2024 – BASF’s Monomers division announced a production capacity increase for sodium methylate at its latest customer event in Guaratinguetá the company increased the nameplate capacity of its sodium methylate plant in Guaratinguetá Brazil to 90,000 metric tons per year BASF shared with customers local initiatives from its Guaratinguetá production site as well as its perspective for the sodium methylate production Ramkumar Dhruva underlined the strategic value of the expansion: “This capacity increase is another step of our business expansion for sodium methylate in the South American region and underlines our commitment to our customers and the South American biodiesel market we will continue our way to create sustainable value for the region.”   “I am very happy to celebrate this important expansion together with our customers and I am looking forward to continuing to develop innovative solutions for the region together” “With sustainability in the minds of more and more organizations within South America we see the market for biodiesel quickly expanding We want to help our customers to grow their business while lowering their environmental impact we ensure the continuous supply of sodium methylate.” During the customer event participants had the opportunity to tour the site and learn about the Guaratinguetá Chemical Complex the site is home for 12 other production plants ranging over more than 1,500 solutions and products Brazil is one of the world leaders in the use and production of biofuels Its development has been leveraged by the established legislations to mix a percentage of biodiesel with petroleum diesel not only promoting productivity and more sustainability in heavy duty transport but also helping different regions to create more economic opportunities for local citizens and companies Sodium methylate is an efficient and reliable catalyst that provides a more sustainable solution for the production and use of biodiesel meeting the requirements of engine manufacturers for high-quality fuels and lower emissions Sodium methylate supports higher yields and low preparation cost for biodiesel This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Text description provided by the architects. The ceramic was the starting point of this project. Widely used as covering on façades, floors and walls, the ceramic allowed to explore many textures and different characteristics in each situation that it was employed. On the façade, the first volume is coated with light bricks and contrast with the higher volume with dark bricks. A composition of three staggered volumes allowed the facades a volumetry that softens how tal the residence is. © André MortattiLarge-format porcelain tiles cover all rooms floors. To ensure the integration of the rooms, there is no material transition between them, kitchen and veranda. A porcelain tile was chosen to allow the use of polished surface pieces in the internal rooms and pieces with natural surfaces on the gourmet terrace. © André MortattiThe two floors are connected by a monumental staircase in concrete with cantilevered steps of 1.40 m Entirely coated with a combination of white and black marbled porcelain tiles the staircase is a major highlight in this project You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email BASF is investing $67 million to expand its crop protection chemical plant in Guaratinguetá the company will expand a plant making boscalid an active ingredient that fights diseases in crops such as canola It will build a formulation plant for Xemium a carboxamide-based fungicide for soybeans and other crops And it will erect a formulation plant for Heat The latter two initiatives will be completed next year ACS’s Basic Package keeps you connected with C&EN and ACS $80 Regular Members & Society Affiliates ACS’s Standard Package lets you stay up to date with C&EN ACS’s Premium Package gives you full access to C&EN and everything the ACS Community has to offer BASF is investing $67 million to expand its crop protection chemical plant in Guaratinguetá This article has been sent to the following recipient: Sign up for C&EN's must-read weekly newsletter Copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society entered a new partnership with PTI Technologies Inc. California (USA) and signed a contract to become the supplier of hydraulic manifolds for Embraer’s latest aircraft Liebherr Aerospace Brasil welcomed several PTI senior leaders to its facility in Guaratingueta (Brazil) in the fall of 2019 for the celebration of the first strategic collaboration between the two companies Liebherr Aerospace Brasil’s Financial and Administrative Director stated: “It was a pleasure to host the PTI Executive Team at our state-of-the-art facility We are very happy and honored to become a supplier for PTI as this marks a significant milestone that puts us one step closer to our vision of diversifying our customer base PTI's Senior Director of Supply Chain Management “Liebherr Aerospace Brasil’s lean initiatives process controls and cutting-edge technologies will allow them to be competitive on PTI programs We are looking forward to a successful partnership with Liebherr to improve our overall customer satisfaction.” Quality and Industrial Manager at Liebherr Aerospace Brasil noted: “The visit from PTI was very successful lean methodology and to delight our new partner with no nonconformities found during the audit We shared our continuous improvement philosophy and best practices and at the end of the visit we agreed on the new goals set forth for 2020.” PTI will begin placing orders with Liebherr for three different kinds of manifolds to support the Embraer E2 during the first quarter of 2020 The time and place from which to shoot down an asteroid on a collision course with Earth would have to be chosen very carefully the impact of a rocket could steer the asteroid closer to the planet could deflect its trajectory while using less energy This was the conclusion reached by physicists from São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Guaratinguetá who performed simulations of the asteroid 101955 Bennu and could one day cross paths with the Earth There is a very low probability (0.0005%) that it will collide with our planet between the years 2178 and 2290 Under the supervision of Antonio de Almeida Prado and Othon Winter Bruno Chagas evaluated the effects of Bennu being hit with a rocket at different points in its orbit If the impact were to occur when the asteroid is approaching Earth in orbits prior to a direct collision course it would possible to amplify the effect and change its trajectory using less energy (Scientific Reports © Revista Pesquisa FAPESP - All rights reserved The banker Orozimbo Roxo Loureiro created the 500 Club in the early 1950s It followed the lines of the former 200 Club founded by President Washington Luís to bring together influential politicians and businessmen away from the spotlight of capital cities The initial idea of a social club did not prosper and Orozimbo decided to develop a commercial and tourist enterprise in the area which is well positioned between the two largest Brazilian cities The gas station is configured by a slender sloping concrete roof supported by a succession of sculptural 'K' shaped columns, marking the fueling area. The replacement of two columns with walls defines the auto workshop. At the same time, a closed stretch in masonry that does not touch the slab encloses a section of unknown original use and compartmentalization. Different from the project, in this part of the building, the 'K' columns were replaced during construction by simple, cylindrical ones. All works have some degree of mischaracterization, contrasting with their relevance. Fortunately, most of them are easily reversible. The architectural ensemble of the 500 Club was listed in 2023 as a heritage of the State of São Paulo by the Council for the Defense of Historical, Archaeological, Artistic and Tourist Heritage (Condephaat). Restaurant. Image: Gustavo Neves (FAUUSP)Technical Data Name of work: 500 Club: Gas station; Restaurant; Residence; Entrance; Hotel blocks; Dining hall Authors: Oscar Niemeyer Carlos Cavalcanti de Carvalho (engineer) Started year: 1951 Completion year: 1952 Address: Presidente Dutra Highway km 60 (22°47'17.2"S 45°09'25.1"W) ARCHITECTURE d'Aujourd'Hui, Paris, no. 42/43, agosto 1952. CLUBE dos 500. In Acrópole, São Paulo, ano XV no. 174, p. 208-210, 1952. CANETTIERI, Ana Cristina. Clube dos 500. Um patrimônio modernista em Guaratinguetá. In: Minha Cidade, São Paulo, ano 23, n. 265.01, Vitruvius, set. 2022. FIGUEIREDO, Rolando. As obras de Oscar Niemeyer para o Clube dos 500 em Guaratinguetá (1951 - 1953) Relatório de iniciação científica junto à FAU Mackenzie Auto Posto Clube dos 500: excepcionalidade de uma linguagem Niemeyeriana no pré-Brasília GUARATINGUETA, Brazil — Drug traffickers will face divine justice for the scourge of illegal narcotics across Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI warned Saturday, telling dealers that "human dignity cannot be trampled upon in this way." Brazil and the rest of the region face dangerously high rates of drug abuse and traffickers must "reflect on the grave harm they are inflicting on countless young people and on adults from every level of society," Benedict said. "God will call you to account for your deeds," he said before a cheering crowd of 6,000 on a sprawling lawn outside the "Fazenda da Esperanca," or "Farm of Hope," a drug treatment center founded by a Franciscan friar. Brazil is the world's second-largest consumer of cocaine, after the United States, according to the State Department, and big cities across Latin America's largest nation are plagued with drug violence. While surveys show cocaine use has been relatively stable in Brazil for years, drug-related violence is a huge problem, driven by gangs that control street-corner dealing and the transshipment of drugs to Europe and the United States from elsewhere in South America. In Rio de Janeiro's teeming slums, gangs recruit children and engage in near-daily shootouts with police that frequently kill bystanders. The violence is endemic in other Latin American countries, including Colombia, and Caribbean nations. In Mexico, gangs battling over billion-dollar smuggling routes into the United States leave a daily body count from beheadings, grenade attacks and execution-style killings. The treatment center the pope visited claims an 80 percent success rate, giving addicts spiritual guidance as they milk cows, tend apple orchards and work as beekeepers. Benedict donated $100,000 to the treatment center and told more than 1,500 recovering addicts wearing white shirts with yellow sleeves, representing the Vatican's flag, that they must become "ambassadors of hope." "The Lord has given you this opportunity for physical and spiritual recovery, so vital for you and your families," the pope said. "In turn, society expects you to spread this precious gift of health among your friends and all the members of the community." Addicts who listened to the pope said his visit was important because Brazilian drug users are often ostracized and left to beg on the streets for drug money. "We are excluded from society, but we are the ones the pope is coming to see," said Diego Cleto, a 19-year-old who started taking drugs at age 13. But some doubted whether the pope's message to traffickers will have any impact. "What the pope said is important for drug users, but religion doesn't matter to the dealers," said Felipe Kenji, 27, who has been under treatment at the center since December. "They'll only stop selling drugs when they die." The Guaratingueta treatment center was founded by Friar Hanz Stapel in 1983. There are now 31 similar centers in Brazil and 10 more abroad — in Argentina, Germany, Guatemala, Mexico, Mozambique, Paraguay, the Philippines and Russia. The center is near the shrine city of Aparecida, where today Benedict will open a Latin American and Caribbean bishops' conference aimed at reversing the erosion of the church in the region. Benedict on Friday lamented "difficult times for the church" in Brazil amid "aggressive proselytizing" by born-again Protestant congregations. Brazil's census shows the percentage of citizens characterizing themselves as Catholics fell to 74 percent in 2000 from 89 percent in 1980, while those calling themselves evangelical Protestants rose to 15 percent from 7 percent. The pope is expected to map out strategy to combat the church's losses when he opens the bishops' conference in Aparecida, 100 miles east of Sao Paulo. The small city is home to the mammoth Basilica of Aparecida — as well as the three-foot-tall statue of a black Virgin Mary, called "Our Lady Who Appeared," the patron saint of Brazil. The statue was pulled from a river in the 18th century by poor fishermen who were not catching any fish, and then caught loads in their nets. Miracles were subsequently attributed to the statue, and so many pilgrims flocked to Aparecida that the church built the basilica and inaugurated it as a shrine in 1955. An alternative model suggests the asteroid belt originated in leftovers from the formation of the planets in the solar system NASA The asteroids 433 Eros (left) and 253 Mathilde: 433 Eros is an S-type asteroid rich in silica and typical of the interior of the belt; 253 Mathilde is a C-type asteroid containing carbon more commonly found in the outer portionNASA most the size of a stone but a few hundreds of kilometers in diameter revolve around the Sun in the region between the orbits of Mars (the last of the four rocky planets) and Jupiter This group of orbiting rocks comprises what is conventionally known as the asteroid belt The origin of this agglomeration of asteroids is a mystery but most widely accepted ideas assume that there was much more of this material in this region in the early days of the solar system and that 99% of it was expelled for some reason of the Orbital Dynamics and Planetology Group at São Paulo State University’s Guaratinguetá campus and Sean Raymond of the University of Bordeaux in France proposed a new model based on computational simulations to explain the origin of the asteroid belt which is in sharp contrast with more traditional ideas In the September 13 issue of Science Advances they published an article containing the details of their alternative model the region where the belt is located today had been a large void when the solar system was born approximately 4.5 billion years ago rather than a place where matter was concentrated as other better-known models have maintained the current configuration of the belt is not the result of enormous losses of matter throughout the history of the system “The most external portion of the asteroid belt originated as a by-product of the formation of the solid nucleus of the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn,” explains Izidoro “And the innermost part emerged from the residues of planetary embryos that were the origins of the terrestrial planets Earth and Mars.” According to this hypothesis agglomerations of materials that were not part of the composition of the gaseous or the terrestrial planets were expelled to the area which at that time was empty due to gravitational interactions and the dragging action of gas present in space a “cosmic refugee camp,” the metaphor Raymond uses to describe this area filled with stones of different sizes The new model also provides an explanation for the arrangement of the two main types of asteroids within the belt The area farthest from the Sun is where C-type asteroids concentrate; they are dark and rich in carbon and comprise 75% of the objects in the belt brighter and with a high concentration of silica C-type asteroids (which are also called wet asteroids) originated from material remaining from the formation of gas giant planets “Water on Earth may also have come from these asteroids that eventually collided with our planet when it was still forming,” says Izidoro who together with Raymond addressed this issue in another recent article published on June 30 in the scientific journal Icarus are what remains of the materials which were used in the formation of Mars and other terrestrial planets For months Izidoro and Raymond ran more than 200 computer simulations to see how the planets in the solar system may have formed and how the asteroid belt consequently emerged The simulations assumed that no primal material was present between Mars and Jupiter and the researchers were able to virtually reproduce the current constitution of the belt “Our next step is to test each of the existing models to explain the asteroid belt and see what we can learn about the formation of the solar system,” says Raymond Low density  For astrophysicist Jorge Meléndez of the Institute of Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo (IAG-USP) the simulations by Raymond and Izidoro are very interesting and provide a new vision of the solar system “The study shows that at the beginning of the system a much more massive asteroid belt was not necessary,” says Meléndez “One of the problems with the current model is explaining how this belt [which was supposedly so large early in its development] lost so much mass.” Currently the mass of the belt is no more than 4% that of the Moon and is more than a thousand times less than the Earth Although the asteroids within it spin around an enormous swath of the solar system the belt itself has a low density of objects in relation to its area has the same mass as one third of the entire asteroid belt Project Planetary formation and dynamics: From the solar system to exoplanets (No. 16/12686-2); Grant Mechanism Junior Researcher; Principal Investigator André Izidoro (UNESP); Investment R$178,755.00 An alternative model suggests that the asteroid belt originated from leftovers from the formation of the planets in the solar system most of which are the size of a stone but a few are hundreds of kilometers in diameter This group of orbiting rocks composes what is conventionally known as the asteroid belt The origin of this agglomeration of asteroids is a mystery; however it is widely accepted that there was much more of this material in this region in the early days of the solar system and that 99% of it was expelled for some reason Astrophysicists André Izidoro of the Orbital Dynamics and Planetology Group at São Paulo State University’s Guaratinguetá campus and Sean Raymond of the University of Bordeaux in France proposed a new model that is based on computational simulations to explain the origin of the asteroid belt and is in sharp contrast with more traditional ideas In the September 13 issue of Science Advances these astrophysicists published an article that contained the details of their alternative model the current configuration of the belt is not the result of enormous losses of matter throughout the history of the system but rather a modest gain in matter “The most external portion of the asteroid belt originated as a byproduct of the formation of the solid nucleus of the gas giant planets were expelled to the area where the solar system would arise which at that time was empty due to gravitational interactions and the dragging action of gas that was present in space which is filled with stones of various sizes is described by Raymond as a “cosmic refugee camp” The new model also explains the arrangement of the two main types of asteroids within the belt The area that is farthest from the Sun is where C-type asteroids concentrate; they are dark and rich in carbon and comprise 75% of the objects in the belt C-type asteroids (which are also called wet asteroids) originated from material that remained after the formation of gas giant planets addressed this issue in another recent article that was published on June 30 in the scientific journal Icarus are what remains of the materials that were used in the formation of Mars and other terrestrial planets Izidoro and Raymond ran more than 200 computer simulations to determine how the planets in the solar system may have formed and how the asteroid belt consequently emerged The simulations assumed that no primal material was present between Mars and Jupiter and the researchers were able to virtually reproduce the current constitution of the belt “Our next step is to test how each of the existing models explain the asteroid belt and determine what we can learn about the formation of the solar system,” says Raymond Low density For astrophysicist Jorge Meléndez of the Institute of Astronomy “One of the problems with the current model is explaining how this belt [which was supposedly very large early in its development] lost so much mass.” Currently the mass of the belt is no more than 4% that of the Moon and is more than a thousand times less than that of the Earth Project Planetary formation and dynamics: From the solar system to exoplanets (No. 16/12686-2); Grant Mechanism Junior Researcher; Principal Investigator André Izidoro (UNESP); Investment R$178,755.00 Scientific articles RAYMOND, S. N. and IZIDORO, A. The empty primordial asteroid belt. Science Advances. September 13. 2017. RAYMOND, S. N. and IZIDORO, A. Origin of water in the inner Solar System: Planetesimals scattered inward during Jupiter and Saturn’s rapid gas accretion BASF plans to spend $720 million to build a world-scale complex in Camaçari To include the first acrylic acid and superabsorbents plants in South America the facility will be BASF’s largest single investment in its century-long history on the continent at its existing chemical site in Guaratinguetá The firm already makes butyl acrylate from imported acrylic acid in Guaratinguetá Acrylic acid is a precursor for superabsorbent polymers The firm currently has acrylic acid and derivatives plants in North America The decision to build the acrylic acid complex follows a BASF plans to spend $720 million to build a world-scale complex in Camaçari The decision to build the acrylic acid complex follows a feasibility study BASF undertook in March (C&EN, March 14, page 22) The firm had proposed and then dropped plans for such a project in 2003 such as Dow Chemical and state oil company Petrobras have considered building acrylic acid plants in Brazil over the years the time has come for this important investment,” says Stefan Marcinowski a member of BASF’s board of executive directors “It will further strengthen our position and underlines our confidence in the development of the South American market.” Construction of the acrylic acid complex will begin later this year; production is scheduled to start in late 2014 Brazilian petrochemical maker Braskem will supply feedstock propylene and utilities The 2-ethylhexyl acrylate unit will start up in 2015 “Assuming the projects go ahead, BASF will have a significant first-mover advantage in the region,” says Ian Davenport, president of consulting firm Davenport International Associates “They will also make BASF the first company to be truly global in acrylic acid and derivatives.” we are discussing the madness that occurred at the Ft Lauderdale Pro Swim Marchand has a few areas of improvement to work on if he hopes to return to his Paris form at the World Championships this summer in Singapore having tight battles in both the 200 and 400 IM but ultimately touching 2nd in both Cal Bear and Mexican swimmer Humberto Najera took down a pair of national records in the men’s backstroke events the oldest swimmer to win a medal at a World Championship would qualify for the 2025 World Aquatics with his record-setting swim November 09th, 2012 International, News, Short Course World Championships Brazilian backstroker Guilherme Guido broke a South American (and therefore Brazilian) Record this week at the Torneio Open de Natacao (Open Meet) in Guaratingueta this week swimming a 23.18 that topped his own 23.31 swum at the Jose Finkel Trophy just a few weeks ago specifically in a tie with China’s Xiaolei Sun for 10th “I came down here at about 80%,” Guido said of the meet in Portuguese “I have not shaved and I want to further improve at Worlds I love swimming here and I consider this one of the best meets Delarolli is the Brazilian National Record holder in the 50 free This meet is serving as Brazil’s last qualifying championship for Istanbul and Thiago Pereira declared that he would use it to decide if he would contend the 400 IM any further He has wavered on his commitment to the event where he won Olympic silver this summer saying that he might prefer to focus on the sprint freestyles to see if he can be the missing piece to push the Brazilian free relay onto the podium He already had easily his qualifying time for Worlds We’ll await official word when Brazil releases their roster The Brazilian women continue to gain momentum as 18-year old Beatriz Travalon of Pinheiros broke a Championship Record in the 50 breaststroke with a 30.80 She’s now within three-tenths of the National Record in the race (30.50 – Tatiane Sakemi) and this is a big personal-best for her Joao Gomes broke the men’s Championship Record in the same race with a 26.63: a time that puts him in contention for a first ever World Championship medal (after teammate Felipe Franca de Silva won the 50 in long course last year) despite claims for retirement and to have a child before she’s too old as she broke a Meet Record in the 50 fly in 26.72 Nicholas Santos matched her with a record of his own in 22.65 Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" More from Braden KeithSee All Subscribe to our newsletter and receive our latest updates Bnamericas Published: Monday 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects news and interviews about your industry in English Discovery could contribute to better understanding of solar system's history (photo: Ceres photographed by Dawn spacecraft in May 2015 / Wikimedia Commons) Researchers have found 156 potential fragments of the largest body in the solar system's main asteroid belt By Elton Alisson  |  Agência FAPESP – Despite evidence that Ceres the largest body in the solar system’s main asteroid belt (located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter) should have a family of fragments that originated from collisions over billions of years no observations could empirically confirm this hypothesis a group of researchers affiliated with the Guaratinguetá campus of São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil in collaboration with colleagues at the Southwest Research Institute in the US have found traces of what may have been a family of the dwarf planet eons ago (i.e. The researchers identified 156 asteroids whose taxonomy color and albedo (reflected light) suggest they may be fragments of Ceres located in a primitive region of the main asteroid belt that is characterized by a relatively low density of objects This discovery, resulting from a project that was supported by FAPESP has now been described in an article published by the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society “Failure to detect a family of asteroids from Ceres has long represented one of the main problems in asteroid dynamics,” lead author Valério Carruba told Agência FAPESP Carruba is a professor at UNESP Guaratinguetá “The discovery of a possible Ceres family may contribute to a better understanding of the solar system’s history,” she added while other bodies of the same spectral type as Ceres until now no group of asteroids that could be fragments of the dwarf planet had been identified there is evidence for believing that about 10 craters larger than 300 km in diameter should have formed on Ceres due to collisions with other objects in the last 4.5 billion years Observational data from the Dawn probe corroborate this estimate by showing that at least two craters with diameters of about 280 km were formed in the last 2 billion years on Ceres Dawn was launched by NASA in 2007 to examine Ceres All this evidence suggests that Ceres should have expelled a significant number of fragments and formed at least two families yet standard techniques for identifying dynamic asteroid families have not detected a Ceres family “The usual method concentrates on observing objects near Ceres in the central region of the main asteroid belt,” Carruba said “This may be because close encounters and linear secular resonances with Ceres have significantly depleted the population of objects in near proximity to this body Secular resonance is a type of orbital resonance which occurs when two orbiting bodies exert a regular periodic gravitational influence on each other Secular (long-term) resonance occurs when the orbits of a body and another larger body display a synchronized change in precession (i.e. the orientation of their rotational axis or orbital path) A secular resonance is linear when two such bodies synchronize a precession of the point of the orbit closest to the sun (pericenter) or of the orbit’s ascending node and it may alter the smaller body’s eccentricity or inclination is that more asteroids are concentrated in the central region of the belt and the number of C-type objects is especially high C-type asteroids such as Ceres are the most common; they are extremely dark and associated with outer regions of the solar system The central region contains two asteroids of the same spectral type as Ceres: Dora and Chloris “When you perform a study using astronomical spectrophotometry to analyze the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation from objects observed with a telescope it’s hard to know whether C-type objects in the main belt are part of a possible Ceres family or belong to the families of Dora and Chloris,” Carruba explained the initial ejection velocities from Ceres should have been significantly larger than those observed for any other parent body in the main belt the collision fragments of Ceres may have spread over a much larger area of the main asteroid belt making members of the Ceres family significantly more distant among themselves than the typical distances between objects formed in collisions from smaller bodies – hence the difficulty of identifying the Ceres family the researchers decided that instead of trying to identify members of the Ceres family close to the dwarf planet in the central region of the asteroid belt they would investigate a pristine (primitive) region of the belt between the 5J: 2a and 7J: -3a mean-motion resonances with Jupiter Their hypothesis is that fragments of Ceres in the order of kilometers may have reached this region of the main asteroid belt which was depleted during the Late Heavy Bombardment which is believed to have occurred between 4.3 billion and 3.8 billion years ago an immense number of asteroids collided with other objects in the solar system making a great many craters on the moon and other bodies the influx of outside material from other areas of the asteroid belt into the pristine region has been limited another advantage of studying the pristine region is the absence of other large C-type families with eccentricities and inclinations comparable to those of Ceres making it easier to identify possible members of the Ceres family in this region,” Carruba said The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle the researchers studied the albedo and color of the objects found in the pristine region Their analysis pointed to 156 objects in the region whose photometry and albedo were compatible with those of C-type asteroids such as Ceres which reflects only 9% of the sunlight that falls on it The statistical studies performed by the researchers also indicated that the distribution of these objects’ inclinations is compatible with their having originated from Ceres “We don’t yet have definitive proof that a Ceres family exists because the objects we identified are C-type candidates and complete visible and infrared spectra haven’t been obtained yet to confirm the classification But the circumstantial evidence is very strong,” Carruba said adding that there are no sources of C-type objects in the pristine region of the main belt capable of explaining the concentration of this type of asteroid in the region The article “Footprints of a possible Ceres asteroid paleofamily” (doi: 10.1093/mnras/stw380), by Carruba et al., can be read in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society at http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/458/1/1117 The article “Footprints of a possible Ceres asteroid paleofamily” (doi: 10.1093/mnras/stw380), by Carruba et al., can be read in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society at http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/458/1/1117.