Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2014

There are also mega-Earths out there The growing zoo of extrasolar planets never ceases to amaze, as further confirmed by the recent discovery of an object that does not belong to any class of planets already known, since although not much larger than our Earth it is 17 times heavier. It could well be the first example of a large population of... page 28 SPHERE’s first light A powerful new instrument is about to be made available to that part of the astronomical community dealing with the study of planetary atmospheres and disks of gas and dust that surround young stars. At last it will now be possible to directly observe many extrasolar planets. page 20 ISSpresso, an Italian symbol in space As from next November it will be possible to savour a real Italian espresso also on the International Space Station. The coffee will be served by a machine called ISSpresso, spe- cifically designed and made by two Italian companies for operating in the absence of gravity. page 12 Double stars at the origin of magnetars There are neutron stars which magnetic field is so incredibly strong that they form a category of their own, the mag- netars. The partly mysterious origin of these extraordinary objects has now been revealed, thanks to the discovery of an anomalous runaway star that thousands of years ago... page 4 K2: Kepler is back in business The Kepler space telescope seemed no longer usable when, instead, one year after the well-known problems with gyro- scopes it has been redeployed – thanks to an ingenious solu- tion – in a series of observing campaigns which almost completely rewrite its mission. page 42 Illustris simulation of the universe The vision we have of the large cosmic structures corresponds to a still image that only allows us to suppose what kind of transformations we must have gone through to arrive at cer- tain situations. A new simulation of the universe now offers the possibility to virtually investigate with extraordinary... page 34 Editor in chief Michele Ferrara Scientific advisor Prof. Enrico Maria Corsini Publisher Astro Publishing di Pirlo L. Via Bonomelli, 106 25049 Iseo - BS - ITALY email info@astropublishing.com Internet Service Provider Aruba S.p.A. Loc. Palazzetto, 4 52011 Bibbiena - AR - ITALY Copyright All material in this magazine is, unless otherwise stated, property of Astro Publishing di Pirlo L. or included with permission of its author. Reproduction or retransmission of the materials, in whole or in part, in any manner, with- out the prior written consent of the copyright holder, is a violation of copyright law. A single copy of the materials available through this course may be made, solely for personal, non- commercial use. Users may not distrib- ute such copies to others, whether or not in electronic form, whether or not for a charge or other consideration, without prior written consent of the copyright holder of the materials. The publisher makes available itself with having rights for possible not characterized iconographic sources. Advertising - Administration Astro Publishing di Pirlo L. Via Bonomelli, 106 25049 Iseo - BS - ITALY email admin@astropublishing.com ASTROFILO l’ July-August 2014 BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION FREELY AVAILABLE THROUGH THE INTERNET English edition of the magazine S U M M A R Y Where not otherwise specified, all contributions have to be considered works by the team of the magazine l’Astrofilo. Contents subject to copyrights.