Events

M87'S POWERFUL JET UNLEASHES RARE GAMMA-RAY FLARE

It is the first very high-energy flaring episode recorded from M87 since 2010. The data were collected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration during a multi-wavelength observational campaign in 2018, using numerous orbiting telescopes such as NASA's Fermi, HST, NuSTAR, Chandra, and Swift, along with three of the largest Cherenkov telescopes: H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS

The first 3D view of the formation and evolution of globular clusters

A study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics marks a significant milestone in our understanding of the formation and dynamical evolution of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters

FATE: forecasting optical turbulence to push the Very Large Telescope to its full potential

The FATE project began in November 2022 and entered the commissioning phase in September - December 2023. Once completed, it will enter in the operational phase in which ESO will be able to optimise observing strategies for the VLT and start planning those for ELT

MeerKAT+: the MeerKAT Extension

The handover of the first dish of the MeerKAT extension signals an important milestone for the SKA-MID construction

The first discoveries of the Webb space telescope in Rome: public lecture on 29 February

On Thursday 29 February at 6 pm, Prof. Roberto Maiolino of the University of Cambridge (UK) will hold a public lecture on the theme "The invisible Universe revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope" at the Department of Physics of Sapienza University of Rome

The AGILE satellite re-entered the atmosphere

After 17 years of thriving operations, the AGILE Italian scientific satellite re-entered the atmosphere, thus ending its intense activity as a hunter of some of the most energetic cosmic sources in the Universe that emit gamma and X-rays

The National Institute for Astrophysics at the forefront of solar storm forecasting

The tool, developed by the INAF-Turin Astrophysical Observatory in collaboration with ALTEC and the University of Genoa, allowed accurate detection of the November 5 CME about 9 hours before the onset of the geomagnetic storm

SWIFT: THE MOST BRILLIANT GRB DETECTED IN OPTICAL

A team of researchers has observed the very first stages of a gamma-ray burst (GRB), which turned out to be the brightest in the optical bands detected until now

JUICE: MAJIS COMPLETED COMMISSIONING IN FLIGHT

Among the remote sensing instruments on board the ESA JUICE spacecraft, as for JANUS, RIME and 3GM - all built with funding from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) - MAJIS was also successfully turned on and tested in orbit (commissioning phase): both channels proved to work very well

JUICE: JANUS SENT ITS FIRST IMAGES ACQUIRED IN SPACE

The instrument Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator (JANUS) passed the commissioning phase with full marks. It is a real test during which - 8 million km from the Earth - it opened its electronic "eyes", sending the so-called "first light", i.e. his first series of images, to the technicians and researchers

Stellar evolution along the HR diagram with Gaia

The hybrid workshop started its activities in the INAF National Auditorium “Ernesto Capocci” of the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory in Naples

Announcing the new Director of the Large Binocular Telescope

The Large Binocular Telescope Observatory, one of the largest and most advanced optical telescopes in the world, is proud to announce the appointment of its new Director, Prof. Joseph Shields, who will assume the position effective June 06, 2022

The operational phase begins for the CUBES spectrograph

The operational phase begins for the CUBES (Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph) project, an innovative ultraviolet spectrograph to be installed on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile

The long journey of human missions to Mars and back to Earth

The Embassy of Italy, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney and the Australian Academy of Science, invites you to an Italian Night with Five Southern Stars!

The best place and time to live in the Milky Way

More than 6 billion years ago, the outskirts of the Milky Way were the safest places for the development of possible life forms, sheltered from the most violent explosions in the universe: gamma-ray bursts and supernovae. This is demonstrated by a new study, led by researchers from INAF and the University of Insubria in Italy, which investigates the incidence of these events throughout the evolution of our galaxy

Magnetic anomalies on the young craters of Mercury

It is possible to find a point of convergence between geophysics and planetary geology, and a group of researchers led by Valentina Galluzzi from INAF did so by analyzing the crustal magnetic field of the planet Mercury, focusing on some anomalies identified nearby two recently formed craters

A “cosmic microscope” reveals the origin of galactic winds produced by supermassive black holes

By studying a sample of distant galaxies, whose light reaches us from a cosmic epoch when the Universe was just three billion years old, a team of researchers led by Giustina Vietri (INAF) has followed the winds blowing in “active” galaxies down to only a few light-years from the supermassive black holes that sit in the galactic cores

INAF joins the MeerKAT+ Project

The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft welcome the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica as partner on the MeerKAT extension project

A new class of Einstein crosses unveiled

An international team of astronomers has found a new class of Einstein crosses, where massive elliptical galaxies produces multiple, cross-shaped images of far away galaxies called “blue nuggets”

VST beyond 2021

From Apr 2022 the INAF-ESO agreement for the VST operations in Paranal will expire, and INAF will gain full ownership of the telescope. To explore the various options, INAF has appointed a working group to review the scientific potential of the VST telescope and to present to the INAF management the potential options on the future of telecope operations