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SOFIA airborne observatory begins 2015 science campaign

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14 hours ago NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is seen performing ground tests prior to its first science flight of 2015. The year's first mission was flown on the night of Jan. 13/14, with the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT) spectrometer on board. Credit: NASA/USRA/Greg Perryman

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, Program began its third season of science flights on Jan. 13, 2015. SOFIA is NASA's next generation flying observatory and is fitted with a 2.5-meter (100-inch) diameter telescope that studies the universe at infrared wavelengths.

"Last night's flight used the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT) spectrometer to study the chemical composition and motions of gas in a star-forming region, a young star, and a supernova remnant," said Pamela Marcum, NASA's SOFIA project scientist. "Observing at infrared wavelengths enables us to see through interstellar dust to record the spectral signatures of molecules in these regions. From this we can study the abundances of molecules and their formation process."

Water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere absorbs infrared radiation, preventing a large section of the infrared spectrum from reaching ground-based observatories. SOFIA is a heavily modified Boeing 747 Special Performance jetliner that flies at altitudes between 39,000 to 45,000 feet (12 to 14 km), above more than 99 percent of Earth's atmospheric water vapor giving astronomers the ability to study celestial objects at wavelengths that cannot be seen from ground-based observatories.

"The flights in January will conclude SOFIA's second annual observing series, known as Cycle 2, and the observatory will begin the Cycle 3 programs in March," said Erick Young, SOFIA's observatory director and a member of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) team that operates the SOFIA Science Center at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. "Plans for Cycle 3 include 70 flights with more than 400 hours of science observations. The observations will span a broad range of astronomical topics including the interstellar medium, star formation, stars, bodies in our solar system, and extrasolar planets."

The observatory is expected to make a deployment to the Southern Hemisphere in June 2015, with science flights based out of Christchurch, New Zealand. There scientists will have the opportunity to observe areas of interest such as the Galactic Center and other parts of the Milky Way that are not visible from the Northern Hemisphere.

Explore further: NASA begins testing of new spectrograph on SOFIA observatory

(Phys.org) Astronomers are eagerly waiting to begin use of a new instrument to study celestial objects: a high-resolution, mid-infrared spectrograph mounted on NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared ...

NASA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the SOFIA Science Center, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) have announced the selection of 51 investigations to study the universe using the Stratospheric Observatory ...

(Phys.org)The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, a joint program between NASA and the German Aerospace Center DLR, is set to begin its first full cycle of science flights starting ...

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SOFIA airborne observatory begins 2015 science campaign

Can Crowdfunded Astronomy Work? (Op-Ed)

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Mark Jackson is the founder of Fiat Physica. He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The U.S. budget crises over the last decade have been particularly harsh to physics and astronomy. In 2004, the Hubble Space Telescope was nearly defunded until public outcry ensured its continuing operation. In 2011, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee tried to cancel NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, only for it to be saved by the U.S. Senate at the last moment.

That same year, the NASA Constellation Program was not so lucky. The five-year, $9 billion project was intended to succeed NASA's Space Shuttle Program and usher in a new era of human spaceflight. Many people anticipated that this project would lead to astronauts not only returning to the moon, but venturing as far into deep space as Mars. Deemed too expensive and behind schedule, it was removed in the 2011 federal budget.

In the face of a global economic downturn, one might ask why such astronomy funding should be a priority at all. My personal viewpoint one that I believe is shared by many people is that, if we do not try to understand our place in the universe, what point is there in doing anything else? But the public and Congress often need other, more tangible, reasons. For them, here's the best possible answer: Space research is an excellent technological and financial investment.

A vested interest in investment

In 1962, NASA established the Technology Utilization Plan, which makes NASA technologies available to the commercial marketplace. The research pioneered at NASA has led to nearly 1,800 spinoff technologies, including cellphone cameras, breast-cancer detection software, and airplane wing design so efficient it has saved more than 2 billion gallons of jet fuel.

For every dollar invested in NASA, spinoff technologies have boosted the economy by $7 to $14. If Americans want the next generation to continue to benefit from such technological developments, we need to invest in the space research of today.

Just as crowdsourcing has emerged as a new way to solve immense scientific problems, crowdfunding is emerging as a way to address the immense scientific funding crisis. Crowdsourcing, in which many participants use the Internet to contribute bits of content toward a larger goal, has allowed problems of previously insurmountable scale to be efficiently analyzed and solved. Astronomy has been at the forefront of this "citizen science" approach.

For example, Galaxy Zoo invites the public to classify galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which then led to the Zooniverse, a collection of citizen-science projects in all areas of science (and even the humanities) that currently boasts more than 1 million members.

Crowdfunding physics and astronomy

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Can Crowdfunded Astronomy Work? (Op-Ed)

For Berit Madsen's documentary star Sepideh, the sky's not the limit

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Danish film-maker Berit Madsen's documentary, Sepideh, Reaching For The Stars.

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Danish film-maker Berit Madsen recognised her documentary subject almost as soon as she set eyes on her.

Sepideh Hooshyar is passionate about stars and inspired by Albert Einstein.

She didn't necessarily have a film in mind, she says, when she heard about a small town in the south of Iran where an astronomy club was thriving, and schoolchildren went out to go stargazing.

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She was already making a trip to the country, she says, "and I was just so curious, so I decided to change my schedule, and see what was going on".

"I met Sepideh, and from that moment of fate, I knew that there was a film; that I needed to follow that girl and see what was going to happen in her life."

Sepideh, Reaching For The Stars is the story of Sepideh Hooshyar, who was 14 when Madsen met her; a girl in a chador lugging around a large telescope more than half her height.

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For Berit Madsen's documentary star Sepideh, the sky's not the limit

UF professor discovers new planets through astronomy research over 6 years

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Jian Ge has explored the universe searching for other planets in the solar system since 2006.

In six years, the UF astronomy professor said he discovered 51 new planets, 38 brown dwarfs and 285 binary star systems, which are two stars that share the same orbit.

He conducted his research in New Mexico with a machine he built called MARVELS, which stands for Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large Area Survey.

Ge said he specifically wanted to study the formation of giant planets.

We try to understand the giant planets formation and evolution, he said.

Ge said he plans to lead another project in the future to gather a larger sample. He said he will hopefully be able to scan several hundred stars with improving technology, as opposed to the 60 he has been limited to studying during each exploration.

He said his team needs to improve its data processing for future observations.

In order to find these giant planets, you need a big sample, Ge said.

Natalie Foster, a UF astrophysics senior, said its vital to continue exploring and studying the universe for other planets.

Its important, said Foster, 21, because were trying to find out where other life in the universe is.

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UF professor discovers new planets through astronomy research over 6 years

UCA's planetarium, observatory invites community to explore astronomy

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The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Central Arkansas invites the public to experience astronomical phenomena through a different scope on the universitys campus.

This spring, three planetarium shows are planned Feb. 4, March 4 and April 1 and four observatory nights are scheduled Jan. 21, Feb. 18, March 18 and April 15.

Admission is free and open to anyone in the community for the shows.

Planned programs are subject to cancellation or delay based on the possibility of technical difficulties or weather.

Scott Austin, director of UCA Astronomical Facilities, said the planetarium in Lewis Science Center 010 acts as a sky theater for the audience to see a projection of how the sky appears on a 30-foot diameter dome through a Spitz 512 projector.

What I do for these shows for the general public is, I give a tour of the sky for that particular month, he said. The stars, the constellations, planets, special events like meteor showers.

Each planetarium show, about an hour in length, also includes flying the audience through astronomical data.

The 60-seat planetarium in UCAs Lewis Science Center hosts the shows on Wednesdays starting at 7 p.m.

I go over scientific discoveries so theres a science education aspect to it, Austin said, adding that hes explained landings on Mars and comet fly-bys at previous shows.

Austin said the program began in the 1980s upon completion of an addition to Lewis Science Center. He has been in charge of the planetarium programs here since 2000.

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UCA's planetarium, observatory invites community to explore astronomy

Two astronomy missions back from the brink

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Despite losing two of its four reaction wheels, NASAs Kepler spacecraft has found new lifeand new planetswith its K2 mission. (credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle )

For all the challenges involved in flying a space astronomy mission, from the technical issues during its development through launch, scientists want to ensure that the missions work as long as possible when (and if) they start operating. In many cases, it may be scientists only opportunity in their professional careers to carry out these observations, and use them as the basis for later missions.

Two missions in NASAs portfolio of astronomy missions, though, recently faced untimely ends, albeit for different reasons. The Kepler spacecraft ran into technical problems in 2013 when the second of four reaction wheels, used to accurately point the spacecraft at a specific region of the sky, failed. Last year, the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)not a space mission per se, but an airborne observatory carrying out observations not possible from the groundwas facing cancellation by the agency as a cost-cutting measure.

Today, though, both Kepler and SOFIA have survived their brushes with programmatic death. SOFIA got mostbut not allof its funding back in the final fiscal year 2015 spending bill, enough to keep the airborne observatory flying. Kepler, meanwhile, has found success in an alternative mission, even as scientists continue to analyze the data it collected in its four-year original mission.

SOFIA was in the process of being declared operational last year when it was hit with a budgetary surprise. The Obama Administrations 2015 budget request slashed the projects budget from $87.4 million it received in 2014 to only $12.3 million. NASA said constrained budgets forced it to make the decision to cut SOFIA funding. It turned out that we had to make very difficult choices about where we go with astrophysics and planetary science and Earth science, and SOFIA happened to be what fell off the plate this time, administrator Charles Bolden said last March (see Aborted takeoff, The Space Review, March 17, 2014).

A few months later, SOFIAs fortunes were changing. The House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill in late May that largely restored the projects budget, back to $70 million. A bill under consideration (but never passed) in the Senate offered $87 million for the project. However, those involved with SOFIA had to wait until Congress passed the omnibus spending bill last month to officially be out of the woods. That bill, like the House version, provides $70 million for SOFIA.

That amount is enough to allow SOFIA to resume science observations later this month (it had been undergoing maintenance for the second half of 2014), although project officials said last week theyre still working to determine the effect the lower funding levela 20-percent cut versus 2014will have on operations.

There will be some impacts due to the cut for this year, SOFIA project scientist Pamela Marcum said at a SOFIA town hall meeting last week at the 225th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle.

Marcum said the project is assuming that the 2015 funding level is a transient dip that will be restored to the earlier, higher level in future budgets. Therefore, the decisions we are making to address the budget challenge for this year should not have permanent ripple effects for the duration of the program, she said, although she did not disclose the options under discussion to implement that cut.

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Two astronomy missions back from the brink

Docker and Radio Astronomy – Containing Fragile Scientific Software by Gijs Molenaar – Video

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Docker and Radio Astronomy - Containing Fragile Scientific Software by Gijs Molenaar
As a scientific software engineer in the field of radio astronomy, I #39;m involved in creating, improving and maintaining a broad range of tools used by scienti...

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Docker and Radio Astronomy - Containing Fragile Scientific Software by Gijs Molenaar - Video

Target project and the Center for Information Technology driving astronomy forward – Video

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Target project and the Center for Information Technology driving astronomy forward
This short video interview with Prof. Edwin Valentijn, the Target project coordinator shows you how our petabyte scale data center at the Center for Information Technology enables astronomers...

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Target project and the Center for Information Technology driving astronomy forward - Video

UH seeks new leases for astronomy facilities on Mauna Kea

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The University of Hawaii is seeking new master leases for its astronomy facilities on Mauna Kea, replacing its leases with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources,The Tribune Herald reported Saturday.

An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) preparation notice was published Thursday, which explores a proposal for a new 65-year lease covering the Mauna Kea Science Reserve and Halepohaku mid-level facilities and potential alternatives, according to the report.

Under the EIS, development will only be on areas withexisting subleases.

Under this and all other alternatives, astronomical and related facilities on Mauna Kea would be restricted to existing sublease areas, the EIS preparation notice states. No new sites would be developed.

A formalEIS and comments will be accepted on the document until Feb. 6.

The current master leases for the 11,288-acre science reserveexpire Dec. 31, 2033. The Halepohaku leases will expire in 2041.

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UH seeks new leases for astronomy facilities on Mauna Kea

Night Sky to Offer Treats to Astronomy Fans

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Free public viewings of comet and Jupiter will take place Jan. 13 and Jan. 23, respectively, at UC Riverside

By Iqbal Pittalwala on January 9, 2015

Comet Lovejoy.Photo credit: NASA/MSFC/MEO/Aaron Kingery

RIVERSIDE, Calif. Astronomy enthusiasts are in for a treat in the coming weeks. Actually, two treats.

On Tuesday, Jan. 13, the public will have an opportunity to view Comet Lovejoy, designated C2014/Q2, through telescopes set up at the University of California, Riverside, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The viewing will take place in the lawn south of Pierce Hall and the Science Laboratories 1 Building, a short walk from the bell tower. UC Riverside astronomers will be available to discuss the comet in English, Spanish and Farsi.

Lovejoy C2014/Q2, discovered in August 2012 by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy in Australia, is the first comet visible with the naked eye in 2015.

Most comets dont achieve such a high brightness, so this is a perfect opportunity to go into dark sky areas, or use your binoculars and telescopes, to watch an easily identifiable comet, said Mario de Leo Winkler, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, who is organizing the viewing. Predicting how the brightness of the comet will evolve with time is a very hard task and full of unexpected changes. Lovejoy C2014/Q2 entered the naked-eye visibility threshold brightness magnitude 6 or less in mid-December and is expected to stay that way until mid-February. Peak brightness is expected in mid-January, around 4.1 magnitude.

De Leo Winkler explained that the comet is crossing the night sky fast, going higher above the horizon as January progresses, making it easier to see it, from the Northern Hemisphere, near constellations Orion, Taurus and Perseus. The comets orbital period around the sun was estimated at 11,000 years before it entered the gravitational pull of all planets and the sun. It has now been altered to 8,000 year, approximately, after its inner-Solar System path.

The closest it will be to the sun, its perihelion, will be on Jan. 30, De Leo Winkler said.

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Night Sky to Offer Treats to Astronomy Fans


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