Category: Ricerca

X-rays from Cygnus. The paper: “X-ray spectral characterization of the young Cygnus OB2 population” of E. Flaccomio (INAF-OAPA) accepted for publication by ApJS

Ricerca

OB associations are objects of great importance, since they contain a rich population of OB stars. Despite their paucity, OB stars have a strong impact on the evolution of their parental clouds, nearby stars, and the whole Galaxy. For instance, their intense UV emission affects the evolution of the parental cloud and the star formation process in it, sometimes triggering

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Artificial Intelligence applied to astrophysics. The paper “ExoGAN: Retrieving Exoplanetary Atmospheres Using Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks” of T. Zingales (UCL, INAF – OAPA) published on AJ

Ricerca

In the last few years, many space missions and ground-based surveys, discovered more than 4000 exoplanets, especially using the transit and radial velocity methods. These two methods combined, give us a first estimation of the bulk density of the planets. In order to have a deeper understanding on the planetary characteristics and history, we also need to study their atmospheres.

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Recently published on ApJ the study “Investigating the Structure of Vela X” of P. Slane (CfA) on the morphology of the Vela supernova remnant

Ricerca

What remains after a supernova explosion, which is among the most energetic phenomena in the Universe, is an expanding cloud interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium (the “supernova remnants”) and a compact object produced by the contraction of the nucleus of the progenitor star. Given its proximity to the Sun (“only” 945 light years), the Vela supernova remnant is one

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The formation of the prebiotic molecules in space. The study: “Dust Motions in Magnetized Turbulence: Source of Chemical Complexity” of G. Cassone (Czech Academy of Sciences) published on ApJL

Ricerca

One of the big and so far unsolved mysteries regarding the origin of life is what are the processes leading to the formation of its fundamental components: aminoacids and their precursors. In the past years several aminoacids have been detected in meteorites. This supports the hypothesis that life could have developed on Earth thanks to complex molecules formed in space.

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The chemical evolution of the Milky Way unveiled by GES. The study “The Gaia-ESO Survey: the origin and evolution of s-process elements” of L. Magrini (INAF – OA Arcetri) published in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Ricerca

The study of the chemical abundances of stars with different age and position in the Milky Way provide crucial information on the formation and evolution of our Galaxy. In particular, heavy elements (i.e. those with the atomic number Z > 30) are produced by the successive capture of neutrons by lighter elements. This occurs by two processes, the slow s-process

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Planets in binary systems. The study: “The HADES RV Programme with HARPS-N@TNG VIII. Gl15A: A multiple wide planetary system sculpted by binary interaction” of M. Pinamonti (INAF-OATo) published on A&A

Ricerca

In our Galaxy, a large fraction of stars is part of binary systems. For instance, the study of Duquennoy & Mayor (1991) suggests a binary fraction of 57% for solar type stars. A slightly smaller binary fraction is expected for less massive stars. Among pre-Main Sequence stars, several binary systems are known to host a circumbinary disk. These disks are

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Star formation in the Vela. Published on A&A the study: “Low-mass star formation and subclustering in the H II regions RCW 32, 33, and 27 of the Vela Molecular Ridge. A photometric diagnostics for identifying M-type stars” of L. Prisinzano (INAF-OAPA)

Ricerca

In the Milky Way one of the main modes of star formation is in stellar clusters, which remain associated with their parental cloud for about 5-10 million years. This makes the star forming regions complex targets, characterised by rich stellar populations packed into small regions, sometime even with massive stars, and clouds whose morphology and properties are affected by the

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A sub-Neptunian planet discovered around a G9 star. Published on MNRAS: “K2-263 b: a 50 d period sub-Neptune with a mass measurement using HARPS-N” of A. Mortier (University of St. Andrews)

Ricerca

The search of exoplanets relies mainly on two techniques: transits and radial velocity. With the former method exoplanets are revealed thanks to small and periodic dimming of the light of stars when their planets orbit across the stellar disk, producing a small eclipse. The method of radial velocity consists in revealing the oscillations of stars around the center of mass

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The Astronomical Observatory of Palermo hosts the meeting “Exploring the hot and energetic Universe” on the Athena X-ray observatory

Ricerca

Exploring the hot and energetic Universe   Astronomers from around the world are gathering in the city of Palermo, Italy on 24-27 September to discuss the extraordinary science possible using the European Space Agency Athena mission. Due for launch at the end of the next decade, Athena will revolutionize high-energy astrophysics.   Athena is an international collaboration between ESA, NASA and Japan, taking

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Testing X-IFU performances. Published on SPIE: “Testing the X-IFU calibration requirements: an example for quantum efficiency and energy resolution” of E. Cucchetti (IRAP, CNRS, Universite’ de Toulouse)

Ricerca

of Mario Giuseppe Guarcello    ( follow mguarce)   In the past ten years the X-ray Universe has been explored mainly by two telescopes: the NASA satellite Chandra and the ESA satellite XMM-Newton. These two telescopes are still operating efficiently. However, the scientific community has already started planning the next generation of instruments for X-ray astronomy. In Europe, the future in

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