The Event Horizon Telescope reveals unexpected structures in quasar 3C279

The collaboration of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a planetary scale telescope that took the first image of a black hole, continues to extract information from the data collected in its global campaign in April 2017. The objective of the observations in this case it was quasar 3C 279, an active galaxy that contains a supermassive black hole at its core that absorbs matter through a disk and, at the same time, expels part of the gas through two fine jets that emerge from the poles almost to the speed of light.

The merger of two galaxies generates the juvenile version of a blazar, one of the most energetic objects known

Blazars are the most powerful sources of continuous radiation in the universe. Like the rest of the active galaxies, they show a structure formed by a central supermassive black hole surrounded by a disk of matter that feeds it, but they are among the 10% of active galaxies that have a jet of matter that emerges from both poles at very high speed, and among the even smaller percentage of cases in which its orientation allows us to see the jet almost head-on.

A companion star: possible origin of the complex shapes of planetary nebulae

The Sun, with an approximate age of four thousand five hundred million years, is currently in the middle of its life. In another five billion years, its size will almost reach Mars' orbit, it will eject its outer layers and become a planetary nebula. Although around 99% of the stars in the universe will end their lives in this way, the origin of the beautiful morphologies that these objects present is still unknown.

The metamorphosis of a star in the final phases of its life

All stars with a mass less than eight times that of the Sun will end their life as planetary nebulae, formed by a white dwarf star -the "peeled" core the star after the expulsion of its outer layers- surrounded by a fluorescent envelope. These nebulae may have spherical, bipolar or complex shapes, but it is still unknown why one form or another develops. Now, an international group of astronomers has observed an old star, the red giant W43A, in the process of metamorphosis into planetary nebula, a key moment in the life of low-mass stars.

A thesis developed at the IAA is awarded the 2020 MERAC 2020 in new technologies (Instrumental)

FONDATION MERAC (Mobilising European Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology) and the European Astronomical Society (EAS) awards biyearly the MERAC prize to the best thesis developed in Europe, an award that seeks to promote innovative research in astrophysics and cosmology and support young researchers. The prize, 25,000 euros, in the category of New Technologies, Instrumental, has been awarded in 2020 to the thesis of Concepción Cárdenas "PANIC, a large field infrared camera for Calar Alto", developed at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).

A more sustainable observatory: Calar Alto will be converted into an “energy island”

MEGARA instrument enters the heart of the active galaxy NGC 7469

Active galaxy nuclei are among the most energetic objects in the universe, and can continuously emit more than a hundred times the energy of all the stars in a galaxy like ours. Their brightness is attributed to the existence of a supermassive black hole surrounded by a disk of matter that feeds it, but the phenomenon of nuclear activity still raises many questions. The MEGARA instrument, designed to solve hitherto unresolved scientific problems, has just revealed new structures in the regions near the active nuclei of NGC 7469.

Astronomers get the whole film of how a black hole ejects matter and interacts with the medium

A study reveals what the seeds of the solid bodies of the Solar System looked like: porous dust particles a few millimetres long

We know that all solid bodies in the universe, whether planets, comets or asteroids, are formed from small to large: tiny particles of dust add up to larger and larger objects. But how were the seeds with which the process began, and that billions of years later gave rise to the Moon, Venus, or the ground we step on? The answer can be found in comets, which constitute the least processed objects in the Solar System and, therefore, are witnesses of what the early solar nebula was like.