Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion Podcast February 11, 2020

In this week's episode of The Cosmic Companion, we look at how the smallest subatomic particles could be responsible for all the matter in the Universe, the icy heart of Pluto could control the climate on that world, an ancient galaxy is discovered that lived fast and died young, The CHEOPS Space Telescope takes its first image, and the Cocoon Galaxy is found to have a rare double core.<br/><br/>Video version of this podcast:<br/><br/>When matter first formed in the early Universe, theories suggest antimatter should have been created in the same, identical proportions. These two families of particles should have completely annihilated each other long ago, according to current theories. However, the Universe consists almost entirely of matter.<br/><br/>This may be explained if neutrinos, which only rarely interact with matter, <a href="https://medium.com/the-cosmic-companion/how-the-tiniest-particles-in-the-cosmos-saved-us-all-from-annihilation-7660a949d4c6?source=friends_link&#38;sk=f5fa97f8cfa40ad5e9bc3591d9fc1180">changed just one in a billion particles of antimatter into matter</a>, a new study suggests. This process may have produced gravitational waves which could be visible to a new generation of observatories. Finding such waves could prove this new theory, researchers suggest.---An artist's impression of CHEOPS in space. Image credit: ESA/ATG Media LabThe first space telescope from the European Space Agency dedicated to studying planets around other stars has <a href="https://medium.com/the-cosmic-companion/cheops-takes-its-first-image-of-the-universe-6ece8a839f20?source=friends_link&#38;sk=fd1d268092ee3a4dcfd2af2551125842">returned its first image</a>. The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite, or CHEOPS, was launched on December 18th, on a mission to study exoplanets discovered by other telescopes. This first image was created to test systems on the spacecraft and on the ground, and further testing on the orbiting observatory will the carried out over the course of the next two months.---A giant heart-shap