Water plays a fundamental role in the formation of planets and their atmospheres. Far-infrared observations with the Herschel Space Observatory revealed a surprisingly low abundance of cold-water reservoirs in protoplanetary discs. On the other hand, a handful of discs show emission of hot water transitions excited at temperatures above a few hundred Kelvin. In particular, the protoplanetary discs around the Herbig Ae stars HD 100546 and HD 163296 show opposite trends in terms of cold versus hot water emission: in the first case, the ground-state transitions are detected and the high-J lines are undetected, while the trend is opposite in HD 163296. As the different transitions arise from different regions of the disc, it is possible to address the overall distribution of water molecules throughout the disc. We performed a detailed spectral analysis using the thermo-chemical model DALI. We find that HD 163296 is characterised by a water-rich (abundance ≳10⁻⁵) hot inner disc (within the snow line) and a water-poor (<10⁻¹⁰) outer disc: the relative abundance of water molecules in the hot inner region may be due to the thermal desorption of icy grains that have migrated inward. Remarkably, the size of the H₂O emitting region corresponds to a narrow dust gap visible in the millmeter continuum at r = 10 au observed with the Atacama Large Milµmetre Array (ALMA). This spatial coincidence may be due to pebble growth at the border of the snow line. The low-J lines detected in HD 100546 instead imply an abundance of a few 10⁻⁹ in the cold outer disc (>40 au). The emitting region of the cold H₂O transitions is spatially coincident with that of the H₂O ice previously seen in the near-infrared. Notably, milµmetre observations with ALMA reveal the presence of a large dust gap between nearly 40 and 150 au, likely opened by a massive embedded protoplanet. In both discs, we find that the warm molecular layer in the outer region (beyond the snow line) is highly depleted of water molecules, implying an oxygen-poor chemical composition of the gas. We speculate that gas-phase oxygen in the outer disc is readily depleted and its distribution in the disc is tightly coupled to the dynamics of the dust grains....

The total deuterium abundance [D/H] in the universe is set by just two processes: the creation of deuterium in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis at an abundance of [D/H]$=2.58\pm0.13\times10^{-5}$, and its destruction within stellar interiors. Measurements of the total [D/H] abundance can potentially provide a probe of Galactic chemical evolution, however, most measurements of [D/H] are only sensitive to the gas-phase deuterium, and the amount of deuterium sequestered in carbonaceous dust grains is debated. With the launch of JWST, it is now possible to measure the gas-phase [D/H] at unprecedented sensitivity and distances through observation of mid-IR lines of H$_2$ and HD. We employ data from the JWST Observations of Young protoStars (JOYS) program to measure the gas-phase [D/H] abundance with a rotation diagram analysis towards 5 nearby low-mass and 5 distant high-mass protostellar outflows. The gas-phase [D/H] varies between low-mass sources by up to a factor of $\sim4$, despite these sources likely having formed in a region of the Galactic disk that would be expected to have nearly constant total [D/H]. Most measurements of gas-phase [D/H] from our work or previous studies produce [D/H] $\lesssim 1.0\times10^{-5}$, a factor of $2-4$ lower than found from local UV absorption lines and as expected from Galactic chemical evolution models. The variations in [D/H] between our low-mass sources and the low [D/H] with respect to Galactic chemical evolution models suggest that our observations are not sensitive to the total [D/H]. Significant depletion of deuterium onto carbonaceous dust grains is a possible explanation, and tentative evidence of enhanced [D/H] towards shock positions with higher gas-phase Fe abundance is seen in the HH 211 outflow. Deeper observations of HD and H$_2$ in shocked environments and modelling of dust-grain destruction are warranted to test for the effects of depletion.

The study of quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) in X-ray binaries provides valuable insights into the physics of accretion around compact objects. The M82 galaxy hosts multiple ultraluminous X-ray sources, including two prominent ones—X-1 and X-2—where X-1 is suspected to harbor an intermediate-mass black hole. In this work, we analyze data from 39 NuSTAR observations acquired between 2014 and 2024 to investigate the aperiodic X-ray variability in M82. In particular, we study in detail the evolution of the QPOs from M82 X-1 in the range 20–300 mHz. We do not find additional timing features in the data, besides a frequently present broad noise component at lower frequencies. The QPO behaves similarly to other classes of low-frequency oscillations in accreting compact objects, both black holes and neutron stars.

We present new JWST observations of the nearby, prototypical edge-on, spiral galaxy NGC 891. The northern half of the disk was observed with NIRCam in its F150W and F277W filters. Absorption is clearly visible in the mid-plane of the F150W image, along with vertical dusty plumes that closely resemble the ones seen in the optical. A ∼10 × 3 kpc² area of the lower circumgalactic medium (CGM) was mapped with MIRI F770W at 12 pc scales. Thanks to the sensitivity and resolution of JWST, we detect dust emission out to ∼4 kpc from the disk, in the form of filaments, arcs, and super-bubbles. Some of these filaments can be traced back to regions with recent star formation activity, suggesting that feedback-driven galactic winds play an important role in regulating baryonic cycling. The presence of dust at these altitudes raises questions about the transport mechanisms at play and suggests that small dust grains are able to survive for several tens of million years after having been ejected by galactic winds in the disk-halo interface. We lay out several scenarios that could explain this emission: dust grains may be shielded in the outer layers of cool dense clouds expelled from the galaxy disk, and/or the emission comes from the mixing layers around these cool clumps where material from the hot gas is able to cool down and mix with these cool cloudlets. This first set of data and upcoming spectroscopy will be very helpful to understand the survival of dust grains in energetic environments, and their contribution to recycling baryonic material in the mid-plane of galaxies....

Favorire un approccio STEM è una delle priorità delle politiche europee degli ultimi anni, dovendo far fronte alla carenza di qualifiche e competenze in queste discipline. Questo approccio è fortemente incentivato anche dalle Linee Guida del Ministero dell’Istruzione e del Merito, adottate con il D.M. n. 184 del 15.9.2023, rivolte a tutti gli Istituti scolastici di ogni ordine e grado, al fine di introdurre nel PTOF (Piano Triennale dell’Offerta Formativa) azioni atte a potenziare le competenze matematico-scientifico-tecnologico cercando di appassionare alle materie scientifiche gli studenti fin dalla Scuola dell’Infanzia. Nell’ambito della realizzazione di attività di disseminazione e educative che consentano di sviluppare la passione verso le discipline scientifiche, risulta necessario progettare esperienze e laboratori con contenuti specifici adatti per un target d'età prescolare come quello della scuola d’infanzia. Il presente report riporta la progettazione e realizzazione di un laboratorio didattico con più attività, realizzato in occasione della visita all’INAF-Osservatorio di Padova di una scuola d’infanzia di Padova, con particolare riferimento alle attività progettate per il gruppo di bambine e bambini di età 4-5 anni.

Dal 5 dicembre 2019 OA@INAF è aperto all'immissione dei RAPPORTI TECNICI. Prima di fare una submission o una review si prega di seguire attentamente le istruzioni riportate nel Manuale d'uso per l'inserimento dei rapporti tecnici in OA@INAF [versione aggiornata al 24.5.2021].
Dal 24 febbraio 2020 i ricercatori possono inserire i prodotti della ricerca. Prima di procedere, si raccomanda un'attenta lettura delle Istruzioni per l'inserimento dei prodotti della ricerca nel repository OA@INAF [versione aggiornata al 15.5.2020].

A causa di un bug di ADS che espone una lista di autori e una di ORCID non coerenti fra loro, il recupero delle pubblicazioni e il loro legame con gli autori non è possibile. Pertanto, fino a risoluzione del bug, il pregresso (fino al 2014) non sarà più importato come inizialmente previsto.

Le pubblicazioni indicizzate in ADS dal 2015 al 2019 verranno recuperate a blocchi di anni. I ricercatori troveranno nel workspace le submissions da completare con i metadati mancanti e il full text. Perché questo sia possibile, è necessario aver fatto il claim delle pubblicazioni in ADS con il proprio ORCID. Chi non ha fatto il claim non troverà nulla.. Per gli anni dal 2016 in poi le submissions da completare andranno a finire solo nel workspace del primo autore INAF, a cui spetterà il compito di completare l'inserimento nel repository.

Ciò che non è indicizzato in ADS o non viene recuperato a causa del bug potrà essere inserito nel modo semi-automatico, con ricerca per ID (DOI, ORCID, ADSBibCode).

Il repository inserisce automaticamente tutte le pubblicazioni presenti nel SitoDocente che ciascuno ha in LoginMIUR. Perché possano essere prese in considerazione per la VQR 2015-2019 è necessario, al momento del caricamento del full text, selezionare SI nel menu a discesa in corrispondenza dell'etichetta MIUR