LINGUAGGIO MACCHINA

The stellar environment of the Solar System at its birth is not yet fully known , as it has accomplished 20 revolutions around the galactic centre since its formation 4.5 billion years ago.  Matthieu Gounelle (Laboratoire de Minéralogie et Cosmochimie du Muséum National d'Histoire naturelle/CNRS) and Georges Meynet (Observatoire de Genève) established the Solar System genealogy thanx to a radioactive element, 26Al, which was present in the nascent Solar System.  Their results are published this week in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The authors of this paper show that the parent massive star (name proposed: Coatlicue, from the Sun's mother in the Aztec cosmogony) and which is roughly 30 times more massive than our Sun, they was born with roughly 2000 stars. The star Coatlicue died in a supernova explosion. The authors show that the parent massive star, which they propose to call Coatlicue (the Sun's mother in the Aztec cosmogony), and which is ro...

Sardinia Radio Telescope today SRT official page

The Cagliari Astronomical Observatory , with the help of Autonomous Region of Sardinia and Italian Space Agency , organises the first cycle of the annual sardinian Summer School in Astrophysics . This year's topic will be single dish radio astronomy and radio science. The school will cover basics of radioastronomy and radio science, technology, science with single-dish observations, radar and probes tracking. Lectures and hands on activities are planned at the Parco Tecnologico della Sardegna (Sardinia's Technological Park) near Pula (40 km from Cagliari), from September 12 to 17 , just after the ERIS school on interferometric radio astronomy. Participants will also visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope. Part of the travel expenses to get from the ERIS school in Rimini to the single-dish school may be covered by special grants. Students from abroad can apply for financial grants. Application deadline: 15 June 2011 . For more information: school11@oa-cagliari.inaf.it Official sit...

La scoperta, a 3000 anni luce dalla Terra, della stella di neutroni più pesante mai osservata, costringerà a rivedere alcuni modelli teorici sulla composizione interna di questo tipo di corpi celesti. La ricerca, pubblicata su “Nature”, è frutto delle osservazioni condotte da un gruppo di ricerca statunitense guidato dall'astrofisico Paul Demorest, del National Radio Astronomy Observatory di Charlottesville, in Virginia. La stella fa parte di un sistema binario denominato PSR J1614-2230 formato da una stella di neutroni e da una nana bianca.  Le stelle di neutroni si formano durante le fasi finali dell'evoluzione di una stella con massa doppia o tripla rispetto a quella del Sole. Dopo aver esaurito il combustibile nucleare, la stella si contrae bruscamente, sotto la propria spinta gravitazionale, mentre gli strati esterni si espandono. Il collasso è così violento che all'interno della stella di neutroni i nuclei atomici si sgretolano e i protoni si fondono con gli elettroni...

20 December 2007, Paris: Early this morning (CET) the United Nations (UN) 62nd General Assembly proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy. The Resolution was submitted by Italy, Galileo Galilei's home country. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is an initiative of the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) celebrates the first astronomical use of the telescope by Galileo – a momentous event that initiated 400 years of astronomical discoveries and triggered a scientific revolution which profoundly affected our worldview. Now telescopes on the ground and in space explore the Universe, 24 hours a day, across all wavelengths of light. The President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Catherine Cesarsky says: "The International Year of Astronomy 2009 gives all nations a chance to participate in this ongoing exciting scientific and technological revolution." For more information on the Internat...