Category Archives: Astronomy

The 500-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), (aka. Tianyan, Eye of Heaven), is the largest radio observatory in the world. Since the observatory became operational in January 2020, this facility has made significant contributions to radio astronomy and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). In particular, the observatory has been instrumental in detecting Fast Radio Burts (FRBs) and other cosmic phenomena that could be (but probably arent) possible indications of extraterrestrial communications.

Last week, while sifting through FAST data, the China Extraterrestrial Civilization Research Group (CECRG) from Beijing Normal University revealed that they discovered several signals that might be artificial in origin (a possible indication of an advanced civilization). These signals consisted of narrow-band electromagnetic radio transmission and were considered one of the best candidates for an extraterrestrial signal. Ah, but theres a snag. According to subsequent news releases, those radio transmissions were apparently from Earth!

Since the first SETI experiments began in the early 1960s (with Project Ozma), radio transmissions have remained the primary signature for which researchers have been looking. As the worlds largest and most sensitive radio telescope (even larger than the venerable Arecibo Observatory), FAST is the worlds premier radio facility dedicated to SETI research. One of its six main objectives* is to search the cosmos for possible technosignatures i.e., indications of technological activity.

To this end, Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAO/CAS), and the Berkeley SETI Research Center at UC Berkeley have partnered to create an international SETI research effort. In 2018, FAST took the first step by installing debugged back-end equipment to screen useful narrow-band candidate signals from background radio noise. By September 2020, the observatory officially began conducting science operations that included synchronous sky surveys and targetted exoplanet observations.

The team discovered two groups of suspicious signals that same year while processing data from the 2019 synchronic sky survey. This year, said CECRG team leader Professor Zhang Tongjie, the team found more possible radio signals while looking through data obtained during an exoplanet observation campaign. The Chinese state-affiliated news source Global Times shared the story on June 13th (since deleted), attesting to this discovery. As Prof. Zhang said in a statement to Chinese media:

The possibility that the suspicious signal is some kind of radio interference is also very high, and it needs to be further confirmed and ruled out. This may be a long process. China Sky Eye will repeat the observation of suspicious signals that have been discovered to further identify and detect new signals.

Berkeleys SETI Research Center, Dan Werthimer, who is part of the international collaboration and was involved in the survey, denied this a few days later. The signals that we found so far are all [radio frequency] interference, he said. Theyre not from extraterrestrials. Theyre from terrestrials. Werthimer has reportedly co-authored a preprint paper that details how the FAST findings were a false positive. Ironically, Prof. Zhang was correct when he suggested this but was incorrect when he said it might take a long time to confirm or deny it.

Such is the nature of SETI research, and the FAST observatory and its researchers should probably get accustomed to failure. It is, after all, the most likely outcome for those dedicated to searching for needles in the cosmic haystack, especially when we arent even sure what these needles will look like. As former NASA scientist and best-selling author David Brin once said about this field of research:

Few important subjects are so data-poor, so subject to unwarranted and biased explanations and so caught up in mankinds ultimate destiny than this one.

Theres plenty of good news for those left feeling disappointed by this retraction. For example, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) just announced that their Hayabusa2 sample-return mission found no less than 20 strains of amino acids (the building blocks of DNA) on asteroid Ryugu. Second, the James Webb Space Telescope will be revealing its first images very soon and turning its infrared imaging capability toward several nearby exoplanets. The data it provides on these planets atmospheres could soon lead to a breakthrough in the search for habitable worlds beyond our Solar System!

In the end, all we can do is keep searching, waiting, and refining our methods. If theres anyone out there also looking to answer the big question (Are we alone?), were sure to find them eventually.

*Other objectives include a large-scale neutral hydrogen survey, very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), probing the interstellar medium (ISM), pulsar observations, and timing.

Further Reading: Weixin, EarthSky

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Chinese Astronomers Detect an Interesting (But NOT Alien) Signal With the FAST Radio Observatory - Universe Today

South Africas MeerKAT telescope. Credit: South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)

An international team of astronomers has combined the power of 64 radio telescope dishes for the first time to detect the faint signatures of neutral hydrogen gas across cosmological scales.

The achievement was accomplished using the South African-based MeerKAT telescope, a precursor to the worlds largest radio observatory, the SKA Observatory (SKAO), which will probe the Universe in unprecedented detail.

A primary aim for the SKAO is to understand the evolution and content of the Universe along with the mechanisms which drive its accelerating expansion. One way to achieve this is by observing the Universes structure on the largest scales. On these scales, entire galaxies can be considered as single points and analysis of their distribution reveals clues about the nature of gravity and mysterious phenomena such as dark matter and dark energy.

Radio telescopes are a fantastic instrument for this since they can detect radiation at wavelengths of 21cm generated by neutral hydrogen, the most abundant element in the Universe. By analyzing 3D maps of hydrogen spanning millions of light-years, we probe the total distribution of matter in the Universe.

The SKAO, which has its headquarters based at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, is currently under construction. However, there are already pathfinder telescopes, such as the 64-dish array MeerKAT, in place to guide its design. Based in the Karoo Desert and operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), MeerKAT will eventually go on to be a part of the full SKAO.

MeerKAT and the SKAO will primarily operate as interferometers, where the array of dishes are combined as one giant telescope capable of imaging distant objects with high resolution. However, the interferometer will not be sensitive enough to the largest scales most interesting for cosmologists studying the Universe. explained the co-lead author of the new research paper, Steven Cunnington. Therefore, we instead use the array as a collection of 64 individual telescopes which allows them to map the giant volumes of sky required for cosmology.

For many years I have worked towards forecasting the future capability of the SKAO. To now reach a stage where we are developing the tools we will need and demonstrating their success with real data is incredibly exciting. This only marks the beginning of what we hope will be a continuous showcase of results which advances our understanding of the Universe.

Steven Cunnington

The single-dish mode of operation has been driven by a team at the University of the Western Cape, with several observations already conducted with MeerKAT. This ambitious project involves many other institutions spanning four continents. In the new researchsubmitted for publication, a team that includes Manchester-based astronomers Steven Cunnington, Laura Wolz and Keith Grainge, present the first ever cosmological detection using this single-dish technique.

The new detection is of a shared clustering pattern between MeerKATs maps and galaxy positions determined by the optical Anglo-Australian Telescope. Since it is known that these galaxies trace the overall matter of the Universe, the strong statistical correlation between the radio maps and the galaxies shows the MeerKAT telescope is detecting large-scale cosmic structure. This is the first time such detection has been made using a multi-dish array operating as individual telescopes. The full SKAO will rely on this technique and this therefore marks an important milestone in the roadmap for the cosmology science case with the SKAO.

This detection was made with just a small amount of pilot survey data, revealed Steven Cunnington. Its encouraging to imagine what will be achieved as MeerKAT continues to make increasingly larger observations.

For many years I have worked towards forecasting the future capability of the SKAO. To now reach a stage where we are developing the tools we will need and demonstrating their success with real data is incredibly exciting. This only marks the beginning of what we hope will be a continuous showcase of results which advances our understanding of the Universe.

Reference: HI intensity mapping with MeerKAT: power spectrum detection in cross-correlation with WiggleZ galaxies by Steven Cunnington, Yichao Li, Mario G. Santos, Jingying Wang, Isabella P. Carucci, Melis O. Irfan, Alkistis Pourtsidou, Marta Spinelli, Laura Wolz, Paula S. Soares, Chris Blake, Philip Bull, Brandon Engelbrecht, Jos Fonseca, Keith Grainge and Yin-Zhe Ma, 3 June 2022, Astrophysics > Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics.arXiv:2206.01579

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Astronomers Combine the Power of 64 Telescopes To Observe the Structure of the Universe - SciTechDaily

Astronomer Feryal zel is one of the pioneers of black hole photography. With two pictures in the album, she explains what we have learned about these gravitational monsters - and what comes next

By Abigail Beall

Nabil Nezzar

A FEW weeks ago, we got our first look at a portrait of the mysterious behemoth at the centre of the Milky Way, the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*. The image is an amazing feat of astronomical endeavour, made possible thanks to a planet-sized array of telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). It was even harder to capture than the previous black hole picture taken by the EHT, which was the first ever. But it is also special because this black hole is at the heart of our home galaxy.

Feryal zel at the University of Arizona was one of the first people to come up with a way of photographing black holes and she is now a key member of the EHT collaboration. New Scientist caught up with her to find out what we have learned from the latest image, how it puts our understanding of gravity to the test and what to expect next from the nascent field of black hole photography.

Abigail Beall: What first drew you to black holes?

Feryal zel: When I started graduate school, astronomy was having a golden age. Part of that was the age of discovery of how black holes and neutron stars behave. Then I realised these are basically extreme laboratories in space. I can combine what I love about theoretical physics with this amazing data and explore things that we cant with a lab on Earth.

What is so mysterious about black holes?

Black holes were, at first, a mathematical construct from Einsteins theory of gravity, general relativity. When gravity is strong enough, the

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Feryal zel on what the first two pictures of black holes tell us - New Scientist

UC Berkeley

If, as astronomers believe, the death of large stars leave behind black holes, there should be hundreds of millions of them scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. The problem is, isolated black holes are invisible.

Now, a team led by University of California, Berkeley, astronomers has for the first time discovered what may be a free-floating black hole by observing the brightening of a more distant star as its light was distorted by the objects strong gravitational fieldso-called gravitational microlensing.

The team, led by graduate student Casey Lam andJessica Lu, a UC Berkeley associate professor of astronomy, estimates that the mass of the invisible compact object is between 1.6 and 4.4 times that of the sun. Because astronomers think that the leftover remnant of a dead star must be heavier than 2.2 solar masses in order to collapse to a black hole, the UC Berkeley researchers caution that the object could be a neutron star instead of a black hole. Neutron stars are also dense, highly compact objects, but their gravity is balanced by internal neutron pressure, which prevents further collapse to a black hole.

Whether a black hole or a neutron star, the object is the first dark stellar remnant a stellar ghostdiscovered wandering through the galaxy unpaired with another star.

This is the first free-floating black hole or neutron star discovered with gravitational microlensing, Lu said. With microlensing, were able to probe these lonely, compact objects and weigh them. I think we have opened a new window onto these dark objects, which cant be seen any other way.

MORE: Dont Miss Celestial Show as Five Planets Align With the Moon for All to See

Determining how many of these compact objects populate the Milky Way galaxy will help astronomers understand the evolution of starsin particular, how they dieand of our galaxy, and perhaps reveal whether any of the unseen black holes are primordial black holes, which some cosmologists think were produced in large quantities during the Big Bang.

The analysis by Lam, Lu and their international team has been accepted for publication inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters.

RELATED: Ice May Be Hiding in Ancient Moon Volcanoes

The analysis includes four other microlensing events that the team concluded were not caused by a black hole, though two were likely caused by a white dwarf or a neutron star. The team also concluded that the likely population of black holes in the galaxy is 200 millionabout what most theorists predicted.

Notably, a competing team from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore analyzed the same microlensing event and claims that the mass of the compact object is closer to 7.1 solar masses and indisputably a black hole. A paper describing the analysis by the STScI team, led byKailash Sahu, has been accepted for publication inThe Astrophysical Journal.

(WATCH the video for this story below.)

Source: University of California, Berkeley

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Astronomers Think They've Detected a 'Dark' Free-Floating Black Hole For the First Time - Good News Network

X-ray astronomy is helping to reveal newdetails about the nature of the universe.

Why it matters: For thousands of years, humanity's understanding of the universe has been dominated by what can be seen. Now, by measuring the invisible X-rays, infrared signals and gravitational waves emitted across the universe, scientists are getting a clearer understanding of the events that shape the cosmos.

What's happening: Several X-ray missions large and small are active today, including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton. Both launched in 1999.

Background: When stars are born, they emit X-rays that can move through dust and gas carrying information about the young stars and their development.

How it works: Unlike optical telescopes that focus incoming photons that bounce nearly head-on off mirrors, X-ray telescopes focus the high-energy X-ray photons to a detector at an angle similar to "skipping stones off the surface of a pond," says Tremblay.

The big picture: X-ray astronomy has existed for more than two decades but the science is now "coming of age," Wilkes writes in a review this week in Nature.

Yes, but: Large X-ray observatories take years, if not decades, to develop and build, and right now, the future of X-ray astronomy at NASA and ESA is uncertain.

What to watch: The first results from the IXPE mission will be presented next week at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting.

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X-ray astronomy is opening a new window on the universe - Axios

When Donald York was a student beginning his career in astronomy in the 1960s, it was very difficult to get enough time on a telescope to make observations.

We were suffering from a deficit of data, said York, the University of Chicago Horace B. Horton Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Enrico Fermi Institute.

What he envisioned instead was a comprehensive map of the universe.

More than half a century later, the American Astronomical Society has announced that it will present its2022 George Van Biesbroeck Prizeto York for his work to found and design the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey was the first very large telescope survey. It revolutionized access to data and built a tool for the professional astronomer and novice alike to explore a vast portion of the sky from their desktop. The American Astronomical Society calls it "one of the most important and transformational facilities in astronomy.

The George Van Biesbroeck Prize is presented biannually and honors a living individual for long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy. The award cited York for exceptional vision in the conception and design of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a major imaging and spectroscopic survey that has created the most detailed three-dimensional maps of the universe ever made."

As the prime mover of the Astrophysical Research Consortiums Apache Point Observatory in southern New Mexico, including its 3.5-meter, multi-purpose telescope and the dedicated Sloan Digital Sky Survey projectone of the most scientifically productive projects in astronomyDon York has been a pioneering leader of modern optical astronomy and rebuilt the University of Chicagos leadership in this field, said Prof. Joshua A. Frieman, a UChicago astrophysicistand former head of the Particle Physics Division at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Before the Sky Survey, gaining access to a telescope to make observations and document objects of study was heavily limited by resources.

You could only get about six nights a year for your own personal work on a telescope, said York, who began his career in 1966 as a student at the University of Chicago's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. You might find a group to contribute to the data pool for a project and document a small sample, but you were limited by who could work together, how much time people could spend, and how much perfection could be demanded.

These small groups worked on different telescopes to get similar data, which made data quality standardization very difficult. York knew if the observations came from one telescope it would dramatically improve reliability.

With enough eyes, they could document millions and millions of objects and their characterizations in a portion of the sky, opening up possibilities unimaginable to the individual observer. A large collaborative survey could also reinvent how data was collected, published, and shared.

To set about doing this, Yorkalong with UChicago Prof. Emeritus Richard Kron and Princeton University astronomer James Gunnbegan to plan a very large survey using a next generation telescope that could observe faint objects and attain statistical measurements of the way galaxies clustered on large scales.

In 1988, they wrote down the names of people they thought could join them in the effort. York recalled about 20 people met at two meetings at the airport, now known as the OHare meetings. They documented the principles, telescope characteristics, and funding strategies they would pursue.

Any group who joined would be eligible for two-year access to the data. After two years, the data would be released to the public and distributed free to all online, which was revolutionary. Compared to the major institutional investments usually required to join, the cost would be very low. No one could claim possession of the data and it would be available to everybody.

An advantage would be unified and elevated standards for data to qualify for inclusionan endeavor York was proud to lead. The data needed to be the very best that we could measure such that all agreed to the highest standards for data reduction and quality, he said. And everybody took that very seriously.

Prof. Emeritus Stuart Ricethe former dean of the Physical Sciences DivisionandJerry Ostriker, PhD64, then the chair of Princetons Department of Astrophysical Sciences, were brought onto the Board. Fermilab would join in 1990 to provide an experimental group. The National Science Foundation contributed support for the telescope build. Kron mainly did the organizing and Gunn specified the technology and project design.

The technology they would needa camera using many charge-coupled devices (CCDs) that was 100 times more efficient than photographic plateshad recently become feasible to build, and they already had a site in mind for the telescope at a newly-built observatory at Apache Point, New Mexico.

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Donald G. York honored for 'exceptional vision' in helping to found the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - UChicago News

Mary Hall Reno, a professor in the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy, has received an award from NASA as part of a simulation package that will aid in the design of new instruments aboard balloons andsatellites.

Reno received a three-year, $209,977 grant from NASA through the Goddard Space Flight Center. The award funds the continued development of nuSpaceSim, a simulation for the modeling of extensive air shower signals from cosmic neutrinos for space-based experiments, an open-source softwarepackage.

Our focus is on weakly interacting particles called neutrinos that come from the highest energy cosmic accelerators, Reno says. We are modeling how neutrinos interact in the Earth to ultimately yield particles that leave detectable signals in the atmosphere. In the future, our software package will help us interpret data from space-based neutrinotelescopes.

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Reno Wins NASA Funding for Simulation Package | Physics and Astronomy - The University of Iowa - The University of Iowa

image:The three 2022 IAU Astronomy Outreach, Development and Education Recipients. From left: Development: Michele Gerbaldi, Outreach: Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) a website created by Robert J. Nemiroff and Jerry T. Bonnell and Education: Rosa Doran. view more

Credit: IAU

The IAU has announced the first winners of three new prizes that were created earlier this year: the IAU Astronomy Outreach Prize, the IAU Astronomy Development Prize and the IAU Astronomy Education Prize.

The IAU Astronomy Outreach, Development and Education (ODE) Prizes (https://www.iau.org/science/grants_prizes/ode_prizes/) have been created with generous funding from IAU Past President Ewine van Dishoeck (https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/7248/). The three awards recognise individuals and organisations who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of astronomy outreach, development and education.

In February 2022, the first call for nominations (https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2202/) went out with a deadline of 15 March 2022. A total of 40 valid nominations were received, with both the nominators and nominees spanning the entire globe.

Following recommendation by the ODE Prize Committees, the IAU Executive Committee (https://www.iau.org/administration/executive_bodies/executive_committee/) approved the following nominees to win the first set of prizes:

* Outreach: Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html) a website created by Robert J. Nemiroff and Jerry T. Bonnell* Development: Michle Gerbaldi* Education: Rosa Doran

The awards will be presented at the IAU XXXI General Assembly (https://www.iauga2022.org/) (IAUGA2022) in Busan, South Korea, in August this year. Brief commendations for each of the winners are below.

#### IAU Astronomy Outreach Prize

The 2022 ODE Outreach Prize is awarded to Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for their more than 25 years of curating the daily Astronomy Picture of the Day, which is now available in more than 20 languages, seen by millions each day, and used in classrooms throughout the world. APOD has been influential in encouraging interest in astronomy around the world: each of the images is accompanied by explanatory captions which is one reason it is widely adopted in primary/secondary school and university-level courses. Pictures are contributed by professional and amateur astronomers, and increasingly also by astrophotographers, for whom an APOD publication is a gold standard. Featured images cover a wide range of topics from the Cosmic Microwave Background and the most distant galaxies to aurorae on Earth.

Robert J. Nemiroff and Jerry T. Bonnell said: Were honoured to receive this recognition for APOD by the IAU and proud that an effort that started as an informal collaboration and persisted as a labour of love of science outreach has become international in scope. We are very grateful to have been joined in APOD by so many like-minded individuals around planet Earth.

#### IAU Astronomy Development Prize

The 2022 ODE Development Prize is awarded to Michle Gerbaldi for her exceptionally wide and sustained contributions to development and capacity building using astronomy as a tool during her long career. She has had a special focus on the developing world, where her efforts have legacy value. Particularly notable is her leading role in the organisation of, and hands-on teaching at, numerous International Schools for Young Astronomers (ISYA - https://www.iau.org/training/office_for_young_astronomers/) for MSc students in developing countries. The AstroLab (https://www.astro4dev.org/astrolab-starlight-in-the-university-lab/) program that she has co-founded and developed has been much used around Africa and South America. This programme links students and teachers to tutors and professional astronomers, and introduces them to creative thinking, research skills and methodologies by means of remote observing with real telescopes. Michle Gerbaldis work goes beyond astronomy education, bringing about capacity building and development in a sustainable way.

Michle Gerbaldi said: I have always loved to meet and to discuss with people of different cultures and backgrounds: this is the drive for my passion for education as a tool for development. I receive this prize with great emotion, and feel deeply honoured. Nothing would have been possible without the freedom to create and develop that characterises the IAU. The continued support of the IAU Officers and the IAU Offices is the crucial key that makes such development possible.

#### IAU Astronomy Education Prize

The 2022 ODE Education prize is awarded to Rosa Doran for her powerful, inclusive, innovative, inspirational, far-reaching, even transformational astronomy education achievements over more than three decades. She set up, secured funding for, helped coordinate and lead numerous small- and large-scale projects in developed and developing countries, projects which have reached many thousands of teachers and kids all over the globe. She is a powerhouse and has become a global leader. As one nominator wrote: her goal is to change the world through astronomy education.

Rosa Doran said: I always felt connected with the Universe and the urge to know more. At some point in my life, I understood that astronomy can be a strong drive to transform the perception humans have about themselves and their place in the cosmos. This prize is really unexpected and I feel very honoured and humbled to receive it. I will carry this treasure with me to ensure that my journey has even more impact in inspiring new generations to embrace their power.

Ewine van Dishoeck said: It is high time that the IAU not only celebrates excellence in research, but also in other areas that are increasingly important aspects of being an astronomer. These first winners embody the highest standards in outreach, development and education and provide an inspiration to so many of us.

Further information on eligibility, the definitions of each area and the selection process for the prizes can be found here (https://www.iau.org/science/grants_prizes/ode_prizes/). The next set of ODE prizes will be awarded at the 2024 General Assembly in South Africa.

More information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

Links

* The IAU Astronomy Outreach, Development and Education (ODE) Prizes (https://www.iau.org/science/grants_prizes/ode_prizes/)

Contacts

Ewine van DishoeckPast President of the IAUEmail: ewine@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Lars Lindberg ChristensenIAU Director of CommunicationsTel: +1 520 461 0433Cell: +49 173 38 72 621Email: lars.christensen@noirlab.edu

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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IAU announces winners of first prizes for Astronomy Outreach, Development and Education - EurekAlert

Newswise Seven new scientific results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Very Large Array (VLA), and the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) will be revealed at multiple press conferences during the 240th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) between June 13-15, 2022 in Pasadena, California.

The new results range across a wide variety of astronomical phenomena, from star systems to pulsars, and from young galaxies to stellar feedback loops.

Press conferences will be held in person during the conference, and streamed live on the AAS Press Office YouTube Channel.

Note: Each press conference consists of a panel of scientists presenting 4-5 unique scientific results. The number listed in parentheses indicates the order of presentation for the listed result.

All press conferences are listed and will occur in Pacific Time.

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Erin Guilfoil-Cox, Northwestern University (2)The Twisted Magnetic Field in a Protobinary System

Embargo access for members of the press must be requested from [emailprotected] or [emailprotected].

Meredith MacGregor, University of Colorado Boulder (2)A New ALMA View of the HD 53143 Debris DiskEmbargo access for members of the press, please contact [emailprotected].

Ambesh Singh, University of Arizona (4)ALMA Reveals the Molecular Outflows in the Ejecta of VY Canis Majoris

Embargo access for members of the press, please contact [emailprotected] or [emailprotected].

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Hollis Akins, Grinnell College (5)ALMA Reveals Extended Cool Gas and Hot Ionized Outflows in a Distant Star-Forming Galaxy

Embargo access for members of the press, please contact [emailprotected].

Michael Jones, University of Arizona (1)Young, Blue, and Isolated Stellar Systems in the Virgo Cluster

Embargo access for members of the press, please contact [emailprotected] or [emailprotected].

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Tony Wong, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (3)ALMA Unravels a Star Formation Standoff in the Tarantula's Gaseous Web

Embargo access for members of the press, please contact [emailprotected].

Dillon Dong, California Institute of Technology (2)Discovery of an Extremely Luminous, Decades-Old Pulsar Wind Nebula in the Very Large Array Sky Survey

Embargo access for members of the press, please contact [emailprotected].

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The full press conference program is available on the AAS Press Web Site.NRAO Public Information Officerswill be available to assist journalistswith all listed press conferences during the live conference.

In addition to the press conferences, dozens of papers with new and ongoing science results from NRAO facilities will be presented during AAS 240 conference sessions. AAS 240 marks the first full in-person meeting of the AAS since January 2020.

About NRAO

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

About ALMA

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

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Science Results From NRAO Facilities to Be Presented at Multiple AAS 240 Press Conferences - Newswise

I was spending a slow Sunday morning drinking my coffee and procrastinating on Twitter shocking, I know when I came across a lovely video created by the European Southern Observatory. It demonstrates just how amazing the observations of the Milky Ways central supermassive black hole are: The size of the ring of material around it on the sky is about the same as a donut would be sitting on the surface of the Moon.

The video itself is great, giving you a sense of just how small that would be by zooming in and in and in on the Moon, until you can see the donut sitting on the surface. I want you watch it all the way through its less than 30 seconds long and to pay particular attention to the surface of the Moon when the video stops zooming in. Why? Youll see. Literally.

Did you see it? When the video stops zooming and the scene is stationary, the ground around the donut appears to move, looking like its receding from you, or sinking into the Moon! If you didnt see it, watch the video again and dont focus on the donut so much and relax your vision so youre just taking in the whole scene at once.

The effect only lasts a few seconds, but when I first watched it was overwhelming; I couldnt stop it from happening even if I tried. I literally laughed out loud I love optical illusions and had a pretty good idea of why it happened. I did a little poking around and sure enough, I was right.

First, this effect is colloquially known as the waterfall illusion, after it was described in the early 1800s by scientist Robert Addams, who noticed that after staring at a waterfalls downward motion for some time, when he looked at the rocks around it they appeared to be moving upward. He was by no means the first person to observe this Aristotle wrote about it but he did popularize it.

The more scientific term for it is motion aftereffect, and like many illusions the cause of it is actually quite complicated. To simplify it, though, your eyes see a scene and send signals to the brain about things like overall brightness, contrast, and the like. They do this rapidly, over and again, and the brain then tries to make sense of those signals.

If something moves over time, its position will change relative to other objects in the scene, and your brain has neurons that can detect that motion. Some are sensitive to motion to the left, others to the right, some up, some down, and so on. Your brain is constantly comparing these signals it gets, contrasting them to get a sense of motion.

If you watch something that continuously moves in one direction, say downward, then the neurons that sense that motion are being activated, while the ones that detect upward motion are not. After a while the downward-sensing neurons get tired, fatigued, and dont get activated as strongly. The upward sensing neurons are still sending the same signal they always have been, though, so when the downward signal weakens it thinks the upward signal is getting stronger. So when you look at the rocks at the side of the waterfall they appear to move up, even though theyre actually stationary.

Same thing with inward and outward motion! When the lunar zoom-in stops, the neurons that detect it are tired, but ones that detect zoom-out are not, so the surface of the Moon around the donut appears to move away from you. To me it looks like its subsiding, sinking into the Moon. Cool, and more than a little weird.

This is more than just a trick of the eye and brain, though. Studying these effects help us understand how our organs work, and that can lead to some interesting and important science.

For example, when I was a kid there was this popular trick where you stand in a narrow doorway and raise your arms to your sides as if trying to widen the doorframe. Youd do this for a few seconds, then relax your arms. When you do, theres a strong sense that your arms are starting to float up again! This is called the Kohnstamm phenomenon, and is similar to the waterfall illusion except it deals with involuntary muscles. Scientists have looked into seeing what happens if the person does this trick and then tries to suppress it by holding their arms down at their sides. They found that the brain suppresses the involuntary lift signal before it reaches your arms this could have implications for people who suffer from involuntary movements, like with Parkinsons disease or Tourettes syndrome.

I love illusions because theyre fun and trippy, but also because they give us a lot of insight into how we perceive the world, and how our brains and sensory organs work. That, in turn, can help scientists mitigate diseases that affect our perceptions.

And another underrated aspect is that they tell us that how we do perceive the world is not how the world really is. Despite what so many people think, seeing is not believing.

I've written about illusions dozens of time; like this one on how we perceive colors, or the perception of contrast, or color and contrast, or of illusory motion, and this absolutely maddening one on how we see shapes. Enjoy!

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Bad Astronomy | Donut on the Moon optical illusion | SYFY WIRE - Syfy