Daily Archives: September 29, 2021

Every decade the United States astronomy community comes together to debate the future of their scientific field. With limited resources, both in research funding and time, astronomers decide what questions they are most interested in pursuing and recommend telescopes that can help them answer those questions. Its a process by astronomers, for astronomers, but their decisions are primarily funded through federal dollars and lead to scientific discoveries and images, which make their way into public discourse. The Hubble Space Telescope and its breathtaking views of the universe exist in part because of this practice, called the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics. The National Academy of Sciences is due to release their updated Decadal Survey later this year, and the astronomy community anxiously awaits to see the latest recommendations from a 50-plus year process that has led to some of the most groundbreaking and iconic projects in modern astronomical history.

This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, is packed with a cluster of galaxies along with a few foreground stars. Hubble received priority status in the 1970s Decadal Survey, was funded, and became the first of NASAs Great Observatories to be launched into space. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Pacaud, D. Coe)

It takes more than one type of telescope to observe all the light and information streaming towards Earth from the near and distant universe. This means that different astronomical questions rely on different types of telescopes to answer them. Want to study planets orbiting other stars? Youll get the best data flying a telescope on a plane in the high Earth atmosphere or, better yet, launching a telescope into space. Want to study supernovae? The high energy gamma rays created by a supernova explosion can only be studied directly with a space telescope that uses special detectors. How about neutrinos? These elusive particles that can help astronomers discover the sources of cosmic rays are best studied with observatories built deep beneath Earths surface. Each area of research requires building very different observatories so astronomers must choose where they want to focus their efforts.

Telescopes are designed to measure different types of light and are often placed above Earths atmosphere, which blocks many types of light from reaching the surface. (STScI/JHU/NASA)

Through the process of prioritizing astronomical questions and instruments, the Decadal Survey serves as a recommendation to Congress on where federal money should be allocated to NASA for astronomical research. Large observatories, whether they are located underground, built on a tall mountain, flown through the atmosphere, or launched into space, are expensive endeavors and take years of development and construction. Because of these constraints, astronomers often have to decide if they prefer several small and mid-range telescopes or one or two extremely large telescopes. In addition to prioritizing future research topics and the required instruments of those projects, astronomers also consider the current state of previously constructed observatories.

The first three decadal surveys prioritized a suite of space-based telescopes that covered the universe from the infrared to gamma rays. These four space telescopes became known as NASAs Great Observatories and have been the bedrock for astronomical research in space for the last 30 years. The 1970 report prioritized what became the Hubble Space Telescope and a series of high energy astrophysical observatories, which led to the development of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The 1980 report prioritized the Chandra X-ray Observatory and, in the 1990s, the Spitzer Space Telescope and infrared astronomy received the highest ranking.

This image of spiral galaxy M101 is a composite of data from three of NASAs Great Observatories. Chandras X-ray data (top right) is shown in blue, Hubbles optical data (middle right) in yellow, and Spitzers infrared data (bottom right) in red. Combined these observatories create a more detailed look of the universe. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ ESA/STScI/K. Gordon /CXC/JHU/K.Kuntz et al.)

In the 2000 and 2010 Decadal Surveys, astronomers focused on continued pressing questions in astronomy, most notably: How did galaxies evolve from birth? How do planetary systems form and evolve? What is dark energy? Where are the potentially habitable planets? Two of the space telescopes prioritized were the Next Generation Space Telescope, now called the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and the Wide-Field Infrared Telescope, now called the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The 2000 and 2010 Decadal Surveys also established a stronger collaboration with international partners in effort to coordinate large-scale projects that are too costly for the U.S. to carry out on its own, a crucial element for JWST, whose budget has increased significantly since its start. After several delays, JWST is currently scheduled to launch in December 2021, after which astronomers hope to fulfill the Decadal Surveys expectation and make discoveries that will rival those of the Hubble Space Telescope when it was first launched. The Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to be launched in 2025.

Engineers completed final tests of the James Webb Space Telescope at Northrop Grumman facilities in California. The tennis court-sized sunshield was folded and stored. This was the final stop before being shipped to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, along the northern coast of South America. (Northrop Grumman)

Astronomers proposed four space telescopes for consideration in the 2020s Decadal Survey:

Each telescope has its strengths, but together they have the potential to form what astronomer Grant Tremblay calls the New Great Observatories. Chances are low that the Decadal Survey will recommend pursuing all four telescopes together, but each poses a unique view of the many mysteries of the universe.

The Lynx X-ray Observatory is one of the four NASA Strategic Mission concepts under consideration by the 2020 Decadal Survey. If funded and developed, Lynx promises to transform our understanding of black holes, the evolution of galaxies, and supernova. (Grant Tremblay, CC-BY-SA-4.0)

The Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics holds immense power in directing future research and discovery. These recommendations to NASA have resulted in budget requests and approvals that have led to huge advances in astronomical research and instrumentation. After the 2020 Decadal Survey is released and prioritizations are made, the next stage of development can begin, where one or more of these telescopes is launched into space in the coming decades.

Concept art of the James Webb Space Telescope. (NASA)

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The Great Observatories: Directing the Future of Astronomical Research - National Air and Space Museum

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science

September 28, 2021

Aerial view of University of Washington campus in Seattle.Alex Alspaugh/University of Washington

Science is in the midst of a data deluge: Experiments are churning out more information than researchers can process. But a new endeavor, centered on artificial intelligence, will help scientists navigate this data-rich reality.

On Sept. 28, the National Science Foundation announceda $15 million, five-year grant to integrate AI tools into the scientific research and discovery process. The award will fund the Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery Institute or A3D3 Institute a partnership of nine universities, led by the University of Washington.

The A3D3 Institute aims to accelerate the discovery pipeline by providing scientists with new, paradigm-shifting AI tools for analyzing the types of large and complex datasets that are an increasingly common feature of research from medical laboratories to particle colliders.

Shih-Chieh HsuUniversity of Washington

I have been fortunate to work with an exceptional group of talented researchers, and am thrilled to continue to be a part of solving some of the most fundamental issues in science and engineering. The ultimate goal of A3D3 is to construct the institutional knowledge essential for real-time applications of AI in any scientific field, said Shih-Chieh Hsu, a UW associate professor of physics and director of the A3D3 Institute. A3D3 will empower scientists with new tools to deal with the coming data deluge through dedicated outreach efforts.

The A3D3 Institute part of the NSFs Harnessing the Data Revolution program is a collaboration among researchers at the University of Washington; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Duke University; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; the California Institute of Technology; Purdue University; the University of California, San Diego; and the University of WisconsinMadison.

In addition to Hsu, other UW faculty involved with the A3D3 Institute are Scott Hauck, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Amy Orsborn, assistant professor of bioengineering and of electrical and computer engineering; and Eli Shlizerman, associate professor of applied mathematics and of electrical and computer engineering.

A3D3 will combine innovations in AI algorithms and computing platforms with research applications in physics, astronomy and neuroscience.Philip Harris/Massachusetts Institute of Technology

From detectors searching for gravitational waves to electrical sensors monitoring the activity of the brain, research is handing scientists ever-larger datasets to analyze. Experiments are generating more data in part because researchers are developing better tools, from sharper medical imaging techniques to more precise sensors for particle physics experiments. A single experiment at CERNs Large Hadron Collider, for example, can generate 1 petabyte of data thats 1 million gigabytes per second from tens of millions of collisions. But as datasets increase in size and complexity, the algorithms needed to analyze data and put the most relevant bits or bytes before the eyes of scientists run the risk of outstripping current computing capacity.

A3D3 research will focus on developing AI-based algorithms that can perform real-time analyses of large datasets in three data-rich fields: multi-messenger astrophysics, high-energy particle physics and neuroscience.

Scott HauckUniversity of Washington

The advancement of computing power from machine learning techniques on high-performance computing platforms is providing exciting new avenues for scientific discovery, while the unique challenges in high-speed and high-throughput data collection for science applications drive new demands for researchers, said Hauck.

Multi-messenger astrophysics integrates observations of the cosmos from diverse sources including gravitational wave detectors, neutrino detectors and telescopes to identify and study sudden and often violent events in the cosmos like supernovae, stellar collisions and black hole mergers. A3D3 researchers will work to develop AI algorithms that can quickly identify these events and help astronomers to cross-correlate observations of the same event from different sources, building a more complete picture of the types of transient events in our sky.

High-energy physics experiments, such as those studied by Hsu at the Large Hadron Collider, have the potential to upend our understanding of the universe by discovering new types of particles like candidate dark matter particles as well as new fundamental forces. A3D3 efforts will focus on AI-fueled approaches to detect unexpected anomalies in collision data and reconstruct the particles underlying 40 million collisions per second that occur in high-energy experiments. These tools will streamline the downstream analysis processes, accelerating and simplifying the pipeline of discovery.

Amy OrsbornUniversity of Washington

In neuroscience, A3D3 efforts will center on understanding the complex neural networks within the human brain that govern motor functions and process sensory information.

We can now measure more of the brain for longer periods of time. We need new tools to analyze these massive datasets, said Orsborn, who is also a core staff scientist at the Washington National Primate Research Center. Analyzing data quickly will also enable new experiments and therapies where we can intervene based on ongoing brain activity.

Researchers need AI-based algorithms to analyze neural datasets in real time such as electrical recordings from implanted electrodes and for a wide range of basic science studies. A3D3 researchers will focus on developing these types of tools, which can help decipher the neural underpinnings of behaviors like basic motor functions and responses to stimuli.

Eli ShlizermanUniversity of Washington

Critically, A3D3 researchers will focus on developing scalable analysis tools, which can adapt not just to the datasets of today, but also to the massive and intricate datasets expected in the coming decades, said Shlizerman.

With the rapid growth in the amount of data generated by scientific research, the A3D3 Institute also has its eyes on the future. The institute will pursue training and research opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students, including students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in STEM communities. These endeavors will ensure that A3D3s impact spreads and endures beyond its immediate goals, said Hsu.

For more information, contact Hsu at schsu@uw.edu.

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New NSF-funded institute to harness AI for accelerated discoveries in physics, astronomy and neuroscience - UW News

Press Trust of IndiaSep 29, 2021 11:59:28 IST

The Indian Space Research Organisation is exploring the possibility of developing a next-generation astronomy satellite, an official indicated on Tuesday.

ISRO's first mission dedicated for astronomy, AstroSat, launched on 28 September 2015 with its design life of five years, on Tuesday completed six years of its operation.

"It (AstroSat) is expected to last some more years", A S Kiran Kumar who as the then Chairman of ISRO led the mission team, and is presently serving as the chair of the apex science committee at the space agency, told PTI. "We can expect some more results to come which will be path-breaking", he said.

Asked about the possibility of ISRO launching AstroSat-2, he said: "Not AstroSat-2. Next generationthinking is going ondepending on how planning happensfollow-on to this (AstroSat) in a different manner are being looked at".

According to ISRO officials, data from AstroSat is widely utilised for the study of various fields of astronomy, from galactic to extra-galactic and from users from all over the world. The multi-wavelength space observatory, which has five unique X-ray and ultraviolet telescopes working in tandem, had detected extreme-UV light from a galaxy, called AUDFs01, 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth.

The discovery was made by an international team of astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha, at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune and reported in 'Nature Astronomy'.

This team included scientists from India, Switzerland, France, the USA, Japan and the Netherlands. AstroSat has also observed for the very first time rapid variability of high energy (particularly >20keV) X-ray emission from a black hole system, officials noted.

"AstroSat has been a very successful mission and it has produced results which are globally acclaimed", Kiran Kumar said. "Large number of papers have also got published".

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ISRO is thinking of developing next-gen astronomy satellite to follow up on its AstroSat mission - Firstpost

The search for planets beyond our Solar System has grown immensely during the past few decades. To date, 4,521 extrasolar planets have been confirmed in 3,353 systems, with an additional 7,761 candidates awaiting confirmation. With so many distant worlds available for study (and improved instruments and methods), the process of exoplanet studies has been slowly transitioning away from discovery towards characterization.

For example, a team of international scientists recently showed how combining data from multiple observatories allowed them to reveal the structure and composition of an exoplanets upper atmosphere. The exoplanet in question is WASP-127b, a hot Saturn that orbits a Sun-like star located about 525 light-years away. These findings preview how astronomers will characterize exoplanet atmospheres and determine if they are conducive to life as we know it.

The research paper that describes their findings appeared in the December 2020 issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics. It was also the subject of a presentation made during the recent Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021, a virtual conference from September 13th to 24th, 2021. During the presentation, lead author Dr. Romain Allart showed how combining data from space-based, and ground-based telescopes detected clouds in WASP-127bs upper atmosphere and measured their altitudes with unprecedented precision.

Like many exoplanets discovered to date, WASP-127b is a gas giant that orbits very close to its parent star and has a very short orbital period taking less than four days to complete a single orbit. The planet is also 10 billion years old, which is over twice as long as Earth (or our Saturn) has been around. Because of its close orbit, WASP-127b receives 600 times more irradiation than Earth and experiences atmospheric temperatures of up to 1,100C (2012F).

As a result, the planets atmosphere has expanded (or puffed up) to the point that it is 1.3 times as large as Jupiter but far less dense. In fact, WASP-127b is one of the least dense (or fluffiest) exoplanets discovered to date. This makes WASP-127b an ideal candidate for researchers working on atmospheric characterization, as the extended nature of fluffy exoplanets makes them easier to observe.

Using data obtained by the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and visible light measurements from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the ESOs Paranal Observatory in Chile, the team observed WASP-127b as it made two passes in front of its star. Consistent with the Transit Method (aka. Transit Photometry), the team monitored WASP-127 for periodic dips in luminosity that indicated an exoplanet passing in front of the star (transiting) relative to the observation team.

Whereas Hubble obtained optical data that confirmed the transits, the VLTs Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observation (ESPRESSO) instrument obtained spectra from the light passing through WASP-127bs upper atmosphere. Dr. Allart, a Trottier Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREX) at the Universit de Montral, led the study.

The combined data allowed the researchers to trace the altitude of the clouds to an atmospheric layer moving at speeds of about 13.5 to 17 km/s (48,600 km/h; 61,200 mph). They further estimated that the cloud deck altitude conformed to an atmospheric pressure range of between 0.3 and 0.5 millibars. Lastly, they detected signs of tenuous atomic sodium in the atmosphere, though there were no indications of other atomic species or water. As he explained in a recent Europlanet Society statement:

First, as found before in this type of planet, we detected the presence of sodium, but at a much lower altitude than we were expecting. Second, there were strong water vapor signals in the infrared but none at all at visible wavelengths. This implies that water vapor at lower levels is being screened by clouds that are opaque at visible wavelengths but transparent in the infrared.

We dont yet know the composition of the clouds, except that they are not composed of water droplets like on Earth. We are also puzzled about why the sodium is found in an unexpected place on this planet. Future studies will help us understand not only more about the atmospheric structure but about WASP-127b, which is proving to be a fascinating place.

The teams ESPRESSO observations also showed that WASP-127b has a retrograde orbit, meaning that it orbits in the opposite direction of its stars rotation and that it orbits on a different plane than the stars equatorial. Such alignment is unexpected for a hot Saturn in an old stellar system and might be caused by an unknown companion, said Allart. All these unique characteristics make WASP-127b a planet that will be very intensely studied in the future.

These include space-based observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Nancy Grace Roman State Telescope (RST). Then there are ground-based observatories like the ESOs Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). With their combination of advanced imaging, coronagraphs, and/or adaptive optics, these facilities will allow astronomers to conduct detailed studies of exoplanet atmospheres.

Just as important is the fact that these studies will include rocky planets that orbit with the habitable zones (HZs) of their stars, not just gas giants with very distant or very close orbits (as was the case here). Since these Earth-like candidates are expected to be the most likely candidates for habitability, astrobiologists anticipate that it wont be long before they find evidence of extraterrestrial life!

While the results of these studies are somewhat limited, the implications of the teams research are anything but. In addition to demonstrating the effectiveness of combining data from multiple observatories, it also illustrates how astronomers are getting closer to the point where they can fully characterize an exoplanets atmosphere. With the introduction of next-generation observatories in the near future, these capabilities will become far greater.

Further Reading: Europlanet, Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Astronomers Detect Clouds on an Exoplanet, and Even Measure Their Altitude - Universe Today

Scientists consider early galaxies to be those formed within 3 billion years after the Big Bang. They believe the galaxies would contain large amounts of cold hydrogen gas, which is the fuel used for creating stars. However, scientists studying early massive galleries using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered six mysterious galaxies that are very different from what they expected to find in the early universe.

The six galaxies, known as quenched galaxies, are no longer forming stars. The galaxies were selected for observation as part of the REsolving QUIEscent Magnified galaxies at high redshift or REQUIEM survey. Kate Whitaker is the lead author on the study and assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She says the most massive galaxies in the universe created stars in a very short timeframe. Initially, scientists believed that gas shouldve been plentiful in the early universe, and the galaxies stopped star production only a few billion years after the Big Bang.

However, in the new study, the team determined the galaxies have run out of fuel to make stars rather than simply stopping star formation. Using observations from Hubble and ALMA, the researchers observed continuum emission, which is a tracer of dust, at millimeter wavelengths. Those observations allow the inference of the amount of gas left in the galaxies. REQUIEM leverages the two telescopes and gravitational lensing to observe dormant galaxies with higher spatial resolution.

The survey allowed a clear view of whats going on inside these distant galaxies, which is frequently impossible for quenched galaxies. When galaxies stop making stars, they get very faint very quickly, making them difficult or impossible to observe using individual telescopes. The observations found that the end of star formation in the six target galaxies wasnt caused by inefficiency in converting cold gas to stars. Rather, the end of star formation in the galaxies was caused by the depletion or removal of gas reservoirs within the galaxies. Scientists dont yet understand why that happened, but it could be related to the activity of a supermassive black hole.

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Astronomers discover six early galaxies that have run out of fuel - SlashGear

The heavens look gorgeous through the lenses of expert astrophotographers. Nebulas, galaxies, the moon and sun, and even the stars take on an artistic glow when captured with the right eye, equipment and light. Here's a look at stunning astronomy images from the Royal Observatory Greenwich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.(Read more about the competition and its winners.)

The overall winner of the 13th annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year award is photographer Shuchang Dong of China, who took this unearthly shot of an annular solar eclipse from the Ali region of Tibet on June 21, 2020. The image also won in the "Our Sun" category of the competition.

The photograph is "moody, serene, perfectly captured and expertly processed. You feel as if you could reach into the sky and place this onto your finger," said contest judge Steve Marsh.

(Equipment used:Fujifilm XT-4 camera; Sun: 386 mm f/10 lens, ISO 160, 1/2000-second exposure; Moving cloud: ND1000 filter, 386 mm f/16 lens, ISO 160, 1-second exposure)

Runner-up in the "Our Sun" category goes to a stunning image of an eclipse, which shows the tendrils of the sun's upper atmosphere (corona) as well as bright spots seen during eclipses called Bailey's Beads. Most surprising is comet C/2020 X3 (SOHO), swooping in from the far right side of the image. French photographer Vincent Bouchama caught this shot from Argentina.

(Equipment used:William OpticsZenithStar61II APO telescope, Williams Optics Flat 61lensat f/5.9, Vixen GPDSkySensor2000PC mount, Canon EOS 760D camera; Sky, sun and comet: ISO 200800, 1/8000.6-second exposures; Moon:ISO 200800,0.6-second exposures; Prominences and Baily's beads: ISO 200, 1/4000-second exposures)

A prominence of hydrogen dances off the sun in this image captured by American Alan Friedman from Buffalo, New York. This image took home a "highly commended" in the "Our Sun" category.

"This beautiful large prominence graced the limb of the Sun over several days and was recorded in good seeing conditions," Alan said in a statement. "Good seeing conditions here refer to the steadiness of the Earth's atmosphere rather than to cloudless skies. Only when the atmospheric turbulence is low can fine details and structures be seen with clarity."

(Equipment used:Astro-Physics92mm f/4.8 Stowaway refractor telescope working at 1.7 m focal length withBaaderFFC, 90 mm CoronadoSolarmaxHa filter,Astro-Physics1200 mount, Grasshopper 2MP monochrome streaming camera, 1/1000-second exposure)

The Northern Lights dance over the approach to the Kara Strait in Russia in this image taken in a 25-second exposure by Russian photographer Dmitrii Rybalka that won the Astronomy Photographer of the Year "Aurorae" category.

"I was keeping watch at night as Third Officer on the bridge of the ship, when I noticed in the sky a tiny white band approaching like a snake," Rybalka said in a statement. "I knew already, this is it, this is that I was waiting for. I took my camera, went to the bridge wing, took my position and started waiting, like a hunter waiting for its prey. A few minutes later, the sky was full of bright green lights dancing in darkness and shining over everything on their way."

(Equipment used:Sony ILCE-7M3 camera, 28 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 100, 25-second exposure)

Finnish photographer Thomas Kast caught the aurora in conjunction with the moonrise in Lapland. This image was the runner-up in the "Aurorae" category of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

"It was a quiet, calm night at this lake watching the moonrise when suddenly the aurora became very strong and started to dance quickly," Kast said. "Further out on the lake there was fog which gave the Moon a nice circle as well. The reflections were magical!"

Equipment used:Nikon D850 camera, 15 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 400, 1.6-second exposure

The semifrozen Goafoss waterfall in northern Iceland provides an icy counterpoint to the Northern Lights in this image, which took home a "highly commended" in the "Aurorae" category of this year's photography competition. Photographer Larryn Rae captured this image on a 14-degree Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) night when the full moon and the aurora flooded the landscape with light.

Equipment used:Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera, 24 mm f/2.5 lens, ISO 2500,16 x 2.5-second exposures

Taking the prize in the competition's "Galaxies" category is Chinese photographer Zhong Wu's "The Milky Ring." This image is a 360-degree image of the Milky Way stitched together with photos taken in China and New Zealand.

Equipment used:Nikon D810a camera, 40 mm f/1.4lens, ISO 8000, 1000 x 6-second exposures

American Russell Croman took runner-up in the "Galaxies" competition with this sparkly spot of the heart of the Triangulum Galaxy, which he took from New Mexico.

"In ideal circumstances, it is just possible to see this galaxy with the naked eye despite being more than two and a half million light years away." Russell said in a statement. "Most magnified images concentrate on the vibrancy and clarity of the billions of stars within. Here, we have something rather different, highlighting the delicate nebulosity of the galaxy. The planets forming around the new stars within those stellar nurseries may one day teem with life of their own."

Equipment used:Takahashi FSQ106 EDX4 530 mm telescope at f/5 andPlaneWave14" CDK 2543 mm telescope at f/7.2, Chroma filters, Software Bisque Paramount MX+ and Paramount ME-II mounts, RB-SII-Ha-OIII composite, 49.5hours total exposure

Recognized as "highly commended" by the Astronomy Photographer of the Year judges, this image seems to smile back at the viewer. An edge-on view of the galaxy NGC 1055 forms a wry smile, while stars in the Milky Way in the foreground seem to twinkle like eyes. The photographers are from France and Australia and captured this image from Chile.

Equipment used:Planewave CDK 17" telescope at f/6.8,Astrodonfilters,Software Bisque Paramount ME mount, SBIG STXL-11002 camera, L-RGB-Ha composite, 27.5 hours total exposure

This shot that seems to come from an alien galaxy is the winner of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 13 "Our Moon" category. As the competition name suggests, it is in fact the surface of Earth's moon, with the crescent of Venus rising above its horizon. French photographer Nicolas Lefaudeux captured this image in daylight.

Equipment used:CelestronC11 2800 mm telescope at f/10,iOptroniEQ30 mount, Basler ACA2500-14GC camera.Occultation: 1 x 2.5-millisecond exposures.Venus: 50 x 2.5-millisecond exposures.Moon: 200 x 15-millisecond exposures

Taking the runner-up spot in the "Our Moon" category is Swedish photographer Goran Strand. Strand's image shows the light of the moon reflecting in suspended ice crystals above a snowy landscape in stersund, Sweden. The tracks belong to a local rabbit.

Equipment used:Nikon Z6 II camera, 14 mm f/5.6 lens, ISO 200, 6 x 15-second exposures

The lunar landscape gets its due in this "highly commended" image in the "Our Moon" category. Australian photographer Stefan Buda increased the color saturation on this image to highlight the desolation of the moon's surface.

Equipment used:Self-built Dall-Kirkham 405 mm telescope at f/16,self-built Alt-Azimuthfork mount,AstrodonRGB filters, ZWO ASI120MM camera, 9,000x 0.0625-secondexposures

The pandemic lockdown of early 2020 led to this image captured in Windsor in the United Kingdom. This image took home the winning prize in the "People and Space" category of this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

Equipment used:Sony ILCE-6600 camera, 8 mm f/4 lens; Foreground: ISO 1600, 8-second exposure; Sky: ISO 1000, 844 x 30-second exposures

The comet NEOWISE streaks across the sky above a ship passing through the Nieuwe Waterweg canal near Rotterdam. Photographer Andr van der Hoeven captured the blurred lights of the moving ship and the comet's long tail superimposed against a purple-blue sunset. The image won runner-up in the "People and Space" category.

Equipment used:Tamron 2470 mm telescope at f/2.8, Nikon D810a camera, ISO 800, 5-second exposure

German photographer Nicholas Roemmelt captured this shot in the snowy mountains of Tyrol, Austria, as astronomical dawn broke over his camping spot. The judges awarded this photograph a "highly commended" recognition in the "People and Space" category.

"The beginning of the astronomical dawn usually marks the end of the shooting for the astro landscape photographer as the Milky Way and its wonderful colours are quickly fading. But this short period in between the night and the very beginning of the new day has always been a very special moment for me," Nicholas said. "It is probably the most calm time of the day and somehow 'soothes my soul.'"

Equipment used:Canon R(a) camera; Sky: 20 mm f/4 lens, MSM rotator, ISO 6400, 5 x 60-second exposures; Foreground: f/2.8lens, ISO 2500, multiple 1/108-second exposures

American photographer Frank Kuszaj wasn't planning to capture a meteor the night he took this photograph, which took him the top prize in the competition's "Planets, Comets and Asteroids" category. He and his friends were planning to photograph nebulae and distant galaxies. But a Quandrantid meteor zoomed by in a green flash, and Kuszaj just happened to be in the right place to capture it in blazing color.

Equipment used:Sony a7R III camera, SkyWatcher Star Adventurer star tracker, 70 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 1-minute exposure

The planet Mars gets all the focus in this runner-up image in the "Planets, Comets and Asteroids" category of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 13 competition. U.K. photographer Damian Peach named the photograph "Perseverance" both in honor of the Mars Rover of the same name and because it took more than 100 nights of observation to catch the perfect conditions for this photograph.

The atmosphere of Venus glows with residual light from the sun in this "highly commended" image in the "Planets, Comets and Asteroids" category.

"This picture of Venus took my breath away. I was drawn to the contrast between darkness and light. The extended crescent resembles our Moon and yet is different, evoking a sense of familiarity and otherworldliness at the same time," said competition judge Imad Ahmed.

The dunes of Death Valley National Park echo the desolation of the moon in this winning shot in the "Skyscapes" category of the 2021 competition. U.S. photographer Jeffrey Lovelace hiked deep into the park's dunes to capture this shot just after sunset.

Equipment used:Sony ILCE-7RM4 camera; Sand and sky: 70 mm f/8 lens, ISO 400, Sand: 30-second exposure, Sky: 1-second exposure; Moon: 200 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 100, Moon face: 2.5-second exposure, Moon edge: 1/100-second exposure

Mount Etna erupts in Sicily while the moon floats above it all in this runner-up shot in the "Skyscapes" category.

"In February 2021, Etna showed intense volcanic activity spewing ash columns and lava fountains more than 500 metres high. These were mostly located near the new south-east crater which poured numerous lava flows into the Bove Valley," photographer Dario Giannobile said. "They were short in duration but accompanied by intense activity that fractured the structure of the crater from which the flows poured. On 25 February, Mount Etna again showed intense activity and I placed myself at the Piano Bello refuge, calculating the exact position so that the Moon would set near the crater, aligning itself just above."

Equipment used:Canon EOS 6D camera, Sigma 150600 mm lens at 347 mm f/5.6; Foreground: ISO 800, 5-second exposure; Moon: ISO 100, 1/125-second exposure

An unreal skyscape appeared over Lugu Lake in Yunnan, China in early 2021, and photographer Jin Yang was there to capture the brilliant colors of the clouds, earning a "highly commended" in the "Skyscapes" category.

"This incredible phenomenon lasted for ten days in total and promised good luck for the New Year in Chinese folklore," the photographer said. "If Van Gogh saw this beautiful scenery, he would certainly marvel at the extraordinary craftsmanship of nature saying how fantastic it is."

Equipment used:Canon 6D2 camera, Sigma 546 mm f/8 lens, ISO 100, 1/640-second exposure

U.S. photographer Terry Hancock captured this shot of the California Nebula from Whitewater, Colorado, spending seven nights photographing this nebula 1,000 light-years from Earth with narrowband and broadband filters. It took home the top prize in the "Stars and Nebulae" 2021 category.

Equipment used:Takahashi FSQ130 telescope at f/5, Chroma Narrowband filters, Paramount ME mount, QHY600M camera, L-RGB-Ha-SII-OIII composite; 16.1-hours total exposure

IC 2944, also known as the Running Chicken Nebula, shines in red and blue in this runner-up image of the "Stars and Nebulae" category of the 2021 astronomy photography competition. Romanian photographer Bogdan Borz captured this image of the nebula 6,000 light-years away from Chile.

Equipment used:AstroSystemeAustria 500mm Newtonian telescope at f/3.8,Astrodonfilters, ASA DDM85 Equatorial Mount, FLI Proline PL16803 camera, Ha-SII-OIII composite, 2 hours 42minutes total exposure

"The layers and structures of the Cygnus Loop are so sophisticated," U.S. photographer Min Xie said of the supernova remnant visible in this "highly commended" image in the 2021 "Stars and Nebula" category.

"This is an image that every astronomer and astrophotographer wants to see at least once in their lifetime: the entire, pure Cygnus supernova remnant, cleared from every disturbing element," said Lszl Francsics, competition judge. "As a result, this calm, emblematic bubble structure emerges from the dark, with uncountable details. This astro-image is a unique photograph."

Equipment used:Takahashi FSQ-106EDX III telescope with f/3 0.6x reducer, Chroma filters,Astro-PhysicsMach1GTO CP3 mount, ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool camera, Ha-SII-OIII composite, 168 hours total exposure

The Young photographers category of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition honors photographers under the age of 16. The winning image was taken by a 15-year-old Chinese student who captured shots of every planet in the Solar System besides Earth during the lunar Year of the Rat (2020-2021).

Equipment used:CelestronC8 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, UV/IR cut filter,CelestronAVX mount, ZWOASI-224-MC camera; Sun: 200 mm f/10 lens,Baaderfilter, 750 x 18-millisecond exposures; Moon: Omni 2x Barlow 200 mm f/10 lens, 2,250 x 10-millisecond exposures; Planets: Omni 2x Barlow 4000 mm f/20 lens;multiple746-millisecond exposures

Indian teenagers Hassaana Begam and Aathilah Maryam H. took the runners-up place in the youth category for this striking shot of the nebula complex NGC 6914, located about 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.

Equipment used:SkyWatcherEquinox ED120 double refractor telescope at f/19,Astrodonfilters, NEQ-6 Pro mount, QSI 660 WSG-8 camera, 5.75hours total exposure

Three young competitors were awarded "highly commended" in the Youth category of the 2021 astronomy competition. The first, Dutch 13-year-old Davy van der Hoeven, was recognized for this moody view of the California Nebula.

"This image makes me think of a beach where the waves are hitting the coast during a stormy evening," van der Hoeven said. "I made this image with my father's telescope and camera on a winter evening in November."

Equipment used:WO Spacecat51 telescope at f/4.9,SkyWatcherNEQ6 mount, QSI 583WS camera, 26 x 1200-second exposures

Julian Shapiro, 13, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was highly commended for this image in the Young photographer category. Shapiro used his telescope to locate and photograph Neptune and its largest moon, Triton.

Equipment used:CelestronNexStar8SE telescope at f/10,CelestronAVX mount, ZWO ASI-224MC camera, 120 x 1-second exposures

The youngest recognized photographer in the 2021 competition is Alice Fock Hang, who captured this image of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae from Les Makes on the Island of Reunion.

"47 Tucan is one of the jewels of the southern sky and is located just above the Small Magellanic Cloud in the balmy summer nights of the southern hemisphere," Hang said. "It is a colourful cluster with a shining heart a pearl in the Universe."

Equipment used:Takahashi Epsilon 210 telescope at f/2.9, Astro-Physics mount, Nikon D610 camera, ISO 800, 90 x 2-minute exposures

Photographer Paul Eckhardt took the 2021 Manju Mehrotra Family Trust Prize for Best Newcomer for this strikingly composed image of the Falcon 9 rocket zipping in front of the moon. This prize is awarded to astrophotographers with less than two years experience who are entering the astrophotography competition for the first time.

Equipment used:Sony ILCE-6500 camera, 210 mm f/8 lens, ISO 400, 1/350-second exposure

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Astrophotographers capture stunning views of the night sky (Photos) - Livescience.com

Antony Hewish, a British astronomer and astrophysicist who designed and built the innovative radio telescope used to discover pulsars dense, fast-spinning stars that emit sweeping beams of radiation and was honoured with a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in their detection, has died aged 97.

His death was announced by Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, where he was an emeritus fellow. Dr Hewish was associated with Cambridge for his entire scientific career, and was working at the universitys Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO) when he and his research team detected the first pulsars in 1967.

Like celestial lighthouses, the stars send streams of radio waves or other radiation into the universe, rotating rapidly so that their beams appear to pulse like clockwork. Most pulsars are now understood to be neutron stars, the extraordinarily dense husks of collapsed supergiants. Their discovery ushered in a new era for 20th-century astronomy, helping scientists locate distant planets, search for gravitational waves and investigate the interstellar medium that fills the cosmos.

Along with his Cambridge colleague Martin Ryle, Hewish was one of the first two astronomers to ever win a Nobel prize. They were honored in 1974 for what the committee described as their pioneering research in radio astrophysics, with Hewish cited for playing a decisive role in the discovery of pulsars.

Yet the award sparked decades of arguments among scientists who said at least part of the prize should have gone to one of Hewish's graduate students, Jocelyn Bell. She helped build the radio telescope, operated the instruments, analysed the data and identified the first pulsars, for which she was later honoured with the 2018 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

Hewish never denied that Jocelyn Bell Burnell, as she became known as, made the initial pulsar observations. But he noted that he closely investigated the pulses himself, conducting detailed measurements to learn more about the signals, and created the telescope that made their discovery possible.

When you plan a ship of discovery and somebody up the masthead says land ho, thats great, he said in a video interview that was featured in a recent New York Times documentary about Bell Burnell. But I mean, who actually inspired it and conceived it and decided what to do when and so on? I mean, there is a difference between skipper and crew.

Hewish had been studying rapid variations in radio signals when he built the Interplanetary Scintillation Array, a four-acre network of cables and copper wires that stretched across a field near Cambridge. As part of a search for mysterious radio sources known as quasars, the telescope recorded the signals of distant radio waves, which were registered on chart paper as crests and troughs.

Soon after the telescope was completed in 1967, Bell Burnell noticed an unusual squiggle, what she called a piece of scruff, that she traced to the constellation Vulpecula. I wanted to understand what it was, and I ended up taking this problem to Tony. And he said that it was interference, she recalled in the NYT documentary. Referring to herself in the third person, she added that Hewish had one idea that Jocelyn had wired up the radio telescope wrongly, and it was something to do with that.

Hewish (second left) with eight of his fellow British Nobel prize winners at a preview of the British Genius Exhibition in Battersea, London, in May 1977

(Getty)

As Bell Burnell told it, she kept studying the scruff, doing a more detailed analysis that revealed a string of pulses about 1.3 seconds apart. Once again, she called Hewish. This time he agreed it was a genuine signal, although its source remained unclear; unable to rule out an alien origin, they jokingly named their discovery LGM-1, for Little Green Man, according to a 2018 report in The Washington Post.

Bell Burnell soon discovered a second, third and fourth pulsing signal, suggesting they had discovered a new kind of star. The findings were announced in a February 1968 article in Nature, in which Hewish was credited first, followed by Bell Burnell and three other members of the research team.

Interviewed for the NYT documentary, Bell Burnell said Hewish could have cited me more and didnt while presenting their findings at Cambridge. She added that while he became the scientific face of the pulsar discovery, she was interviewed merely for human interest, asked about the colour of her hair and the dimensions of her hips, waist and chest. Tony just let it happen, she said. It was dreadful.

When it came to the Nobel prize, however, she said Ryle and Hewish were fully worthy of the honour. When English astronomer Fred Hoyle asserted in 1975 that Hewish had won by claiming credit for Bell Burnells work, she responded by saying Hoyle had drastically exaggerated the situation and was factually incorrect.

It doesnt much bother me that my name wasnt included, she told The Guardian in 2009. In those days, students werent recognised by the committee.

By 1993, when a Nobel prize was awarded to pulsar researchers for a second time, that practice had apparently changed. The committee honoured both the professor overseeing the research, Joseph Taylor Jr, and his graduate student at the time, Russell Hulse.

The youngest of three sons, Antony known as Tony Hewish was born in Fowey, Cornwall, on 11 May 1924, and grew up in the coastal town of Newquay. His father was a banker, but Hewish showed an aptitude for physics while studying at Kings College boarding school in Taunton and enrolled at Cambridge in 1942 to study science.

Hewish was also a competitive rower, and in a 2008 video interview for Cambridge he recalled spending afternoons practicing on the river when I should have been in the physics lab. His grades suffered, and after his first year, he was dispatched to aid the war effort at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, a military research centre in Farnborough.

For most of the next three years, he helped develop a device to jam the radar of enemy aircraft, working with electronics and antennas that piqued his interest in radio astronomy. He also met Ryle, the head of the militarys radar countermeasures group, whose lab he joined after returning to Cambridge and graduating in 1948.

Hewish married Marjorie Richards in 1950. She later told the NYT that she was surprised when her husband won a share of the Nobel: The entire prize, my husband would agree, should have gone to Professor Ryle. We expected him to get it, and sharing it has been totally unexpected as far as my husband is concerned.

They had a son, a physicist, and daughter, a language teacher. Information on survivors was not immediately available.

After receiving his PhD in 1952, Hewish joined the faculty at Cambridge. He was professor of radio astronomy from 1971 until his retirement in 1989, and led the MRAO for six years at the close of his career. He also delighted in lecturing about physics to wide audiences, including at the Royal Institution in London.

There is, I think, some special benefit for mankind in the realm of astrophysics, he said at the conclusion of his Nobel banquet speech in 1974. It is impossible to witness the interplay of galaxies without a sense of wonder, and looking back at Earth we see it in its true perspective, a planet of great beauty, an undivided sphere. Let us try and keep this image always in our view.

Antony Hewish, astronomer, born 11 May 1924, died 13 September 2021

The Washington Post

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Antony Hewish: British astronomer and Nobel prize winner - The Independent