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NAU partners in Lowell’s Discovery Channel Telescope

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Northern Arizona Universitys already bustling astronomy program raised its profile this week by securing a place as partner in a world-class telescope.

The college is now an official partner with Lowell Observatorys Discovery Channel Telescope, the fifth largest telescope in the country.

In exchange for just over $1 million, NAU will receive 80 nights of telescope use over the course of five years. That works out to $12,500 per night on the $53 million telescope.

The DCT, which saw its first light last year, is located about 40 miles south of Flagstaff in Happy Jack.

NAU professors will use their nights to study Kuiper Belt Objects at the outer edge of the solar system. The instrument will also become a teaching tool for the schools growing body of astronomy students.

You dont just become a scientist doing bookwork, said Stephen Tegler, chair of the astronomy and physics department, citing the need for apprenticeship. Its working hands on with research grade equipment. That apprenticeship goes leaps and bounds ahead with the Discovery Channel Telescope.

Read more about it in Thursday's Arizona Daily Sun.

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NAU partners in Lowell’s Discovery Channel Telescope

Lick Observatory’s astronomy research could end

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By Lisa M. Krieger lkrieger@mercurynews.com

SAN JOSE -- The future of astronomical research at the iconic Lick Observatory is in peril, as the University of California threatens to cut funding and perhaps even convert most of its once-cutting-edge Mount Hamilton telescopes into museum relics.

Now, alongside the search for new celestial frontiers, scientists must hunt for a new source of outside funding to keep the 125-year-old observatory from going dark.

"It's heartbreaking. We're collapsing like a house of cards," said Steve Vogt, who leads a team of planet-hunting astronomers at UC-Santa Cruz.

Perched on the 4,200-foot summit of Mount Hamilton east of San Jose, the UC-run observatory is home to six telescopes, which are increasingly upstaged by newer and larger telescopes in other parts of the world. When constructed in 1888, Lick was the first permanently occupied mountaintop observatory in the world; for almost a decade, its original telescope was the largest ever built.

It has made major contributions to the field of astronomy, discovering asteroids, moons of Jupiter and planets outside our solar system.

If it loses funding, Lick's sensitive new $10 million Automated Planet Finder, a decade in production, would no longer scan the skies for our galactic neighbors, bringing us closer to answering the profound question: Are we alone?

The observatory's surveys of supernovae and the future of astronomy education at UC-Santa Cruz are also under threat, because the campus relies on Lick to support its nationally-renowned academic program.

"UC wants it off the books," Vogt said. "They're shutting the door and turning out the lights."

The plan is based on the findings of two review committees -- one at UC, the second made up of independent experts -- that two other Hawaii-based sites, W.M. Keck Observatory and the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), deserve higher priority at a time of cost-cutting.

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Lick Observatory's astronomy research could end

Discovery Channel Telescope gets new partner

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Northern Arizona Universitys already bustling astronomy program raised its profile this week by partnering with a world-class telescope.

The university has secured regular time on Lowell Observatorys Discovery Channel Telescope, the fifth-largest telescope in the country.

In exchange for a little more than $1 million, NAU will receive 80 nights of telescope use over the course of five years. That works out to about $12,500 per night on the $53 million telescope.

The DCT, which saw its first light last year, is located about 40 miles southeast of Flagstaff in Happy Jack.

NAU professors will use their nights to study Kuiper Belt Objects at the outer edge of the solar system. The instrument will also become a teaching tool for the schools growing body of astronomy students.

The way you become a scientist is by apprenticeship, said Stephen Tegler, chair of the astronomy and physics department, adding that students dont just learn through bookwork. When students see they have access to this kind of facility, thats a very big motivator.

Other schools already in the partnership include Boston University, the University of Maryland and the University of Toledo.

Lowell is delighted that NAU has agreed to become a DCT partner, said Lowell Observatory Director Jeff Hall. This is another example of our institutions working together for the advancement of science.

NAU students will now get the chance to accompany astronomers like Tegler on their trips to the telescope with the 4-meter lens (about 13 feet). The professor said that some students already spent time with the telescope in observational astronomy classes this semester, which were taught by a Lowell Observatory astronomer. Those chances will now become more frequent.

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Discovery Channel Telescope gets new partner

Astronomy students observe heavenly views with high-tech telescope

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PECULIAR, Mo. Science fiction fans arent alone in their interest in The Final Frontier. One group of astronomy students is exploring the stars, too. Raymore-Peculiar High School received a donated high-tech telescope.

Now, science classes at Ray-Pec High will never be the same again. A society of space exploration enthusiasts has donated the telescope that stands nearly 12-feet tall to the high school.

Its giving students a rare opportunity to see the cosmos as if the heavens sit in their own backyard.

Darrick Gray has spent 14 years teaching in Peculiar, Mo. The new 25-inch Dobsonian Telescope has been a game-changer for his students.

We looked at Jupiter, and there was no issue whatsoever looking at the bands. I point the telescope at it, and Bam! Theres the bands, Gray said.

Ray-Pec received the telescope after it was donated by the Star Garden. Its a non-profit astronomical society based in Warrensburg, Mo. The telescopes 25-inch mirror produces amazing images of heavenly bodies. Even the sight of the Orion Nebula, which is over 1,300 light years from Earth, came in crystal clear.

To my knowledge, its the biggest scope in the area outside of the Powell Observatory. Theyre the only one that I factually know is bigger than this one, Gray said.

The telescope is giving students a rare opportunity to step out of the classroom and apply the science theyve learned.

Its just crazy. You can see it in a book, and see all the different colors and stuff they do through Photoshop. You can actually see it through the telescope. Its intense, student Kat Pismenny said.

You see the beauty when you look at the stars and you see all of the colors and all of the patterns of everything thats out there. It just makes you feel small. You look at it and its glorious, student Brianna Grey said.

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Astronomy students observe heavenly views with high-tech telescope

Free astronomy presentation in Weston Nov. 15

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Kevin Manning is giving a free presentation on the night sky on Nov. 15, sponsored by the Weston library.

Just in time for the much anticipated arrival of comet ISON in the inner solar system this fall, the Weston Public Library will host Dr. Kevin Manning for his program, Movers in the Sky: Comets, Meteors and Asteroids. The presentation will take place on Friday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. in the Weston Middle School Library.

Dr. Manning is an international award-winning astrophysicist with a contagious passion for his field of expertise. He has served as a consultant for NASA, worked with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

He has been both a Wright Fellow and an Einstein Fellow.

He has also been an editor for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science Journal of Undergraduate Research.

More recently, he has presented numerous programs on astronomy to schools and libraries. His program appeals to all ages.

RSVP for this free program sponsored by the Library Board to westonlibraryct@gmail.com.

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Free astronomy presentation in Weston Nov. 15

How Astronomy Benefits Society and Humankind

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Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter

Our ever-increasing technology. Image credit: VST

With an annual cost of $30.8 million, the Keck Observatory costs $53.7 thousand for a single nights worth of operation. It will cost the James Webb Space Telescope approximately $8.8 billion to reach orbit. And the Space Launch System that will carry the Orion capsule is expected to cost $38 billion.

Why should we be spending such a vast amount of money on astronomy? How is it useful and beneficial to society?

Astronomers face this question on a daily basis. Recently a ream of European astronomers have provided tangible answers relating advancements in astronomy to advancements in industry, aerospace, energy, medicine, international collaboration, everyday life and humankind.

I get this question quite often, Dr. Marissa Rosenberg, lead author on the paper, told Universe Today. One very personal reason for writing this article is that I wanted to share with my parents (both business people) why what I am doing is important and a necessary facet of society.

Today, millions of people across the world are affected by advances in astronomy.

Industry

Your iPhones camera is a charge-coupled device (CCD) an instrument, which converts the movement of electrical charge into a digital value. Originally developed for astronomy, CCDs are now used in most cameras, webcams and cell phones.

Every iPhone with has a built-in CCD

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How Astronomy Benefits Society and Humankind

Hybrid Solar Eclipse 2013: Rare solar eclipse phenomenon delights astronomy fans across the globe – Video

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Hybrid Solar Eclipse 2013: Rare solar eclipse phenomenon delights astronomy fans across the globe
A rare solar eclipse plunge parts of the US, Africa and Europe into darkness after the moon passed between the sun and the earth.

By: JewishNewsOne

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Hybrid Solar Eclipse 2013: Rare solar eclipse phenomenon delights astronomy fans across the globe - Video

YouTube astronomy brings new views on meteors

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Call it astronomy by YouTube.

Unprecedented social media documentation of a small asteroid exploding over a Russian city earlier this year has taught scientists much more about how and how often such spectacular events happen.

In one of three scientific papers on the Chelyabinsk meteor published Wednesday, a University of Western Ontario scientist concludes that the heavenly bodies are hitting the Earth two or three times more often than we thought.

"The consensus seems to be that we're seeing more things in the tens-of-metre size hitting us than we previously thought," said Peter Brown, lead author of a paper published in Nature. "Our knowledge of the risk is getting better."

The Chelyabinsk meteor sailed into the Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 15 and exploded in the sky so brightly that it cast daytime shadows in the nearby city of that name. The long, fiery trail gave observers plenty of time to whip out smartphones and videocams to record it and many did.

More than 400 recordings of it exist.

"It's almost certainly the best-recorded event in any of our lifetimes," said Brown. "Even if it happens again, the odds are it will happen over the oceans and be virtually unrecorded."

The blast knocked people off their feet and smashed thousands of windows. Many residents of Chelyabinsk were injured from flying glass.

Olga Popova, author of another paper published in Science, used the data from security and dashboard cameras to calculate that the asteroid was nearly 20 metres in diameter and hit a speed of 18.6 kilometres per second. The blast was 30 times brighter than the sun and released energy equivalent to 530 kilotonnes of TNT.

Brown and his colleagues were able to use the wealth of data to construct a clearer picture of what happens to asteroids when they hit the atmosphere.

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YouTube astronomy brings new views on meteors

SOFIA set to begin cycle two astronomy observations

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Nov 06, 2013 The SOFIA flying observatory deployed to Christchurch, New Zealand, in July 2013 for an opportunity to study the skies above the Southern Hemisphere. Credit: NASA / Carla Thomas

NASA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the SOFIA Science Center, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) have announced the selection of 51 investigations to study the universe using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA, a joint program between NASA and the DLR, is set to begin its second full cycle of science flights from February through December 2014.

The SOFIA observatory is a substantially modified 747SP aircraft that carries a telescope with an effective diameter of 100 inches (2.5 meters) to altitudes above 39,000 feet (12 km), beyond the obscuring layer of water vapor in Earth's atmosphere.

"More than 1,000 hours of observing time were requested, three times the amount available, evidence of SOFIA's desirability to astronomers," said SOFIA Science Missions Operations Director Erick Young in announcing the awards of observing time. "The approved projects make good use of the observatory's capabilities to study objects ranging from Earth's solar system neighbors to galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away."

As of Nov. 5, the SOFIA has conducted 23 of 30 planned Cycle 1 science flights, including nine flights during a Southern Hemisphere deployment to New Zealand from its base at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif.

The newly announced observing period, known as Cycle 2, contains 47 science flights grouped into multi-week observing campaigns spread through an 11-month span. The Cycle 2 science flights include approximately 350 research flight hours, about 200 hours of which have been awarded to guest investigators whose proposals to do research using SOFIA were evaluated by either a U.S. or a German-chartered peer review panel.

In addition to the science flights planned for Cycle 2, the SOFIA program will undertake commissioning observations needed to make two more of the observatory's seven first-generation scientific instruments ready for use by guest investigators. Those instruments, the EXES (Echelon-Cross-Echelle Spectrograph), a high-resolution mid-infrared spectrograph, and the FIFI LS (Field Imaging Far-Infrared Line Spectrometer), will be available to researchers on a limited basis.

"In the past year, SOFIA has become a first-class asset to the world scientific community," said Pam Marcum, NASA SOFIA Project Scientist. "This SOFIA Cycle 2 announcement marks an important step in our progress toward routine operations. Infrared studies from these observations will enhance our knowledge of the life cycles of stars, how planets form, the chemistry of the interstellar medium, and much more."

SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The aircraft is based at the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center manages the program. NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) headquartered in Columbia, Md., and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of Stuttgart.

Explore further: Chelyabinsk meteor explosion a 'wake-up call', scientistswarn

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SOFIA set to begin cycle two astronomy observations

High-Energy Neutrinos Herald a New Dawn of Particle Astronomy

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IceCube laboratory in Antarctica Image: COURTESY OF SVEN LIDSTROM National Science Foundation

Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

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The starry glow of the night sky brings news from the distant edges of the cosmos, as light fills astronomers' telescopes with the bizarre and wondrous processes in the universe. But light cannot tell the whole storyoften it reveals only an object's superficial glow. To better understand the cores of powerful astrophysical objects, scientists are studying individual particles that can tell a firsthand tale of the extreme events that launch them outward at tremendous speed. A promising new frontier has just opened up that should bolster those investigations.

For more than a century now scientists have trapped particles known as cosmic rays to gather clues about the universe. Cosmic rays are charged particles (mostly protons) ejected by cosmic outbursts. Some have as much energy as a tennis ball served up at 90 miles per hour. Unfortunately, it is impossible to track a cosmic ray back to its source in the sky; magnetic fields twist the paths of charged particles into knots before those particles reach Earth.

The lightweight, neutral particles known as neutrinos do not have that problem. Neutrinos are famous for their ghostly behaviorthey can emerge unmolested from the center of a violent outburst, zip straight across the universe and pass cleanly through Earth's atmosphere. Those qualities make neutrinos exquisite carriers of astronomical information. The trick is catching them once they arrive.

Scientists have constructed a giant neutrino detector, known as IceCube, a mile under Antarctic ice in the hopes of netting these astronomical neutrinos. And earlier this year the IceCube project announced that it had found 28 neutrinos so energetic that they must have come from outside the solar system. Two of the neutrinos, highlighted in a July study in Physical Review Letters, carry so much energyhundreds of times that of the particles in the Large Hadron Colliderthat affectionate astronomers have singled them out with names: Ernie and Bert.

As to what birthed these high-energy neutrinos, speculation abounds. They could have emerged from gamma-ray bursts, mysterious and short-lived cataclysms that briefly rank as the brightest objects in the universe; shock waves from exploding stars; or so-called blazars, jets of energy powered by supermassive black holes. Or Ernie and Bert may be the particle spawn of dark matter, the unidentified stuff that provides much of the universe's massor perhaps even a sign of more exotic phenomena.

In truth, scientists cannot glean much from a mere 28 particles. So far the high-energy neutrinos do not seem to point back to a specific source, which would give scientists more to go on. Everybody's reading the tea leaves, says Francis Halzen, director of the IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center at the University of WisconsinMadison. But with IceCube expected to run for at least another decade, the era of particle astronomy is just beginning.

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High-Energy Neutrinos Herald a New Dawn of Particle Astronomy

NASA grant helps NMSU astronomy student?s search for microbial life

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New Mexico State University student Kyle Uckert is working on the development of instrumentation to help identify signs of life on bodies of the solar system. He has been selected as one of 65 graduate students in the 2013 class of NASA Space Technology Research Fellows and will receive funding for his work for three years.

Uckert, who is a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences Astronomy Department, is developing a two-step laser time-of-flight mass spectrometer to isolate materials within rocks, and identify and characterize biosignatures within geological samples.

I will identify the spectral characteristics of amino acids and other chains of basic organic compounds essential to life on Earth, he said. The mass spectrometer uses a laser to ablate materials off of rocks. The plasma-like material is then accelerated into a detector, which helps measure chemical constituents of samples. Were able to infer from this whether theres any organic matter and identify any signs of present or past life on the rock.

As part of his research, Uckert is studying the materials found in cave rocks. He said he hopes the instrumentation he is developing will one day be used on landed or roving space missions.

Were starting to study life in caves on Earth, he explained. Caves are a good analog for extreme environments where we might hope to find life elsewhere in the solar system. Theyre sheltered from ultraviolet light. Theres also the potential for water to be below the surface of other planetary bodies.

The instrument will hopefully be flown to another planetary body to help us look for life there. My role is to help identify what the best way to look for life here on Earth is, so that we can apply that knowledge elsewhere in the solar system. Ill be doing that for the next three years.

Uckert uses three types of devices to study and analyze the materials: a two-step laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometer for organic and biosignature identification; infrared and ultraviolet reflectance spectrometers, complimentary instrumentation at NMSUs geology and electrical engineering departments; and a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer to quantify the effectiveness of these instruments as biomarker identification tools.

Through the fellowship, Uckert will also have the opportunity to work with a mentor at a NASA institution, Stephanie Getty. He will spend time at the Goddard Space Flight Center utilizing the equipment.

Uckert, who anticipates graduating in 2016, earned his bachelors degree at Ohio University. He chose NMSU for his graduate studies because his now-adviser Nancy Chanover was working on the project, and he wanted to be involved. He also works with Nancy McMillan of geological sciences and David Voelz of electrical engineering.

The most fascinating thing about this research is that the technology that were developing has potential to impact future missions to other planets, he said. The most challenging thing is trying to decide what constitutes something that has life in it, or trying to find the life. We look for life in solar system based on what we think life should look like. We really only have one data point for that. We dont know for sure whether life in other bodies will have the same properties, but its the best place we have to start.

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NASA grant helps NMSU astronomy student?s search for microbial life


  1. Astronomy