Category Astronomy/Space

Kwanzaa Tholus on Ceres map and elevation map on right showing prominences

What is a tholus? A tholus is a type of small mountain. These images show such a feature on dwarf planet Ceres called Kwanzaa Tholus. Kwanzaa, meaning “first fruits” in Swahili, is an African-American festival based on ancient African harvest celebrations, and takes place each year from December 26 to January 1.

Kwanzaa Tholus measures about 22 by 12 miles (35 by 19 kilometers) and is elevated about 2 miles (3 km) above its surroundings. Because the mountain does not rise sharply above the ground, it is difficult to see in the mosaic on the left, although a small crescent-shaped shadow stands out. The image on the right, which is an elevation map of the area, shows where Kwanzaa Tholus is more prominently.

The round...

OSIRIS medium-resolution spectrum of J0815+4729 (black line) and the best fit obtained with FERRE (red line). Credit: Aguado et al., 2017.

Spanish astronomers have identified a new carbon-rich ultra metal-poor unevolved star in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy. The newly found star, designated J0815+4729, could be the most iron-poor unevolved star known to date. Chemically primitive metal-poor stars are important for studying the conditions in the early universe. Thus, astronomers are interested in identifying more stars of this type and deriving their chemical abundances. Large sample of such stars could be helpful in improving our knowledge about stellar formation and evolution.

Recently, a team led by David S...

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson performed the Genes in Space-3 investigation aboard the space station using the miniPCR and MinION, developed for previously flown investigations. Credits: NASA

Being able to identify microbes in real time aboard the International Space Station, without having to send them back to Earth for identification first, would be revolutionary for the world of microbiology and space exploration. The Genes in Space-3 team turned that possibility into a reality this year, when it completed the first-ever sample-to-sequence process entirely aboard ISS. Results from their investigation were published in Scientific Reports.

The ability to identify microbes in space could aid in the ability to diagnose and treat astronaut ailments in real time, as well as assisting in the ide...

A multiwavelength false-color image of the “Toothbrush” cluster of galaxies, 1RXS J0603.3+4214. The intensity in red shows the radio emission, blue is X -ray, and the background color composite is optical emission. Astronomers studying the cluster with new radio observations combined with other wavelengths have been able to confirm the galaxy merger scenario and estimate the magnetic field strength in the shocks. Credit: van Weeren et al.

Most galaxies lie in clusters containing from a few to thousands of objects. Our Milky Way, for example, belongs to a cluster of about fifty galaxies called the Local Group whose other large member is the Andromeda galaxy about 2.3 million light-years away...