Cheops shows scorching exoplanet acts like a mirror
Data from ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has led to the surprising revelation that an ultra-hot exoplanet that orbits its host star in less than a day is covered by reflective clouds of metal, making it the shiniest exoplanet ever found.
Cheops explores mysterious warm mini-Neptunes
ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops confirmed the existence of four warm exoplanets orbiting four stars in our Milky Way. These exoplanets have sizes between Earth and Neptune and orbit their stars closer than Mercury our Sun. These so-called mini-Neptunes are unlike any...INAF USCVIII: a “Two-day Workshop dedicated to Critical Computing” in Catania
A “Two-day Workshop dedicated to Critical Computing” will be held on June 15-16 in Catania, using the spaces made available by the local Physics Department. Details can be found at: https://indico.ict.inaf.it/e/USCVIII-2023. “Critical Computing” is here to be...JWST Molecular Mapping And Characterization Of Enceladus’ Water Plume Feeding Its Torus
Enceladus is a prime target in the search for life in our solar system, having an active plume likely connected to a large liquid water subsurface ocean.
Using the sensitive NIRSpec instrument onboard JWST, we searched for organic compounds and characterized the plume’s composition and structure. The observations directly sample the fluorescence emissions of H2O and reveal an extraordinarily extensive plume (up to 10,000 km or 40 Enceladus radii) at cryogenic temperatures (25 K) embedded in a large bath of emission originating from Enceladus’ torus.
JUICE: JANUS sent its first images acquired in space
The instrument Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator (JANUS) passed the commissioning phase with full marks. It is a real test during which – 8 million km from the Earth – it opened its electronic “eyes”, sending the so-called “first light”, i.e. his first series of images, to the technicians and researchers
At the INAF in Rome two fragments of the asteroid Ryugu, 4 billion years old
Read the news (time.news)How a solar switchback is formed
Solar Orbiter has made the first ever remote sensing observation of a magnetic phenomenon called a solar ‘switchback’, proving their origin in the solar surface and pointing to a mechanism that might help accelerate the solar wind.
First paper about SunDish project out now!
Link to the SUNDISH projectThe Sun as you’ve never seen it before
Powerful flares, breathtaking views across the solar poles, and a curious solar ‘hedgehog’ are amongst the haul of spectacular images, movies and data returned by Solar Orbiter from its first close approach to the Sun. Although the analysis of the new dataset has only just started, it is already clear that the ESA-led mission is providing the most extraordinary insights into the Sun’s magnetic behaviour and the way this shapes space weather.