King's Lynn and District Astronomy Society

Promoting astronomy for all ages across West Norfolk

The quest for organic molecules on the surface of Comet 67P/C-G

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For scientists engaged with large complex projects like Rosetta, there is always a delightful period early on when, unbound by practical realities, it is possible to dream. And so it was that at one time the scientists were thinking about having a lander with the capability to hop around a comet’s surface. In this way it would be possible to make measurements from different parts of the comet.

Interestingly, this unplanned opportunity presented itself on 12 No-vember 2014, when Philae landed not once but three times on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The Ptolemy instrument on Philae is a compact mass spectrometer designed to measure the composition of the materials making up 67P/C-G, with a particular focus on organic molecules and mineral compo-nents. Earlier in 2014, Ptolemy had collected data at distances of 15,000, 13,000, 30, 20, and 10 km from the comet, while Philae was still attached to Rosetta.

This short excerpt is from an ESA blog from the Ptolemy team, you can read more at the following link.

Supermassive Black Holes Even Heavier Than Thought

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The enormous black holes that lurk at the hearts of all galaxies are significantly bigger than astronomers had imagined, a new study suggests.
Researchers have used a new method to measure the distance to the active spiral galaxy NGC 4151 — whose core is dubbed the “Eye of Sauron” because of its resemblance to the structure in the “Lord of the Rings” films — with unprecedented precision. This calculation enabled them to determine the mass of NGC 4151’s central black hole more accurately — and the results were surprising.

This is an excerpt from Space.com, you can read the full article at this link