
troscopic analysis of its surround- two black holes finally collide, they
ing gas. stop producing gravitational waves
Although other scenarios to ex- and the newly merged black hole then
plain the observations cannot be recoils in the opposite direction to the
excluded, the most plausible strongest gravitational waves and
is shot out of its parent galaxy.
source of the propulsive energy is
[NASA, ESA/Hubble, and A. Feild/STScI]
that this supermassive black hole
was given a kick by gravitational
waves unleashed by the merger of
two massive black holes at the cen-
tre of its host galaxy. This theory is
supported by arc-shaped tidal tails
identified by the scientists, pro-
duced by a gravitational tug be-
tween two colliding galaxies.
According to the theory presented
by the scientists, 1-2 billion years
ago two galaxies each with cen-
tral, massive black holes merged.
The black holes whirled around
each other at the centre of the kick that shot the resulting black caught this unique event because
newly-formed elliptical galaxy, hole out of the galactic centre. not every black hole merger pro-
creating gravitational waves that If our theory is correct, the obser- duces imbalanced gravitational
were flung out like water from a vations provide strong evidence waves that propel a black hole out
lawn sprinkler. The black holes get that supermassive black holes can of the galaxy. The team now wants
closer over time as they radiate actually merge, explains Stefano to secure further observation time
away gravitational energy. As the Bianchi on the importance of the with Hubble, in combination with
two black holes did not have the discovery. There is already evi- the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-
same mass and rotation rate, they dence of black hole collisions for millimeter Array (ALMA) and other
emitted gravitational waves more stellar-mass black holes, but the facilities, to more accurately mea-
strongly along one direction. process regulating supermassive sure the speed of the black hole
When the two black holes finally black holes is more complex and and its surrounding gas disc, which
merged, the anisotropic emission not yet completely understood. may yield further insights into the
of gravitational waves generated a The researchers are lucky to have nature of this rare object. n
SPACE CHRONICLES
Runaway star
yields clues to
breakup of
multiple-star
system
by NASA The researchers reasoned there must
be at least one other culprit that rob-
bed energy from the stellar toss-up.
A
s British royal families fought Now NASAs Hubble Space Telescope
the War of the Roses in the has helped astronomers find the final
1400s for control of Englands piece of the puzzle by nabbing a third
throne, a grouping of stars was wag- runaway star. The astronomers follow-
ing its own contentious skirmish a ed the path of the newly found star
star wars far away in the Orion Neb- back to the same location where the
ula. The stars were battling each two previously known stars were lo-
other in a gravitational tussle, which cated 540 years ago. The trio reside in
ended with the system breaking a small region of young stars called
apart and at least three stars being the Kleinmann-Low Nebula, near the
ejected in different directions. center of the vast Orion Nebula com-
The speedy, wayward stars went un- plex, located 1300 light-years away.
noticed for hundreds of years until, The new Hubble observations pro-
over the past few decades, two of vide very strong evidence that the
them were spotted in infrared and three stars were ejected from a multi-
radio observations, which could pen- ple-star system, said lead researcher
etrate the thick dust in the Orion Kevin Luhman of Penn State Univer-
Nebula. The observations showed sity in University Park, Pennsylvania.
that the two stars were traveling at Astronomers had previously found a
high speeds in opposite directions few other examples of fast-moving
from each other. The stars origin, stars that trace back to multiple-star
however, was a mystery. Astrono- systems, and therefore were likely
mers traced both stars back 540 years ejected. But these three stars are the
to the same location and suggest- youngest examples of such ejected
ed they were part of a now-defunct stars. Theyre probably only a few
multiple-star system. But the duos hundred thousand years old. In fact,
combined energy, which is propel- based on infrared images, the stars
ling them outward, didnt add up. are still young enough to have disks
SPACE CHRONICLES
T his dramatic view of the center of the Orion Nebula reveals the home of three speedy, way-
ward stars that were members of a now-defunct multiple-star system. The image, taken by
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, combines observations taken in visible light with the Advanced
Camera for Surveys and in near-infrared light with the Wide Field Camera 3. The box just above
the Trapezium Cluster outlines the location of the three stars. A Hubble close-up view of the stars
is shown at top right. The birthplace of the multi-star system is marked "initial position." Two of
the stars labeled BN, for Becklin-Neugebauer, and "I," for source I were discovered decades
ago. Source I is embedded in thick dust and cannot be seen. The third star, "x," for source x, was
recently discovered to have moved noticeably between 1998 and 2015, as shown in the inset
image at bottom right. [NASA, ESA, K. Luhman (Penn State University), and M. Robberto (STScI)]
SPACE CHRONICLES
T his three-frame illustration shows how a grouping of stars can break apart, flinging the members into space. The first
panel shows four members of a multiple-star system orbiting each other. In the second panel, two of the stars move clos-
er together in their orbits. In the third panel, the closely orbiting stars eventually either merge or form a tight binary. This
event releases enough gravitational energy to propel all of the stars in the system outward. [NASA, ESA, and Z. Levy (STScI)]
of material leftover from their for- The team used the near-infrared vi- ted in radio observations; because it
mation. All three stars are moving sion of Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 is so heavily enshrouded in dust, its
extremely fast on their way out of to conduct the survey. During the visible and infrared light is largely
the Kleinmann-Low Nebula, up to al- analysis, Luhman was comparing the blocked. The three stars were most
most 30 times the speed of most of new infrared images taken in 2015 likely kicked out of their home when
the nebulas stellar inhabitants. with infrared observations taken in they engaged in a game of gravita-
Based on computer simulations, as- 1998 by the Near Infrared Camera tional billiards, Luhman said. What
tronomers predicted that these grav- and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NIC- often happens when a multiple sys-
itational tugs-of-war should occur in MOS). He noticed that source x had tem falls apart is that two of the
young clusters, where newborn stars changed its position considerably, member stars move close enough to
are crowded together. But we have relative to nearby stars over the 17 each other that they merge or form
not observed many examples, espe- years between Hubble images, indi- a very tight binary. In either case, the
cially in very young clusters, Luhman cating the star was moving fast, event releases enough gravitational
said. The Orion Nebula could be sur- about 130,000 miles per hour. energy to propel all of the stars in the
rounded by additional fledging stars The astronomer then looked at the system outward. The energetic epi-
that were ejected from it in the past stars previous locations, projecting sode also produces a massive outflow
and are now streaming away into its path back in time. He realized that of material, which is seen in the
space. in the 1470s source x had been near NICMOS images as fingers of matter
The teams results have been publish- the same initial location in the Klein- streaming away from the location of
ed in the March 20, 2017 issue of The mann-Low Nebula as two other run- the embedded source I star. Future
Astrophysical Journal Letters. away stars, Becklin-Neugebauer (BN) telescopes, such as the James Webb
Luhman stumbled across the third and source I. Space Telescope, will be able to ob-
speedy star, called source x, while BN was discovered in infrared images serve a large swath of the Orion Neb-
he was hunting for free-floating in 1967, but its rapid motion wasnt ula. By comparing images of the neb-
planets in the Orion Nebula as a detected until 1995, when radio ob- ula taken by the Webb telescope with
member of an international team led servations measured the stars speed those made by Hubble years earlier,
by Massimo Robberto of the Space at 60,000 miles per hour. Source I is astronomers hope to identify more
Telescope Science Institute in Balti- traveling roughly 22,000 miles per runaway stars from other multiple-
more, Maryland. hour. The star had only been detec- star systems that broke apart. n
cover EN:l'astrofilo 29/04/17 15:15 Page 54
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Bi-monthly magazine of scientific and technical information May-June 2017 issue

New insights into ocean worlds in our Solar System

Dall Kirkham 350 mm

Also available in the versions

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Our body is specifically designed for Earths

S cott Kelly post-

mission, it was very important to have Mark

New insights into

T his illustration shows Cassini div-

T hese composite images show a suspected plume of material erupting two

T his graphic illus-

Cosmic dust is mainly composed of

T his artists impression shows

ALMA adds a new

H ST image of LL Pegasi publicized in

highly elliptical orbit is responsible implications

evolutionary phases, it is currently

A n international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-

Private companies are intensifying the race to space, and

cade that led to the first real

satellites (up to about

Stars born in winds

The group then made an unmis-

ALMA confirms ability

sity, Japan, used The Morita Ar-

Search for stellar

T his video starts with a wide-field

explosion. This star has approxi-

Dark matter less

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of SN

T his Hubble Space Telescope image shows

the interest of researchers and astronomy

I mage of the intri-

The ring of gas

steady. Astro- Astronomy

tres of galaxies, so its unusual to

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