July 4, 2017 The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO). Credit: Antonio Gonzlez / IAC

A state-of-the-art telescope for detecting optical signatures of gravitational waves - built and operated by an international research collaboration, led by the University of Warwick - has been officially launched.

The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) was inaugurated at Warwick's astronomical observing facility in the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias on La Palma, Canary Islands, on 3 July 2017.

GOTO is an autonomous, intelligent telescope, which will search for unusual activity in the sky, following alerts from gravitational wave detectors - such as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Adv-LIGO), which recently secured the first direct detections of gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, created when massive bodies particularly black holes and neutron stars orbit each other and merge at very high speeds.

These waves radiate through the Universe at the speed of light, and analysing them heralds a new era in astrophysics, giving astronomers vital clues about the bodies from which they originated as well as long-awaited insight into the nature of gravity itself.

First predicted over a century ago by Albert Einstein, they have only been directly detected in the last two years, and astronomers' next challenge is to associate the signals from these waves with signatures in the electromagnetic spectrum, such as optical light.

This is GOTO's precise aim: to locate optical signatures associated with the gravitational waves as quickly as possible, so that astronomers can study these sources with a variety of telescopes and satellites before they fade away.

GOTO is a significant project for the Monash-Warwick Alliance, through which the construction of the telescope was partially funded. The Alliance combines the exceptional research and teaching capabilities of two world-class universities to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Dr Danny Steeghs, from Warwick's Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, is leading the project. He comments:

"After all the hard work put in by everyone, I am delighted to see the GOTO telescopes in operational mode at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory. We are all excited about the scientific opportunities it will provide."

Dr. Duncan Galloway, from the School of Physics & Astronomy at Monash University, comments:

"GOTO is very significant for the Monash Centre for Astrophysics. We've invested strongly in gravitational wave astronomy over the last few years, leading up to the first detection announced last year, and the telescope project represents a fundamentally new observational opportunity.

"It's really satisfying seeing a research collaboration that we've build over many years coming to fruition in such an exciting way, and we couldn't have got here without the support of the Alliance and the participating universities."

GOTO is the latest addition to the University of Warwick's astronomical facility at La Palma, which includes the SuperWASP Exoplanet discovery camera - the most successful ground based exoplanet discovery project in existence.

GOTO is operated on behalf of a consortium of institutions including the University of Warwick, Monash University, the Armagh Observatory, Leicester and Sheffield Universities, and the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT).

Professor Pam Thomas, the University of Warwick's Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) was in attendance at the inauguration ceremony.

La Palma is one of the world's premier astronomical observing sites, owing to the fact that it is the steepest island in the world and has very little pollution giving researchers clear views of the sky.

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Telescope for detecting optical signals from gravitational waves launched - Phys.Org

Cape Town - The Ministries of Ghana and South Africa announced the combination of first light science observations, this confirms the successful conversion of the Ghana communications antenna from a redundant telecoms instrument into a functioning Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio telescope.

Illustration photo of South African flag

Ghana is the first partner country of the VLBI Network (AVN) to complete the conversion of a communications antenna into a functioning radio telescope. The 32-metre long converted telecommunications antenna will be integrated into the African VLBI Network (AVN) in preparation for the second phase of construction for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) across the continent.

The observations made included Methanol Maser detections, VLBI fringe testing and Pulsar observations and reaching these objectives confirms that the instrument can operate as a single dish radio telescope and also as part of global VLBI network observations, such as the European VLBI network.

The Ghana Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, said: The Ghanaian government warmly embraces the prospect of radio astronomy in the country and our radio astronomy development plan forms part of the broader Ghana Science, Technology and Innovation Development Plan.

As a Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Africa partner country, Ghana collaborated with SKA South Africa (SKA SA)/ Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomical Observatory (HartRAO) group to harness the radio astronomy potential of the satellite antenna at Kutunse. Scientists and engineers from SKA SA/HartRAO along with Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), has been working since 2011 to make it radio-astronomy ready and in 2012 the GSSTI was launched as the vehicle through which the astro-physics programme would grow.

The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has been funding a large part of the conversion through the African Renaissance and International Cooperation Fund (ARF).

The South African Minister of DIRCO, Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said: The African Renaissance Fund is aimed at strengthening cooperation between South Africa and other African countries and to support the development of skills and build institutional capacity on the continent.

Nine African partner countries are members of the SKA AVN, this includes Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and South Africa.

Read also: Internet of Things gathering steam in SA

Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs Naledi Pandor said: A vital part of the effort towards building SKA on the African Continent over the next decade is to develop the skills, regulations and institutional capacity needed in SKA partner countries to optimise African participation in the SKA.

"It will bring new science opportunities to Africa on a relatively short time scale and develop radio astronomy science communities in SKA partner countries," Minister Pandor added.

The next SKA AVN Ministerial Forum will be held in Accra, Ghana in August when the Kutunse radio telescope will officially be launched.

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July 4, 2017 by Tim Stephens A false color image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3359, which is about 50 million light years from us. NGC 3359 appears to be devouring a much smaller gas-rich dwarf galaxy, nicknamed the Little Cub, which contains 10,000 times fewer stars than its larger companion. The contour lines show where the gas is being stripped from the Little Cub, whose stars are located in the central blue circle. Credit: SDSS Collaboration

A primitive galaxy that could provide clues about the early universe has been spotted by astronomers as it begins to be consumed by a gigantic neighboring galaxy.

The Little Cub galaxyso called because it sits in the Ursa Major or Great Bear constellationis being stripped of the gas needed to continue forming stars by its larger companion. The find means scientists now have a rare opportunity to observe a dwarf galaxy as its gas is removed by the effects of a nearby giant galaxy to learn more about how this process happens.

As the Little Cub has remained almost pristine since its formation, scientists also hope its elements will reveal more about the chemical signature of the universe just minutes after the Big Bang.

The research, carried out by UC Santa Cruz and Durham University, UK, is being presented on Tuesday, July 4, at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting.

The Little Cub and its larger neighbor, a spiral galaxy called NGC 3359, are about 200 to 300 thousand light years apart, and approximately 50 million light years from Earth. Gas from the Little Cub is being stripped away by its interaction with NGC 3359, which has up to 10,000 times as many stars as the Little Cub and is similar to our Milky Way. By observing this cosmic feast, scientists hope to understand more about how and when gas is lost from smaller galaxies.

"We may be witnessing the quenching of a near-pristine galaxy as it makes its first passage about a Milky Way-like galaxy," said lead author Tiffany Hsyu, a graduate student in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. "It is rare for such a tiny galaxy to still contain gas and be forming stars when it is in close proximity to a much larger galaxy so this is a great opportunity to see just how this process works. Essentially the larger galaxy is removing the fuel that the Little Cub needs to form stars, which will eventually shut down star formation and lead to the smaller galaxy's demise."

The researchers also hope to gain an insight into the make-up of the very early universe by studying the hydrogen and helium atoms that are being illuminated by the small number of very bright stars within the Little Cub (which also has the less romantic name SDSS J1044+6306). Since this galaxy is so primitive, it may still preserve the hydrogen and helium atoms that were created minutes after the Big Bang.

Research coauthor Ryan Cooke, Royal Society University Research Fellow in Durham University's Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, said, "We know by studying the chemistry of the Little Cub that it is one of the most primitive objects currently known in our cosmic neighborhood. Such galaxies, which have remained dormant for most of their lives, are believed to contain the chemical elements forged a few minutes after the Big Bang. By measuring the relative number of hydrogen and helium atoms in the Little Cub we might be able to learn more about what made up the Universe in the moments after it began 13.7 billion years ago."

The researchers hope further observations will find more pristine galaxies where the chemical signature of the early universe might be found.

The Little Cub was initially identified as a potentially pristine dwarf galaxy in data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Follow-up observations were conducted using the 3-meter Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory and the 10-meter Keck II telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory.

"The Little Cub's discovery is a terrific example of using the smaller 3-meter-class Lick Observatory to scan through hundreds of candidates before focusing on the best sources with UC's 10-meter Keck telescope," said coauthor J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

A paper describing the discovery of Little Cub has been submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Explore further: Hubble scopes out a galaxy of stellar birth

This image displays a galaxy known as ESO 486-21 (with several other background galaxies and foreground stars visible in the field as well). ESO 486-21 is a spiral galaxyalbeit with a somewhat irregular and ill-defined ...

This dramatic image shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's view of dwarf galaxy known asNGC 1140, which lies 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. As can be seen in this image NGC 1140 has an ...

Galaxies today fall roughly into two categories: elliptically-shaped collections of reddish, old stars that formed predominantly during a period early in the history of the universe, and spiral shaped objects dominated by ...

The Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy, pictured in this new image from the Wide Field Imager camera, installed on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory, is a close neighbour of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Despite ...

Despite being less famous than their elliptical and spiral galactic cousins, irregular dwarf galaxies, such as the one captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, are actually one of the most common types of galaxy ...

The drizzle of stars scattered across this image forms a galaxy known as UGC 4879. UGC 4879 is an irregular dwarf galaxyas the name suggests, galaxies of this type are a little smaller and messier than their cosmic cousins, ...

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'Little Cub' gives astronomers rare chance to see galaxy demise - Phys.Org

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This story was written byBlaine Friedlander and originally published in the Cornell Chronicle.

ITHACA, N.Y. Cornell astronomers gathered atop Mount Pleasant at sunset June 25 to honor one of their own. The 25-inch reflecting telescope at the universitys Hartung-Boothroyd Observatory was named in memory of the late James R. Houck.

Houck, a Cornell professor of astronomy, who was a major contributor in developing infrared spectroscopy for astrophysics, died in September 2015. He was part of NASAs first major infrared space mission, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, or IRAS, and he served as the principal investigator for the infrared spectrograph on NASAs Spitzer telescope.

The newly dedicated large telescope sits under a dome high above Varna, New York. Houck and his student, George Gull 72, built it from scratch 43 years ago. Parts were machined by high school students at the local Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and at Ithaca engineering firm Therm, Inc. The instruments brawn relies on a parabolic mirror polished from a 1930s Pyrex test blank (provided by retired astronomy professor William Shaw) from the Hale telescope atop Mount Palomar, California. The Cornell observatory and telescope were completed in 1974.

Its built in a way that you can teach students a lot of about professional telescopes, said James Lloyd, associate professor of astronomy, at the dedication. Lloyd teaches his own students with the telescope. For students, it lets you do the things you need to understand in order to run a much larger telescope. That comes from Jims real dedication to teaching and to students. Im pleased were formally naming this telescope.

While the telescope now honors its builder Houck, the observatory is named for chemical industrialist M. John Hartung (Class of 1908) and Boothroyd, founder of Cornells astronomy department.

The Houck Telescope is capable of extraordinary research, said Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science.

Weve had a chance to observe transiting extrasolar planets with two of my classes, Lunine explained at the dedication. Its a very high-quality telescope. To be able to see the light from a star begin to dim at the right time for the predicted transit as the planet moves across the parent star was an incredible thrill.

Rob Houck, left, and Chris Houck, stand at the telescope their father Jim Houck built. The instrument is now named in his honor. Jason Koski/University Photography

Gull, a mechanical engineer working in the astronomy department, reminisced about building the observatory on evenings and weekends, completing the telescope off-site at the rocket lab in the Space Sciences Building. We got it all assembled and got it all working, he said.

Houcks sons, Chris Houck 90 and Rob Houck 93, returned to Ithaca for the dedication. The observatory meant a lot to him. We would come up here occasionally, but I know he enjoyed bringing new people up here, said Chris Houck.

He loved teaching undergraduate and graduate students. He was very passionate about it, said Rob Houck, who recalled being coaxed by his father to mow the observatorys yard. My dad also enjoyed the visceral pleasure of staring at the stars all night with a telescope.

Featured image:James Lloyd, associate professor of astronomy, uses the newly renamed Houck Telescope to scan the heavens after sunset June 25. Image by Jason Koski/University Photography, courtesy of theCornell Chronicle.

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Cornell dedicates telescope in honor of James Houck - The Ithaca Voice

On Dec. 6, 1997, Jim Scotti of the Spacewatch program at the University of Arizona spotted an asteroid.

This wasn't entirely unusual. The problem: It appeared the asteroid was on a possible collision course with Earth.

Asteroid 1997 XF11, as it was later called, was a big one - a mile in diameter. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center was alerted. Other astronomers weighed in. After a few months of study, Brian Marsden of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced the asteroid discovery and warned there was a small but "not entirely out of the question" chance it would hit on Oct. 26, 2028.

On June 30, 2017 - Asteroid Day - it's worth remembering that the prediction turned out to be wrong.

But for a while, Marsden's calculations set off a panic. "Asteroid Is Expected to Make A Pass Close to Earth in 2028," read New York Times front page headline on March 12, 1998. The Washington Post's story, running on an inside page, said the asteroid was "virtually certain" to come closer to Earth than the distance to the moon.

This was not good. People seemed to recall learning in elementary school that an asteroid had once wiped out dinosaurs.

"With regard to the asteroid," wrote the Post's Editorial Board, "we'd like a bit more reassurance."

But was Marsden right? Would the asteroid come that close?

"Sure, there was some uncertainty associated with the actual miss distance," he later wrote, "but the tests that I made strongly suggested that the object would come closer than the moon."

Astronomers continued investigating.

Eleanor Helin and Kenneth Lawrence of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., looked for and found previous images of 1997 XF11 taken accidentally in 1990. These images, upon being analyzed by Paul Chodas and Donald Yeomans - also of JPL - ruled out the chance of collision in 2028.

"Zero chance," was the JPL's ruling.

Marsden and his team later acknowledged they were wrong. As Dan W.E. Green of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics then told The Post: "There was no debate, of course not. . . . We never disagreed. We quickly threw into our own saw that the closest approach moved out to 600,000 miles."

The danger was over.

However, the debate over the XF11 affair continued. In 1998 NASA created the Near Earth Object Program Office, now the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, to find the 90 percent of so-called near Earth objects larger than one kilometer in diameter. Congress also held hearings about the impact hazard of near earth objects.

Marsden maintained he was right to announce the presence of asteroid 1997 XF11 quickly. He wanted to make sure future observations of the asteroid wouldn't be missed for future study.

Underestimating the miss distance, he wrote in 2007, "was the one and only shortcoming to my calculations."

Marsden died on Nov. 18, 2010.

The astronomy community had learned much from the XF11 affair. Now it was time to look forward, and to keep looking for asteroids.

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An asteroid was streaking toward Earth, collision seemed all too possible - Orlando Sentinel

A very different kind of love story Correspondence deals with issues, communications and science while it spins a sordid tale of love and lust. Now on DVD the film is nicely directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore, the filmmaker of the Italian classic Cinema Paradiso. The movie takes you into a world of happenstance solving a way of coming back from the dead.

Prominent astrophysics professor Ed Phoerum (Jeremy Irons) has been on the lecture circuit for a while now. Actually more often than expected since taking on a beautiful young and brilliant astrophysics student and action stunt person Amy Ryan (Olga Kurylenko). Turning into an affair shortly after they met in his classroom, their sexual appetites have equaled the desire for Amy to complete PHD.

As we meet the couple hes just leaving her room at the hotel where Ed has spoken at a Astrophysics conference. They vow to meet again very soon, but life is about to take a bitter turn. Amy and Ed have been challenged because of the physical distance between them and with only opportunity of communicating via Skype. Not being able to touch and embrace the two find themselves at a loss.

The age difference, some 40 years, has never been a problem and a midlife crisis has not been the reason for Ed to have lost interest in his wife. Its more like astrophysics itself, Eds chance meeting among the stars with a woman of which hes often dreamt. But, age has brought a different kind of watershed, one that has lead him to take a chance on extending his life with Amy.

Its a story of illicit love, a test of time and writer Giuseppe Tornatores excellent imagination that makes Correspondence a compelling and provocative life experience. Not for the ordinary moviegoer, most of Tornatores films arent commonplace or mainstream for that matter. Its more like his film Malena, where age difference plays a huge part in the relationship. In that film it has a beautiful Italian woman, played by Monica Bellucci, who advances a young boys coming of age; with Correspondence its the awakening of Amys libido that delivers her from a tragic past and frees her to be a woman. Crafty, chancy and yet deftly brilliant, Toratores works are head above some of the best filmmakers.

Letting his actors open up to give amazing performances Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko are at their level best. The chemistry between the two burns up the screen even when a computer is the medium for their being together. Kurylenkos Amy turns out to be one of her better characters beyond performances in Hitman, Max Payne, Quantum of Solace and Oblivion. Here shes able to keep the action actor persona in a romance where she delivers her heartrending skills as well.

Irons fits into his role of love struck Professor Ed Phoerum like a glove. Hes infatuated by Amy, even surprised that she wants him beyond their difference in age. Yet he knows how to continuously draw her into the mysteries of their forbidden love while knowing hes a married man. I like this role for Irons even more than Reversal of Fortune and Lolita (remake), but its not his best drama as that goes to M. Butterfly.

Correspondence has not been rated by the MPAA but contains nudity, movie making violence, language and sensuality. Use caution when watching the DVD if youngsters are in the home.

FINAL ANALYSS: A cool film for mid-life romantics, actors and indie film buffs.

Specifications and additional video information: Cast: Jeremy Irons, Olga Kurylenko, Simon Johns, James Warren, Shauna Macdonald, Oscar Sanders, Paolo Calabresi, Irina Karatcheva, Paul Ridley. Directed and written by: Giuseppe Tornatore MPAA Rating: Not Rated Genre: Drama, Romance Running Time: 1 hr. 56 min. Video Release Date: June 27, 2017 Language: English Reviewed Format: DVD Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Video: Widescreen 16:9 (2:40 LBX) Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, Quebecois Number of Discs: 1 Disc Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Released in: DVD and Digital HD

The comments within this review are the critics expressed opinions.

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Correspondence a Forbidden Love - ACED Magazine

Justin Bryan (at left) and Lindsey Rodgers pose with the Meade LX-200 16-inch telescope they operate for shows at the Richard D. Schwartz Observatory on UMSLs campus. Despite some quirks with the telescope, students and the public are privy to the beautiful and clear celestial bodies it magnifies. (Photos by August Jennewein)

It sounds sci-fi magical star hopping across the universe.

These four stars, you make a triangle and then go up at a 90-degree angle, said Lindsey Rodgers, who leads the Richard D. Schwartz Observatory open houses at the University of MissouriSt. Louis. After youve done it enough, you know where an object is every time. Arcturus. Vega. Betelgeuse.

The recent astrophysics graduate listed off the giant stars she relies on to chart her path in the sky as she searches through the lens to locate more difficult objects nebulae, star clusters and galaxies.

Rodgers has led the campus observatory shows, both public and private, for more than a year now. This summer, she hosts her final few open houses before passing off the student leadership role to senior astrophysics major Justin Bryan.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy has been making star hoppers of its astrophysics students for years, but only a select one or two with telescope experience and observational skill get to lead the shows.

The Meade LX-200 16 inch telescope was gifted to the university in 2011 upon the death of Professor Emeritus Richard Schwartz, who originally established the observatory at UMSL in 1981. His 16-inch telescope was a huge update from the previous 14-inch that had occupied the observatory, which continues to be used for class observations, public open houses and private showings.

Skill is an important factor because, while star hopping may sound romantic, its also a navigational necessity working at the observatory. The Meade LX-200 16-inch telescope still captures magnificently clear sights of the sky. But accurately pointing it at objects takes a little more effort and luck since the mechanism to input coordinates and a few old motor gears to turn the telescope no longer function on their own.

Thats where learning to star hop and navigate the sky by objects becomes a tricky, but fun, challenge for students who have to manually position the telescope perfectly and lock it without flinching for fear of losing an object in sight. It definitely takes some practice and learning individual paths. No two people navigate the sky alike, according to Rodgers and Bryan.

Once you find it, its such a great relief, Bryan said, but the process to get there is a lot harder than you think. Even in the winter when theres less humidity, making it easier to see through the atmosphere I sometimes cant find clusters because of light pollution and because Im doing it by hand.

Even so, Rodgers and Bryan talk about star hopping and learning to use the telescope as almost a rite of passage and a skill no UMSL astrophysics student can graduate without knowing. A required Observational Astronomy class that uses the observatory makes sure of that.

Many people are often surprised to hear UMSL has an observatory.

Tucked away by the softball field off of Florissant Road on North Campus is the white dome that houses two telescopes (the previously mentioned 16-inch and a smaller 8-inch telescope).

The observatory was first erected on UMSLs campus in 1981 by Professor Emeritus Richard Schwartz. When he passed in 2011, he left his 16-inch telescope to the university, which was an upgrade from the previous 14-inch.

The observatorys location on a metropolitan campus certainly comes with light pollution frustrations, but it also creates opportunities that far outweigh the negatives. Students who might have simply learned about astronomy and telescope operation in a classroom setting now get hands-on experience.

Another advantage greater public outreach, which Rodgers and Bryan agree absolutely makes running the observatory.

Whenever you tell them what theyre looking at, and their faces are just in complete awe, theres no wayno way to describe it. Its a joyful event. I have a smile on my face the entire time, Bryan said. Its just a great feeling knowing you helped somebody look at the universe, see a part of the universe in a way that theyve maybe never looked at before.

Lindsey Rodgers and Justin Bryan pose with Rodgers home telescope outside The Richard D. Schwartz Observatory. The observatory is located off Florissant Road by the softball field on UMSLs North Campus.

For Rodgers the outreach goes a step further.

I want to be able to encourage students or kids to be interested in STEM and astronomy, she said. Im always excited when I look in the telescope, so I hope that when other people do that, and I can explain what theyre looking at and answer questions, that I can kind of help that along.

Sponsored in part by the NASA/Missouri Space Grant Consortium, outreach and exposure to space science is a main goal of the observatory operation, headed by Professor of Astronomy Bruce Wilking. Public open houses are offered once a month, but school groups and other organizations can also sign up for private showings. One show lasts about an hour and you can expect to see five to six objects.

The next public open house is July 29. Expect to see Jupiter, Saturn, M13 Globular Cluster, Albireo and the Ring Nebula. And, of course, youll meet Rodgers and Bryan.

Rodgers plans to one day become a professor. Her first interest in space came after having children. She was a young teenage mom and would watch PBS and the Discovery Channel, dreaming of studying space as she took care of her kids. After earning her GED and now her undergraduate degree, the Pierre Laclede Honors College graduate and Eugene J. Meehan Scholarship recipient will continue toward her goal and study stellar formation in the astrophysics graduate program at Washington University in St. Louis this fall.

Bryan, like Rodgers, plans to become an educator one day. The Northwest High School graduate found space at the age of 16 when he started asking big questions like: What is our universe? What is our solar system? What contains the Milky Way Galaxy? After taking general education courses at St. Louis Community CollegeMeramec, Bryan transferred to UMSL with a Transfer Merit Scholarship and a Missouri Access Award that helps pay for his education. He intends to graduate May 2019.

Looking for more space fun at UMSL? Try the Astronomy Outreach Program partially sponsored by the NASA/Missouri Space Grant Consortium. It offers a space-packed day with classroom demonstrations that include making your own comet and a show in UMSLs Planetarium.

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Star hoppers: Students chart the sky, bring space up close at observatory open houses - UMSL Daily (blog)

June 30, 2017 Figure 1: Jet, disk, and disk atmosphere in the HH 212 protostellar system. (a) A composite image for the HH 212 jet in different molecules, combining the images from the Very Large Telescope (McCaughrean et al. 2002) and ALMA (Lee et al. 2015). Orange image shows the dusty envelope+disk mapped with ALMA. (b) A zoom-in to the central dusty disk. The asterisk marks the position of the protostar. A size scale of our solar system is shown in the lower right corner for comparison. (c) Atmosphere of the accretion disk detected with ALMA. In the disk atmosphere, green is for deuterated methanol, blue for methanethiol, and red for formamide. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Lee et al.

An international research team, led by Chin-Fei Lee of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA, Taiwan), has used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to detect complex organic molecules for the first time in the atmosphere of an accretion disk around a very young protostar. These molecules play a crucial role in producing the rich organic chemistry needed for life. The discovery suggests that the building blocks of life are produced in such disks at the very beginning of star formation and that they are available to be incorporated into planets that form in the disk subsequently. It could help us understand how life came to be on Earth.

"It is so exciting to discover complex organic molecules on an accretion disk around a baby star," says Chin-Fei Lee at ASIAA. "When such molecules were first found in the protoplanetary disk around a star in a later phase of star formation, we wondered if they could have formed earlier. Now, using ALMA's unprecedented combination of spatial resolution and sensitivity, we not only detect them on a younger accretion disk, but also determine their location. These molecules are the building blocks of life, and they are already there in the disk atmosphere around the baby star in the earliest phase of star formation."

Herbig-Haro (HH) 212 is a nearby protostellar system in Orion at a distance of about 1,300 light-years. The central protostar is very young, with an estimated age of only 40,000 yearsabout 1/100,000th the age of our sunand a mass of only 0.2 solar mass. It drives a powerful bipolar jet and thus must accrete material efficiently. Indeed, an accretion disk is seen feeding the protostar. The disk is nearly edge-on and has a radius of about 60 astronomical units (AU), or 60 times the average Earth-sun distance. Interestingly, it shows a prominent equatorial dark lane sandwiched between two brighter features, looking like a "space hamburger."

The research team's ALMA observations have clearly detected an atmosphere of complex organic molecules above and below the disk. These include methanol (CH3OH), deuterated methanol (CH2DOH), methanethiol (CH3SH), and formamide (NH2CHO). These molecules have been proposed to be the precursors for producing biomolecules such as amino acids and sugars. "They are likely formed on icy grains in the disk and then released into the gas phase because of heating from stellar radiation or some other means, such as shocks," says co-author Zhi-Yun Li of the University of Virginia.

The team's observations open up an exciting possibility of detecting complex organic molecules in disks around other baby stars through high-resolution and high-sensitivity imaging with ALMA, which provides strong constraints on theories of prebiotic chemistry in star and planet formation. In addition, the observations open up the possibility of detecting more complex organic molecules and biomolecules that could shed light on the origin of life.

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Explore further: Methanol detected for first time around young star

More information: Chin-Fei Lee et al. Formation and Atmosphere of Complex Organic Molecules of the HH 212 Protostellar Disk, The Astrophysical Journal (2017). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa7757

Journal reference: Astrophysical Journal

Provided by: Academia Sinica

Methanol, a key building block for the complex organic compounds that comprise life, has been detected for the first time in the protoplanetary disk of a young, distant star. This finding could help scientists better understand ...

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There are no mechanics on Mars, so the next best thing for NASA's Curiosity rover is careful driving.

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That is clearly the Silfen Gas Halo

An important and valuable discovery such as this should not be made light of. This is brilliant work.

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Prebiotic atmosphere discovered on accretion disk of baby star - Phys.Org

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WALL STREET JOURNAL-BEST SELLERS Miami Herald "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" Neil deGrasse Tyson (Norton). 5. "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann (Doubleday). 6. "The 5 Second Rule" by Mel Robbins (Savio Republic). 7. "The Day the World Went Nuclear" by Bill O'Reilly (Henry Holt & Co.). USA TODAY BEST-SELLERSWashington Post all 3 news articles »

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WALL STREET JOURNAL-BEST SELLERS - Miami Herald

The Hubble mosaic unveils a collection of carved knots of gas and dust in a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula (also known as NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252). The nebula is a star-forming region that hosts dusky dust clouds silhouetted against glowing gas.

Astrophysics is a branch of space science that applies the laws of physics and chemistry to explain the birth, life and death of stars, planets, galaxies, nebulae and other objects in the universe. It has two sibling sciences, astronomy and cosmology, and the lines between them blur.

In practice, the three professions form a tight-knit family. Ask for the position of a nebula or what kind of light it emits, and the astronomer might answer first. Ask what the nebula is made of and how it formed and the astrophysicist will pipe up. Ask how the data fit with the formation of the universe, and the cosmologist would probably jump in. But watch out for any of these questions, two or three may start talking at once!

Astrophysicists seek to understand the universe and our place in it. At NASA, the goals of astrophysics are "to discover how the universe work, explore how it began and evolved, and search for life on planets around other stars," accordingNASA's website.

NASA states that those goals produce three broad questions:

Whileastronomyis one of the oldest sciences, theoretical astrophysics began with Isaac Newton. Prior to Newton, astronomers described the motions of heavenly bodies using complex mathematical models without a physical basis. Newton showed that a single theory simultaneously explains the orbits of moons and planets in space and the trajectory of a cannonball on Earth. This added to the body of evidence for the (then) startling conclusion that the heavens and Earth are subject to the same physical laws. [Related: How Isaac Newton Changed the World]

Perhaps what most completely separated Newtons model from previous ones is that it is predictive as well as descriptive. Based on aberrations in the Newtonian orbit ofUranus, astronomers predicted the position of a new planet, which was then observed and namedNeptune. Being predictive as well as descriptive is the sign of a mature science, and astrophysics is in this category.

Because the only way we interact with distant objects is by observing the radiation they emit, much of astrophysics has to do with deducing theories that explain the mechanisms that produce this radiation, and provide ideas for how to extract the most information from it. The first ideas about the nature of stars emerged in the mid-19th century from the blossoming science of spectral analysis, which means observing the specific frequencies of light that particular substances absorb and emit when heated. Spectral analysis remains essential to the triumvirate of space sciences, both guiding and testing new theories.

Early spectroscopy provided the first evidence that stars contain substances also present on Earth. Spectroscopy revealed that somenebulaeare purely gaseous, while some contain stars. This later helped cement the idea that some nebulae were not nebulae at all they were other galaxies!

In the early 1920s, Cecilia Payne discovered, using spectroscopy, thatstars are predominantly hydrogen(at least until their old age). The spectra of stars also allowed astrophysicists to determine the speed at which they move toward or away from Earth. Just like the sound a vehicle emits is different moving toward us or away from us, because of the Doppler shift, the spectra of stars will change in the same way. In the 1930s, by combining the Doppler shift and Einsteins theory of general relativity, Edwin Hubble provided solid evidence that the universe is expanding. This is also predicted by Einsteins theory, and together form the basis of the Big Bang Theory.

Also in the mid-19th century, the physicists Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) and Gustav Von Helmholtz speculated that gravitational collapse could power the sun, but eventually realized that energy produced this way would only last 100,000 years. Fifty years later, Einsteins famous E=mc2equation gave astrophysicists the first clue to what the true source of energy might be (although it turns out that gravitational collapse does play an important role). As nuclear physics, quantum mechanics and particle physics grew in the first half of the 20th century, it became possible to formulate theories for how nuclear fusion could power stars. These theories describe how stars form, live and die, and successfully explain the observed distribution of types of stars, their spectra, luminosities, ages, and other features.

Astrophysics is the physics of stars and other distant bodies in the universe, but it also hits close to home. According to the Big Bang Theory, the first stars were almost entirely hydrogen. The nuclear fusion process that energizes them smashes together hydrogen atoms to form the heavier element helium. In 1957, the husband-and-wife astronomer team of Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, along with physicists William Alfred Fowler and Fred Hoyle, showed how, as stars age, they produce heavier and heavier elements, which they pass on to later generations of stars in ever-greater quantities. It is only in the final stages of the lives of more recent stars that the elements making up the Earth, such as iron (32.1 percent), oxygen (30.1 percent), silicon (15.1 percent), are produced. Another of these elements is carbon, which together with oxygen, make up the bulk of the mass of all living things including us. Thus, astrophysics tells us that, while we are not all stars, we are all stardust.

Ariel Balter has a Ph.D. in physics. He teaches and writes about science.

Further reading

A History of Astrophysics

The Glassmaker Who Sparked Astrophysics

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What is Astrophysics? - space.com

June 28, 2017 Schematic graphic of quasar twinkling. Credit: M. Walker (artwork), CSIRO (photo)

Gas filaments surrounding stars like the strands of a pompom may be the answer to a 30-year old mystery: why quasars twinkle.

Dr Mark Walker (Manly Astrophysics) and collaborators at Caltech, Manly Astrophysics and CSIRO (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) published this solution today in the Astrophysical Journal.

Their evidence comes from research done with CSIRO's Compact Array radio telescope in eastern Australia.

Walker's team was studying quasars powerful, distant galaxies when they saw one called PKS 1322110 start to dim and brighten wildly at radio wavelengths over just a few hours.

"This quasar was twinkling violently," Walker said.

Quasar radio twinkling was recognized in the 1980s. Most often it is gentle small, slow changes in radio brightness. Violent twinkling is rare and unpredictable.

Stars in the night sky twinkle when currents of air in our atmosphere focus and defocus their light. In the same way, quasars twinkle when streams of warm gas in interstellar space focus and defocus their radio signals.

But until now it was a mystery what those streams were and where they lay.

The first sign that stars are involved came when the team prepared to look at their twinkling quasar, PKS 1322110, with one of the 10-m Keck optical telescopes in Hawai'i.

"At that point we realised this quasar is very close on the sky to the hot star Spica," co-author Dr Vikram Ravi (Caltech) said.

Walker remembered that another violently twinkling quasar, J1819+3845, is close on the sky to the hot star Vega something previously noted by other researchers. Two hot stars, two twinkling quasars: is this just a coincidence?

Further work suggested it's not.

Walker's team re-examined earlier data on J1819+3845 and another violent twinkler, PKS 1257326. They found that this second quasar lies close on the sky to a hot star called Alhakim.

The chance of having both twinkling quasars near hot stars is one in ten million, the researchers calculated.

"We have very detailed observations of these two sources," co-author Dr Hayley Bignall (CSIRO) said. "They show that the twinkling is caused by long, thin structures."

The team suggests that every hot star is surrounded by a throng of warm gas filaments, all pointing towards it.

"We think these stars look like the Helix Nebula," Walker said.

In the Helix a star sits in a swarm of cool globules of molecular hydrogen gas, each about as big as our solar system. Ultraviolet radiation from the star blasts the globules, giving each one a skin of warm gas and a long gas tail flowing outwards.

The star in the Helix is in its death throes, and astronomers usually assume that the globules arose late in the star's life. But Walker thinks such globules might be present around younger, mainstream stars. "They might date from when the stars formed, or even earlier," he said.

"Globules don't emit much light, so they could be common yet have escaped notice so far," he added.

"Now we'll turn over every rock to find more signs of them."

Explore further: Astronomers observe early stages of Milky Way-like galaxies in distant universe

More information: Walker, M.A. and seven co-authors. "Extreme radio-wave scattering associated with hot stars." Astrophysical Journal, Volume 843, 27th June 2017. http://www.manlyastrophysics.org/MaterialForAstronomers/PublishedPapers/2017Walker.pdf

Journal reference: Astrophysical Journal

Provided by: Manly Astrophysics

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'Pompom' stars may solve quasar puzzle - Phys.Org

June 26, 2017 by Susan Gawlowicz Follow Susan Gawlowicz on Twitter Follow RITNEWS on Twitter

David Bond and Sophia Maggelakis

Rochester Institute of Technology leads universities in New York with seven federally funded summer research programs for undergraduate students, according to the National Science Foundation.

This reflects RITs emergence as a student-centered research university, made possible by faculty from diverse disciplines, said David Bond, director of RITs Sponsored Research Services. REU sites draw top students from across the country and expose them to different perspectives. For many, the experience is transformative and informs decisions to go to graduate school.

The NSF awards provide stipends for approximately eight to 10 students per program to work with RIT researchers for 10 weeks. The competitive three-year summer programs accept new participants each year from universities across the country and have the potential to influence more than 200 undergraduates.

Undergraduate research is a strategic goal for RIT, and the high number of REUs reflects well on our faculty, said Sophia Maggelakis, dean of RITs College of Science. Our faculty take seriously the responsibility to mentor and train undergraduates to make new discoveries and to pursue careers in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

This year, nearly 150 students applied for positions in the competitive mathematics/graph theory and imaging science programs. The Extremal Graph Theory and Dynamical Systems REU program, led by Darren Narayan, professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences, was RITs first award for Research Experience for Undergraduates in 2006 and has been renewed twice.

The REUs help put RIT on the map, Maggelakis said. We are doing research that is of interest to students from other universities who come to RIT to work with our faculty.

The undergraduates are not the only ones who gain from the experience, she noted.

When you work with very bright students, you are not just the teacher, you are also learning from them.

Cutting edge astrophysics for undergraduates

This summer, RITs College of Science launched the first Research Experience for Undergraduates in multimessenger astrophysics. The new field combines information gathered from gravitational waves and data from the electromagnetic spectrum to make insights previously unavailable to science. The program introduces students to research in gravitational wave detection and data analysis, observational astronomy and astrophysics and theoretical and numerical modeling.

This REU is offered through RITs signature research program, the Frontiers in Gravitational Wave Astrophysics, which is led by Manuela Campanelli, director of the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation. RIT researchers made significant contributions to the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015 and are dedicated to advancing the new discipline.

The multimessenger astrophysics program includes a four-week boot camp in American Sign Language. The center recruits deaf and hard-of-hearing students, women and members of other underrepresented groups and seeks to broaden research opportunities for students attending community colleges and primarily undergraduate institutions.

A key step in moving this new field forward will be training students who will form the next generation of scientific leaders, said Josh Faber, associate professor in RITs School of Mathematical Sciences and lead scientist on the REU grant.

REUs at RIT

The NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates sites at RIT are:

Participants in the Research Experience for Undergraduate programs will present their work at RITs Undergraduate Research Symposium on Aug. 4.

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RIT hosts largest number of NSF undergraduate research programs in New York - RIT University News Services

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, W.W. Norton & Company, 222 pages, $18.95

Astrophysics is a branch of science that may seem beyond the grasp of most individuals, including this humble reviewer. Fortunately, readers curious about pursuing the marvels of the cosmos have Neil DeGrasse Tyson and his predecessor, Carl Sagan, to hold our hands on the journey.

Tyson, who recently became Americas first recipient of the Stephen Hawking medal for science communication, intended Astrophysics for People in a Hurry as an introduction to his ever-evolving field. Surprisingly, the book immediately rose to No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction best seller list.

As readers familiar with his 13-part television series, Cosmos, A Space Time Odyssey, already know, those who might feel overwhelmed by the subject matter should be reassured. Tysons feather-light approach to each ponderous topic is never intimidating.

What other scientist would bother with a reminder that Chuck Berrys music was deemed one of the diverse sounds of our planet which would be included on the Voyager space probe? Tyson even recalls the Saturday Night Live aliens response which requested us to send more Chuck Berry.

And what other author would be able to gently connect such diverse subjects as dark matter, the origin of the universe, and the infinitesimal components of quantum physics? He relates the discovery of the invisible electromagnetic spectrum to the realization that telescopes could be built to perceive wavelengths beyond those seen by the human eye. Thus the discipline of astrophysics was born.

By linking the cosmic explosion of stars to the formation of the basic chemical elements, he joins humankind to the entire inanimate universe.

Tysons book will make the reader ponder how Homo sapiens arrived upon this small blue pebble we call home and what wonders are yet to be discovered.

J. Kemper Campbell, M.D., is a retired Lincoln ophthalmologist who felt more intelligent by simply carrying this book around.

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Review: 'Astrophysics for People in a Hurry' by Neil DeGrasse Tyson ... - Lincoln Journal Star

DUNMORE, Pa. Agns Kim, assistant professor of physics at Penn State Worthington Scranton (PSWS), is the recipient of the 2017 Dr. Richard J. and Sally Matthews Award for Scholarly Activity.

The award is given each year to a member of the campus faculty in recognition of his/her scholarly and research activities.

Kim is an astrophysicist whose research focuses mainly on white dwarf asteroseismology and stellar evolution.

White dwarfs are stars that have lived out their lives and shut down, she explained. They are called dwarfs because they are not much larger than the Earth. However, they still contain a mass similar to the Suns and so are compact stars."

Kim has found that intriguing ever since she was a child.

She does her work using super computers. Recent projects have included the study of variable white dwarfs observed by the NASA satellite Kepler. From space, this telescope is able to watch stars uninterrupted for weeks on end, yielding very useful data for the study of white dwarfs.

Over the past few years, Kim has been involved in the study of the first white dwarf discovered to flare up, and is currently working on the internal rotation of the hottest-known, helium-atmosphere white dwarf.

She received her doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Texas at Austin; and her masters degree in astrophysics and bachelors degree in physics from Iowa State University.

Prior to joining the Penn State Worthington Scranton faculty in 2013, she was an associate professor of physics, physics program coordinator, and an assistant professor of physics at Georgia College and State University at Milledgeville, Georgia.

Kim has also served as an assistant academic director for the Summer Science Program in Socorro, New Mexico; a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Texas, Austin; and an adjunct professor at DeVry University, in Austin.

She is a full member of the American Astronomical Society and serves on the Undergraduate Research Committee and Diversity Council at PSWS.

Kim has been an invited speaker at professional seminars around the country and Canada, and has been published in several scientific publications, including: The Astrophysical Journal; Astronomy and Astrophysics; the American Journal of Physics; the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Communications In Asteroseismology; and the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

She has presented her research at international conferences held around the world, most recently at The Physics of White Dwarfs in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A native of Switzerland, she speaks English and French, and currently resides in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, with her husband.

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Penn State astrophysicist receives Dr. Richard J. and Sally Matthews Award - Penn State News

Jerry Nelson, an astronomer who designed advanced telescopes that help scientists glimpse far reaches of the universe, has died. He was 73.

UC Santa Cruz, where Nelson was a professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics, said he died June 10 at his home. No cause was given.

Nelsons design using dozens of segmented mirrors rather than a single large one was the basis for the Keck Observatory's twin 10-meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii. Those telescopes, among the largest in use, have allowed scientists to measure the black hole at the center of the Milky Way and to spot planetary bodies outside our solar system.

Jerrys impacts on the field of astronomy and astrophysics are legendary, and we will all benefit from his legacy for many years to come, said Claire Max, director of UC Observatories.

Nelsons concept has since been used for other large ground-based telescopes around the world. The space-based James Webb telescope, which is under construction, also has a segmented primary mirror design.

Nelson also played an important role in the development of adaptive optics technology, which sharpens the images from ground-based telescopes by correcting for the blurring effect of Earths atmosphere, the university said.

Even after a stroke in 2011 that left him partly disabled, Nelson continued work for the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project to build the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere.

His endless curiosity always pushed the scientists around him to think more deeply, and his persistence and continued excellence after his stroke were inspirational to everyone, said Michael Bolte, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

Born near Los Angeles, Nelson earned an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology and a PhD in physics at UC Berkeley, where he taught for years before moving to Santa Cruz. He also worked for more than a decade at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Nelson is survived by his wife, sister, two children from his first marriage and three grandchildren.

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Jerry Nelson dies; astronomer who built advanced telescopes was 73 - Los Angeles Times

WFIRST was the No. 1 rated large-scale mission in the 2010 decadal survey for astrophysics. Credit: NASA illustration

WASHINGTON NASA announced June 22 the selection of an independent review committee that will examine cost and schedule issues with its next flagship astronomy mission, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

NASA said earlier this year it would establish the review committee, a recommendation of a study last year by a National Academies panel examining the progress made on implementing the 2010 astrophysics decadal survey. That panel was concerned about growing cost estimates for WFIRST and its implications for other NASA astrophysics programs.

The committee is co-chaired by Peter Michelson, the chair of the physics department at Stanford University who has worked on high-energy astrophysics missions such as Fermi; and Orlando Figueroa, a retired NASA official whose career included serving as deputy director of the Goddard Space Flight Center and director of NASAs Mars exploration program. The other members include a mix of scientists, engineers and program managers.

We are confident this review will provide the insight and confidence among key stakeholders necessary to move toward what promises to be an exciting science investigation bound to reshape our understanding of the universe, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, said in a statement announcing the membership of the review panel.

WFIRST, the top-ranked large, or flagship, mission in the 2010 decadal, is still in its early phases of development. The mission was scheduled to enter Phase B in October, but agency officials previously said they would delay that until the completion of the independent review and implementation of any recommendations from that report.

We have paused the progress towards the systems requirements review for WFIRST, Paul Hertz, director of NASAs astrophysics division, said in a presentation June 22 to the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee. That independent review committee has already started its work, he said, including meetings with the project.

Hertz said he expected a final report from the panel in the fall. Once we have a report in hand, then NASA will incorporate the reports recommendations into our planning, possibly even impacting our design for WFIRST but certainly our plans for WFIRST, he said. That will delay the project by several months, he added.

WFIRST, an infrared telescope that will use a 2.4-meter mirror assembly provided to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office in 2012, is currently scheduled for launch in the mid-2020s. Hertz said that schedule will depend in large part on funding the mission receives.

The earlier we can make money available, the faster they go and the earlier they launch, he said. Unfortunately, unless my budget goes up, we cant accelerate WFIRST and maintain a balanced program at the same time, so we will not be accelerating WFIRST unless we get additional funds.

Finding that balance is already a struggle for NASAs astrophysics program. NASA requested $90 million for WFIRST in its fiscal year 2017 budget request, but the final appropriations bill passed by Congress in early May provides $105 million for the mission. Hubble and SOFIA also received slight increases, as did a mirror technology program not in the agencys request.

However, the overall astrophysics program received $31 million less than the original request. Taking into account those increases specified for WFIRST and other programs, the rest of the astrophysics division is facing a cut of $47.4 million, or about 11 percent.

Hertz said NASA has submitted an operating plan to Congress that addresses those cuts, but since the plan has yet to be approved he could not discuss its details. Complicating matters, he said, is the fact there is now only a little more than three months left in the fiscal year to incorporate those changes.

The places where we would like to accommodate this reduction we have slowed down our spending on, so that if Congress approves our operating plan, we can actually execute the operating plan we submitted, he said. If they tell us that its unacceptable to slow down on the things that we identified, and they tell us to slow down on something else, then its going to be challenging.

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NASA begins independent review of WFIRST mission - SpaceNews

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) Jerry Nelson, an astronomer who designed advanced telescopes that help scientists glimpse far reaches of the universe, has died in California. He was 73.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, where Nelson was a professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics, said he died June 10 at his home. No cause was given.

Nelson's design using dozens of segmented mirrors rather than a single large one was the basis for the Keck Observatory's twin 10-meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii. Those telescopes, among the largest in use, have allowed scientists to measure the black hole at the center of the Milky Way and to spot planetary bodies outside our solar system.

"Jerry's impacts on the field of astronomy and astrophysics are legendary, and we will all benefit from his legacy for many years to come," said Claire Max, director of UC Observatories.

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Nelson's concept has since been used for other large ground-based telescopes around the world. The space-based James Webb telescope, which is under construction, also has a segmented primary mirror design.

Nelson also played an important role in the development of adaptive optics technology, which sharpens the images from ground-based telescopes by correcting for the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere, the university said.

Even after a stroke in 2011 that left him partly disabled, Nelson continued work for the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project to build the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere.

"His endless curiosity always pushed the scientists around him to think more deeply, and his persistence and continued excellence after his stroke were inspirational to everyone," said Michael Bolte, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

Born near Los Angeles, Nelson earned an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in physics at UC Berkeley, where he taught for years before moving to Santa Cruz. He also worked for more than a decade at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Nelson is survived by his wife, sister, two children from his first marriage and three grandchildren. His first wife died in 1992.

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Jerry Nelson, astronomer who built advanced telescopes, dies - Monterey County Herald

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.

Jerry Nelson, an astronomer who designed advanced telescopes that help scientists glimpse far reaches of the universe, died in his Santa Cruz home. He was 73.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, where Nelson was a professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics, said he died June 10. No cause of death was given.

Nelson's design using dozens of segmented mirrors rather than a single large one was the basis for the Keck Observatory's twin 10-meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii. Those telescopes, among the largest in use, have allowed scientists to measure the black hole at the center of the Milky Way and to spot planetary bodies outside our solar system.

"Jerry's impacts on the field of astronomy and astrophysics are legendary, and we will all benefit from his legacy for many years to come," said Claire Max, director of UC Observatories.

Nelson's concept has since been used for other large ground-based telescopes around the world. The space-based James Webb telescope, which is under construction, also has a segmented primary mirror design.

Nelson also played an important role in the development of adaptive optics technology, which sharpens the images from ground-based telescopes by correcting for the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere, the university said.

Even after a stroke in 2011 that left him partly disabled, Nelson continued work for the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project to build the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere.

"His endless curiosity always pushed the scientists around him to think more deeply, and his persistence and continued excellence after his stroke were inspirational to everyone," said Michael Bolte, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

Born near Los Angeles, Nelson earned an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in physics at UC Berkeley, where he taught for years before moving to Santa Cruz. He also worked for more than a decade at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Nelson is survived by his wife, sister, two children and three grandchildren. His first wife died in 1992.

UC Santa Cruz issued the following press release:

"Jerry Nelson, a pioneering astronomer known for his innovative designs for advanced telescopes, died June 10.

A professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, Nelson was project scientist for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and had served as project scientist for the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii from 1985 through 2012.

Nelson conceived the revolutionary segmented mirror design of the Keck Observatory's twin 10-meter telescopes, and he developed new techniques to fabricate and control the mirror segments. Each telescope has an array of 36 hexagonal segments, precisely aligned to act as a single reflective surface. This design has since been used for other large ground-based telescopes, and the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope also has a segmented primary mirror design.

Nelson also played an important role in the development of adaptive optics technology, which sharpens the images from ground-based telescopes by correcting for the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere.

As founding director of the Center for Adaptive Optics, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center based at UC Santa Cruz, Nelson helped pioneer the use of adaptive optics in astronomy.

Claire Max, director of UC Observatories and the Bachman Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UCSC, said Nelson was a renowned figure in the international astronomy community. "Jerry's impacts on the field of astronomy and astrophysics are legendary, and we will all benefit from his legacy for many years to come. He was a wonderful colleague and mentor to many of us," she said.

Much of Nelson's early research was in the area of high-energy physics and astrophysics. He analyzed the results of particle accelerator experiments and studied high-energy astrophysical phenomena such as pulsars using innovative astronomical instruments of his own design.

Nelson presented the concepts that led to segmented-mirror telescopes in a series of papers and technical reports starting in 1977, often working with UC colleagues Terry Mast and Gary Chanan. The largest telescopes at that time had been fashioned by polishing a single glass "blank" to the requisite precision of a small fraction of the wavelength of visible light. In order to maintain that surface, the polished mirrors had to be very thick and were therefore heavy, which was a problem for larger mirrors. Nelson's idea was to create a single, high-precision optical surface by supporting individual hexagonal mirrors in a close-packed honeycomb configuration. Making this concept a reality required a series of innovative ideas for fabrication, measurement, and control of the mirror segments.

Nearly twice the diameter and four times the light-gathering capacity of the previous largest ground-based telescopes, the twin Keck Telescopes had an enormous impact on astronomy and astrophysics research.

"The segmented-mirror design will be seen as one of the major turning points in telescope technology and one that opened the path to much larger telescopes on the ground and in space in the coming decades," said Michael Bolte, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. Bolte, who serves on the TMT Board of Directors, said the TMT's 30-meter primary mirror design is essentially a scaled up version of the Keck primary mirrors.

After suffering a stroke in 2011, Nelson coped with significant physical limitations but remained deeply engaged in TMT design work. "He was a wonderful colleague. His endless curiosity always pushed the scientists around him to think more deeply, and his persistence and continued excellence after his stroke were inspirational to everyone," Bolte said.

A symposium to honor Nelson was already planned for July 13 and 14 in Santa Cruz, featuring talks by many of the eminent astronomers who worked with him over the years. The gathering will now serve as a memorial celebration of his life, Bolte said."

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Santa Cruz astronomer Jerry Nelson dies - KSBW The Central Coast

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) Jerry Nelson, an astronomer who designed advanced telescopes that help scientists glimpse far reaches of the universe, has died in California. He was 73.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, where Nelson was a professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics, said he died June 10 at his home. No cause was given.

Nelsons design using dozens of segmented mirrors rather than a single large one was the basis for the Keck Observatorys twin 10-meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii. Those telescopes, among the largest in use, have allowed scientists to measure the black hole at the center of the Milky Way and to spot planetary bodies outside our solar system.

Jerrys impacts on the field of astronomy and astrophysics are legendary, and we will all benefit from his legacy for many years to come, said Claire Max, director of UC Observatories.

Nelsons concept has since been used for other large ground-based telescopes around the world. The space-based James Webb telescope, which is under construction, also has a segmented primary mirror design.

Nelson also played an important role in the development of adaptive optics technology, which sharpens the images from ground-based telescopes by correcting for the blurring effect of Earths atmosphere, the university said.

Even after a stroke in 2011 that left him partly disabled, Nelson continued work for the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project to build the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere.

His endless curiosity always pushed the scientists around him to think more deeply, and his persistence and continued excellence after his stroke were inspirational to everyone, said Michael Bolte, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

Born near Los Angeles, Nelson earned an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in physics at UC Berkeley, where he taught for years before moving to Santa Cruz. He also worked for more than a decade at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Nelson is survived by his wife, sister, two children from his first marriage and three grandchildren. His first wife died in 1992.

Read more:

Jerry Nelson, astronomer who built advanced telescopes, dies - WTOP

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Source: University of Queensland

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Image of gravitational waves generated by a binary black hole system. Source: University of Queensland

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