Highlights

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

The role of the Sun in the spread of viral respiratory diseases

ALMA shed light on the chemical composition of a protoplanetary disk

The team led by Linda Podio, a researcher at INAF, observed a protoplanetary disk of less than 1 million years, which is almost edge-on. The edge-on geometry allowed observing the vertical structure of the disk and to resolve distinct chemical layers. The images obtained thanks to ALMA revealed emission from several molecules. One of these is methanol, a key molecule for the formation of the so-called “complex organic molecules”

Prof. Nichi D'Amico, President of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics passed away at 67

From Raphael’s skies to the skies of the Third Millennium

When History of Art meets Astrophysics. Tuesday, September 1st 2020 at 7pm. Palazzo Ducale, Sala del Consiglio Maggiore. With Francesca Matteucci and Elizabeth Vermeer

Fermionic dark matter in our Galactic core?

Olivier Le Fevre - in memoriam

On June 25, the astronomer Olivier Le Fevre passed away

Magnetic tornadoes in the Sun’s atmosphere

A team of researchers led by Mariarita Murabito (INAF) that includes scientists of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Warwick University has provided the first observational proof that solar tornadoes are produced by swirling magnetic fields

Ultraviolet light vs. COVID19: from the Sun to artificial lamps the germicidal power of ultraviolet rays against the pandemic

Results of a study carried out by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the University of Milan, in collaboration with Istituto Nazionale Tumori and the Don Gnocchi Foundation of Milan, demonstrate the high germicidal power of short ultraviolet radiation (UV-C) on SARS-COV-2 coronavirus. This result has important public health implications on the strategies to be adopted to manage the pandemic and clearly explain how decontamination and sterilization protocols to prevent SARS-Cov-2 infection must be designed. Notably, taking off from these results a second study explains the role of Sun-derived UV-B/A in conditioning the epidemiology and the worldwide evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic

III Italy-Ukraine Scientific Meeting “Are We Alone in the Universe?”

A Virtual Conference on the Occasion of the Italian Research Day in the World

Roberto Peccei, 1942-2020

On June, the first, professor Roberto Peccei passed away

A farewell to BepiColombo after the flyby with the Earth

The picture was taken by Liverpool Telescope on the Canary Island of La Palma when the spacecraft was more than 2 million kilometres far from our planet

Unexpected magnetic channels in a distant galaxy

An international team of astronomers has uncovered unusual structures and a probable magnetic connection between the two lobes of the radio galaxy ESO 137-006 using the MeerKAT telescope, a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The study, led by Mpati Ramatsoku, was published in the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal

We’re all astronauts on a public health mission: Ten tips for completing the quarantine successfully

Debora Penco, Occupational psychologist, workplace health and safety expert, deals with the theme of our life in the times of quarantine and others ideas and suggestions to manage problems and tensions connected to it.

Where's there's one, there's one hundred more

PSO J030947.49+271757.31 is the most distant Blazar observed to date. The light we see from it began its journey when the Universe was less than 1 billion years old, almost 13 billion years ago. The blazar was discovered by a team of researchers led by Silvia Belladitta, a PhD student at the University of Insubria, working for the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Milan

The New Year’s Day meteorite has been found

For the first time in Italy a meteorite is recovered through systematic monitoring, thanks to the PRISMA network, promoted and coordinated by INAF

ASTRI: a new pathfinder of the arrays of Cherenkov telescopes

On June 12nd 2019, in La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain) Prof. Nichi D’Amico, President of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), and Prof. Rafael Rebolo Lopez, Director of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canaries, signed a Record of Understanding to enter a detailed negotiation on a technical and programmatic basis aimed to install and operate the ASTRI Mini-Array at the Observatorio del Teide