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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For Rodgers the outreach goes a step further.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short URL: http://blogs.umsl.edu/news/?p=69220

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Explore further: Methanol detected for first time around young star

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

Journal reference: Astrophysical Journal

Provided by: Academia Sinica

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That is clearly the Silfen Gas Halo

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

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

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

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WALL STREET JOURNAL-BEST SELLERS - Miami Herald

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

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

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

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

NASA states that those goals produce three broad questions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Further reading

A History of Astrophysics

The Glassmaker Who Sparked Astrophysics

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What is Astrophysics? - space.com

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

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

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

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

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

"This quasar was twinkling violently," Walker said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Further work suggested it's not.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Journal reference: Astrophysical Journal

Provided by: Manly Astrophysics

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

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

David Bond and Sophia Maggelakis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cutting edge astrophysics for undergraduates

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

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

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

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

REUs at RIT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA begins independent review of WFIRST mission - SpaceNews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UC Santa Cruz issued the following press release:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Santa Cruz astronomer Jerry Nelson dies - KSBW The Central Coast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more:

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

Do you have a passion for how things work and enjoy scientific experiments? Do you want to learn more with one of the most innovative physics research groups in Australia?

Head of the University of Queenslands School of Mathematics and Physics, Professor Joseph Grotowski, said the School welcomes students from around the planet, all of whom seem to be attracted by its friendly, safe reputation and world-class teaching, research and facilities.

People love to study physics because its interesting; it can be used in all walks of life, and helps us to understand how the world works, he said.

As a global top-tier research institution, the University of Queensland (UQ) recently moved higher in the influential QS World University Rankings, coming in at 47th globally. As such, UQ has placed well inside the top one percent of the worlds 26,000 universities. UQ is committed to providing students with a world-class education.

The University has about 40 physics academic and research staff and 60 research postgraduate students, who have an annual research income of several million dollars, and are involved in national research centres in quantum computers, quantum systems, astrophysics and hypersonics.

Source: University of Queensland

These academics and students collaborate on international projects to benefit humanity.

For example, Dr Ebinazar Namdas, is leading a lighting technology research project with Indian agencies to develop organic semiconductors.

The project will enable children from remote communities to study at night and also potentially cut electricity costs for consumers and develop the next generation of photo sensors for digital cameras.

UQ physicist Dr Magdalena Zychs research was recently used by Italian physicists to test Einsteins equivalence principle, which plays a vital role in physicists understanding of gravity and space-time.

This work could lead to the development of new sensors with applications in studying volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, in searching for mineral deposits, in navigating Earth and space, and in high-precision measurements of time frequency and acceleration.

Professor Grotowski said UQ students had excellent career prospects because they graduated with analytical and problem-solving skills sought by employers in the public and private sectors round the world.

Our graduates are working in fields as diverse as education, engineering, computing, management, government research, University teaching and the health and medical sector, he said.

Astrophysics graduate Dr Sarah Sweet studied physics at UQ because it was the only university in Queensland to offer postgraduate astrophysics.

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

It is well-regarded for example, its Excellence in Research Australia assessment equals some of the top institutions globally, she said.

Professor Grotowski said UQs School of Mathematics and Physics offers a large range of study and research opportunities at undergraduate, Honours, postgraduate coursework, and postgraduate research levels, including:

Learn more about program offerings and discover some recent physics graduates here.

UQ also has a long history of looking after its international student community, Professor Grotowski said.

Choosing to fly across the worldleaving your family, friends and familiar spaces to attend university in a different countryis not the easiest decision.

We understand these factors, and we work hard to make sure our students know they have made the right decision when they study with us.

UQ provides English assistance, help with finding accommodation, make friends and cope with learning.

The University also has international student advisors who can answer any questions or worries you may have.

Information about application procedures can be found at:future-students.uq.edu.au/apply.

More information about UQ for international students, including the study environment, links to estimated living costs, refund policies, support services, information for students with families, and your legal rights as an international student can be found at: future-students.uq.edu.au.

Follow UQ on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo, Flickr and LinkedIn

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A passion for Physics can find global applications at UQ - Asian Correspondent

by

Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D

Professor of Sociology

Neil deGrasse Tyson,, Astrophysics for people in a Hurry, New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2017, 222 pp, Hardcover, K174.35 ($18.95).

Introduction

When I was a child living at Chipewa Village in the late 1950s in Lundazi District in Eastern Zambia in Southern Africa, we were loudly playing childrens games including hide and seek. I was jumping and running around in the evening after supper with other children in the open village square. Adults congregated in front of houses and chatted around with household family members getting ready to go to bed. Suddenly from nowhere a massive very bright light descended directly on top of the village momentarily making everything look as bright as day light. Suddenly the light went off and it was dark again. We all screamed running in different directions to our various homes. Out of breath my cousins and I asked my grandparents what that scary bright light was. My grandmother calmly replied that it was the wretched work of witches in the night.

Early Morning glow of beautiful sunrise before landing at Kenneth Kaunda international Airport in Lusaka. Who created the Universe, the sun and indirectly the plane?

Neil deGrasse Tyson Astrophysics for people in a Hurry, reminded me of this incident that I never witnessed again in my life. But I might have seen again and again but more on this later. In the village I attended Sub A or Grade One at Boyole Primary School. The very first religious knowledge class taught me about God, the origin of humans and the crucial role of Adam and Eve in the fate of all humanity. Ten years later in Form 4 in 1970 at Chizongwe Secondary School in Chipata, I was to learn about Sir Isaac Newtons Law of Gravity (1642-1726) in physics in my Physical Science classes practicing the formula. Although in 1915 Albert Einsteins discovered the very influential Theory of Relativity, I dont remember it being in our physics textbook yet in 1970. How is all this related to Tysons just published new book Astrophysics for people in a Hurry? How is this related to whether God exists?

The Big Bang

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in the very first sentence of his book reminiscent of the Bible says: In the beginning, nearly fourteen billion years ago, all space and all the matter and all the energy of the known universe was contained in a volume less than one-trillionth the size of the period (full stop) that ends this sentence. (p.17) What!!?? was my reaction after I read the first sentence. Then there was the Big Bang. I could not stop reading until I finished the 208 pages because I wanted my curiosity satisfied and so many of my own questions answered.

The moon in the night sky when I am in the village.

Tyson goes on to describe the origin of the known Universe, distant galaxies, the famous Milky Way, stars, our solar system, matter, energy, and how the Earth may have become the only known habitable planet in the solar system. Tyson describes photons, atoms, molecules, constants, conservation laws, speed of light, the mystery of dark matter, cosmic distances; all without using any of the sophisticated mathematical formulas in physics. Thats why the book is for the lay person because even a non-Astrophysicist like me with some physics knowledge from secondary school was able to read and understand it.

Does God Exist?

What invokes questions in the book about whether God exists is the sheer unimaginable monumental events that have happened over 13 billion years and will continue to happen going into the future. All of them are said to be still happening now as you read this or have happened by chance since 13 billion years ago. For example, the orbit along which our mother earth rotates around the massive hot sun happens to be just further enough from the sun that we do not burn but instead have incredible forms of life from tiny bacteria, insects, and trees to humans, elephants and to one time humongous dinosaurs. The suns energy through photosynthesis creates

Enjoying the warm of fire in the village. What is fire and how is it related to the speed of light?

oxygen through plants. We humans and many other of the earths creatures need oxygen to live. No other planets, at least in our solar system, have these qualities that support so much life. Had our Earth been nudged just a little further away from the sun in our orbit several billion years after the Big Bag, the earth would be too cold to support our life.

Think of Your Origins

If you are a Zambian living in the village, Lusaka, Kabompo, Gwembe Valley, and Livingstone and where ever you are perhaps in the diaspora, once you have eaten nshima with good relish, you are not necessarily rich, but you are comfortable, life seems good, shouldnt you take a moment to think: What was there before the Big Bang? Where did I come from? Why? What is Earth? How big is the Universe? What about the moon, heaven and all those thousands and millions of stars at night? Where did they come from? What is my role in the Universe? What is light or fire? This book will give you some answers. But it will not give you the answer to the question: Does God exist? You will have to make up your mind after you read the book if you have not made up your mind already. About that huge bright light in the village? I now believe it might have been a shooting star or meteorite that was headed toward our village but combusted or burned up and evaporated into gas in the atmosphere perhaps 10 Kms high above our village. I have seen thousands of shooting stars especially even today the many times I visit the village and look at the dark sky, bright moon and mesmerizing twinkling stars in the beautiful Milky Way.

Excerpt from:

Where Did We Come from or Does God Exist?; Astrophysics for people in a Hurry. - UKZAMBIANS

OpenACC is strutting its stuff at ISC this year touting expanding membership, a jump in downloads, favorable benchmarks across several architectures, new staff members, and new support by key HPC applications providers, ANSYS, for example. It is also holding its third user group meeting at the conference and a number of other activities including a BoF. That seems like significant progress in its rivalry with OpenMP.

Parallel programing models, of course, have become de rigueur to get the most from HPC systems, especially with the rise of manycore, GPU, and other heterogeneous architectures. OpenACC formed in 2011 to support parallel programing on accelerated systems. In its own words, OpenACC is a directives-based programming approach to parallel computing designed for performance and portability on CPUs and GPUs for HPC.

There are now roughly 20 core members Cray, AMD, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Indiana University, to name a few. OpenACC reports downloads jumped 86 percent jumped in the last six months, driven in part by a new free community release that also supports Microsoft Windows. Interestingly, support for Windows which is a rarity in core HPC was very important to ANSYS according Michael Wolfe, OpenACC technical lead and a PGI staff member. The current OpenACC version is 2.5 with 2.6 expected to be available for public comment in the next couple of months.

As shown in the slide below, OpenACC has steadily expanded the number of platforms supported. Its an impressive list although notably absent from this list is ARM. Before it ceased operations PathScale supported ARM and currently the GCC group (GNU Compiler Group) is working on OpenACC support for ARM. Leading compiler provider PGI, owned by NVIDIA, also has plans. Its no secret that our plan is to eventually support ARM and well be using the same mechanism we used to support Power and so the compiler part is relatively straight forward. Its getting the numerical libraries in place [thats challenging], says Wolfe.

Significantly, OpenACC is reporting rough parity with OpenMP for application acceleration on a pair of Intel systems and an IBM Minsky when compared with a single core Haswell system. (Reported systems specs: Intel dual Haswell 216 core server, four K80s; dual Intel Broadwell 220 core server, eight P100s; IBM dual Minsky Power8+ NVLINK, four P100s; host systems for GPUs not listed. The application was AWE Hydrodynamics CloverLeaf mini-app.)

You get almost no performance decrement on a multicore on the various systems, notes Wolfe. OpenACC hasnt yet benchmarked against Intels forthcoming Skylake. Were waiting on it. Obviously we need to re-optimize our code generator.

Perhaps most telling, say OpenACC proponents, is the uptick in support from HPC application community. In its ISC new release, OpenACC reported it now accelerates ANSYS Fluent (CFD) and Gaussian (Quantum Chemistry) and VASP (Material Science), which are among the top 10 HPC applications, as well as selected ORNL Center for Accelerated Application Readiness (CAAR) codes to be run on the future CORAL Supercomputer: GTC (Physics), XGC (Physics), LSDalton (Quantum Chemistry), ACME(CWO), and FLASH (Astrophysics).

Early indications are that we can nearly match the performance of CUDA using OpenACC on GPUs.This will enable our domain scientists to work on a uniform GPU accelerated Fortran source code base, says Martijn Marsman, Computational Materials Physics at the University of Vienna in the official press release.

Weve effectively used OpenACC for heterogeneous computing in ANSYS Fluent with impressive performance. Were now applying this work to more of our models and new platforms, says Sunil Sathe, lead software developer, ANSYS.

OpenACC also reports the recently upgraded CSCS Piz Daint supercomputer will be running five codes implemented with OpenACC in the near term: COSMO (CWO), ELEPHANT (Astrophysics), RAMSES (Astrophysics), ICON (CWO), ORB5 (Plasma Physics).

Two new OpenACC officers have been appointed:

Guido Juckeland is the new secretary for OpenACC. He founded the Computational Science Group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Germany. His research focuses on better usability and programmability for hardware accelerators and application performance monitoring as well as optimization. He is also vice-chair of the SPEC High Performance Group (HPG) and an active member of the OpenACC technical.

Sunita Chandrasekaran is the new director of user adoption. Her mission is to grow the OpenACC organization and user community. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Delaware. Her research interest spans HPC, parallel algorithms, programming models, compiler and runtime methodologies and reconfigurable computing. She was one of the recipients of the 2016 IEEE TCHPC Award for Excellence for Early Career Researchers in HPC.

Wolfe says the forthcoming 2.6 release is mostly a matter of tweaks. One change in the works which is substantive is Deep Copy capability.

Many of these programs have very complex data structures. If you think about supercomputing you think about arrays, vectors, and matrices. [But] thats so 1970s. Now these applications will have an array of structures and each structure element has a subarray which is a different. On todays devices, in order to get most performance on the GPU, you need to move the data onto the GPU memory which is higher bandwidth, closer to the device, says Wolfe.

Deep copy doesnt just copy the array but copies that and all the subarrays and all the subarrays. There is a mechanism to support this today but it is clunky [and] requires a lot of code. We are trying to automate that but we are afraid we are going to get it wrong. So what we are doing now in the PGI compiler, we are working on a prototype application before we standardize something in the classification, says Wolfe.

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OpenACC Shows Growing Strength at ISC - HPCwire (blog)

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, is exactly what it says it is a short tour of our understanding of the cosmos that is charming, conversational, witty and perfect to read in short bursts. Its a great introduction to astrophysics. If you lack time to read a longer book but remain curious about why a subject like astrophysics matters, pick this one up.

Tyson is director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, hosts his own television show, hosted an updated version of Carl Sagans classic television series Cosmos, and frequently appears on talk shows. His enthusiasm for astrophysics, contagious on television, translates to print. I could hear his voice as I read the words.

Tyson breaks his book down into 12 easily-read chapters. He starts with the beginning of the universe and then continues through subjects such as dark matter, dark energy, the space between galaxies, alien intelligence and the prevalence of round objects, until he ends with an argument on why the cosmological perspective is essential for humanity.

Its fascinating, succinctly written limited jargon. That doesnt mean its an easy read. The books shortness means you can stop reading on occasion to make sense of all the big ideas and still finish the book. (Remember, this is written for curious people in a hurry.)

Along with the mind-blowing science, Tyson is funny, full of interesting opinions, and folksy proclamations. Yes, Einstein was a badass, writes Tyson. And then, later, Without a doubt, Einsteins greatest blunder was having declared that Lambda was his greatest blunder.

Towards the end, after explaining what we know about the universe, Tyson attempts to put it all in perspective. Why does astrophysics matter to us, in our daily lives? Understanding the rules of the universe helps us understand ourselves and equips us for the future, he argues. Figuring out the rules of the universe is how people moved from caves to agriculture. This is the continuation of that movement.

How does it help us understand ourselves? Simply put, we are made of the stuff of stars.

We do not simply live in this universe; the universe lives in us.

Furthermore, if we ever discover alien intelligence, it too will be made of the stuff of stars. It behooves us in the meantime to study the stars and understand how the universe works. After reading this, youll see that there are a lot of strange, unanswered questions lurking in space.

This short, excellent read should find a happy home in every librarys science section. After reading this, readers who want more can move on to books with additional detail.

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Review: "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" | Mo Books ... - The Missourian (blog)

SANTA CRUZ Jerry Nelson, a pioneering astronomer known for his innovative designs for advanced telescopes, died Saturday at his home in Santa Cruz. He was 73.

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

Nelson conceived the revolutionary segmented mirror design of the Keck Observatorys twin 10-meter telescopes, and he developed new techniques to fabricate and control the mirror segments.

Nelson also played an important role in the development of adaptive optics technology, which sharpens the images from ground-based telescopes by correcting for the blurring effect of Earths atmosphere. As founding director of the Center for Adaptive Optics, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center based at UC Santa Cruz, Nelson helped pioneer the use of adaptive optics in astronomy.

Nelson earned his B.S. in physics at the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in physics at UC Berkeley. From 1970 to 1981, he worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and he was a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley from 1981 until 1994, when he moved to UCSC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Nelson received many awards and honors for his achievements, including the 2010 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering, the Andr#xe9; Lallemande Prize of the French Academy of Sciences, and the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics of the American Astronomical Society.

Nelson is survived by his wife, Jocelyn Nelson; his sister Jeanne Moat; two children from his first marriage, Leif and Alexandra; and three grandchildren. His first wife Victoria died in 1992.

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Legendary UC Santa Cruz astronomer and astrophysicist dies - The Mercury News

Summary: The Department of Astronomy of Osmania University is organizing a 10-Day certificate course Foundation course in Astronomy and Astrophysics from 12th to 22nd July. 3,000 to be paid through DD in favor of Co-Ordinator, Foundation course in A & Ap, OU, Hyd. The payment can be done through online transfer also to Ac/No: 36925752331, informed Department of Astronomy Head Dr. D. Shanti Priya on Monday. The candidates who are pursuing/completed graduation, with Maths, Physics and computers at intermediate (10+2) level are eligible to enroll in the course. The course is aimed to popularize Astronomy in young minds which will help them develop strong foundations in the subject and motivate them to choose it as a career option.

The Department of Astronomy of Osmania University is organizing a 10-Day certificate course Foundation course in Astronomy and Astrophysics from 12th to 22nd July. The course is aimed to popularize Astronomy in young minds which will help them develop strong foundations in the subject and motivate them to choose it as a career option. The candidates who are pursuing/completed graduation, with Maths, Physics and computers at intermediate (10+2) level are eligible to enroll in the course. Those who are interested to enroll can register on or before 5th July by sending their details through mail to coordinator,[email protected].

The registration fee is Rs. 3,000 to be paid through DD in favor of Co-Ordinator, Foundation course in A & Ap, OU, Hyd. The payment can be done through online transfer also to Ac/No: 36925752331, informed Department of Astronomy Head Dr.

Source: http://www.siasat.com/news/ou-offers-10-day-certificate-course-astronomy-astrophysics-1198885/

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OU offers 10-day Certificate Course in Astronomy & Astrophysics - NYOOOZ

The Hindu

Studying astrophysics: Written in the stars The Hindu Brian Schmidt, Vice-Chancellor, Australian National University, also happens to be a Nobel prize-winning astrophysicist and cosmologist. He was jointly awarded the prize for physics in 2011 for his discovery that the universe is expanding, at an ...

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Studying astrophysics: Written in the stars - The Hindu