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Jupiter is the fifth planet of the Solar System  in order of distance from the Sun, and the largest of the whole Solar System: its mass is twice and a half the sum of the masses of all the other planets together! Jupiter is classified as a gaseous planet, namely mainly composed of gas. Its huge atmosphere is characterized by several bands, inside which we can observe the presence of numerous storms. Among them, the Big Red Spot stands out, an anticyclonic storms which has been going on for at least 300 years! HereLEGGI TUTTO

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On February 18, 2021, shortly before 10 pm Italian time, Perseverance – the rover of the Nasa Mars 2020 mission – landed successfully on the surface of Mars. While humankind waited, breathless, imagining the ground of the red Planet quickly approaching the rover, something looked upwards, towards the sky covered by the large parachute. At first, nobody noticed, engrossed by the sand lifting up all around the rover, the stones, the pictures which Perseverance immediately gave us. However, within a few hours, someone went to review the images, and looking at the openLEGGI TUTTO

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On November 16, 1974, from the radiotelescope of Arecibo, a peculiar radio message was sent out into space, towards the Hercules Globular Cluster, 25 thousand year-lights away from the Earth. The message was composed of 1679 binary digits (zero and one), one after the other. Why 1679? This number is the product of two prime numbers: 23 and 73. In this way, supposing that anyone receving it decides to order it in a quadrilateral, he/she will only be able to do this by ordering it in 23 lines and 73 columns, or 73 lines and 23LEGGI TUTTO

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On  April 10, 2019, the researchers of the Event Horizon Telescope revealed to humankind the first image ever obtained of a  supermassive black hole, a black hole much more massive of normal stellar black holes. The image uncovers the black hole at the centre of a huge galaxy in the nearby  Virgo cluster, Messier 87. This black hole is 55 millions light-years away from us, and a mass of 6.5 and a half billions times the one of the Sun. Black holes are extremely compact objects, in which an incredible quantityLEGGI TUTTO

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Venus is the second planet of the Solar System in order of distance from the Sun, which takes its name from the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is also defined as the Earth’s “twin planet” because it has a mass and a a dimension which is very similar to our planet. However, its atmosphere is very different, since it is mainly constituted by carbon dioxide and is much thicker than our own. Because of these features, the ground pressure is about 90 times the Earth’s own pressure. Moreover, there isLEGGI TUTTO

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Mercury is the Latin name of the Greek god Ermes, the messaenger of the goods, well-known, among other things, for his speed. That is why motivo the ancient Romans gave its name to the planet which moves more quickly than any other in the sky.  The planet Mercury goes along its orbit around the Sun in just 88 days, and it is the swiftest of the Solar System. This is due to its position, very near to our star: indeed, it is the first planet in order of distance from the Sun.LEGGI TUTTO

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The Earth is the only planet of the Solar System which hosta life.  What does it make such a special planet? There are several features which make our planet suitable to life, but there are two main ones. First of all, it lies in the so-called habitable zone, the region around a star (indicated in green in the imagine aside) where it is theoretically possible for a planet to maintain clear water on its surface. The planets beyond the habitable zone have too low a temperature, therefore water – it present – isLEGGI TUTTO

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Mars is the fourth planet of the Solar System in order of distance from the Sun, and the last of the earthly planets, after Mercury, Venus and the Earth. It was also called the red Planet because of its characteristic colour, caused by the huge quantity of  oiron oxide which covers it. Upon its surface, we can see mountains, valleys, canyons, deserts and volcanoes. Its atmosphere is rarefied, its pressure is very low (1/10 of the terrestrial one). The temperature goes from -140 °C to 20 °C: it is not so bad! On the poles,LEGGI TUTTO

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Exploring the Solar System has never been so easy and amusing. With this activity, you will realize an interactive panel  in which you will introduce the planets of the Solar System, the Sun, the Moon and the main belt of asteroids, which is placed between Mars and Jupiter. In order to realize this activity, you need: 1 cardboard panel, A1 format 1 black cardboard A1 format 2  Makey Makey kits 1 microphone (even the one of earphones is ok) Scratch   Makey Makey is a kit which can make common-useLEGGI TUTTO

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Blu is a small, very curious … Extraterrestrial creature, you will call him. Indeed, he comes from a very distant planet, a very small planet, lost in our Galaxy, which you won’t find in any map. Blu gets bored in his bleak little planet, so he decides to leave to explore space, to try and understand the surronding world. So start the adventures of Blu, the guide-character created in 2018 for INAF Astronomical Observatory of Cagliari by the researcher Silvia Casu and the instructional designer Alessia Luca, experienced in new educational technologies, and designed by the skillful pencilLEGGI TUTTO

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In 1995 two astronomers, Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz, detected around the star 51 Pegasi the first extrasolar planet, 51 Pegasi b. This is a giant gaseous planet, with dimensions similar to Jupiter, orbiting around a Sun-like star. Sofar, almost 4000 extrasolar planet have been discovered, and their number is costantly increasing. The refinement of observational methods and the development of space missions make the search for exoplanets – in particular of those which might have suitable conditions for hosting forms of life – one of the most exciting topics of astronomy. Most extrasolar planest weLEGGI TUTTO

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High-mass starts end their life with catastrophic explosions known as Supernovae (SN). What is left of these dramatic space explosions are called Supernova Remnants (SNR), composed of dust and gas. Cassiopeia A  is one of the most known and studied Supernovae of our Galaxy. Cassiopeia originated from an explosion occurred about 11.000 years ago. Only recently did its ligh reach the Earth. Indeed, nowadays we observe the Supernova Remnant as it appeared about 350 years after the explosion of the Supernova. Supernovae explosions are very important for the evolution ofLEGGI TUTTO