August 2013

Image showing the life cycle of a Sun-like star from its birth to its red giant stage (Image ESO/M. Kornmesser)

An international team led by Brazilian astronomers used ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to identify and study a star almost identical to the Sun that, however, is much older. This star, called HIP 102152 and about 250 light years away from Earth, is giving astronomers a chance to see the possible future of the Sun but also to solve the mystery of its lithium content.

Bruce Murray when he worked at the JPL (Photo NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Yesterday the geologist and planetary scientist Bruce Murray died. He was director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and one of the founders of the Planetary Society. Born on November 30, 1931, he earned a Ph.D. in geology at MIT and gave a huge contribution to several space missions such as some of the Mariner series and the Voyager 1 and 2.

Mosaic of images taken by the Mars Rover Curiosity (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The Mars Rover Curiosity started using for the first time its software for the autonomous navigation, or autonav. It allows the rover to decide on its own where to go while maintaining its security. In this case, when it uses it it will decide which detours it will take to get to Mount Sharp, the final destination of its mission.
During this month, the Mars Rover Curiosity has also kept on taking photographs not only of Mars but also of its sky. In particular, on August 17 it used its Mast Camera (MastCam) to take a series of photographs of a solar eclipse in which Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, has moved completely in front of the Sun.

James Blake at the Estoril Open 2009

The American tennis player James Blake (photo ©José Goulão) announced that the U.S. Open would be his last tournament and a few hours ago he ended his career in professional tennis after losing in the first round of that tournament. During his career, James Blake won a number of tournaments and reached no. 4 in the world ranking.

Following a class action, the U.S. federal judge Richard Seeborg ruled that Facebook will pay a total of $20 million to compensate a group of users. Their faces were used without their consent as testimonials of the advertising program “Sponsor stories” in 2011. However, in the end each of the 614,000 users who entered the class action will receive $15 only.