Free Astronomy - July-August 2021

cover EN.
qxp_l'astrofilo 25/06/2021 10:28 Page 1
THE FREE MULTIMEDIA MAGAZINE THAT KEEPS YOU UPDATED ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SPACE
Bi-monthly magazine of scientific and technical information ✶ July-August 2021
DAVINCI+ and VERITAS

to explore
Venus
2I/Borisov may be
the most pristine
comet ever found
Black hole pairs

found in distant
merging galaxies
• Hubble watches how a giant planet grows

• Gemini North helps set rotational speed limit for brown dwarfst
• Powerful stratospheric winds measured on Jupiter for the first time
• Stellar flare from Proxima Centauri recorded in multiple wavelengths
Ichnoscale − the parameter

for technological civilizations
www.astropublishing.com ✶ www.facebook.com/astropublishing ✶ info@astropublishing.com
colophon EN_l'astrofilo 25/06/2021 10:29 Page 2
Science in School
aims to promote inspir-
ing science teaching by
encouraging communica-
tion between teachers, scientists, and
everyone else involved in European sci-
ence education. Science in School is
published by EIROforum, a collaboration
between eight European intergovernmen-
tal scientific research organisations, of
which ESO is a member. The journal
addresses science teaching both
across Europe and across disciplines:
highlighting the best in teaching and
cutting-edge research.
Read more about Science in School
at: http://www.scienceinschool.org/
colophon EN_l'astrofilo 25/06/2021 10:29 Page 3
BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFIC

AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION
4 DAVINCI+ and VERITAS to explore
Venus
FREELY AVAILABLE THROUGH
14
THE INTERNET
The spiral of the Southern
July- August 2021 Pinwheel
18 Powerful stratospheric winds measured on Jupiter

for the first time
20 Hubble uncovers concentration of small

black holes
24 Ichnoscale − the parameter for technological

civilizations
English edition of the magazine
ASTROFILO
32 ESA’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 installed
l’
at La Silla
Editor in chief
Michele Ferrara
36
Scientific advisor
Prof. Enrico Maria Corsini Stellar flare from Proxima Centauri recorded in
Publisher multiple wavelengths
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38 Black hole pairs found in distant
merging galaxies
Copyright
42 2I/Borisov may be the most pristine comet

All material in this magazine is, unless
otherwise stated, property of Astro
Publishing di Pirlo L. or included with
permission of its author. Reproduction
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44
copyright holder, is a violation of copy-
right law. A single copy of the materi- Gemini North helps set rotational speed limit for
als available through this course may
be made, solely for personal, noncom- brown dwarfs
mercial use. Users may not distribute
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in electronic form, whether or not for
46
a charge or other consideration, with-
out prior written consent of the copy- ALMA shows massive young stars forming
right holder of the materials. The
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having rights for possible not charac-
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Hubble watches how a giant
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magazine EN_Free Astronomy Magazine 25/06/2021 10:44 Page 4
4 ASTRO PUBLISHING
DAVINCI +
and VERITAS
to explore
Venus
by Damian G. Allis
NASA Solar System Ambassador
T
he two most recent NASA Dis- second, on June 5,
covery Program missions are 2007, was used to col-
set to greatly improve our un- lect spectroscopic data
derstanding of our most luminous and images before contin-
and mysterious sister planet. On June uing to the planet Mercury,
2nd, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson its primary target.
announced that both DAVINCI+ and In the grand architecture of
VERITAS had been selected – a first NASA funding, the Discovery Pro-
time for two missions to the same lo- gram focuses on missions requiring
cation in the history of the program. smaller budgets than those of New
The MESSENGER spacecraft, the only
other Discovery Program mission to
study the planet Venus, only per- T he surface of Venus, as seen
without its thick atmosphere.
[Withan Tor/Shutterstock.com]
formed two flybys, of which only the
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 5
N ASA will send two new missions to Venus to

learn more about how the planet's hellish at-
mosphere turned so hostile over its history. [NASA]
Frontiers them, in the often-cited words of

(from which past administrator Daniel S. Goldin,
New Horizons, "faster, better, cheaper" to develop
Juno, and OSIRIS- and implement. For DAVINCI+ and
Rex are recent ex- VERITAS, each will have a budget of
amples) and Large about $500 million USD to complete
Strategic Science Mis- their objectives.
sions (formerly known as The VERITAS (Venus Emissivity,
“Flagship Missions,” among Radio Science, InSAR, Topography,
which Voyager, Cassini, and and Spectroscopy) orbiter will pro-
Hubble are just a few). As such, duce very accurate topographical
these missions are more focused on maps of nearly the entire surface
specific objectives with a reduced set using its VISAR (Venus Interferomet-
of specialized equipment, making ric Synthetic Aperture Radar) instru-
JULY-AUGUST 2021
I n the background, DAVINCI+ will send a meter-diameter probe to brave the high
temperatures and pressures near Venus’ surface to explore the atmosphere from
above the clouds to near the surface of a terrain that may have been a past conti-
nent. During its final kilometers of free-fall descent, the probe will capture spec-
tacular images and chemistry measurements of the deepest atmosphere on Venus
for the first time. [NASA/GSFC visualization by CI Labs Michael Lentz and others]
Below, an artist’s concept of the descent stages for the DAVINCI+ atmospheric
probe and Alpha Regio tesserae imager. [NASA/GSFC]
ment, while its VEM (Venus Emissiv-

ity Mapper) instrument will map
mineral composition and even de-
tect surface water vapor. Additional
studies will be performed by the
VERITAS communication equipment
to measure gravity variations to ob-
tain both estimates of the size of
the core and initial measurements
of large-scale features below the
planet’s surface. The surface scans
will not only provide insights into
ongoing geological activity, such as
potential volcanism, but also pro-
vide information to estimate the
ages of geological features to deter-
mine how quickly, and by what po-
tential mechanisms, the Venusian
JULY-AUGUST 2021
surface undergoes physical and

chemical changes.
DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus
Investigation of Noble gases, Chem-
istry, and Imaging, Plus) will com-
bine an orbiter with a descent
probe to study atmospheric compo-
N amed for visionary Renaissance

artist and scientist, Leonardo da
Vinci, the DAVINCI+ mission will
bring 21st-century technologies to
the world next door. DAVINCI+ may
reveal whether Earth’s sister planet
looked more like Earth’s twin planet
in a distant, possibly hospitable
past with oceans and continents.
[NASA/GSFC]
JULY-AUGUST 2021
8 ASTRO PUBLISHING
G reat detail shown in the Venu-

sian atmosphere through imag-
ing in the ultraviolet. The original
imaging was performed by the Akat-
suki orbiter, still in operation around
Venus. [JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Kevin M. Gill]
Below, an artist’s concept of the
VERITAS orbiter mapping out a re-
gion of the Venusian surface’s topol-
ogy and geology by radar.
[NASA/JPL-Caltech]
These tesserae are the most geolog-

ically ancient structures on the Venu-
sian surface, described often as the
Venusian equivalent of continents
here on Earth. Their age, structures,
and mineralogy might be consistent
with the presence of water oceans
and plate tectonics – if such an
Earth-like situation could have ex-
isted on Venus. At present, a number
of theories exist for the formation of
Venusian tesserae. DAVINCI+ will
provide an even higher-resolution
study of one single location against
the global imaging already being
performed by VERITAS.
As for questions that these two mis-
sition and dynamics, while also re- extensive imaging of the descent sions hope to address, there are
turning the first surface images and landing location. The proposed many.
since Venera 13, the Soviet probe landing site is Alpha Regio, one of Geology − The significance of
that landed back in 1981. For the the mapped tesserae on Venus. weather and plate tectonics in the
study of the atmosphere
from orbit, DAVINCI+ will be
equipped with multispectral
instrumentation (ultraviolet
and near-infrared) and a
wide-field camera to study
composition and dynamics.
Before succumbing to the ex-
treme temperatures and pres-
sures at the Venusian surface,
the descent probe will sample
at various altitudes the con-
centration of Noble and other
gases, the distributions of var-
ious isotopes, and even begin
to address the chemistry occur-
ring within the substructures
of the planet’s atmosphere. Fi-
nally, the probe will perform
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 9
N ASA Administrator Bill

Nelson announced that
both DAVINCI+ and VERITAS
had been selected. [NASA]
at least 37 of the several

hundred named coronae
(ring-like structures on the
surface caused by the uplift
of the crust by heated mat-
ter in the mantle) have un-
dergone changes indicative
of recent volcanic activity.
VERITAS will combine spec-
troscopy and radar imaging
to explore this issue in de-
tail. By analyzing rock com-
position, scientists will be
able to determine which
reshaping of Earth’s surface is obvi- ing 167 massive volcanoes that are areas are recently cooled magma
ous when one compares the impact- over 100 km in diameter. At pres- and which regions have changed
scarred lunar surface, barely ent, there is limited direct evidence due to exposure to the Venusian at-
changed in billions of years, with of active volcanism on Venus, al- mosphere, providing estimates of
what we find by looking at an Earth though indirect evidence exists either the ongoing extent of, or
map, where near-pristine impact from measured changes in concen- time since, volcanic activity. Radar
craters are sufficiently rare to count tration of the volcanic outgassing mapping may reveal the presence
as tourist attractions, and an entire marker sulfur dioxide. Direct evi- of fault lines – such discoveries
subfield of amateur astronomy is dence of ongoing – or at least very would confirm that plate tectonics
dedicated to scouring satellite im- recent – volcanism comes from a either is a mechanism of surface
agery for signs of previously unde- study in 2020 by University of Mary- change or would at least indicate
tected ancient impacts. land geophysicist Laurent Montesi that such activity once occurred in
Venus, to our understanding, might and co-workers, who reported that the planet’s past.
lie somewhere in the middle –
we do not know if plate tec-
tonics is a significant source
of surface reconstruction, yet
the modern surface is dated
to between 300 and 600 mil-
lion years old, meaning any
large and ancient impacts
dating to the early formation
of the solar system are rare.
The current source of the
more youthful Venusian sur-
face is believed to be largely
volcanic activity from among
the over 1600 volcanoes that
have been identified, includ-
A graphic representation of
the VERITAS spacecraft
orbiting Venus. [NASA/JPL]
JULY-AUGUST 2021
incident on Venus due to its closer

A size comparison of Earth (image taken by the Apollo 17 crew) and Venus,
showing their similar size, but very different surfaces. [NASA] proximity to the Sun, the increasing
water vapor in the atmosphere
Past or current habitability − With a tute for Space Studies in 2016 hint would have itself been broken
mean surface temperature of 464 °C at the possibility that liquid water down by UV radiation, leaving hy-
(867 °F) and only the scant presence oceans once may have existed on drogen gas to escape into space and
of water vapor detected in the at- Venus, but that these oceans may the reactive oxygen atoms and mol-
mosphere, it is very difficult to con- have also been a driver for the run- ecules to slowly contribute to the
ceive of extant life of any form on away greenhouse effect we see production of carbon dioxide that
the Venusian surface. As space en- today. Over time and due to the in- now constitutes over 95% of the
thusiasts of all kinds were made creased amount of solar radiation atmosphere. Studies of the atmos-
well aware of during the presenta-
tion of possible phosphine detec-
tion during October 2020, the situ-
ation changes dramatically with al-
titude (for more information, see
the November-December 2020 is-
sue). At 50 km (30 miles) above the
surface, conditions could be consid-
ered reasonable (albeit highly
acidic), even if only for what we
would consider extremophiles on
Earth. While the many re-analyses
of the original phosphine detection
seem to discredit the results of the
original study, the first announce-
ment clearly motivated people to
think about how life might be thriv-
ing on a planet that most thought
far too extreme to even support
long-term robotics missions.
Just as Mars has been revealed to
have been water-rich in its past, so
too have researchers hypothesized
on the conditions of an ancient
Venus. Computational modeling
performed at NASA’s Goddard Insti-
A false-color image of part of Alpha Regio, the proposed landing site for the DA-
VINCI+ descent stage, as originally taken by the Magellan orbiter. [NASA/JPL]
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 11
fortable. That said, visitors from fect. The greater abundance of cer-
A n artist's concept of active vol-
canos on Venus, depicting a sub-
duction zone where the foreground
Earth could at least complain about
the temperature (and radiation if
tain isotopes of the Noble elements
are also indicators of certain atmos-
crust plunges into the planet's inte- their suits were properly equipped) pheric and geochemical phenom-
rior at the topographic trench. with a far less cumbersome body ena that are potential explanations
[NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin] suit than worn by astronauts per- for the current conditions on Venus.
forming maintenance on the ISS. It may be discovered among solar
phere and surface give us a solid Earth is, of course, Earth, providing systems similar in number and plan-
foundation to begin to rewind the a wide range of environmental con- etary placements to ours that all
history of Venus to consider, just as ditions but no surface extreme so rocky planets near the Sun undergo
has been done so effectively for great that some form of life cannot the same kinds of evolution that
Mars, if its ancient surface was more be found or even thriving. our system has. Alternatively, we
hospitable than today. Venus is the oddity in this series – may discover that the reason for the
Extrasolar planets − This magazine we would expect higher surface brutal conditions of Venus are
has often discussed habitability and, temperatures and harsher environ- unique to its own evolution and
even more recently, technosigna- mental conditions in general, simply similarly-placed planets in other
tures – for which the focus on rocky by its proximity to the Sun. That solar systems are more hospitable,
planets within Goldilocks Zones still said, the Venusian environment is making them more suitable to sup-
very much seems to be the center of severe beyond our current ability to porting the development of living
discussions within the larger com- explain why it is so. Models of vol- organisms.
munity. This makes the paradox of canism, catastrophic collisions, and If all development goes as planned,
the Venus-Earth-Mars triplet so in- even ocean evaporation are re- both missions are set to be launched
teresting – Mars is barely habitable, ported in the literature to explain between 2028 and 2030. They will
but at least, in terms of surface con- how such a massive amount of at- be soon followed by a very recently
ditions, its best days are not too dis- mospheric CO2 could have been re- announced European Space Agency
similar from what some on Earth leased over time to foster the (ESA) mission named EnVision, set
would consider extremely uncom- planet’s runaway greenhouse ef- for launch in the early 2030s. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
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images by Massimo Vesnaver

The spiral of the

Southern Pinwheel
by NOIRLab - Amanda Kocz
A
stronomy enthusiasts might people, rather than enjoying a quiet NSF’s NOIRLab. DECam’s continued
wonder why a camera called retirement, DECam is remaining oc- operation also makes sumptuously
the Dark Energy Camera cupied. Members of the astronomi- detailed images like this one possi-
(DECam) would be used to image a cal community can apply for time to ble. Messier 83, or the Southern Pin-
single spiral galaxy. DECam has in use it, and the data collected are wheel, is located in the southern
fact already finished its main job, as processed and made publicly avail- constellation of Hydra and is an ob-
the instrument was used to com- able, thanks to the Astro Data vious target for a beautiful astro-
plete the Dark Energy Survey, which Archive at the Community Science nomical image. It is oriented so that
ran from 2013 to 2019. Like many and Data Center (CSDC) Program at it is almost entirely face-on as seen
JULY-AUGUST 2021
from Earth, meaning that we

O ne of the deepest images ever taken of the Southern Pinwheel (combining more
than 11 hours of exposure time), this view was captured with the Dark Energy Cam-
era (DECam), which was built by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and is mounted on
can observe its spiral structure in
fantastic detail.
the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory The galaxy lies around 15 million
(CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Numerous background galaxies, which lie much far- light-years away, which makes it
ther away than Messier 83, appear around the edges of the image. [CTIO/NOIRLab/ a neighbor in astronomical terms.
DOE/NSF/AURA - Ack: M. Soraisam (University of Illinois) - Image processing: Travis Rec- It has a diameter of around
tor (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin] 50,000 light-years, so it is a little
diminutive in comparison to our
JULY-AUGUST 2021
16 ASTRO PUBLISHING
own Milky Way, which has a

diameter of 100,000–200,000
light-years. In other ways,
however, the Southern Pin-
wheel probably gives a good
approximation of how our
Milky Way would look to a dis-
tant alien civilization.
Six different filters were used
on DECam in order to create
this spectacular new view of a
classical beauty. Filters allow
astronomers to select which
wavelengths of light they wish
to view the sky in. This is cru-
cial for science observations,
when astronomers require very
specific information about an
object, but it also allows color-
ful images like this one to be C osmoView Episode 22: The spiral of the Southern Pinwheel. [Images and Videos:
CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA, M. Soraisam (University of Illinois), /LBNL/DECam/R.
created. Observing celestial Hahn, R. Sparks. Image processing: Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage),
objects — such as the Southern Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin. Music: Stellardrone - Airglow]
Pinwheel — with several dif-
ferent filters means that different visible sky named the Legacy Survey DECam are much larger, and they
details can be picked out. of Space and Time (LSST). “The were specifically designed to collect
For example, the dark tendrils curl- Messier 83 observations are part of very faint red light from distant
ing through the galaxy are actually an ongoing program to produce an galaxies. This capability was crucial
lanes of dust, blocking out light. In atlas of time-varying phenomena in for DECam’s original purpose, the
contrast, the clustered, bright red nearby southern galaxies in prepa- Dark Energy Survey. This ambitious
spots are caused by glowing, hot ration for Rubin Observatory’s survey probed one of the most fun-
hydrogen gas (which identifies Legacy Survey of Space and Time,” damental questions of the Universe
these as hubs of star formation). said Monika Soraisam of the Univer- — why is our Universe not only ex-
Dusty trails and dynamic ionized gas sity of Illinois, who is the principal panding, but expanding at an accel-
have different temperatures, and investigator for DECam’s observa- erating rate? For six years DECam
are therefore visible in different tions of Messier 83. “We are gener- surveyed the skies, imaging the
wavelengths. ating multi-color light curves of most distant galaxies to collect
Filters allow both to be observed stars in this galaxy, which will be more data to enable astronomers to
separately, and then combined into used to tame the onslaught of further investigate our accelerating
one intricate image. In all, 163 alerts expected from LSST using Universe. Taking beautiful images
DECam exposures, with a total com- state-of-the-art software infrastruc- such as this one must seem a lot
bined exposure time of over 11.3 ture such as NOIRLab’s own simpler for DECam.
hours, went into creating this por- ANTARES alert-broker.” “While DECam has fulfilled its orig-
trait of Messier 83. Built by the US Department of En- inal goal to complete the Dark En-
Yet these observations were not just ergy (DOE), DECam is mounted on ergy Survey, it continues to be a
about creating a pretty picture. the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Tele- valuable resource for the astronom-
They are helping to prepare for up- scope at CTIO in Chile. DECam is a ical community, capturing sweeping
coming observations by Vera C. powerful instrument that uses 74 views of objects like Messier 83 that
Rubin Observatory, a future pro- highly sensitive charge-coupled de- both delight the senses and ad-
gram of NOIRLab. In ten years of vices (CCDs) to take images. CCDs vance our understanding of the
operation, starting in 2023, Rubin are the same devices that are used Universe,” said Chris Davis, Program
Observatory will carry out an un- to take photos in everyday cell Director for NOIRLab at the Na-
precedented optical survey of the phones. Of course, the CCDs in tional Science Foundation. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
18 ASTRO PUBLISHING
Powerful stratospheric
winds measured
on Jupiter for
the first time
by ESO - Bárbara Ferreira
J
upiter is famous for its distinctive tacular fashion in 1994.
red and white bands: swirling This impact produced
clouds of moving gas that as- new molecules in Jupiter’s
tronomers traditionally use to track stratosphere, where they
winds in Jupiter’s lower atmosphere. have been moving with the
Astronomers have also seen, near winds ever since.
Jupiter’s poles, the vivid glows A team of astronomers, led
known as aurorae, which appear to by Thibault Cavalié of the Lab-
be associated with strong winds in oratoire d’Astrophysique de
the planet’s upper atmosphere. But Bordeaux in France, have now
until now, researchers had never tracked one of these molecules —
been able to directly measure wind hydrogen cyanide — to directly
patterns in between these two at- measure stratospheric “jets” on
mospheric layers, in the strato- Jupiter. Scientists use the word
sphere. “jets” to refer to narrow bands of
Measuring wind speeds in Jupiter’s wind in the atmosphere, like Earth’s
stratosphere using cloud-tracking jet streams.
techniques is impossible because “The most spectacular result is the
of the absence of clouds in this part presence of strong jets, with speeds
of the atmosphere. However, as- of up to 400 metres per second,
tronomers were provided with an al- which are located under the aurorae
ternative measuring aid in the form near the poles,” says Cavalié. These
of comet Shoemaker–Levy 9, which wind speeds, equivalent to about
collided with the gas giant in spec- 1450 kilometres an hour, are more
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 19
than twice the maximum storm were able to deduce the speed of
A n artist’s impression of winds in
Jupiter’s stratosphere near the
planet’s south pole, with the blue
speeds reached in Jupiter’s Great
Red Spot and over three times the
the winds much like one could de-
duce the speed of a passing train by
lines representing wind speeds. wind speed measured on Earth’s the change in the frequency of the
These lines are superimposed on a strongest tornadoes. train whistle,” explains study co-au-
real image of Jupiter, taken by the “Our detection indicates that these thor Vincent Hue, a planetary scien-
JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s jets could behave like a giant vortex tist at the Southwest Research
Juno spacecraft. [ESO/L. Calçada & with a diameter of up to four times Institute in the US.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS] that of Earth, and some 900 kilome- In addition to the surprising polar
tres in height,” explains co-author winds, the team also used ALMA to
Bilal Benmahi, also of the Labora- confirm the existence of strong
toire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux. stratospheric winds around the
“A vortex of this size would be a planet’s equator, by directly meas-
unique meteorological beast in our uring their speed, also for the first
Solar System,” Cavalié adds. time. The jets spotted in this part of
Astronomers were aware of strong the planet have average speeds of
winds near Jupiter’s poles, but much about 600 kilometres an hour.
higher up in the atmosphere, hun- The ALMA observations required to
dreds of kilometres above the focus track stratospheric winds in both
area of the new study, published in the poles and equator of Jupiter
Astronomy & Astrophysics. Previous took less than 30 minutes of tele-
studies predicted that these upper- scope time. “The high levels of de-
atmosphere winds would decrease tail we achieved in this short time
in velocity and disappear well be- really demonstrate the power of
fore reaching as deep as the strato- the ALMA observations,” says
sphere. “The new ALMA data tell us Thomas Greathouse, a scientist at
the contrary,” says Cavalié, adding the Southwest Research Institute in
that finding these strong stratos- the US and co-author of the study.
pheric winds near Jupiter’s poles “It is astounding to me to see the
was a “real surprise”. first direct measurement of these
The team used 42 of ALMA’s 66 winds.”
high-precision antennas, “These ALMA results open a new
located in the Ata- window for the study of Jupiter’s
cama Desert in auroral regions, which was really
northern Chile, unexpected just a few months
to analyse the back,” says Cavalié. “They also set
hydrogen the stage for similar yet more ex-
cyanide mole- tensive measurements to be made
cules that have by the JUICE mission and its Submil-
been moving limetre Wave Instrument,” Great-
around in house adds, referring to the Eu-
Jupiter’s strato- ropean Space Agency’s JUpiter ICy
sphere since the moons Explorer, which is expected
impact of Shoe- to launch into space next year.
maker–Levy 9. The ESO’s ground-based Extremely
ALMA data allowed Large Telescope (ELT), set to see first
them to measure the light later this decade, will also ex-
Doppler shift — tiny changes plore Jupiter. The telescope will be
in the frequency of the radiation capable of making highly detailed
emitted by the molecules — caused observations of the planet’s auro-
by the winds in this region of the rae, giving us further insight into
planet. “By measuring this shift, we Jupiter’s atmosphere. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
Hubble uncovers
concentration of small
black holes
by NASA/ESA - Bethany Downer
S
cientists were expecting to find the first measurement of the extent
an intermediate-mass black
hole at the heart of the globu-
of a collection of black holes in a
core-collapsed globular cluster.
T his ancient stellar jewelry box,
a globular cluster called NGC
6397, glitters with the light from
lar cluster NGC 6397, but instead Globular clusters are extremely hundreds of thousands of stars.
they found evidence of a concentra- dense stellar systems, in which stars [NASA, ESA, and T. Brown and S.
tion of smaller black holes lurking are packed closely together. They Casertano (STScI). Ack: NASA, ESA,
there. New data from the NASA/ESA are also typically very old — the and J. Anderson (STScI)]
Hubble Space Telescope have led to globular cluster that is the focus of
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 21
A n artist’s im-
pression cre-
ated to visualize the
concentration of
black holes at the
center of NGC 6397.
In reality, the small
black holes here are
far too small for the
direct observing ca-
pacities of any ex-
isting or planned
future telescope, in-
cluding Hubble. It is
predicted that this
core-collapsed glob-
ular cluster could
be host to more
than 20 black holes.
[ESA/Hubble, N.
Bartmann]
this study, NGC 6397, is almost as old stars. Knowing the distance to the dwarfs or neutron stars that are too
as the Universe itself. It resides 7800 cluster allowed the astronomers to faint to observe.
light-years away, making it one of translate the proper motions of Two recent studies had also pro-
the closest globular clusters to Earth. these stars into velocities. posed that stellar remnants and in
Because of its very dense nucleus, it “Our analysis indicated that the or- particular, stellar-mass black holes,
is known as a core-collapsed cluster. bits of the stars are close to random could populate the inner regions of
When Eduardo Vitral and Gary A. throughout the globular cluster, globular clusters.
Mamon of the Institut d’Astro- rather than systematically circular or “Our study is the first finding to pro-
physique de Paris set out to study very elongated,” explained Mamon. vide both the mass and the extent
the core of NGC 6397, they expected “We found very strong evidence for of what appears to be a collection
to find evidence for an “intermedi- invisible mass in the dense central of mostly black holes in a core-col-
ate-mass” black hole (IMBH). regions of the cluster, but we were lapsed globular cluster,” said Vitral.
These are smaller than the super- surprised to find that this extra mass “Our analysis would not have been
massive black holes that lie at the is not point-like but extended to a possible without having both the
cores of large galaxies, but larger few percent of the size of the clus- Hubble data to constrain the inner
than stellar-mass black holes formed ter,” added Vitral. regions of the cluster and the Gaia
by the collapse of massive stars. This invisible component could only data to constrain the orbital shapes
IMBH are the long-sought “missing be made up of the remnants (white of the outer stars, which in turn in-
link” in black hole evolution and dwarfs, neutron stars, and black directly constrain the velocities of
their mere existence is hotly de- holes) of massive stars whose inner foreground and background stars in
bated, although a few candidates regions collapsed under their own the inner regions,” added Mamon,
have been found. To look for the gravity once their nuclear fuel was attesting to an exemplary interna-
IMBH, Vitral and Mamon analysed exhausted. The stars progressively tional collaboration.
the positions and velocities of the sank to the cluster’s centre after The astronomers also note that this
cluster’s stars. They did this using gravitational interactions with discovery raises the question of
previous estimates of the stars’ nearby less massive stars, leading to whether mergers of these tightly
proper motions from Hubble images the small extent of the invisible mass packed black holes in core-collapsed
of the cluster spanning several years, concentration. Using the theory of globular clusters may be an impor-
in addition to proper motions pro- stellar evolution, the scientists con- tant source of gravitational waves
vided by ESA’s Gaia space observa- cluded that the bulk of the unseen recently detected by the Laser Inter-
tory, which precisely measures the concentration is made of stellar- ferometer Gravitational-Wave Ob-
positions, distances and motions of mass black holes, rather than white servatory (LIGO) experiment. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
22
Unrivaled view
of galaxy
Messier 106
T
his celestial snapshot captures the Accompanying Messier 106 is a pair of dwarf
majesty of the spiral galaxy Messier galaxies belonging to the same galaxy
106, also known as NGC 4258. The group. The loose collection of stars and dust
image is arguably the best yet captured of visible in the bottom-right of this image is
the entire galaxy. Obtained using the the small irregular galaxy NGC 4248. An-
Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt other small galaxy — UGC 7356 — lies to the
Peak National Observatory, a Program of lower-left of Messier 106 and is dwarfed by
NSF’s NOIRLab, this image shows not only its larger neighbor. Messier 106 and its com-
the glowing spiral arms, wisps of gas, and panions are framed by a variety of objects,
dust lanes at the core of the galaxy but also from foreground stars to background galax-
the leisurely twisting bands of stars at its ies. Stars from our own galaxy stud the
outer edges. image, easily identified by the criss-cross dif-
A popular target for amateur astronomers, fraction patterns surrounding them. In the
Messier 106 can be spotted with a small tel- background, distant galaxies litter the
escope in the constellation Canes Venatici. image, some of them visible through the
Messier 106 is similar in size and luminosity tenuous disk of Messier 106.
to our galactic neighbor the Andromeda As well as being a striking subject for astro-
Galaxy, but it lies 10 times farther away — nomical images, Messier 106 has been in-
more than 20 million light-years from Earth. strumental in measuring the scale of the
Though the galaxy measures more than Universe. Astronomers measure distances in
130,000 light-years from edge to edge, the the Universe using an interconnected chain
vast distance between it and the Milky Way of measurements called the cosmic distance
renders Messier 106 minuscule when seen ladder, with each rung of the ladder allow-
from here. Its size in the night sky — if it ing measurements of more and more dis-
were visible to the naked eye — is less than tant objects. Calibrating these measure-
that of a penny held at arm’s length! De- ments requires objects with a known bright-
spite its tranquil appearance, Messier 106 ness — such as pulsating stars known as
has an unusually energetic inhabitant. The Cepheid variables.
supermassive black hole at the heart of the Measurements of the Cepheids in Messier
galaxy — which is about 40 million times as 106 have allowed astronomers to calibrate
massive as our Sun — is particularly active. Cepheids elsewhere in the Universe — help-
As well as consuming vast amounts of gas ing them to measure the distances to other
and dust, the spinning black hole has galaxies. This image was one of the last to
warped the surrounding disk of gas, churn- be taken with the Mosaic camera before the
ing up vast amounts of material. This installation of the Dark Energy Spectro-
process has created the bright, red streamers scopic Instrument (DESI), a project of the De-
of gas emanating from the heart of Messier partment of Energy’s Office of Science and
106, visible in the center of this image. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. !
24 ASTRO PUBLISHING
Ichnoscale − the
parameter for
technological
civilizations
by Michele Ferrara
revised by Damian G. Allis
NASA Solar System Ambassador
F
or some years now, astrobiolo- The fact that life exists on Earth has
gists engaged in the search for been evident, for an external ob-
possible alien civilizations have server, for at least half a billion
been outlining more and more con- years (since the Cambrian explo-
cretely the scientific programs to be sion), therefore up to distances in
undertaken to discover technosig- space that exceed the boundaries of
natures of non-terrestrial origin. the local supercluster of galaxies
Very strictly, we can define tech- (Laniakea). That the Earth also hosts
nosignatures as observational evi- a technological civilization is instead
dence of the existence of techno- clearly visible only within the Orion
logical applications in the universe. arm of the Milky Way, up to a few
Discovering possible biosignatures hundred light-years away.
produced by the “simple” existence Because we don’t know if other
of life on another planet (ET) would technological civilizations exist, and
already be a lot, but it would be much less do we know how their
quite another thing to realize that technologies can manifest them-
that life has developed sufficient in- selves, when we go in search of
telligence to create technologies (ETI). them we can only hope that they
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 25
H ypothetical exoatmosphere polluted by

chemicals produced by industry and
technology. The discovery of such a sce-
nario will be within the reach of the next
large telescopes. [TechnoClimes 2020]
JULY-AUGUST 2021
26 ASTRO PUBLISHING
have followed an evolutionary path ready started with other purposes.

similar to ours and are hence recog-
nizable with the instruments at our
For example, the study of exoplan-
ets atmospheres in transit in front
T he night lights of an exoplanet
akin to the one shown here
could be observed from Earth.
disposal. of their stars can highlight mole- Similarly, an alien civilization might
Since there are various forms through cules that are hardly present in na- notice our artificial lights, which on
which an ETI can reveal itself, astro- ture in certain abundances. some continents have intensity
biologists looking for technosigna- After sixty years of fruitless searches peaks similar to these. [Techno-
tures can make use of the databases for alien signals in the radio domain, Climes 2020]
from many research programs al- many ETI hunters are increasingly
ASTRO PUBLISHING 27
turning to other methods of inves- had begun to consider the search current limits of their research and
tigation, made possible by the re- for technosignatures as an activity the projects to be developed in the
markable advances made by our to be evaluated and supported. Not immediate future. One of the points
technology in recent years, by the surprisingly, the agency had organ- of discussion at the meeting was the
copious discoveries of planetary sys- ized the “NASA Technosignatures role that NASA might have played in
tems and by the imminent arrival of Workshop” meeting in September advancing knowledge on technosig-
new ground- and space-based pow- of that year, with the specific intent natures, in partnership with other
erful telescopes. In the wake of this of defining the state-of-the-art in organizations. The interest shown
renewed enthusiasm, in 2018 NASA the field of technosignatures, the by the agency on that occasion rep-
resented a turning point in the gen-
eral approach to non-radio tech-
nosignatures, which thus became
something more than a bizarre field
of research on the edge of sci-fi.
Two years later, in August 2020,
NASA sponsored a second workshop
on the topic, named “TechnoClimes
2020” and organized by the Blue
Marble Space Institute of Science.
The purpose of this second meeting
among the leading experts in the
sector was to produce a research
agenda for technosignatures, eval-
uating projects and missions that
could offer new opportunities, re-
gardless of the current limits of
available resources. For the first
time, the efforts of different initia-
tives were combined, offering an
overview of current and near-future
capabilities in undertaking a sys-
tematic search for technosignatures.
The instruments that astrobiologists
will have at their disposal in a few
years will allow them to detect in
space technosignatures with inten-
sities comparable to those of terres-
trial ones, up to distances of tens or
hundreds of light-years. Currently,
with the astronomical infrastruc-
tures at our disposal, we can only
detect technosignatures much more
intense than ours, probably pro-
duced by superior technologies.
According to one of the conclusions
emerged from TechnoClimes 2020,
it is unlikely that civilizations with a
relatively low level of technological
development (more or less like ours)
could come into contact with each
other, because this would require
transmission or reception capacity
which defines the relative value of tifact currently present in Earth’s

M egastructures such as Clarke's
belts (populous swarms of
satellites, an example above) or
a hypothetical alien technosigna-
ture with respect to its terrestrial ex-
orbit. Considering the small size of
the ISS, it is understandable that the
Dyson spheres (cages to imprison pression. To better understand this ichnoscale would be of some order
stellar heat) would reduce the concept, let’s assume that an alien of magnitude. As a second example,
brightness of planets and stars, pro- civilization has built a giant space let’s imagine we sight an alien
ducing an excess infrared, phenom- station around its planet. In this spe- probe passing through our solar sys-
ena recognizable from Earth. cific case, the value of the ichno- tem. In this case the ichnoscale
[TechnoClimes 2020] scale would be equal to the average would not be much bigger than
size of that megastructure divided one, since we too are theoretically
not yet available, or the construc- by the average size of the Interna- able to send a probe to a nearby
tion of very large or very bright tional Space Station, the largest ar- planetary system, as evidenced by
structures, works that would hardly
be a top priority. It is also for this
reason that many insiders believe
that our first contact is more likely
to take place with a more advanced
civilization than ours.
“More or less advanced” is an ex-
pression often used when talking
about a possible alien civilization. In
reality, it has a very relative mean-
ing, because we have only one ex-
perience and no idea how techno-
logically more or less advanced oth-
ers may be. TechnoClimes 2020 has
provided a tool that allows for a less
subjective assessment. It is an arbi-
trary but reasonable scale that uses
the relative weight of each terres-
trial technosignature as a unit of T echnosignatures are observational manifestations of technology, particu-
larly those that could be detected with the tools of astronomy. City lights,
air pollution, and satellites are all examples of technosignatures on Earth.
measurement. Technosignatures are
Could the next generation of telescopes find evidence of alien technology on
quantified through a parameter another planet? [TechnoClimes 2020]
called “ichnoscale” (footprint scale),
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 29
I chnoscale (relative
footprint of a
given technosigna-
ture in units of cur-
rent Earth technol-
ogy) vs number of
targets for several
possible technosig-
natures. Filled
(empty) circles rep-
resent continuous
(discontinuous) ob-
servables. [Hector
Socas-Navarro et al.
− TechnoClimes 2020]
covering artifacts of
extraterrestrial origin
on asteroids and the
Moon, while the last
one (Atmos) is the
technosignature that
we can most realisti-
cally hope to discover
in the near future,
that means traces of
artificial pollutants in
the atmosphere of a
the development of the Break- precise localization (spatial resolu- terrestrial planet, evidence of indus-
through Starshot project. tion) of artificial infrared sources trial or engineering activities.
Some participants in TechnoClimes (Galactic and Dyson spheres). Better But let’s go back to the three previ-
2020 have put on a Cartesian plan it could go with laser signal record- ous technosignatures, those that at
the number of possible targets ing (Laser), which however could first glance seem the most fanciful
where to look for twelve different be discontinuous or occasional. For and that contemplate the possibility
types of technosignatures and the now, technosigna-
related ichnoscale. From the result- tures requiring a di-
ing graph we can see that most of rect characterization
the technosignatures are expected of exoplanets (Lights,
in a limited number of targets and Transit shade, Transit
within relatively contained ichno- CEB) are also beyond
scale values. Since we can reasonably our reach.
expect civilizations with low ichno- Six technosignatures
scale to be more abundant, it is no with the lowest ich-
coincidence that the technosigna- noscale value remain,
tures most accessible to us appear in two of which (Inter-
the lower part of the graph (where cept and Radio) are
we could place ourselves). however very unpre-
Technosignatures of the most abun- dictable. Among the
dant targets, those represented on remaining four tech-
the right side of the graph, may nosignatures, three
seem the most obvious to look for.
In reality, our current instrumenta-
(UHR anomaly, NEO, H ector Socas-Navarro, physicist at the Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias, is the main creator of the
Asteroid pol) concern scale that parameterizes the technosignatures. [IAC]
tion is unsuitable for providing a the possibility of dis-
JULY-AUGUST 2021
30
H ypothetical megastructures of
planetary size could be detected
due to the anomalous heat dispersion
revealed compared to a natural rocky
body. Alongside, some “hybridized”
moons. [TechnoClimes 2020]
of finding, in heliocentric orbit or on

the surfaces of rocky bodies, arti-
facts sent into our solar system by
one or more alien civilizations. It
seems very unlikely that such finds
could be made, but the basic idea is
not so crazy. We know well that the
stars are not fixed with respect to
each other and that in their motion
around the center of the galaxy they
can occasionally “graze” each other.
It has been calculated that, on aver-
age, every 100,000 years a star tran-
sits less than a light-year from the
Sun, penetrating the Oort Cloud.
This implies that since life was born
on Earth, some tens of thousands of
stars have passed at a close enough
distance to allow any technological
civilizations they host to notice the
chemical “contamination” of our at-
mosphere, caused precisely by the
presence of life forms. Just as we are
planning to send a probe into the
probably sterile Proxima Centauri
planetary system, over four light-
years away, it is conceivable that
others have planned a similar mis-
sion when, passing even closer to
our solar system, they realized that
on the third planet there was some-
thing far more vital.
Some TechnoClimes 2020 attendees Earth’s Trojans. It seems unrealistic all traces of the visit. Less discreet
believe that if we have received vis- that these populations of small as- aliens could have placed observation
its from alien probes, they may still teroids could have been character- instruments on the Moon, certainly
be somewhere in our planetary sys- ized so precisely by possible alien well known to those who are able to
tem, albeit likely inactive and de- astronomers, to the point of plan- observe the Earth from a few light-
teriorated. The same researchers ning and making a landing on one years away.
suggest that if the aliens’ goal was of them, in a position that allows A civilization with ichnoscale slightly
to study the Earth and its inhabi- the study of our planet. Inserting a higher than ours would already be
tants (in a broad sense) for a rela- probe into Earth’s orbit would un- able to do all this, and we cannot
tively long period, those wrecks doubtedly be less complicated and entirely exclude the presence of
could be either on the Moon or on more informative. A subsequent de- alien technosignatures on the lunar
asteroids with orbits closer to that of orbiting with entry into the atmos- surface. In fact, despite the intense
our planet, such as the NEOs and the phere would have prudently erased and continuous mapping of our nat-
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ural satellite, the maximum resolu- LRO is, however, also capable of a processing carried out directly by ar-
tion with which we can regularly in- much better resolution, 0.5 m/pixel, tificial intelligence aboard a lunar
vestigate its surface is that of 100 but this is only used on small areas mapper. Only the images of anom-
m/pixel offered by NASA’s Lunar Re- of particular interest, such as the alous structures would be sent to
connaissance Orbiter (LRO). An in- Apollo landing sites and those of Earth for in-depth analysis.
terstellar probe can be expected to other past and future missions. Map- The search for technosignatures is a
be much smaller than that size, to ping the entire lunar surface at that relatively young branch of astrobi-
ensure the shortest possible travel very high resolution would require ology, and some of its aspects may
time. Indeed, since it is necessary to telemetry capabilities not yet avail- raise perplexity. However, it is also
reach fractions of the speed of light, able, or the development of ma- the only one among all the scientific
the mass must be reduced to the es- chine learning techniques that are disciplines that will be able to tell us
sential (according to our current just in their infancy, but which are if there is someone else out there
knowledge). indispensable for having most of the who is aware of the universe. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
32 ASTRO PUBLISHING
ESA’s Test-Bed
Telescope 2 installed
at La Silla
P
art of the world-wide effort to these objects. The TBT project is a
scan and identify near-Earth step in that direction,” says Ivo Sa-
objects, the European Space viane, the site manager for ESO’s La
Agency’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 (TBT2), Silla Observatory in Chile.
a technology demonstrator hosted The project, which is a collaboration
at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, between the European Southern Ob-
has now started operating. Working servatory (ESO) and the European
alongside its northern-hemisphere Space Agency (ESA), “is a test-bed to
partner telescope, TBT2 will keep a demonstrate the capabilities needed
close eye on the sky for asteroids to detect and follow-up near-Earth
that could pose a risk to Earth, test- objects with the same telescope sys-
ing hardware and software for a fu- tem,” says ESA’s Head of the Optical
ture telescope network. “To be able Technologies Section Clemens Heese,
to calculate the risk posed by poten- who is leading this project.
tially hazardous objects in the Solar The 56-cm telescope at ESO’s La Silla
System, we first need a census of and TBT1, its identical counterpart
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 33
T he open dome of the European

Space Agency’s Test-Bed Tele-
scope 2 stands out against its fellow
telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observa-
tory in Chile. The Test-Bed Tele-
scope 2 joins its partner Test-Bed
Telescope 1, located at ESA’s deep-
space ground station at Cebreros in
Spain, scanning the sky for near-
Earth objects. The project acts as a
technology demonstrator for ESA’s
planned ‘Flyeye’ telescope network.
The domes of ESO’s 0.5 m and the
Danish 0.5 m telescopes are visible
in the background of this image.
[F. Ocaña/J. Isabel/Quasar SR]
thoroughly studied. However, it is

I n this picture, an engineer reaches out of the white telescope dome towards
the black structure of the Test-Bed Telescope 2, a European Space Agency tele-
scope hosted at ESO’s La Silla observatory, as it is lowered into place by crane.
estimated that there are large num-
bers of smaller, yet-undiscovered ob-
The dome is designed to protect the telescope from the harsh conditions of the jects we are unaware of that could
Atacama Desert in Chile. [P. Sinclaire/ESO] do serious damage if they were to
hit a populated area.
located at the ESA’s deep-space telescope configuration, finally ful- That’s where TBT and the future
ground station at Cebreros in Spain, filling the project’s objectives,” says planned network of Flyeye tele-
will act as precursors to the planned Heese. scopes come in. Once fully opera-
‘Flyeye’ telescope network, a sepa- While seriously harmful asteroid im- tional the network’s design would
rate project that ESA is developing pacts on Earth are extremely rare, allow it to survey the night sky to
to survey and track fast-moving ob- they are not inconceivable. The track fast-moving objects, a signifi-
jects in the sky. This future network Earth has been periodically bom- cant advancement in Europe’s capac-
will be entirely robotic; software will barded with both large and small as- ity to spot potentially hazardous
perform real-time scheduling of ob- teroids for billions of years, and the near-Earth objects.
servations and, at the end of the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor event, TBT is part of an ongoing inter-or-
day, it will report the positions and which caused some 1600 injuries, ganisational effort to build a more
other information about the objects most due to flying splinters and bro- complete picture of these objects
detected. The TBT project is de- ken glass, further raised the public’s and the potential risks they pose.
signed to show that the software awareness of the threat posed by This project builds on ESO’s previous
and hardware work as expected. near-Earth objects. Larger objects do involvement in protecting the Earth
“The start of observations of TBT2 at more damage, but are thankfully from potentially dangerous near-
La Silla will enable the observing sys- easier to spot and the orbits of Earth objects. Both ESO and ESA
tem to work in its intended two- known large asteroids are already are active in the United Nations-en-
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 35
dorsed International Aster-

oid Warning Network and
many observations of these
objects have been performed
with ESO’s telescopes. ESO’s
New Technology Telescope
at La Silla, for example, has
been used for observations
of small near-Earth asteroids
in support of the European
NEOShield-2 project.
The ongoing inter-organisa-
tional collaboration between
ESO and ESA is particularly
significant in the study of
near-Earth objects. While
TBT is the first telescope proj-
ect to be realised under a
cooperation agreement be-
tween the two organisa-
tions, ESO has been helping
ESA track potentially danger-
ous objects since 2014, by
using its Very Large Tele-
scope at Paranal Observatory
T he black telescope structure of

the European Space Agency’s
Test-Bed Telescope 2 peers out of its
open dome in front of the rolling
desert landscape. The telescope is
located at ESO’s La Silla Observa-
tory, which sits at a 2400 metre alti-
tude in the Chilean Atacama desert.
[F. Ocaña/J. Isabel/Quasar SR]
to observe very faint objects. These

efforts combined are a significant
leap forward for the worldwide
search and management of aster-
oids, and have already proved useful
in ruling out collisions of asteroids
with the Earth.
The installation and first light of
TBT2 at ESO’s La Silla Observatory
was achieved under strict health and
safety conditions. ESO’s observato-
ries temporarily stopped operations
last year due to the COVID-19 pan-
T his picture shows the Test-Bed Telescope 2 inside its dome, right after it was
positioned in place with the help of a crane, against the dramatic backdrop
of the Atacama Desert. It is the clear, dark Atacama skies that make this location
demic, but have since resumed sci-
ence observations under restrictions
ideal for ground-based telescopes. [P. Sinclaire/ESO]
that ensure the safety and protec-
tion of everyone at the sites. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
36 ASTRO PUBLISHING
Stellar flare from

Proxima Centauri
recorded in multiple
wavelengths
by ALMA Observatory
A
stronomers using the Ata- magnetic spectrum, from radio trophysical and Planetary Sciences
cama Large Millimeter/sub- waves to gamma rays. This is the first (APS) at CU Boulder, and the lead
millimeter Array (ALMA) time that a single stellar flare, other author on the study. To better un-
have spotted a flare from Earth’s than those that occur on the Sun, derstand the flares on Proxima Cen-
nearest neighboring star, Proxima has been observed with such com- tauri — a red dwarf star located
Centauri, that is 100 times more plete wavelength coverage. roughly four light-years or 20 trillion
powerful than any similar flare seen The study was precipitated by the miles from Earth — a team of as-
from the Sun. The flare, which is the serendipitous discovery of a flare tronomers observed the star for 40
largest ever recorded from the star, from Proxima Centauri in 2018 hours over the course of several
has revealed the inner workings of ALMA archival data. “We had never months in 2019 using nine telescopes
such events to astronomers, and seen an M dwarf flare at millimeter on the ground and in space.
could help to shape the hunt for life wavelengths before 2018, so it was In May 2019, Proxima Centauri
beyond the Solar System. not known whether there was cor- ejected a violent flare that lasted just
Stellar flares occur when the release responding emission at other wave- seven seconds, but generated a
of magnetic energy in stellar spots lengths,” said Meredith MacGregor, surge in both ultraviolet and mil-
explodes in an intense burst of elec- an assistant professor at the Center limeter wavelengths. The flare was
tromagnetic radiation that can be for Astrophysics and Space Astron- characterized by a strong, impulsive
observed across the entire electro- omy (CASA) and Department of As- spike never before seen at these
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 37
wavelengths. The event was recorded

A rtist’s conception of the violent stellar flare from Proxima
Centauri discovered by scientists in 2019 using nine tele-
scopes across the electromagnetic spectrum, including the Ata-
by five of the nine telescopes in-
volved in the study, including the
cama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Powerful Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in ul-
flares eject from Proxima Centauri with regularity, impacting traviolet, and ALMA in millimeter
the star’s planets almost daily. [NRAO/S. Dagnello] wavelengths.
“The star went from normal to 14,000
times brighter when seen in ultravio-
let wavelengths over the span of a
few seconds,” said MacGregor, adding
that similar behavior was captured in
millimeter wavelengths by ALMA at
the same time.
“In the past, we didn’t know that
stars could flare in the millimeter
range, so this is the first time we have
gone looking for millimeter flares,”
said MacGregor, adding that the new
observations could help researchers
gather more information about how
stars generate flares, which can have
an impact on nearby life.
Powerful flares from our Sun are un-
common, occurring only a few times
in a solar cycle. According to MacGre-
gor, that’s not the case on Proxima
Centauri. “Proxima Centauri’s planets
are getting hit by something like this
not once in a century, but at least
once a day, if not several times a
day,” said MacGregor. The star is
prominent in discussions surround-
ing the prospect for life around red
dwarf stars because of its proximity
to Earth, and because it is host to
Proxima Centauri b, a planet that re-
sides in the star’s habitable zone.
“If there was life on the planet near-
est to Proxima Centauri, it would
have to look very different than any-
thing on Earth,” MacGregor said. “A
human being on this planet would
have a bad time.”
Future observations will focus on un-
veiling the many secrets behind Prox-
ima Centauri’s flares in the hopes of
uncovering the internal mechanisms
that cause such powerful outbursts.
“We want to see what surprises this
star has in store for us to help us un-
derstand the physics of stellar flar-
ing,” said MacGregor. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
38 ASTRO PUBLISHING
Black hole pairs found

in distant merging
galaxies
A
stronomers have found two close
pairs of quasars in the distant Uni-
verse. Follow-up observations with
Gemini North spectroscopically resolved one
of the distant quasar pairs, after their discov-
ery with the Hubble Space Telescope and
Gaia spacecraft. These quasars are closer to-
gether than any pair of quasars found so far
away, providing strong evidence for the exis-
tence of supermassive black hole pairs as well
as crucial insight into galaxy mergers in the
early Universe. The quasars in each of the two
pairs are separated by just over 10,000 light-
years, suggesting that they belong to two
merging galaxies.
Double quasars are scientifically interesting
but rare objects — particularly in the most dis-
tant reaches of the Universe — and these are
the most distant quasars found that are so
close together. We see these quasar pairs as
they existed roughly 10 billion years ago. “We
estimate that in the distant Universe, for
A stronomers have discovered two pairs of

quasars in the distant Universe, about 10
billion light-years from Earth. In each pair, the
two quasars are separated by only about
10,000 light-years, making them closer to-
gether than any other double quasars found
so far away. The proximity of the quasars in
each pair suggests that they are located within
two merging galaxies. [International Gemini
Observatory/ NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva]
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 39
every one thousand quasars, there cores of distant galaxies, powered tion of merging galaxies. Quasar
is one double quasar. So finding by the feeding frenzies of super- pairs also provide a natural labora-
these double quasars is like finding massive black holes. These energetic tory in which to study the processes
a needle in a haystack,” commented objects profoundly affect galaxy leading to the formation of binary
Yue Shen, an astronomer at the Uni- formation and evolution, making supermassive black holes.
versity of Illinois and lead author of observations of quasar pairs in the “This truly is the first sample of dual
the paper announcing this discov- early Universe a unique way for as- quasars at the peak epoch of galaxy
ery. Quasars are the intensely bright tronomers to investigate the evolu- formation that we can use to probe
JULY-AUGUST 2021
40 ASTRO PUBLISHING
team. “This method unam-

biguously rejected interlopers
due to chance superpositions
such as from unassociated
star-quasar systems.”
While the team members are
confident in their discovery,
there is a small possibility that
they have actually observed
double images of single
quasars. These astronomical
doppelgängers can be formed
by gravitational lensing,
which occurs when an inter-
vening massive galaxy distorts
and splits the light from a dis-
tant object, often resulting in
multiple images of that ob-
ject. The researchers are con-
vinced that this is highly
C osmoView Episode 26: Black hole pairs found in distant merging galaxies. [Internatio-
nal Gemini Obs./NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/J. Pollard. Music: Stellardrone-Airglow] unlikely, however, as they
could not detect any fore-
ideas about how supermassive black scope, which visually resolved two ground galaxies in their observa-
holes come together to eventually quasar pairs, giving this novel tions. With their method success-
form a binary,” elaborated team method a success rate of 50%. fully demonstrated, the researchers
member Nadia Zakamska of Johns The team then used the Gemini now plan to search for more quasar
Hopkins University. Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) pairs, building up a census of double
Finding the two quasar pairs was a on Gemini North (located on Mau- quasars in the early Universe.
daunting challenge, requiring a new nakea in Hawai’i) to verify the dis- “This proof of concept really
method that combined data from covery and further investigate one demonstrates that our targeted
several space and ground-based tel- of the quasar pairs. The combina- search for dual quasars is very ef-
escopes, including the international tion of the sensitivity of GMOS and ficient,” concluded Hsiang-Chih
Gemini Observatory, a Program of superb observing conditions al- Hwang, a graduate student at John
NSF’s NOIRLab. Quasar pairs at such lowed the team to resolve individual Hopkins University and the princi-
large distances can only be resolved spectra from both quasars in the pal investigator of the Hubble ob-
by sharp-eyed telescopes such as pair. These spectra provided the servations. “It opens a new direction
Hubble or Gemini, but observing team with independent measure- where we can accumulate a lot
time on these telescopes is too valu- ments of the distance to the quasars more interesting systems to follow
able to use it to sweep through and their composition, as well as up, which astronomers weren’t able
large areas of the night sky in search confirming that the two quasars are to do with previous techniques or
of rare astronomical objects. indeed a pair rather than a chance datasets.”
To focus their search, the re- alignment of a single quasar with a “This exciting investigation illus-
searchers first identified 15 quasars foreground star. trates yet again the discovery poten-
for further investigation using the “The Gemini observations were crit- tial of combining archived survey
Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a three-di- ically important to our success be- data with new, focused observations
mensional map of objects in the cause they provided spatially re- from state-of-the-art facilities,” said
night sky. From this list of 15 solved spectra to yield redshifts and Martin Still, Gemini Program Officer
quasars, they then used observa- spectroscopic confirmations simulta- at NSF. “The international Gemini
tions from the Gaia spacecraft to neously for both quasars in a dou- Observatory proved to be the ideal
identify four potential quasar pairs. ble,” explained Yu-Ching Chen, a instrument to confirm the identity
Finally, these candidates were im- graduate student at the University of these black holes and character-
aged with the Hubble Space Tele- of Illinois who is on the discovery ize their environment.” !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
www.newmoontelescopes.com ryan@newmoontelescopes.com
42 ASTRO PUBLISHING
2I/Borisov may be the

most pristine comet
ever found
N
ew observations with the Eu- instrument on ESO’s VLT, located in
ropean Southern Observa- northern Chile, to study 2I/Borisov in
tory’s Very Large Telescope detail using a technique called po-
(ESO’s VLT) indicate that the rogue larimetry. Since this technique is reg-
comet 2I/Borisov, which is only the ularly used to study comets and
second and most recently detected other small bodies of our Solar Sys-
interstellar visitor to our Solar Sys- tem, this allowed the team to com-
tem, is one of the most pristine ever pare the interstellar visitor with our
observed. Astronomers suspect that local comets.
the comet most likely never passed The team found that 2I/Borisov has
close to a star, making it an undis- polarimetric properties distinct from
turbed relic of the cloud of gas and those of Solar System comets, with
dust it formed from. 2I/Borisov was the exception of Hale–Bopp. Comet
discovered by amateur astronomer Hale–Bopp received much public in-
Gennady Borisov in August 2019 and terest in the late 1990s as a result of
was confirmed to have come from being easily visible to the naked eye,
beyond the Solar System a few and also because it was one of the
weeks later. “2I/Borisov could repre- most pristine comets astronomers
sent the first truly pristine comet had ever seen. Prior to its most re-
ever observed,” says Stefano Bag- cent passage, Hale–Bopp is thought
nulo of the Armagh Observatory and to have passed by our Sun only once
Planetarium, Northern Ireland, UK, and had therefore barely been af-
who led the new study published in fected by solar wind and radiation.
Nature Communications. The team This means it was pristine, having a
believes that the comet had never
passed close to any star before it
composition very similar to that of
the cloud of gas and dust it — and
T his image shows an artist’s im-
pression of what the surface of
the 2I/Borisov comet might look like.
flew by the Sun in 2019. Bagnulo the rest of the Solar System — [ESO/M. Kormesser]
and his colleagues used the FORS2 formed from some 4.5 billion years
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 43
new study, agrees. “The main result

— that 2I/Borisov is not like any
other comet except Hale–Bopp — is
very strong,” he says, adding that “it
is very plausible they formed in very
similar conditions.”
“The arrival of 2I/Borisov from inter-
stellar space represented the first op-
portunity to study the composition of
a comet from another planetary sys-
tem and check if the material that
comes from this comet is somehow
different from our native variety,”
explains Ludmilla Kolokolova, of the
University of Maryland in the US,
who was involved in the Nature
similar suggests that the environ- Communications research. Bagnulo
ment in which 2I/Borisov originated hopes astronomers will have an-
is not so different in composition other, even better, opportunity to
ago. By analysing the polarisation to- from the environment in the early study a rogue comet in detail before
gether with the colour of the comet Solar System,” says Alberto Cellino, a the end of the decade. “ESA is plan-
to gather clues on its composition, co-author of the study, from the As- ning to launch Comet Interceptor in
the team concluded that 2I/Borisov is trophysical Observatory of Torino, 2029, which will have the capability
in fact even more pristine than Hale– National Institute for Astrophysics of reaching another visiting inter-
Bopp. This means it carries untar- (INAF), Italy. Olivier Hainaut, an as- stellar object, if one on a suitable tra-
nished signatures of the cloud of gas tronomer at ESO in Germany who jectory is discovered,” he says, refer-
and dust it formed from. “The fact studies comets and other near-Earth ring to an upcoming mission by the
that the two comets are remarkably objects but was not involved in this European Space Agency. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
Gemini North helps set

rotational speed limit
for brown dwarfs
JULY-AUGUST 2021
45
stars. They form like stars but are

less massive and more like giant
planets.
Tannock and Western University as-
tronomer Stanimir Metchev worked
with international collaborators to
find three rapidly rotating brown
dwarfs spinning around their axes
once every hour. This is approxi-
mately 10 times faster than normal,
and about 30 percent faster than
the most rapid rotations previously
measured in such objects.
The astronomers used large ground-
based telescopes, Gemini North in
Hawai‘i and Magellan Baade in
Chile, to confirm the rapid rotations.
They did this by measuring alter-
ations in the brown dwarfs’ light
caused by the Doppler effect and
using a computer model to match
those alterations to spin rates. The
researchers found that these brown
dwarfs spin with speeds of about
350,000 kilometers per hour (around
220,000 miles per hour) at their
equator, which is 10 times faster
than Jupiter.
“These unusual brown dwarfs are
B rown dwarfs are often called “failed stars.” They form like stars but are
not massive enough to fuse hydrogen into helium as stars do. More like
giant planets, brown dwarfs can often have storms in their atmospheres,
spinning at dizzying speeds,” said
Sandy Leggett, an astronomer at
Gemini North who studies brown
as depicted in this illustration. Astronomers have recently discovered three dwarfs. “At about 350,000 kilome-
brown dwarfs that spin faster than any other ever discovered. Each one ters per hour, the relatively weak
completes a single rotation in roughly an hour, about 10 times faster than gravity of the brown dwarfs is barely
normal. [NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva]
holding them together. This exciting
discovery by the Tannock team has
identified rotational limits beyond
T
hree brown dwarfs have been up the international Gemini Obser- which these objects may not exist.”
discovered spinning faster vatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The team first identified the rapid
than any other found before. “We seem to have come across a rotation rates by using NASA’s
Astronomers at Western University in speed limit on the rotation of brown Spitzer Space Telescope to measure
Canada first measured the rotation dwarfs,” said Megan Tannock, the how quickly the brightness of the
speeds of these brown dwarfs using Western University physics and as- objects varied. “Brown dwarfs, like
data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Tele- tronomy graduate student who led planets with atmospheres, can have
scope and confirmed them with fol- the discovery. “Despite extensive large weather storms that affect
low-up observations with the Gemini searches, by our own team and oth- their visible brightness,” explained
North telescope on Maunakea in ers, no brown dwarfs have been Metchev. “The observed brightness
Hawai‘i and the Carnegie Institution found to rotate any faster. In fact, variations show how frequently the
for Science’s Magellan Baade tele- faster spins may lead to a brown same storms are seen as the object
scope in Chile. Gemini North is one dwarf tearing itself apart.” spins, which reveals the brown
of the pair of telescopes that make Brown dwarfs are, simply put, failed dwarf’s spin period.” !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
46 ASTRO PUBLISHING
ALMA shows massive

young stars forming
in “chaotic mess”
by ALMA Observatory - Nicolás Lira
A
team of astronomers using — do stars much more massive than from their surrounding clouds of gas
the Atacama Large Millime- the Sun form in the same way as and dust in a relatively orderly man-
ter/submillimeter Array their smaller siblings? Young, still- ner. The incoming material forms a
(ALMA) has taken a big step toward forming stars similar in mass to the disk orbiting the young star and that
answering a longstanding question Sun are observed gaining material disk feeds the star at a pace it can di-
gest. Condensations
of material within
the disk form planets
that will remain after
the star’s growth
process is complete.
The disks are com-
monly seen around
young low-mass
stars, but have not
been found around
much more massive
stars in their forming
stages. Astronomers
questioned whether
the process for the
larger stars is simply
a scaled-up version
of that for the
smaller ones.
“Our ALMA observa-
tions now provide
compelling evidence
A rtist’s conception illustrates process seen in forming stars much more massive than the Sun. At
top left, material is being drawn into the young star through an orbiting disk which generates
a fast-moving jet of material outward. At top right, material begins coming in from another direc-
that the answer is
no,” said Ciriaco
Goddi, of Radboud
tion, and at bottom left, begins deforming the original disk until, at bottom right, the disk orienta-
tion − and the jet orientation − have changed. [Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF]
University Nijmegen
in the Netherlands.
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 47
Goddi led a team that used ALMA to study three high-

mass, very young stars in a star-forming region called
W51, about 17,000 light-years from Earth. They used
ALMA when its antennas were spread apart to their far-
thest extent, providing resolving power capable of mak-
ing images 10 times sharper than previous studies of such
objects.
They were looking for evidence of the large, stable disks
seen orbiting smaller young stars. Such disks propel fast-
moving jets of material outward perpendicular to the
plane of the disk.
“With ALMA’s great resolving power, we expected to fi-
nally see a disk. Instead, we found that the feeding zone
of these objects looks like a chaotic mess,” said Adam
Ginsburg of the University of Florida.
A LMA image of the chaotic scene around some massive

young protostars: W51e8 (above), W51e2 (right), W51n
(below). Grey shows dust close to the star, while the red
and blue indicate material in the jets moving rapidly out-
ward from the star. Red shows material moving away from
Earth and blue material moving toward Earth. [Goddi, Gins-
burg, et al., Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF]
The observations showed streamers of gas falling toward

the young stars from many different directions. Jets indi-
cated that there must be small disks that are yet unseen.
In one case, it appears that some event actually flipped a
disk about 100 years ago.
The researchers concluded that these massive young stars
form, at least in their very early stages, by drawing in ma-
terial from multiple directions and at unsteady rates, in
sharp contrast to the stable inflows seen in smaller stars.
The multiple channels of incoming material, the as-
tronomers said, probably prevent the formation of the
large, steady disks seen around smaller stars. “Such a ‘dis-
ordered infall’ model was first proposed based on com-
puter simulations, and we now have the first observational
evidence supporting that model,” Goddi said. !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
48 ASTRO PUBLISHING
Hubble watches how

a giant planet grows
by NASA/ESA - Bethany Downer
T his illustration of the newly forming exoplanet PDS 70b

shows how material may be falling onto the giant world as
it builds up mass. By employing Hubble’s ultraviolet light (UV)
sensitivity, researchers got a unique look at radiation from ex-
tremely hot gas falling onto the planet, allowing them to di-
rectly measure the planet’s mass growth rate for the first time.
[Science: McDonald Observatory–University of Texas, Yifan Zhou
(UT). Illustration: NASA, ESA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)]
JULY-AUGUST 2021
ASTRO PUBLISHING 49
N
ASA’s Hubble Space Telescope planet. Our results open up a new search, especially during a planet’s
is giving astronomers a rare area for this research.” formative years.
look at a Jupiter-sized, still- Though over 4,000 exoplanets have This huge exoplanet, designated
forming planet that is feeding off been cataloged so far, only about 15 PDS 70b, orbits the orange dwarf
material surrounding a young star. have been directly imaged to date star PDS 70, which is already known
“We just don’t know very much by telescopes. And the planets are so to have two actively forming planets
about how giant planets grow,” said far away and small, they are simply inside a huge disk of dust and gas
Brendan Bowler of the University of dots in the best photos. The team’s encircling the star. The system is lo-
Texas at Austin. “This planetary sys- fresh technique for using Hubble to cated 370 light-years from Earth in
tem gives us the first opportunity directly image this planet paves a the constellation Centaurus.
to witness material falling onto a new route for further exoplanet re- “This system is so exciting because
we can witness the formation of a
planet,” said Yifan Zhou, also of the
University of Texas at Austin. “This is
the youngest bona fide planet Hub-
ble has ever directly imaged.” At a
youthful 5 million years, the planet
is still gathering material and build-
ing up mass.
Hubble’s ultraviolet light (UV) sensi-
tivity offers a unique look at radia-
tion from extremely hot gas falling
onto the planet. “Hubble’s observa-
tions allowed us to estimate how
fast the planet is gaining mass,”
added Zhou.
The UV observations, which add to
the body of research about this
planet, allowed the team to directly
measure the planet’s mass growth
rate for the first time. The remote
world has already bulked up to five
times the mass of Jupiter over a pe-
riod of about 5 million years. The
present measured accretion rate has
dwindled to the point where, if the
rate remained steady for another
million years, the planet would only
increase by approximately and addi-
tional 1/100th of a Jupiter mass.
Zhou and Bowler emphasize that
these observations are a single snap-
shot in time – more data are re-
quired to determine if the rate at
which the planet is adding mass is
increasing or decreasing. “Our mea-
surements suggest that the planet
is in the tail end of its formation
process.”
The youthful PDS 70 system is filled
with a primordial gas-and-dust disk
that provides fuel to feed the growth
JULY-AUGUST 2021
50 ASTRO PUBLISHING
of planets throughout the

entire system. The planet
PDS 70b is encircled by its
T he European
Southern Ob-
servatory’s Very
own gas-and-dust disk that’s Large Telescope
siphoning material from the caught the first
vastly larger circumstellar clear image of a
disk. The researchers hypoth- forming planet,
esize that magnetic field PDS 70b, around
lines extend from its circum- a dwarf star in
planetary disk down to the 2018. The planet
exoplanet’s atmosphere and stands out as a
are funneling material onto bright point to
the planet’s surface. the right of the
center of the
“If this material follows
image, which is
columns from the disk onto
blacked out by
the planet, it would cause
the coronagraph
local hot spots,” Zhou ex- mask used to
plained. “These hot spots block the light of
could be at least 10 times the central star.
hotter than the temperature [ESO, VLT, André
of the planet.” These hot B. Müller (ESO)]
patches were found to glow
fiercely in UV light. These observa- moons would have also formed from the Sun, but its star is more than
tions offer insights into how gas leftovers in that disk. 3,000 times brighter than the planet
giant planets formed around our A challenge to the team was over- at UV wavelengths.
Sun 4.6 billion years ago. Jupiter may coming the glare of the parent star. As Zhou processed the images, he
have bulked up on a surrounding PDS 70b orbits at approximately the very carefully removed the star’s
disk of infalling material. Its major same distance as Uranus does from glare to leave behind only light emit-
ted by the planet. In
H ubble observations
pinpoint planet PDS
70b. A coronagraph on
doing so, he improved
the limit of how close a
planet can be to its star
Hubble’s camera blocks
in Hubble observations
out the glare of the cen-
tral star for the planet to
by a factor of five.
be directly observed. “Thirty-one years after
Though over 4,000 exo- launch, we’re still find-
planets have been cata- ing new ways to use
loged so far, only about Hubble,” Bowler added.
15 have been directly im- “Yifan’s observing strat-
aged to date by tele- egy and post-processing
scopes. The team’s fresh technique will open new
technique for using Hub- windows into studying
ble to directly image this similar systems, or even
planet paves a new route the same system, re-
for further exoplanet re- peatedly with Hubble.
search, especially during a With future observa-
planet’s formative years.
tions, we could poten-
[NASA, ESA, McDonald
tially discover when the
Observatory–University of
majority of the gas and
Texas, Yifan Zhou (UT).
Image processing: Joseph dust falls onto their
DePasquale (STScI)] planets and if it does so
at a constant rate.” !
JULY-AUGUST 2021
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cover EN.qxp_l'astrofilo 25/06/2021 10:28 Page 52
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Bi-monthly magazine of scientific and technical information ✶ July-August 2021

DAVINCI+ and VERITAS

Black hole pairs

• Hubble watches how a giant planet grows

Ichnoscale − the parameter

BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFIC

18 Powerful stratospheric winds measured on Jupiter

20 Hubble uncovers concentration of small

24 Ichnoscale − the parameter for technological

Internet Service Provider

42 2I/Borisov may be the most pristine comet

N ASA will send two new missions to Venus to

Frontiers them, in the often-cited words of

ment, while its VEM (Venus Emissiv-

surface undergoes physical and

N amed for visionary Renaissance

G reat detail shown in the Venu-

These tesserae are the most geolog-

N ASA Administrator Bill

at least 37 of the several

incident on Venus due to its closer

ALTAZIMUTH NEWTONIAN TELESCOPE

➤ SCHOTT Supremax 33 optics

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➤ useful diameter: 450 mm

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➤ primary mirror thickness: 35 mm

➤ minor axis secondary mirror: 100 mm

➤ axial cell cooling system

➤ multi-fan removal of the mirror surface boundary layer

➤ carbon truss with self-centering conical couplings

➤ lateral supports (six) designed for altazimuth instruments

phone +39 01599521

images by Massimo Vesnaver

The spiral of the

from Earth, meaning that we

own Milky Way, which has a

H ypothetical exoatmosphere polluted by

have followed an evolutionary path ready started with other purposes.

which defines the relative value of tifact currently present in Earth’s

of finding, in heliocentric orbit or on

T he open dome of the European

thoroughly studied. However, it is

dorsed International Aster-

T he black telescope structure of

to observe very faint objects. These

Stellar flare from

wavelengths. The event was recorded

Black hole pairs found

A stronomers have discovered two pairs of

team. “This method unam-

2I/Borisov may be the

new study, agrees. “The main result

Gemini North helps set

stars. They form like stars but are

ALMA shows massive

Goddi led a team that used ALMA to study three high-

A LMA image of the chaotic scene around some massive

The observations showed streamers of gas falling toward

Hubble watches how

T his illustration of the newly forming exoplanet PDS 70b