Category Archives: Astronomy

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2017 May 6

Explanation: Some 4 billion light-years away, massive galaxy cluster Abell 370 only appears to be dominated by two giant elliptical galaxies and infested with faint arcs in this sharp Hubble Space Telescope snapshot. The fainter, scattered bluish arcs along with the dramatic dragon arc below and left of center are images of galaxies that lie far beyond Abell 370. About twice as distant, their otherwise undetected light is magnified and distorted by the cluster's enormous gravitational mass, dominated by unseen dark matter. Providing a tantalizing glimpse of galaxies in the early universe, the effect is known as gravitational lensing. A consequence of warped spacetime it was first predicted by Einstein a century ago. Far beyond the spiky foreground Milky Way star at lower right, Abell 370 is seen toward the constellation Cetus, the Sea Monster. It is the last of six galaxy clusters imaged in the recently concluded Frontier Fields project.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply. NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Harold F. Weaver, a pioneering UC Berkeley astronomer whose discovery of radio emissions from molecules in outer space marked the new science of radio astronomy, has died at his East Bay home in Kensington. He was 99.

Nearly 60 years ago, Professor Weaver created the universitys first radio astronomy observatory at Hat Creek, a remote valley in Plumas County 290 miles from the Berkeley campus. The surrounding mountains shielded the observatory from interference by aircraft signals and the radio noises of civilization.

Its big receiver, a dish-shaped antenna, 85 feet in diameter, would lead to major discoveries and become the mainstay of the UC Radio Astronomy Laboratory, which Professor Weaver had founded on the Berkeley campus in 1958. He would direct it for the next 15 years.

At their Hat Creek observatory, Professor Weaver and his colleagues discovered the existence of astrophysical masers the equivalent in outer space of the lasers that had been created eight years earlier by UC Berkeleys Nobel laureate physicist Charles Townes. The masers were the first evidence that objects in the gas clouds of the galaxy were emitting coherent radiation.

Professor Weaver would later discover the first interstellar molecules known as hydroxyl radicals at a time when their mysterious radio emissions were often attributed to an unknown form of space matter named mysterium. Since his discovery, many other interstellar molecules have been detected in the atmosphere of comets.

His curiosity about the universe was wide: Even as a young astronomer on the Berkeley faculty in 1953 he was using galactic star clusters and Cepheid variable stars to calculate the outer limits of the Milky Way galaxy and to estimate that the universe was at least 3.6 billion years old close to todays estimates of 4 billion years.

Ten years later, he and the late Martin Schwartzchild of Princeton University launched a giant balloon from Palestine, Texas, in a project called Stratoscope. A 2-ton telescope carried by the balloon to an altitude of 15 miles peered at Mars and discovered the worlds first evidence of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere before it crashed in a mud-filled Louisiana cow pasture.

Harold Francis Weaver was born in San Jose in 1917, and by high school he was already building his own telescopes.

Still, he debated whether he would study classics or astronomy in college. The poet Robinson Jeffers had a telescope in his Carmel home, and encouraged the young man in his telescope-building interests.

As a UC Berkeley undergraduate in the astronomy department, he met his future wife, Cecile Trumpler, the daughter of astronomer Robert Julius Trumpler, and the two were married in 1939. It was Professor Trumpler who supervised his doctoral dissertation, and the two later collaborated on a book called Statistical Astronomy, which was published in 1953 and is still in use.

During World War II, he was conscripted to work on optics research for the National Defense Research Committee and later worked on isotope separation at what was then known as the Berkeley Radiation Lab.

After the war, he served as a staff scientist at Lick Observatory and joined the astronomy faculty at UC Berkeley in 1951. He retired as a professor in 1988 after publishing more than 70 professional papers and helping to guide development of the expanding Berkeley campus as a member and chairman of the Campus Facilities Committee in the 1950s and 1960s. He helped design the astronomy departments Campbell Hall, which was recently demolished and rebuilt on the same site.

Harold was truly a giant in our department of astronomy, UC astronomy Professor Alex Filippenko said after Professor Weavers April 26 death. I will always remember his warm smile, his generosity, and how he kept going with his research and other activities well into old age.

Professor Weaver had long served as treasurer both of the American Astronomical Society and Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and was a member of the group that founded the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, where he served on the board of directors for many years.

He was also interested in contemporary writing, and for many years served as treasurer and a director of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, a summer creative writing project located near Lake Tahoe.

The Weavers have donated their longtime Kensington home to UC to be used after their deaths to fund the Trumpler-Weaver Endowed Professorship in Astronomy at UC Berkeley.

Professor Weaver is survived by his wife and three children, Margot of Tucson, Paul of Kensington and Kirk of Houston.

Memorial gifts may be made to the Cal Alumni Leadership Award in care of the California Alumni Association, 1 Alumni House, Berkeley, CA 94720.

A memorial service is being arranged.

David Perlman is The San Francisco Chronicles science editor. Email: dperlman@sfchronicle.com

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Harold F. Weaver, pioneer of radio astronomy at UC Berkeley, dies - mySanAntonio.com

Jupiter's position near Spica this year offers an excellent chance to see how planets got their Greek name asteres planetai, or "wandering stars." From February through May, Jupiter's regular eastward journey through the distant background stars is reversed by the parallax effect of Earth's faster motion. If you observe the planet every week or two, you'll see Jupiter moving away from Spica until June 10, then approaching it again until early September, after which it pulls away to the east. The SkySafari 5 app can display the path of a selected object.

Jupiter is perfectly positioned for observing this spring. As darkness falls the planet is already shining brightly in the southeastern evening sky. It crosses the sky over the course of the night and sets in the west just before dawn. And you don't have to wait for it to become fully dark before observing it the planet is bright enough to find in twilight. It's even possible to see Jupiter in broad daylight, if you know where to look.

At night, binoculars will reveal Jupiter's four largest moons waltzing around Jupiter on predictable schedules, sometimes gathering to one side or the other, and occasionally disappearing from view. A small telescope will show them more clearly, and also reveal the brown belts that make the planet look striped. A bigger telescope will let you see the Great Red Spot, a cyclonic storm that has raged for hundreds of years. When the geometry is just right, Jupiter's moons cast small black shadows while they cross the planet. You can see them, too, with a medium or large telescope.

In this edition of Mobile Astronomy, we'll tell you how to use apps to identify Jupiter, see the motions of its moons, find out when the Great Red Spot and moon shadows are visible, and even see Jupiter in the daytime! [Jupiter is a Feast for the Eyes In New Time-Lapse Animation (Video)]

In May 2017, Jupiter is sitting in the southeastern evening sky, within the constellation of Virgo. Virgo's brightest star, Spica, is about 10 degrees (an outstretched fist's diameter) below Jupiter. It's easy to tell the planet from the star. Despite Jupiter's great distance, its large globe reflects a lot of sunlight: it's second only to Venus in brightness among the planets, and it outshines every star in the night sky. By the time Jupiter sets in the west before dawn, the rotation of the sky has moved Spica upward to the left of the planet.

Jupiter will be visible in evenings for the next few months. But try to look now, while the planet is higher in the sky and shining through a thinner layer of the Earth's distorting atmosphere. By August, the planet will be sinking into the western twilight after sunset and shining through twice as much atmosphere. After mid-September, due to Earth's orbital motion, Jupiter will disappear from view while it's near the sun during solar conjuction, and then become a morning object at year-end.

Jupiter is spending this year's apparition amid the stars of Virgo, shining brightly in the southeastern sky as darkness falls, then crossing the sky to set in the west before dawn. The rotation of the night sky shifts the nearby bright star Spica from below the planet to its left. The moon passes Jupiter every month, close enough on occasion to allow finding the planet during the day.

The famous Great Red Spot (or GRS) on Jupiter is a cyclonic storm that has been raging on Jupiter for at least 185 years. A persistent spot on Jupiter was reported even earlier, by Giovanni Cassini, from 1665 to 1713 but no one is sure whether that was the same storm we see today. The Great Red Spot's oval is large enough to hold two to three, and it is visible in backyard telescopes. Jupiter rotates quite quickly once on its axis every 10 hours and the spot takes about 3 hours to traverse the planet's disk. Thus, the spot is not visible every night. A mobile astronomy app is a perfect way to find out when to see it.

Many sky-charting apps show Jupiter as a photographic image with the red spot visible, which might fool you into thinking it's always there. However, the better apps such as SkySafari 5 present Jupiter as a complete globe that rotates at the correct rate. If your app is set to the current time, it will show Jupiter as it appears in your telescope right now. But there's a catch. Jupiter is far enough away (more than 424 million miles, or 682 million kilometers) that we don't see events there in real time. The light needs time to travel all the way to Earth. It varies through the year, but right now, it's delayed by about 37 minutes. The SkySafari app has an algorithm that corrects for this, but some of the other sky-charting apps I tested did not.

In binoculars or a small telescope, Jupiter's four largest moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto become visible to either side of the planet. Their positions change nightly. A larger telescope will show the brown equatorial bands around the planet. And a good telescope will let you see the Great Red Spot. Jupiter's 10-hour rotation period causes the spot to be visible for only a few hours at a time, roughly every second evening. Use your astronomy app to find out when to look for it.

Another option is to choose an app that focuses exclusively on Jupiter. Sky & Telescope Magazine has a very good app for iOS users called JupiterMoons (developed by the SkySafari app team). It allows you to view the planet's current appearance and move forward and backward in time, in increments ranging from seconds to years. A separate page provides a list of upcoming GRS transits in local time, and another offers plenty of Jupiter facts and figures. The CalSKY website generates tables of GRS transits visible at your location, and plenty of additional information for Jupiter and the other planets.

Jupiter has more than 60 natural satellites, or moons many are small objects that have been trapped by the massive planet's gravity. The four largest moons were first observed by Galileo Galilei in 1609 using a very modest telescope. By observing the moons nightly over a period of weeks, he discovered that they were orbiting Jupiter a controversial statement in his day. Astronomers commonly refer to the big four as the Galilean moons. From closest to farthest from Jupiter, they are named Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Io is closest to its planet and moves faster than the outer ones, needing only 1.8 days to orbit Jupiter, while distant Callisto takes nearly 17 days. [Photos: The Galilean Moons of Jupiter]

Even modern-day binoculars are better than Galileo's little spyglass, so you can look for the moons yourself. Unlike the Earth's axis, which is tilted with respect to the plane of the solar system, Jupiter's axis is vertical, so the Galilean moons always appear along a straight line that runs parallel to the planet's equator. Their differing orbital speeds produce different arrangements of the moons: close together, well separated, arranged symmetrically and sometimes all clumped to the left or right (east or west) side of Jupiter. This makes it fun to check in on them from time to time. The Jupiter system runs like clockwork, so we can accurately predict events far into the future. Your app will tell you which ones are visible where you live.

It takes only a short while to notice the moons shifting in position. Your sky-charting app will have at least the four Galilean moons labeled, and perhaps some additional fainter ones. For iOS users, the Jupiter Guide app, the Gas Giants app and the Sky & Telescope app noted above all show a clear view of the arrangement of the planet and the moons, and offer a slider or buttons to alter the time. Android users should check out the Jupiter Simulator app. Unlike binoculars, most telescopes will invert or mirror image your view of Jupiter. Some of the apps allow you to select the mode that matches your equipment. Because the moons seldom line up symmetrically, it's simple to compare what you are observing in your eyepiece with the app, and configure the flip buttons until it's the same.

Our line of sight to Jupiter also means that the moons can transit (or cross) the planet; disappear or emerge from behind it (called occultations); or even pass in front of one another. Just as our moon is eclipsed when it passes through Earth's shadow, Jupiter's moons can blink off and on as they enter and depart its shadow. Depending on the geometry of Earth, Jupiter and the sun, the appearances and disappearances happen well away from the edge of Jupiter. They only take a few minutes, so they are great events to watch through a backyard telescope.

Jupiter and its moons present a number of interesting phenomena. Moons can darken or disappear from view as they enter the shadow of Jupiter or another moon, then reappear some time later. Moons can also pass in front of Jupiter, casting their shadows on the planet, or one another, making them appear to merge for a few minutes. Astronomy apps and online resources list the times of the events.

While the moons themselves are difficult to see while transiting Jupiter, their little round, black shadows are easy to see in a decent telescope. You just need to know when to look. The moons and their shadows take hours to cross Jupiter. Transits near Jupiter's equator last up to 3 hours, while high-latitude events are shorter. Use the app to find out the start and end time for each event. Remember that your telescope may flip or invert the view that the app shows. Other than SkySafari 5, most of the above apps will not show you the shadows on the planet, but if your app says that a moon is transiting, it's worth looking for a shadow. When planning to observe, you can run the time forward on the app to discover when the other types of events will be occurring. [Jupiter Quiz: Test Your Jovian Smarts]

If you tap the Info icon in SkySafari 5, it will present a list of upcoming Jupiter moon and Great Red Spot events, complete with quick links that show how they will look. Just tap the clock icon and then zoom the display to see Jupiter's disk and the moons.

On very special occasions, two or even three shadows can be transiting at the same time! These are worth setting the alarm for. On Thursday (May 11), starting at 9:59 p.m. EDT (0159 on May 12 GMT), Europa and Io will both have shadows on Jupiter for about 6 minutes. Europa's shadow will already be transiting as the sky darkens. And after the double-shadow event, Io's shadow will continue alone until midnight EDT.

On May 18, starting at 11:53 p.m. EDT (or 0353 on May 19 GMT), the shadows of Europa and Io cross again, this time for 49 minutes.

On May 26, at 1:47 a.m. EDT (0547 GMT), the same pair of shadows will cross for 72 minutes, but Jupiter will be very low in the western sky for observers in the Eastern time zone.

Jupiter's four Galilean moons frequently cast their dark round shadows on the planet. Your astronomy app or online resources can tell you when to look for them. On rare occasions two, or even three, shadows cross at the same time, such as this event on May 18. Europa's shadow (at right) will start to transit about 10:15 pm EDT. Io's shadow will join it for 47 minutes starting at 11:53 pm. Only a very large telescope will show the moons themselves.

There are online resources to track Jupiter phenomena, too. Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory provides a list of the Jupiter moon events on this page. The events and times are provided for the Pacific Time zone, but you can add or subtract the appropriate number of hours to correct for your own time zone. If you don't live in the Pacific Time zone, some of the events listed will not be visible for instance, if the sun has not yet set, or if Jupiter has already set where you live. Conversely, some additional events will be visible only in your time zone. (This is the advantage of using a mobile app tied to your location.)

Jupiter is easily bright enough to see in broad daylight, if you know where to look. Fortunately, the moon passes Jupiter every month, and often sits close enough to make spotting Jupiter fairly easy. To the naked eye, the planet is a bright pinprick of light, but binoculars or a telescope will reveal it as a small pale disk. This month it is rising at 5:30 p.m. local time, only 3 hours before sunset. But you can use the method I give below any time the planet is well separated from the sun. Make a point of trying it this summer and fall, when it's high in the sky during the afternoon. Remember: Never point binoculars or a telescope anywhere near the sun.

Below is a list of upcoming dates when the moon is close to Jupiter. Set your app to show the date indicated and center the view on the moon or Jupiter. Alter the time to see when they are close together, and also fairly high in the sky. Zoom in on the app's display so that the moon is large enough for you to estimate how many moon diameters apart they are. Finally, make note of what direction you will need to scan starting on the moon and moving toward Jupiter. Once you're outside, bring the moon into sharp focus in your binoculars, and then search in the correct direction, hopping by the number of moon diameters you noted. Try these dates:

Jupiter and Venus are both bright enough to see with naked eyes and binoculars in the daytime, if you know where to look. On May 7, the nearly full moon will pass only 1.75 degrees, or 3.5 moon diameters, from Jupiter. Focus your binoculars on the moon, and then scan to the right, counting moon diameters as you go. Once you see the planet, try to find its bright pinprick of light without the binoculars.

On May 7, the waxing full moon is about 3.5 moon diameters from Jupiter.

On June 3, the waxing gibbous moon is about 3 moon diameters from Jupiter.

On July 28, the waxing crescent moon is about 4 moon diameters from Jupiter.

On Dec. 14, the waning crescent moon is about 6 moon diameters from Jupiter.

When the moon isn't available, you can try enabling your device's gyro and compass sensors and use the app to show you where in the sky to scan for Jupiter. It's harder but doable. Venus is also observable using the same methods.

In future columns, we'll tour the southern skies not visible from the Northern Hemisphere, suggest some spring binocular objects, talk about galaxy types and more. Until next time keep looking up!

Editor's note: Chris Vaughan is an astronomy public outreach and education specialist, and operator of the historic 1.88 meter David Dunlap Observatory telescope. You can reach Chris Vaughan via email, and follow him on Twitter @astrogeoguy, as well as Facebook and Tumblr.

This article was provided by Simulation Curriculum, the leader in space science curriculum solutions and the makers of the SkySafari app for Android and iOS. Follow SkySafari on Twitter @SkySafariAstro. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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How to See Jupiter by Day and its Moons by Night using Mobile Astronomy Apps - Space.com

Scientists found a wave of hot gas twice the size of the Milky Way in the Perseus galaxy cluster that they believe is billions of years old.

The study, which is published in the June 2017 issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, combined data from NASAs Chandra X-Ray Observatory with radio observations and computer simulations.

Perseus, named after its host constellation, is 240 million light years away and is made of gas burning so hot it can only glow in X-rays. While studying the burning gas, Chandra found many interesting things, but focused on an enigmatic concave called the bay.

After combining 10.4 days worth of high-resolution Chandra data with 5.8 days of wide-field observations, the team had created an X-ray image of the gas in Perseus. They then filtered the data to highlight the more subtle details and compared the enhanced image to computer simulations of merging galaxy clusters.

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Scientists found a wave of ultra hot gas bigger than the Milky Way - Astronomy Magazine

Yesterday, NASAs Cassini spacecraft entered its second of the 22 dives and scientists are excitedly waiting for the data to get a second look at the rings after the surprising information from the first dive: there appears to be no dust in the area.

With this revelation, the Cassini team is continuing on with their original plan for further observations. Though now the team can ignore their plan B and wont have to worry about dust affecting the instruments.

The region between the rings and Saturn is the big empty, apparently, Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a press release. Cassini will stay the course, while the scientists work on the mystery of why the dust level is much lower than expected.

Having no other spacecraft pass through Saturns rings before, the team had prepared for a dusty environment in the 1,200-mile (2,000-kilometer-wide) area, planning to have Cassini use its round antenna as a shield.

When Cassinis Radio Plasma Wave Science (RPWS), the instruments in the shield that detect dust, detected a very small amount, scientists switched the data to audio format. Expecting to hear the pops and cracks of dust hitting the RPWS, the team was surprised to only hear the squeaks of Cassini diving through the rings.

It was a bit disorienting -- we werent hearing what we expected to hear, said William Kurth, RPWS team lead at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Ive listened to our data from the first dive several times and I can probably count on my hands the number of dust particle impacts I hear.

After assessing the data, the team believes Cassini only encountered a handful of dust particles no bigger than 1 micron across. Cassini is scheduled to reconnect today after its second dive yesterday.

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Cassini encounters the 'Big Empty' during its first dive - Astronomy Magazine

Well now, this is an interesting discovery: astronomers have found what looks like a "super-Earth" a planet more massive than Earth but still smaller than a gas giant orbiting a nearby star at the right distance to have liquid water on it! Given that, it might might be Earthlike.

This is pretty cool news. Weve found planets like this before, but not very many! And it gets niftier: the planet has at least five siblings, all of which orbit its star closer than it does.

Now let me be clear: this is a planet candidate; it has not yet been confirmed. Reading the journal paper (PDF), though, the data look pretty good. It may yet turn out not to be real, but for the purpose of this blog post Ill just put this caveat here, call it a planet from here on out, and fairly warned be ye, says I.

The star is called HD 40307, and its a bit over 40 light years away (pretty close in galactic standards, but I wouldnt want to walk there). Its a K2.5 dwarf, which means its cooler, dimmer, and smaller than the Sun, but not by much. In other words, its reasonably Sun-like. By coincidence, it appears ot be about the age as the Sun, too: 4.5 billion years. It was observed using HARPS, the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (I know, it should be HARVPS, but thats harvd to pronounce). This is an extremely sensitive instrument that looks for changes in the starlight as a planet (or planets) orbits a star. The gravity of the star causes the planet to orbit it, but the planet has gravity too. As it circles the star, the star makes a littler circle too (I like to think of it as two kids, one bigger than the other, clasping hands and swinging each other around; the lighter kid makes a big circle and the bigger kid makes a smaller circle). As the star makes its circle, half the time its approaching us and half the time its receding. This means its light is Doppler shifted, the same effect that makes a motorcycle engine drop in pitch as it passes you.

Massive planets tug on their star harder, so theyre easier to find this way. Also, a planet closer in has a shorter orbit, so you dont have to look as long to find it. But in the end, by measuring just how the star is Doppler shifted, you can get the mass and orbital period of the planet. Or planets.

In this case, HD 40307 was originally observed a little while back by HARPS, and three planets were found. But the data are public, so a team of astronomers grabbed it and used a more sensitive method to extract any planetary signatures from the data. They found the three previously-seen planets easily enough, but also found three more! One of them is from a planet that has (at least) seven times the mass of the Earth, and orbits with a 198 day period. Called HD 40307g (planets are named after their host star, with a lower case letter after starting with b), its in the "super-Earth" range: more massive than Earth, but less than, say Neptune (which is 17 times our mass).

We dont know how big the planet is, unfortunately. It might be dense and only a little bigger than Earth, or it could be big and puffy. But if its density and size are just so, it could easily have about the same surface gravity as Earth that is, if you stood on it, youd weight the same as you do now!

But the very interesting thing is that it orbits the star at a distance of about 90 million kilometers (55 million miles) closer to its star than is is to the Sun but thats good! The star is fainter and cooler than the Sun, remember. In fact, at this distance, the planet is right in the stars "habitable zone", where the temperature is about right for liquid water to exist!

Thats exciting because of the prospect for life. Now, whenever I mention this I hear from people who get all huffy and say that we dont know you need water for life. Thats true, but look around. Water is common on Earth, and here we are. We dont know that you need water for life, but we do know that water is abundant and we need it. We dont know for sure of any other ways for life to form, so it makes sense to look where we understand things best. And that means liquid water.

Heres a diagram of the system as compared to our own:

Note the scales are a bit different, so that the habitable zones of the Sun and of HD 40307 line up better (remember, HD 40307g is actually closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun an AU is the distance of the Earth to the Sun, so HD 40307 is about 0.6 AU from its star). What makes me smile is that the new planet is actually better situated in its "Goldilocks Zone" than Earth is! Thats good news, actually: the orbit may be elliptical (the shape cant be determined from the types of observations made) but still stay entirely in the stars habitable zone.

And take a look at the system: the other planets all orbit closer to the star! We only have two inside Earths orbit in our solar system but all five of HD 40307s planets would fit comfortably inside Mercurys orbit. Amazing.

So this planet if it checks out as being real is one of only a few weve found in the right location for life as we know it. And some of those weve found already are gas giants (though they could have big moons where life could arise). So what this shows us is that the Earth isnt as out of the ordinary as we may have once thought: nature has lots of ways of putting planets the right distances from their stars for life.

Were edging closer all the time to finding that big goal: an Earth-sized, Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star at the right distance for life. This planet is a actually a pretty good fit, but we just dont know enough about it (primarily its size). So Im still waiting. And given the numbers of stars weve observed, and the number of planets we found, as always I have to ask: has Earth II already been observed, and the data just waiting to be uncovered?

Image credits: ESO/M. Kornmesser; Tuomi et al.

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Bad Astronomy - : Bad Astronomy

Astronomer David Trilling has a pragmatic perspective on the importance of his research

If an asteroids going to hit the Earth, you want to know how big it is, he said.

The Northern Arizona University professor of physics and astronomy measures asteroids that get close to Earthclose being roughly the moons distance away, more or less a few hundred thousand miles. However, one cant simply look at the space rock and estimating its size, though. To effectively measure the size of an asteroid, an astronomer uses an infrared camera to measure the amount of heat it emits: the bigger the asteroid, the more heat it gives off.

Usually that technology is not cheap. Its a large box filled with liquid nitrogen or helium that weighs so much scientists must invest in larger, heavier telescopes to accommodate the camera. The result has been fewer scientists using the technology at all.

To combat that, Trilling decided to get TIPSI.

After conversing with colleagues, he recruited seven NAU students to build the Thermal Infrared Planetary Sensing Imager (TIPSI), an infrared camera that weighs 70 grams, operates at room temperature and can be connected to a regular computer through a USB drive. It cost about $15,000 to make and regular maintenance is limited to needing a power source and access to the Internet. At this price point, this infrared camera is 20-50 times cheaper than the old type of infrared camera.

The project, which was unveiled at the Barry Lutz at NAU on May 2, started with a hallway conversation between astronomy professor Christopher Edwards and Michael Mommert, a physics and astronomy research associate. Although they advised the process, the students built the system, which included creating the computer program to collect and store data, finding a way to mount the camera on a telescope and figuring out how to get power and Internet to the camera.

The students are Bradley Moldermaker, Dan Avner, Daniel Krollman, Nathan Smith, Cheyenne Clutter, Corrie Vanlaanen and Zowie Haugaard. They came from physics and astronomy, computer science and mechanical engineering and include two graduate students and five undergraduates.

Smith, a masters student in applied physics, brought a critical expertise to the projectfamiliarity with the telescope and knowing what astronomers needed from an instrument like TIPSI. He helped with the design of the mounting hardware, helped debug the camera control software, developed and tested different ways to analyze the data and has been the guinea pig at the telescope making observations.

Members of the team who built TIPSI celebrate at the unveiling of the infrared camera at the Barry Lutz Telescope on May 2, 2017.

The team has such a diverse mix of engineering and computer science backgrounds, but many of the others didnt know much about astronomy or telescopes when we started, Smith said. Since I have some experience with the campus telescope already, I tried to bring a users perspective to the design and functionality of the instrument.

I dont have any background in engineering or design, so I learned a lot just seeing the process of turning an idea into a physical end product, he said. Especially with an instrument like this, there are a lot of considerations you might initially overlook. What I learned about instrument design will not only be useful to me if I go on to build more instruments later, but it will also make me a more informed user when I encounter new instruments in the future.

In addition to the real-world project management experience the students gained, the creation of TIPSI provides two significant benefits, Trilling said. One is this disruptive technology will allow more people to track and measure the size of asteroids that fly near the Earth, of which about five are discovered every night. It allows astronomers to learn more about the behaviors of these rocks in case astronomers discover a big one headed for Earth.

We want to understand the properties of asteroids so if we have to deflect or destroy an asteroid coming at us, we have some idea what its made out of, Trilling said. It turns out one of the most important things we want to know about asteroids flying by the Earth is how big it is.

The other is this technology can now be accessible. The uniqueness of TIPSI isnt what it does, its that it does it at a fraction of the cost of its fancier counterpart, making these kinds of measurements accessible to professional and student-level observatories for the first time.

The team plans to submit a paper for publication this summer that will include a shopping list and instructions for astronomers to make their own TIPSI telescopes.

TIPSI was made possible through the donations of NAU alumni Robert Mueller (1980 BS geology) and Jim Skelding (1993 BS physics).

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Everybody in the lab gettin' TIPSI: NAU astronomy students build camera to track asteroids - NAU News

Massive galaxy clusters offer astronomers some amazing opportunities to study several aspects of the universe around us. From tracing close interactions between galaxies to using the cluster as a lens through which to view distant objects, high-quality images of these clusters provide valuable insight. Hubbles recent image of the galaxy cluster Abell 370 illustrates the value in such images beautifully.

Abell 370 is one of thousands of galaxy clusters originally compiled into a catalog by George Abell in 1958. The initial catalog included nearly 3,000 galaxy clusters visible in the Northern Hemisphere, and was updated in 1989 to include Southern Hemisphere clusters as well. At a distance of 4 billion light-years, Abell 370 is the most distant galaxy cluster in the catalog, but not the most distant cluster weve discovered. And even at this great distance, Abell 370 allows astronomers to probe galaxies that are even more distant through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing.

Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive object such as a galaxy cluster, rich in galaxies, gas, and dark matter sits in front of another object as viewed from Earth. The gravity of the cluster bends space in its vicinity, much like a bowling ball depresses a mattress. When the light encounters the bend in space, its bent as well, traveling around the cluster before it continues its journey to Earth. As a result, the light is both magnified and smeared out, creating arcs attributable to galaxies in the far background when the cluster is imaged. One of the best examples of this in Abell 370 is a feature called the Dragon, visible as a smeared trail streaming behind a spiral galaxy to the lower left of the center.

The Milky Way resides in a group of galaxies, aptly called the Local Group. Our Local Group contains a few tens of galaxies (somewhere between 30-50 or so), and could be considered a relatively small hamlet in the larger scheme of things. But huge galaxy clusters like Abell 370contain hundreds of galaxies or more, many of which reside in their dense centers.

Massive galaxy clusters also tend to accumulate their most massive and oldest galaxies in the center; these galaxies can be easily spotted by eye as yellow-red fuzzy spots, called elliptical galaxies. Unlike the Milky Way and Andromeda, which are spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies dont have arms and typically dont have any blue (young) stars; theyre also relatively devoid of dust and gas. Spiral galaxies tend to be bluer in color because they contain younger stars; they also contain more dust and gas, which gives rise to some of their most visually striking features.

This image of Abell 370 was taken as part of the recently concluded Frontier Fields project, with a goal of observing objects otherwise too far off to see by taking advantage of gravitational lensing around massive galaxy clusters. Viewing these very far-off, very young galaxies sheds light on how galaxies formed and evolved in the early universe. The project has thus far allowed astronomers to glimpse galaxies up to 100 times fainter than previously seen.

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Hubble images the distant universe through a cosmic lens - Astronomy Magazine

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Senate Bill 1114, sponsored by Sen. Sonny Borrelli and Lamar Advertising and recently signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, allows electronic billboards within a 40-mile radius of Bullhead Cityin western Arizona. Working with the Arizona Astronomy Consortium, the Arizona Technology Council was successful in negotiating an amendment with Sen. Borrelli and Lamar Advertising that helped protect Arizonas famed dark skies while still accomplishing Lamars economic development goals in Mohave County.

The Council worked for an amendment which limits the number of billboards to 35, caps the level of illumination to 200 nits in the newly approved area, and restricts the areas in which the billboards will be permitted. With potential statewide implications, the amendment includes legislative intent language that encourages the advertising industry to try to limit light pollution and to use state-of-the-art technology to further mitigate the impact of the light from the electronic billboards.

The language of this bill allows Mohave County to have economic development in the form of electronic billboards but still helps protect our existing observatories, as well as potential future sites, said Steven G. Zylstra, president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council. Because they are among the top-rated dark sky areas in the world, professional astronomers flock to Northern Arizona and Tucson, second to only the star-filled skies from Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which is now built out to capacity.

A study published a decade ago showed the industry had an economic impact of $250 million annually -- not including the synergistic and strong optics sector -- and has been on a sustained path of growth since. The University of Arizonas astronomy program alone has brought in over $100 million in sponsored research support every year for the last 12 years. That figure does not include the substantial NASA awards to the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab (OSIRIS-REX) or to the Arizona State Universitys School of Earth and Space Exploration.

Were pleased with the amended language in SB 1114 and thankful for the extensive work done by the Arizona Technology Council and Arizona Astronomy Consortium, said Jeffrey Hall, director of the Lowell Observatory. Artificial light at night is a threat to astronomical research, and it is crucial that we continue to protect the dark skies vital to Arizona's thriving astronomy industry."

On the strength of its still-dark skies, Kitt Peak National Observatory outside of Tucson recently was awarded major new research projects, representing investments of tens of millions of dollars by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and NASA. All these economic drivers are dependent on the states public commitment to protect Arizonas valuable asset of dark skies.

For more information on the Arizona Technology Council and its Public Policy Committee, visit http://www.aztechcouncil.org.

About the Arizona Technology Council

The Arizona Technology Council is Arizonas premier trade association for science and technology companies. Recognized as having a diverse professional business community, Council members work towards furthering the advancement of technology in Arizona through leadership, education, legislation and social action. The Arizona Technology Council offers numerous events, educational forums and business conferences that bring together leaders, managers, employees and visionaries to make an impact on the technology industry. These interactions contribute to the Councils culture of growing member businesses and transforming technology in Arizona. To become a member or to learn more about the Arizona Technology Council, please visit http://www.aztechcouncil.org.

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Arizona Technology Council and Arizona Astronomy Consortium ... - Yahoo Finance

Harold Weaver in 1981. (Woody Sullivan photo)

Harold Francis Weaver, a pioneer of radio astronomy who discovered the first microwave laser, or maser, in space, passed away peacefully in his Kensington, California, home on April 26 at the age of 99.

Weaver was a professor emeritus of astronomy, the founder of UC Berkeleys Radio Astronomy Laboratory and its director from 1958 until 1972 and a former chairman of the Department of Astronomy.

As a young astronomer at the University of Californias Lick Observatory near San Jose, and starting in 1951 as a member of the UC Berkeley astronomy faculty, Weaver became keenly aware of the potential of radio astronomy, which at the time was a young field. Many objects in space give off radio waves, from gas clouds and stars to galaxies, and today astronomers even observe microwave background radiation to infer the early history of the universe shortly after the Big Bang.

After several years of proposal writing, talking to administrators and searching for funds, Weaver founded the Radio Astronomy Laboratory in 1958. Two of his colleagues were Samuel Silver, a professor of electrical engineering and the namesake of the campuss Space Sciences Laboratory, and Luis Alvarez, a physicist and winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Weaver when he was director of the Radio Astronomy Laboratory in the 1960s or 70s.

The lab dedicated its first telescopes, including an 85-foot dish at the time, one of the worlds largest in June 1962, in Hat Creek Valley in Northern California, far from radio noise that would have interfered with observations. Using the dish, Weaver and his colleagues discovered the first astrophysical maser microwave amplification by stimulated emission or radiation, the radio equivalent of a laser which had only been realized on Earth eight years earlier by the late UC Berkeley physicist and Nobel laureate Charles Townes.

At the time, many astronomers thought molecules could not exist in space, and the radio emissions Weaver recorded were attributed to an unknown form of interstellar matter named mysterium. But the emission was soon identified as coming from OH or hydroxyl molecules inside molecular clouds. Since then, many interstellar molecules have been found to emit coherent light in the form of a maser.

For decades, Weaver used the telescope to study other aspects of the interstellar medium and conducted large-scale surveys of interstellar hydrogen. The large telescope he built was destroyed by heavy winds in 1993, by which time Weavers successors were building smaller telescopes and assembling them in arrays to obtain even more sensitive measurements of radio emissions from space.

A gifted teacher, he mentored both undergraduate and graduate students, and occasionally taught seminars on archeoastronomy, the study of how ancient civilizations viewed and explained the changing night sky.

Harold was an outstanding thesis adviser, said one of Weavers former graduate students, Miller Goss, who went on to direct the Very Large Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. His exacting counsel was invaluable. I learned many lessons that have stayed with me for the past 50 years. As I finished my thesis in early 1967, I will never forget sitting in the living room of the Weavers house with scissors as he taught me how to cut and paste in a pre-computer manner.

Among the many astronomers he mentored was Carl Sagan, whom he encouraged to explore his far-out ideas on the beginnings of life in the universe.

Weaver was born Sept. 25, 1917, in San Jose, where he lived with his parents above a spaghetti factory. After high school, as he was deciding whether to study astronomy or classics, Carmel poet Robinson Jeffers befriended him and encouraged his telescope building. Finally deciding to continue with astronomy, he went on to obtain his bachelors degree in 1940 and his Ph.D. in 1942 in astronomy from UC Berkeley.

After spending one year as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, Weaver was conscripted into the war effort, working on optics with the National Defense Research Committee and later on isotope separation at the Berkeley Radiation Lab as part of the Manhattan Project.

As an undergraduate taking a course in practical astronomy, he met his future wife, Cecile Trumpler, daughter of UC Berkeley astronomer Robert Trumpler. They married in 1939, before the elder Trumpler supervised Weavers Ph.D. dissertation on peculiar stars, star clusters and stellar statistics based on observations at Mt. Wilson Observatory in Southern California.

After the war, Weaver returned to astronomy as a staff scientist at Lick Observatory from 1945 to 1951, when he joined the Berkeley faculty at a time when the departments focus was shifting from orbital calculations to stellar astrophysics. In 1953, Weaver and his father-in-law co-authored the book Statistical Astronomy.

Over Weavers career, he published more than 70 professional papers. He retired in 1988, but remained very much involved in the department until nearly the end of his life.

Harold came in every day until he was well into his 90s and was always a welcoming presence, said Leo Blitz, a professor emeritus of astronomy and former director of the Radio Astronomy Lab. He was never too busy or removed to talk about science, especially the implications of his groundbreaking survey of interstellar atomic hydrogen.

Harold was hidden away in his office in the old Campbell Hall almost daily, trying to map the local Bubble, the low-density region in interstellar space in which our sun and planets are located, said Imke de Pater, a professor and former chair of astronomy.

Weaver helped guide development of the Berkeley campus as a member and then chair of the Campus Facilities Committee in the 1950s and 60s, helping to design and name the new home of the astronomy department, Campbell Hall. The building was recently demolished and rebuilt on the same site.

Harold was truly a giant in our Department of Astronomy, said colleague Alex Filippenko. I will always remember his warm smile, his generosity and how he kept going with his research and other activities well into old age.

Harold was the wise voice of departmental memory always discreet, yet with biting insight, said Jon Arons, a professor emeritus and former chair of astronomy. He was a fascinating source of insight into radio astronomys early days, and what the Radio Astronomy Lab meant to the health of the department.

Weaver served as treasurer of the American Astronomical Society in the 1980s, and as treasurer of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He was part of the group that founded the Chabot Space and Science Museum and played an active role on its board for many years.

As a lover of music ranging from Mahler to the Beatles and Dave Brubeck, he also teamed up with David Williams and Tap Lum to found Berkshire Technologies, Inc., a company that made radio receivers that could pick up the faintest sounds. He also applied his interest in statistics to the stock market, working with Victor Nierderhofer on stock market modeling.

In addition to Weavers excitement about science, he was known for his kindness and his warm smile, his colleagues said. He and his wife, Cecile, organized numerous social events at their house, a tradition that has been continued by the Radio Astronomy Lab.

He is survived by his wife, three children Margot of Tucson, Arizona, Paul of Kensington and Kirk of Houston, Texas six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. He and his wife donated their home in Kensington to the university to be used after their deaths to fund the Trumpler-Weaver Endowed Professorship of Astronomy at UC Berkeley.

A memorial service is being arranged. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial gifts be made to the scholarship fund that enabled Weaver to attend college, the Cal Alumni Leadership Award. Donations should be sent to California Alumni Association, 1 Alumni House, Berkeley, CA 94720.

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Pioneering radio astronomer Harold Weaver dies at age 99 - UC Berkeley