Well, damnation. Martin Landau has died.

You might know him for his iconic portrayal of Bela Lugosi in the movie Ed Wood and you should; it earned him an Oscar, deservedly.

But to me he has been and always will be Commander John Koenig, the hot-headed commander of Moonbase Alpha, leader of the 311 men and women there, making the big decisions after the Moon was accidentally blasted out of Earth orbit on September 13, 1999.

Sound silly? Well, yeah, it is. But it was the plot for the TV show Space:1999, and let me tell you, I loved it when I was a kid. Even after all these years (it aired in the US in the late '70s) I still have a deep fondness for it. To this day it has one of the best and coolest spaceships ever, the Eagle Transporter.

I was a tween/young teen at the time the show aired, and my friend John and I never missed an episode. I liked Star Trek at the time (not as much as I do now, though), and Kirk was something of a male role model for me, as was Spock for my science side. But it was Barry Morse as Professor Victor Bergman who was really my fictional science inspiration, and Landau's Koenig I looked up to.

Looking back at it now, with adult eyes and experience, my opinion of the character is different. I understand now that Koenig's character was somewhat erratically written, with anger guiding his decisions as often as concern over the safety of the base or the desire to explore. Of course, we all of us have conflicting motivations sometimes, don't we?

But when I was a kid, I saw him simply as the hero. Oh, how I loved Koenig's take-charge attitude when things got rough, how fiercely he defended his friends and comrades, how quick he was to boil over when they were threatened! I thought he was the epitome of derring-do.

Times were different then, and I am not the person I was when I was 13. Thank heavens! But still, some of that boy is me, parts of him at least. The love of science and science fiction, of story telling in the depths of the Universe that lives on in me, as does whatever part of that was guided by Koenig and the rest of the Alphans.

You can read about Landau's other achievements and other roles elsewhere. But for me, every year on September 13thIll tip my hat toward the Moon. I'll always wish Moonbase Alpha godspeed, and I'll always remember Martin Landau for a role on a show that shaped my love for space forever.

[Hero image credit:Gerry Anderson Productions]

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Martin Landau: 19282017 - SYFY WIRE (blog)

Aseclipse 2017 quickly approaches, Americansfrom astronomers to photographers to space enthusiastsare preparing to witness the celestial wonder that is totality.

Phenomenon found within planetary science has long driven us to observe and study space. Through a shared desire to dismantle and reconstruct the theories behind our solar system, ancient Greek philosophers and scientists built the foundation of planetary astronomy.

The following shortened excerpt from The Oxford Illustrated History of Science discusses the evolution of planetary astronomy in ancient Greece.

TheRepublic of Plato ends with a cosmic vision. A hero named Er is killed in battle. His body lies on the field for ten days but does not decay. When Er comes back to life, he tells his companions what he saw while he was out of this world. Here Plato draws on the familiar sight of a woman spinning yarn, for Er saw the spindle of Necessity (Anangke, personified as a woman). The spindle and the yarn represent the axis of the universe, while the spindle whorl (the spinning bob to which the newly formed yarn is attached) represents the cosmos itself. But the whorl that Er saw is not like ordinary spindle whorls. Rather it consists of eight whorls nestled one inside another. Plato says they are like nested boxes one can find (but we might think of Russian dolls). The outermost whorl is the sphere of the fixed stars. Nested inside are the whorls for the five planets and the Sun and Moon. Thus each celestial body is carried around on its own spherical shell. The outer whorl turns westward (representing the daily rotation of the cosmos), but the inner ones rotate within in it, to the east, each in its own characteristic time (representing the motions of the planets around the zodiac). Riding on each whorl is a Siren who sings a single clear note. This is Platos nod to the Pythagorean doctrine of celestial harmony. And ranged round the whole affair are the three daughters of Neccessity, the Fates who were mentioned by Hesiod in theTheogony. Clotho, with her right hand, helps to turn the outermost whorl. Atropos, with her left hand, helps to turn the inner spheres. And Lacheisis, alternately with either hand, touches one then the other. This seems to be a reference to the three movements of a planetthe westward daily motion, the eastward motion around the zodiac, and the oscillation responsible for the occasional retrograde motion.

This is the first appearance in literature of the cosmic onionthe view of the universe as a set of concentric spherical shells. Plato here stands midway between science and myth. On the one hand, he geometrizes the cosmos, postulating a simple model to explain the complex motions of the planets, but on the other hand he has draped his image in traditional mythology.

Nevertheless, geometers took this model seriously. Eudoxus of Cnidus wrote a book On Speeds in which he considered a planet that rides on the innermost of a set of four nested spheres. That is, each of the planetary shells in Platos account now consists of four nested spheres. The outermost sphere for each planet is responsible for the daily rotation. The next sphere in is responsible for the eastward motion around the zodiac. And the innermost two spheres together produce a figure-of-eight, back-and- forth motion that accounts for retrograde motion. So, in Eudoxus, the Fates have been removed and replaced by rotating spheres. Plato and Eudoxus overlapped in Athens, so we have no way to know whether the geometer was inspired by the philosopher, or the philosopher poeticized the models of the geometer. Eudoxus work has not survived, but we have a short account of it in Aristotles Metaphysics and it was still known to Simplicius in the sixth century CE.

The nested spheres of Eudoxus were soon abandoned in planetary theory (though they dominated cosmological thought until the Renaissance). Ancient critics pointed out that in this system, although a planet is slung about on multiple spheres, since each sphere is concentric with the Earth, the planets distance from the Earth never changes. This made it hard to understand how some planets vary in brightness in the course of their cycles. Mars, for example, is much brighter in the middle of its retrograde motion.

Around 200 BCE, Apollonius of Perga discussed the theory of epicycles and deferent circles. The new idea is that each planet travels around a circle called the epicycle, while the centre of the epicycle moves around the Earth on another circle, called the deferent. Both of these motions take place at uniform speed, in keeping with the nature of celestial things. Retrograde motion occurs when the planet is close to the Earth, on the inner part of the epicycle. For then the westward motion on the epicycle is more than enough to overcome the eastward motion on the deferent. At first, the model was intended only to be broadly explanatory, and to provide a field of play for the geometer. Apollonius theory explains how a planet could move around the zodiac and occasionally retrograde while really executing a combination of uniform circular motions. It also nicely explains why Mars is brightest in the middle of retrograde motion. The theory (being planar) was also mathematically far simpler than Eudoxus spherical system.

Ptolemys work came at the very end of the creative period of Greek science. And in the case of deferent-and-epicycle theory, he built on three hundred years of work. But Ptolemy also introduced a new idea. For Ptolemy allows the centre of the planets epicycle to travel at a non-uniform speed around the deferent. The non-uniformity is, however expressed in the language of uniformity. Ptolemy imagines a third centre, distinct from the Earth and from the centre of the deferent. This third centre, which is the centre of uniform motion, came in the Middle Ages to be called the equant point. If we could stand at the equant point of Mars, we would see the centre of Marss epicycle travelling around us at a uniform angular speedabout half a degree per day. The complete theoryepicycle and deferent, with the deferent off-centre from the Earth and a separate equant pointis very successful. For the first time, it became possible to calculate the positions of planets accurately from a geometrical theory.

Featured image credit: Takeshi DSC 0590 by Takeshi Kuboki.CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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Planetary astronomy in ancient Greece - OUPblog (blog)

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 17, 2017) A team from the University of Kentuckys Department of Physics and Astronomy has observed evidence of ancient impacts that are thought to have shaped and structured our Milky Way galaxy.

Deborah Ferguson, a 2016 UK graduate, is the lead author on a paper that published this week in the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ).Ferguson conducted the research as an undergraduate student with co-authors Susan Gardner, a professor of physics and astronomy in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, and Brian Yanny, a staff scientist and astrophysicist in the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics.

Their paper, "Milky Way Tomography with K and M Dwarf Stars: the Vertical Structure of the Galactic Disk,"presents observational evidence of asymmetric ripples in the stellar disk of our galaxy, which had long been thought to be smooth. Using observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) telescope in New Mexico, Ferguson, Gardner and Yanny analyzed the spatial distribution of 3.6 million stars and found ripples that confirm previous work of the senior co-authors. These results can be interpreted as evidence of the Milky Ways ancient impacts, which could include an impact with the massive Sagittarius dwarf galaxy some 0.85 billion years ago.

"These impacts are thought to have been the 'architects'of the Milky Way's central bar and spiral arms,"Gardner said. "Just as the ripples on the surface of a smooth lake suggest the passing ofa distant speed boat,we search for departures from the symmetries we would expect inthe distributions of the stars to find evidence of ancient impacts. We have found extensive evidence for the breaking of all these symmetries andthus build the case for the role of ancient impacts in forming the structure of our Milky Way."

This new paper continues Gardners earlier studies with Yanny and others of the breaking of north/south symmetryin the stellar disk of the Milky Way. Their earlier work revealed an asymmetry that appearsas a vertical "ripple" in the number counts of the stars as one samples in vertical distance away from the center of the galactic disk. In the new paper, the team analyzed the largest sample yet, and confirmed their earlierinterpretation of the north/south asymmetry and found evidence for symmetry breaking in the plane of the galactic disk as well.

"Having access to millions of stars from the SDSS allowed us to study galactic structure in an entirely new way by breaking the sky up into smaller regions without loss of statistics,"said Ferguson, who first reproduced the vertical asymmetry results Gardner and Yanny found in their earlier analysis. "It has been incredible watching this project evolve and the results emerge as we plotted the stellar densities and saw intriguing patterns across the footprint. As more studies are being done in this field, I am excited to see what we can learn about the structure of our galaxy and the forces that helped to shape it."

Ferguson graduated from UK last year with a degree in physics. This ApJ paper evolved from her senior thesis, on which she worked with Gardner. She has now completed her first year of graduate school at the Georgia Institute of Technology where she received a fellowship to pursue a doctorate in physics.

While at UK, she received a Singletary Scholarship and a UK Summer Research Grant to work on this project, and presented at the UK Showcase of Undergraduate Scholars.

"I am so fortunate to have had not only the opportunity to do undergraduate research, but to work on a project that ultimately led to being published,"Ferguson said. "It is very motivating to have spent most of my undergraduate career working on a research project because it makes it clear how useful and important physics is. While taking classes, I was able to see first hand how it was applied in research. I learned to program during my freshman year of high school at Paul Laurence Dunbar in Lexington, and it has been great to apply those skills to analyze such a large, real-world data set."

The ApJ paper can be found athttps://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa77fd.

The authors acknowledge partial support from the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy.

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UK Physics and Astronomy Team Reveals Evidence of Impacts That Structured the Milky Way Galaxy - UKNow (press release)

Finding exoplanets these days has become blas, yet taking an image of one remains exceedingly difficult. So difficult that, of the thousands of exoplanets discovered, only a handful have been found through imaging. Against the odds, a team of European astronomers has just directly imaged a new giant exoplanet orbiting the star HIP 65426. This planet is roughly the size of Jupiter, but has an estimated six to twelve times the mass of the jovian giant. Its characteristics make the exoplanet a unique object not easily explained by existing models of planet formation.

Not just another planet HIP 65426b resembles Jupiter in size, but any comparisons end there. Not only is the exoplanet more massive than its jovian cousin, but its much hotter, coming in around a toasty 1,880-2,420F (1,026-1,326C). Based on models that match the data to simulations, the astronomers expect HIP 65426b has a dusty atmosphere, thick with clouds. The exoplanet was found at 92 AU from its star, putting it at three times the distance Neptune is from the Sun. The discovery has been detailed in a paper accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Despite more than 3,000 exoplanets discovered to date, we are far from understanding how giant planets form, which is vital as they represent the largest mass within the planetary systems they completely shape, says Gal Chauvin, lead author on the paper and researcher at University of Grenoble and the University of Chile. They also play a key role in the dynamics of smaller planets similar to Earth, and therefore to ultimately understanding how life forms. The group of European astronomers who made the discovery has been at work in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile at the Very Large Telescope for three years, conducting a survey of 600 young, nearby stars. Now halfway through their survey, they have discovered many potentially planet-forming disks around their surveyed stars, but HIP 65426b is the first exoplanet they have discovered. Another similar campaign, the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey, has also only racked one exoplanet discovery to date, though multiple new disks and brown dwarfs have been found.

These results show that giant exoplanets at wide separations from their host stars are much less common than initially expected.

Picture-perfect Taking a snapshot of an exoplanet is all but impossible for anything but the youngest and brightest exoplanets. In order for the exoplanet to show up against the blinding glare of the host star, the planet needs to be bright itself, and young planets, still radiating their own light from formation, are ideal candidates for this technique. Specialized instruments have been designed with coronagraphs, which block the light of the star and allow the astronomers to see the fainter exoplanets. Current technology limits these instruments to seeing only wide-orbit exoplanets. Consequently, this technique is thus complimentary to the more common radial velocity method, which watches for wobbles in the stars movements and is most sensitive to giant planets on close orbits.

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New exoplanet challenges formation models - Astronomy Magazine

The Al Thuraya Astronomy Centre will be home to4.5 billion year-old meteorites and allow visitors to experiencewhat its like to live on Mars

Fancy yourself a bit of a stargazer? Well, youre in luck as Dubai is set to get its first observatory before the year is out.

Located in Mushrif Park, the Al Thuraya Astronomy Centre will open its doors in conjunction with the 46th UAE National Day on 2 December 2017.

In an interview withGulf News, Hasan Al Hariri, CEO of the Dubai Astronomy Group, said that unlike other museums and observatories, the new centre will have a hands-on approach, encouraging visitors to touch the various exhibits on display including several pieces of meteorites which are 4.5 billion years old.

Shaped to look a bit like a UFO (which we dont think is by coincidence), the centre is estimated to have cost around Dhs50 million and will be open to visitors 24/7.

The centre features a 10m steel dome that is able to withstand Dubais hot climate

It will also house the countrys largest telescope boasting a lens with a one-metre diameter that, thanks to its size, will help to see far-off stars and galaxies with minimal light pollution. The centre will be able to share the telescopesfindings with NASA as well as collaborateas part of a global network of similarly-sized telescopes.

Smaller telescopes will be available to rent for the general public and can be used within the park or the centres terrace.

Aside from the main observatory, the project will also feature a museum, a library, an academy, an observation deck, as well as an astronomy-themed food court and souvenir shop and a Mars habitat where people can experience what life would be like onEarths closest neighbouring planet.

Our aim is to make this centre a place for people to come and socialise and learn about the universe in a friendly and interactive way. said Al Hariri, who also noted that events such as star gazing parties, zero gravity experiences, astrophotography and astro-sports sessions will be held at the centre.

Ticket prices for the observatory have yet to be finalised, however entry to the other parts of the centre will be free of charge.

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Dubai Police app now lets you report double-parked drivers First pics: This is what La Perle theatre looks like inside

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Dubai is set to become a destination for 'astronomy tourism' - What's On

The Great Red Spot has been seen continuously since at least 1830, though it may have developed earlier. In recent decades, it has been shrinking in size; in April of this year, it measured 10,159 miles (16,350km) across, or about 1.3 Earth diameters. Its winds have been clocked at 400 miles per hour (640km/h), though its center is calm, like the eye of an earthly hurricane. Recent experiments suggest that the storms red color is caused by a reaction in Jupiters upper atmosphere when energetic ultraviolet photons in sunlight hit ammonia and acetylene gas.

For hundreds of years scientists have been observing, wondering and theorizing about Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Now we have the best pictures ever of this iconic storm, said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Although he added that it will take time to sort through and analyze the influx of new data, the details Juno is returning are vital to understanding the storms dynamics, both past and present.

The July 10 flyby was Junos seventh close approach to the planet; in total, it will orbit Jupiter 37 times, with the closest pass bringing the spacecraft within about 2,100 miles (3,400km) of the cloud tops. At mission's end in 2018, Juno will plunge into the planet's atmosphere, just like the Cassini mission currently orbiting Saturn.

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Juno gets up close and personal with Jupiter's Great Red Spot ... - Astronomy Magazine

smithsonian.com July 13, 2017

Stars don't seem particularly hard to finda whole array of these glimmers of light can be seen overhead every night. But not all stars are easy to see. Around 600 light years from Earth, reportsNicoleMortillaroatCBCNews, lurksstarEBLMJ0555-57Ab(57Abfor short). This star is so dim, astronomers think that it's likely the smallest they've everor will everfind.

Planet-hunting researchers from the University of Cambridges Institute of Astronomy spotted 57Ab while searching for exoplanetsas part of the Wide Angle Search for Planets program. Researchers spot these distant worlds when they pass infront of thestar they orbit, causing the light from the flaming bodyto dipever so slightly.

When the scientists first spotted 57Ab, they thought it was a planet, Mortillaro reports. But by studying its mass, they determined that 57Ab is actually adim star that is part of what's known as a binary star system, where two stars orbit each other.

The faintly glowing orb is just slightly larger than our planet Saturn, but has 85 times the mass of Jupiter and 300 times the gravity of Earth. Mortillero reports that the star is 2,000 to 3,000 times fainter than our sun. The research appears in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

According to a press release, this dim, low-mass star may be as small as the fiery orbs can get."Had this star formed with only a slightly lower mass, the fusion reaction of hydrogen in its core could not be sustained, and the star would instead have transformed into a brown dwarf, says AlexanderBoetticher, researcher at the Institute of Astronomy and lead author of the study, in the release.

Brown dwarfs are objects larger than planetsbut not massive enough for gravity and high pressure to keep their fusion reaction going. According to a recent study, there may be up to 100 billion of these failed stars in our galaxy alone.

Tiny 57Ab is more than just a curiosity. According to the press release, these dim, ultra-cool stars, some of which are cooler than some large gas-giant exoplanets, are the most common stars in the universe and are the best places to look for potentially habitable planets. John Wenz at Popular Mechanics reports that the Trappist-1 system found earlier this year, which has seven planets, also orbits an ultra-cool star.

Finding those types of stars to study, however,is a big challenge. It is a little ironic that those small stars are the most common stars in the cosmos, but because they are faint, we don't know as much about them as we wish, co-author Amaury Triaud tells Wenz. This is why, in parallel to our investigations into planets orbiting ultra-cool stars, we are also investigating the stars themselves.

According to Mortillaro, the researchers hope to figure out how much light 57Ab emits, though its partner stars make that akin to trying to look at a candle beside a lighthouse. The astronomers also hope to figure out how such different stars can form so close to one another.

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Astronomers Find the Smallest Star Yet - Smithsonian

The Barnesville Science Cafe will host a discussion on The Great North American Eclipse of 2017 at their July 17 meeting.

The total solar eclipse to take place August 21 has attracted worldwide attention and it is likely to be the biggest event in astronomy this year. Gordon State College astronomy professor Dr. Richard Schmude will join Dr. Chad Davies and the Science Cafe at DBs Pizzeria from 7- 9 p.m. on July 17 to discuss this once-in-a-lifetime event. He will share where and how the event can be viewed safely as well as some of the fascinating history associated with it. All are invited to attend the discussion and learn more on this astronomical phenomenon.

Most of the U.S. will see up to 90 percent of the sun covered by the moon.

As the moon travels across the sky on August 21, the umbra will enter the U.S. in Oregon and forge a path through twelve states before heading out to sea near Charleston, S.C. These states include Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, southern Illinois, Missouri, western Kentucky, Tennessee, western North Carolina, northeast Georgia and South Carolina.

Though Barnesville does not lie in the eclipses area of totality, residents should still be able to experience a partial eclipse. Less than 10 percent of the suns light will remain visible throughout the eclipse locally. This is still enough to be harmful to the eyes, so residents are urged to use caution when viewing the eclipse. Looking directly at the sun without adequate protection for the eyes is extremely dangerous and regular sunglasses will not provide adequate protection. Flint River Astronomy Club Vice President Bill Warren suggests specially made solar sunglasses, number 14 welders glass or pinhole projection for adequate protection in viewing the eclipse.

During the eclipse, viewers will see the moon slowly eat a large chunk of the sun and the sky will darken considerably. The sun will not be visible, so solar sunglasses will not be needed until it reappears a minute or so later. During that time, viewers will see stars they dont normally see in the daytime. Even if the sky is completely overcast, viewers will see sunset, the darkness of night and sunrise compressed into three hours between 1-4 p.m. Birds and farm animals will bed down for the night, and roosters will crow during the false dawn.

Thousands of eclipse enthusiasts from across the U.S. and abroad are expected to make the trek to an area of totality that day, while others wonder why they would want to take this trip. An eclipse does not begin or end with totality; there are also periods of partial eclipse on either side of it. In Atlanta and surrounding areas that are not in the path of totality, for example, the partial eclipse will begin at 1:05 p.m.; maximum darkness will be at 2:36 p.m.; and the eclipse will end at 4:01 p.m. Total solar eclipses are rare and the chances of Barnesville lying in the path of totality are once in every 330 years. In addition, this will be the first solar eclipse to be visible as a partial eclipse in all 48 states (excluding Hawaii and Alaska) since 1979. The last time one was visible from coast to coast was in 1918.

For those interested in viewing this astronomical occurrence in totality, numerous eclipse route maps are on the web. Northeastern Georgia locations including Brasstown Bald, Blue Ridge, Blairsville, Helen, Hiawassee, Clarkesville, Toccoa and Clayton will all experience the total eclipse with Clayton having the longest period of totality at two minutes, thirty seconds.

Source: Flint River Astronomy Club

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Eclipse focus of July 17 Flint River Astronomy Club meeting - Pikecountygeorgia

July 14, 2017 The multiple images of the discovered galaxy are indicated by white arrows (bottom right shows the scale of the image in seconds of arc). Credit: Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

Thanks to an amplified image produced by a gravitational lens, and the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS a team of scientists from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena and the Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias have discovered one of the brightest galaxies known from the epoch when the universe had 20 percent of its present age.

According to Einstein's theory of General Relativity when a ray of light passes close to a very massive object, the gravity of the object attracts the photons and deviates them from their intial path. This phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, is comparable to that produced by lenses on light rays, and acts as a sort of magnifier, changing the size and intensity of the apparent image of the original object.

Using this effect, a team of scientists from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) led by researcher Anastasio Daz-Snches of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPT) has discovered a very distant galaxy, some 10 thousand million light years away, about a thousand times brighter than the Milky Way. It is the brightest of the submillimetre galaxies, called this because of their very strong emissionin the far infrared. To measure it they used the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafa, La Palma).

"Thanks to the gravitational lens" notes Anastasio Daz Snchez, a researcher at the UPCT and first author of the article " produced by a cluster of galaxies between ourselves and the source, which acts as if it was a telescope, the galaxy appears 11 times bigger and brighter than it really is, and appears as several images on an arc centred on the densest part of the cluster, which is known as an "Einstein Ring". The advantage of this kind of amplification is that it does not distort the spectral properties of the light, which can be studied for these very distant objects as if they were much nearer".

To find this galaxies, whose discovery was recently published in an article in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a search of the whole sky was carried out, combining the data bases of the satellites WISE (NASA) and Planck (ESA) in order to identify the brightest submillimetre galaxies. Its light, amplified by a much nearer galaxy cluster acting as a lens, forms an image which appears much bigger than it should, and thanks to this effect they could characterize its nature and properties spectroscopically using the GTC.

Forming stars at high velocity

The galaxy is notable for having a high rate of star formation. It is forming stars at a rate of 1000 solar masses per year, compared to the Milky Way which is forming stars at a rate of some twice a solar mass per year. Susana Iglesias-Groth, an IAC astrophysicist and a co-author of the article, adds. "This type of objects harbour the most powerful star forming regions known in the universe. The next step will be to study their molecular content".

The fact that the galaxy is so bright, its light is gravitationally amplifed, and has multiple images allows us to look into its internal properties, which would otherwise not be possible with such distant galaxies.

"In the future we will be able to make more detailed studies of its star formation using interferometers such ast the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA/IRAM),in France, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), in Chile" concludes IAC researcher Helmut Dannerbauer, who is another contributor to this discovery.

Explore further: New 'Einstein ring' is discovered

More information: A. Daz-Snchez et al, Discovery of a Lensed Ultrabright Submillimeter Galaxy at z = 2.0439, The Astrophysical Journal (2017). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa79ef

Journal reference: Astrophysical Journal Letters Astrophysical Journal

Provided by: Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias (IAC)

The PhD student Margherita Bettinelli, of the Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL), together with an international team of astrophysicists has recently discovered an unusual astronomical ...

When it comes to the distant universe, even the keen vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope can only go so far. Teasing out finer details requires clever thinking and a little help from a cosmic alignment with a gravitational ...

An international team led by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) has discovered one of the brightest "non-active" galaxies in the early universe. Finding ...

Much like the eclectic group of space rebels in the upcoming film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has some amazing superpowers, specifically when it comes to observing innumerable galaxies flung ...

Boosted by natural magnifying lenses in space, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured unique close-up views of the universe's brightest infrared galaxies, which are as much as 10,000 times more luminous than our Milky ...

Observing very distant objects in the universe is a challenge because the light which reaches us is extremely faint. Something similar occurs with objects which are not so distant but have very low surface brightness. Measuring ...

This month, movements of the planets will put Mars almost directly behind the sun, from Earth's perspective, causing curtailed communications between Earth and Mars.

A team of astronomers from the Inter University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), both in Pune, India, and members of two other Indian universities, ...

Scientists have long held the belief that planets including Earth were built from rocky asteroids, but new research challenges that view.

Discovered by British astronomer William Herschel over 200 years ago, NGC 2500 lies about 30 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Lynx. As this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows, NGC 2500 is ...

The dichotomy concerns the so-called angular momentum (per unit mass) that in physics is a measure of size and rotation velocity. Spiral galaxies are found to be strongly rotating, with an angular momentum higher by a factor ...

Our Sun is much like other stars, and not an anomaly because of its magnetic poles that flip every 11 years, scientists said Thursday.

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Astronomers discover one of the brightest galaxies known - Phys.org - Phys.Org

The projects initial goal is to raise $100,000 for the installation of and operation of two cameras in a single observatory. Although this wont achieve full-sky coverage, it will cover a more limited portion of sky while proving the system can work. The projects fundraising goal is also expandable; with $510,000, Laser SETI can establish and run its first two fully equipped observatories.

The campaign is up and running now, with a month left for backers to contribute to this groundbreaking SETI project.

Following the projects initial deployment, the program aims to have at least six (and ideally 14) observatories in strategic locations to ensure no part of the sky is missed at any time due to factors such as weather. Just as important, they would overlap in such a way that they would co-observe events. This provides not only more statistical confidence in a single tiny flash, but physical confirmation as well, since the two sites would see the same point on the sky at different angles and observe a slight but measurable delay in the arrival times of the signal. This is very much like how the LIGO observatories produced compelling evidence of gravitational waves.

Why Laser SETI? Scanning the whole sky all the time is no simple task. Before now, SETI searches have generally been able to achieve one of those things, but not the other. Facilities can either cover large chunks of the sky, spending a short time (less than a minute) looking at each patch, or observe smaller portions of the sky continuously, sacrificing broader spatial coverage in the hopes of catching a signal from a specific direction.

SETI searches have also typically operated on a vital assumption: Any extraterrestrial civilization that wants to get our attention will be broadcasting some kind of signal continuously. All we have to do is reach the right point in the sky as we scan through space in our surveys, and the signal will be there.

But what if its not the case? According to engineer Eliot Gillum, a Laser SETI project scientist and director of the Optical SETI program, Whatever ET is doing, if its bright but intermittent, all previous and current searches very likely wont find it.

After all, why should aliens necessarily keep their signals powered up all the time, just so we can find them? Why should those signals repeat so we have a greater chance of hearing them? What if the signals theyre sending out arent actually meant to make contact with other worlds? Case in point: Despite the fact that humans have been broadcasting radio waves into space for a century, those signals arent specifically meant to reach other species. And although we have sent signals with such intent into space, theyve been very few, short, discrete messages not continuous ones, because those are expensive in both time and equipment.

But theres also another option. Projects like Breakthrough Starshot, which uses laser light as a form of propulsion, will send out brief, powerful flashes. Its purpose is to send a spacecraft to our nearest neighboring extrasolar planets, but the beam would be so bright it would be visible at much farther distances. Those laser flashes could serve as messengers of our presence to other civilizations. And if alien worlds are pursuing similar beamed energy propulsion technologies, their laser flashes might reach us. But signals like those pulses will be short, intermittent, and may not repeat for long stretches of time (if ever).

This is why Laser SETI is so vital. It can produce convincing evidence for pulses ranging from nanoseconds to minutes, and Gillum says it doesnt require an alien civilization to know were here or repeatedly try to contact us. Laser SETI will instead scan the entire sky continually so that when a signal reaches us, whether its intentionally been sent our way or passes Earth by pure chance, well receive it, and well know it for what it is: proof of life elsewhere in the universe.

You can visit the Laser SETI Indiegogo campaign page to find out more, including the nifty swag you could get if youre interested in contributing to the project.

Special thanks to Eliot Gillum for his contributions to this story.

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Now is your chance to fund a groundbreaking SETI project - Astronomy Magazine

Women of color experience more discrimination and harassment in astronomy and space science compared to other groups, according to a 2017 study.

A new study examining discrimination and harassment in the field of astronomy shows that women of color are far more likely to feel unsafe at work because of their gender and race than other groups.

The study analyzed data from a survey carried out between 2011 and 2014, in which more than 450 astronomers and space scientists were asked about instances of discrimination or harassment against themselves or others based on gender or race. The study was published Monday (July 10) in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

The findings confirm previous research demonstrating that people who fall into two minority groups such as women of color experienced more discrimination and harassment than people who fall into only one group such as white women or men of color.

This appears to be the first large-scale, quantitative study of gender and race-based discrimination and harassment in astronomy, according to Kathryn Clancy, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and lead author of the new study. However, Clancy told Space.com that the study's conclusions are not surprising, and that they reflect decades of research that have chronicled the struggles of women and, in particular, women of color in the sciences.

"On the one hand, I'm so grateful and so glad that this paper is getting attention," Clancy said. "And I think for a lot of people who care about this work, and who do on-the-ground grassroots activism around this, I think its validating that this work now exists. But my guess is that its a bittersweet feeling as well, because why wasn't anyone listening to them all the other times that they talked about this?"

Clancy said the prime focus of the survey was to understand the extent to which "negative workplace experiences actually affect the work that [people] do." To that end, the survey asked responders if they had ever felt unsafe at work due to do their gender or race, and if they had skipped work or school-related events because they felt unsafe, or because of discrimination or harassment.

The survey was initiated by two of the study's co-authors, Erica Rodgers, a research scientist at the Space Science Institute, and Christina Richey, a NASA astrophysicist who serves as chair of the American Astronomical Society's Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. Clancy, whose area of research includes social science, provided some guidance to help the two astronomers make the survey meet standards for a scientific study. (Clancy was also a co-author on a study about sexual harassment in the field of anthropology.)

Over four years, the researchers gathered responses from astronomers ranging from undergraduate students to retired academics, and including nonacademic astronomers. Responders were asked to identify themselves as belonging to one of seven different racial categories, one of three gender categories (including nonbinary), and one of two gender-identity categories (cisgender and transgender). The survey did not provide significant data on the experiences of non-cisgender or nonbinary members of the community.

For most questions, responders were asked only about events that had occurred in the last five years. Overall, 88 percent of respondents reported having heard racist or sexist remarks about someone from their peers; 59 percent reported hearing such comments from superiors; 39 percent of responders reported experiencing verbal harassment at their current job; and 9 percent reported experiencing physical harassment at their current job.

When comparing women and men, the study found that "women were significantly more likely than men to report that they experienced both verbal and physical harassment because of their gender."

While only 2 percent of men reported that they had ever felt physically unsafe in their current position because of their gender, 30 percent of women reported feeling unsafe at some point. In addition, 13 percent of women reported "skipping at least one class, meeting, fieldwork or other professional event per month because they felt unsafe," according to the paper, compared with 3 percent of men.

"Skipping school or work events due to feeling unsafe was associated with hearing negative comments from peers and negative comments from supervisors, experiencing verbal harassment and physical harassment, and feeling unsafe at current school or career position," the study authors wrote.

But the study also revealed that women of color reported higher instances of these things than white men, men of color or white women. Forty percent of women of color reported feeling unsafe in their current position because of their gender or sex, compared with about 27 percent of white women. And 28 percent of women of color reported feeling unsafe because of their race, compared with about 10 percent of men of color.

Similarly,18 percent of women of color reported skipping events because of discrimination, harassment or feeling unsafe, compared with 12 percent of white women, 6 percent of men of color and 2 percent of white men.

"Across nearly every comparison, women of color experienced the most hostile environment, from the negative remarks observed to their direct experiences of verbal and physical harassment," the authors wrote. "These findings are consistent with workplace literature that places women of color in double jeopardy, as they occupy a space of being at greater risk of both gendered and racialized harassment."

There are about 10,000 people working in astronomy and related fields in the U.S. and about 20,000 worldwide, according to the American Astronomical Society. Clancy said that from a social scientist perspective, the results of the survey cannot be said to represent the entire astronomy community.

"It would be really erroneous of us to dare to say that 450 people speak for 20,000. That would be a real error in our work," she said.

"So instead, what we can do is we can speak from this population, and we can say that this is not a nonrandom sample," she said, meaning the survey was open to anyone in the community and the respondents were not selected by the researchers. "At the same time, there's a good chance [the survey] is fairly representative."

Clancy said people who aren't familiar with social science will often ask if those who have experienced gender and racial discrimination are more likely to respond to surveys of this kind. But based on previous research, Clancy said the inverse is more likely true.

"Many people who have negative workplace experiences actually don't complete surveys of this nature because it's too re-traumatizing," she said. "You end up with low response rates of people who have these experiences and higher response rates from people who don't."

Researchers have spent decades examining how discrimination and a hostile work environment affect the physical and mental well-being of employees, the authors wrote. These things also impact the quality of science produced by an individual and the trajectory of that individual's career, Clancy said.

"Literally almost half of our sample of women of color didn't feel safe in their workplace. Just sit with that for a minute," Clancy told Space.com. "Think about what kind of work you can get done if you dread going to work or if you feel unsafe going to work. Think about the ways in which it disrupts the process of science if your heart and mind can't be fully in your workplace because it is hostile. Think about the discoveries that are left undiscovered."

Clancy said there have been studies examining how discrimination not only affects individuals but also entire scientific teams. Teams with more diversity across different metrics "solve problems better and faster" than teams with very little diversity, Clancy said. A 2014 study showed that scientific laboratories in which women were not included in social networks with their coworkers tended to produce fewer papers and received fewer grants than labs in which women were included in social networks. That study also showed that people within scientific laboratories often apply stereotypes to each other and tend to undermine women's expertise more than men's; thus, even though a woman might be more qualified to tackle a particular problem, her colleagues might assign it to a less-qualified person, ultimately slowing progress on that problem or diminishing the quality of the work, Clancy said.

When scientists skip events such as seminars, classes or fieldwork activities, the loss of information or data poses an obvious detriment to the individual. But missing these events can have other negative impacts, Clancy said. Science is a highly collaborative field, Clancy said, so interacting with colleagues and peers can have a direct impact on a person's research and career. In addition, if a person misses a group activity, it can be interpreted by superiors or colleagues as that person "not being enough of a team player," she said. [Women in Space: A Space History Gallery]

Clancy said she thinks many scientific institutions and schools have "given lip service to diversity," but may not have worked hard enough to combat discrimination and harassment, particularly against women of color. While Clancy said the number of white women in the sciences has shown an overall increase over time, the number of women of color in astronomy faculty positions began to decline in 2015.

"Because we refuse to engage with issues of race in the sciences and acknowledge the ways in which racism might actually be limiting women of color and probably also men of color we're continuing basically to see increases in the number of white women in the sciences, while not seeing improvements in any other demographic," Clancy said.

The paper cited multiple studies that investigate how institutions can confront this problem, including a 2013 report from the National Academy of Sciences. The steps recommended by the 2013 report include implementing a clear code of conduct for employees, and effectively sanctioning behavior that violates that code. In addition, universities and workplaces can choose to conduct "values-based, affirmative" diversity training, which calls on workplace leaders to discuss what it means to treat colleagues ethically and to create a specific code of conduct for their workplace. Clancy notes that this type of training can be time-consuming and challenging, but has been shown to be more effective at changing workplace environments than training focused on what employees should not to do.

"Yes, it takes longer to decide to sit people down and decide to have those kinds of conversations," Clancy said. "But if you actually want to affect change you have to do the right thing, not the easy thing."

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Women of Color in Astronomy Face Greater Degree of Discrimination, Harassment - Space.com

The Etelman Observatory on St. Thomas. (Source file photo)

A pair of sessions on astronomy geared towards the public will be offered Friday evening at the University of the Virgin Islands.

Shadow On the Sun: The Hype Behind the Solar Eclipse, and Why Bad Movie Science Is Good for You will be offered beginning at 7 p.m. Friday in the UVI ACC Building.

The two sessions are part of the international astrophysics conference taking place this week at the university. The conference is focused on Active Galactic Nuclei, which are galaxies that power extremely bright light sources at their cores through the interaction of supermassive black holes with nearby material that is falling into them.

The public talks will focus on two popular and timely subjects and will be presented by a pair of conference attendees.

Dr. Stephanie LaMassa from the Space Telescope Science Institute will talk about eclipses and what to expect when the solar eclipse sweeps across the U.S. in August. Questions to be addressed include what is an eclipse, what is a solar eclipse, and why dont we see eclipses more often.

Dr. Bruce Alastair from the University of Edinburgh will talk about bad movie science, when action in popular movies defies the laws of physics. Alastair promised to dive into some of the best/worst of the astronomy-themed science Hollywood has to offer.

Sometimes subtle, sometimes ridiculous, it can set your inner nerd free, he said.

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Astronomy Lectures Focus on Timely, Fun Topics - St, Thomas Source

Astronomers have found the smallest star ever, and it might offer a hint of the search for other Earth-like planets.

The tiny sun is just a little smaller than Saturn and is probably the tiniest that stars can actually be. If it were any smaller, there would be so little pressure at its centre that it would be unable to support the process of fusion and stop being active.

Our discovery reveals how small stars can be, said Alexander Boetticher, the lead author of the study, and a Masters student at Cambridges Cavendish Laboratory and Institute of Astronomy. Had this star formed with only a slightly lower mass, the fusion reaction of hydrogen in its core could not be sustained, and the star would instead have transformed into a brown dwarf.

And the star might even offer a hint at planets where we might find life. Such tiny, relatively cool stars like Trappist-1 are probably our best shot at finding planets like our own.

The smallest stars provide optimal conditions for the discovery of Earth-like planets, and for the remote exploration of their atmospheres, said co-author Amaury Triaud, senior researcher at Cambridges Institute of Astronomy. However, before we can study planets, we absolutely need to understand their star; this is fundamental.

Such small stars are by far the most common in the universe. But it's difficult often to spot them, precisely because they are so tiny and dim that it's much more difficult to see them from afar.

Scientists now hope that they can use the project that spotted this star known as WASP, a planet-finding mission that involves a range of different UK universities to see more of those stars. When they do, they will be able to explore them and understand the stars that are most likely to support life.

Thanks to the EBLM project, we will achieve a far greater understanding of the planets orbiting the most common stars that exist, planets like those orbiting TRAPPIST-1, said co-author Professor Didier Queloz of Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory.

The new star is known as EBLM J0555-57Ab and sits about 600 light years away. It's part of a binary system and was spotted when it travelled in front of the much bigger other half of its pair.

This star is smaller, and likely colder than many of the gas giant exoplanets that have so far been identified, said von Boetticher. While a fascinating feature of stellar physics, it is often harder to measure the size of such dim low-mass stars than for many of the larger planets. Thankfully, we can find these small stars with planet-hunting equipment, when they orbit a larger host star in a binary system. It might sound incredible, but finding a star can at times be harder than finding a planet.

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Astronomers find the smallest star ever, pushing forward search for aliens - The Independent

Efforts praised to get more women in Australian astronomy, but more needs to be done.

The number of women at the most senior levels in the Australian astronomical community remains low despite many positive steps in supporting gender equity. Women make up only 17% of positions at full or associate professor level.

Astronomy is not alone in having a gender gap in its workforce. Despite decades of positive initiatives, the number of women working day-to-day in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) fields overall in Australia is low.

About 43% of the total STEMM workforce are women compared to men at 57%, based on 2014 figures. This gap widens at the most senior levels, with women making up only 21% of the senior professor positions.

Programs to improve the gender gap in astronomy have been recognised this week by the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA). At its annual science meeting, this year in Canberra, it announced 12 recipients of its Pleiades awards.

The awards are aimed at encouraging astronomy departments to make a commitment to improving gender equity. We can see the rewarded programs are already having an impact.

Now in their third year, the first gold Pleiades award went to the ARC Centre for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), a collaboration of several university astronomy teams. Four silver and seven bronze awards were given to other astronomy groups.

CAASTROs award recognises the groups longstanding commitment, with initiatives such as changes to recruitment practices, increased workplace flexibility (such as advertising the opportunity for part-time work), mentoring and improved conference participation by female astronomers.

These policies have resulted in an increase in the number of female researchers from roughly 15% at the centres inception in 2011, to more than 40% this year.

Conference participation is at almost at parity in terms of the number of participants, speakers and session chairs. CAASTRO has also created a gender action toolkit, a resource that any department or institute can use.

Other efforts are also being made to address the gender gap in STEMM with Australian institutions gearing up for their first submissions to the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) pilot, due at the end of March, 2018.

The scheme is based on the UKs Athena SWAN program on improving gender equity, established in 2005. Over the past 12 years the Athena SWAN program has led to positive transformations in workplace culture and women being more visible in key positions and senior roles in STEMM fields in the UK.

But unlike SAGEs institution-wide approach, the Pleiades awards take a department-by-department approach.

As a direct result of the Pleiades awards program, every Australian astronomy department now has an equity and diversity committee to consider and monitor these matters and many have undertaken workplace culture surveys.

Despite this and other efforts to bridge the gender gap, there are still hurdles to be overcome such as hiring practices, unconscious bias and the amount of housework that women undertake in Australia (an issue raised by Annabel Crabb in her book The Wife Drought).

One pragmatic action is to advertise female-only positions which the University of Melbourne has now done for a senior position in astronomy.

The new ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astronomy in 3 Dimensions has gone one step further, and requires gender balance at all levels of the Centre, from students to the executive.

The gender balance issue is worse for women who are also in other minority groups due to race, sexuality, disability, religion and more.

While we have made some progress in gender equity in astronomy, we have now started to broaden the conversation beyond gender alone, to recognise intersectionality which describes how gender equity is impacted by also being members of other minority groups. The ultimate aim is an equitable workplace that allows all women to achieve their full potential.

Year by year we are learning more about how best to support women. With each round of the Pleiades awards we further develop the selection criteria to ensure departments keep improving their workplaces.

We also expect our astronomy departments to take on new initiatives to retain or progress in the Pleiades awards scheme.

The awards have shown the positive effect such a scheme can have in driving cultural change. As the SAGE pilot develops, we expect similar positive change in culture across the whole sector, beyond astronomy alone.

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Step by step, we're tackling gender equity in Australian astronomy - The Conversation AU

There have been plenty of opportunities for citizen scientists to join in the search for exoplanets, but this new opportunity makes a fun game out of it. Literally.

EVE Online is a space-based multiplayer online role-playing game set far into the future. In the game, players can visit any of the 7,800 star systems and take up any profession to mine for resources and survive in these systems.

Now the interactive game has become more helpful for actual scientific research. The company, in collaboration with the University of Geneva, has launched a minigame called Project Discovery, where players can help find exoplanets using real data from the CoRoT telescope. If something interesting comes up while the player is playing the game, they can submit the information to the university so scientists can follow up on it.

In addition to contributing to science, players will also receive higher ranks and rewards in the game for their efforts. If you want to join in on the search for exoplanets while playing EVE, all you need to do is create an account and get started.

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Help find exoplanets with EVE Online - Astronomy Magazine

The Ghanaian and South African governments on 13 July 2017, announced the combination of first light science observations, which confirm the successful conversion of the Ghana communications antenna from a redundant telecoms instrument into a functioning Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio telescope.

Ghana is the first partner country of the African Very Large Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) Network (AVN) to complete the conversion of a communications antenna into a functioning radio telescope.

The 32 metre converted telecommunications antenna at the Ghana Intelsat Satellite Earth Station in Kutunse will be integrated into the African VLBI Network (AVN) in preparation for the second phase construction of the SKA across the African continent.

The combination first light science observations included Methanol Maser detections, VLBI fringe testing and Pulsar observations.

Reaching these three objectives confirms that the instrument can operate as a single dish radio telescope and also as part of global VLBI network observations, such as the European VLBI network.

Following the initial first light observations, the research teams from Ghana and South Africa, together with other international research partners, continue to do more observations and are analysing the data generated, with the aim of characterising the system and improving its accuracy for future experiments.

The Ghanaian government warmly embraces the prospect of radio astronomy in the country and our radio astronomy development plan forms part of the broader Ghana Science, Technology and Innovation Development Plan, said Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the Ghanaian Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI).

As a SKA Africa partner country, Ghana is collaborating with the SKA South Africa (SKA SA)/HartRAO (Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomical Observatory) group to harness the radio astronomy potential of the redundant satellite communication antenna in Kutunse.

A team of scientists and engineers from SKA SA/HartRAO and the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI), which is under MESTI, has been working since 2011 on the astronomy instrument upgrade to make it radio astronomy ready.

Growing Africas science skills base

In 2012, Ghana launched the GSSTI as the vehicle through which to grow its astrophysics programme.

The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has been funding a large part of the conversion project through the African Renaissance and International Cooperation Fund (ARF).

The African Renaissance Fund is aimed at strengthening cooperation between South Africa and other African countries and to support the development of skills and build institutional capacity on the continent, said DIRCO Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

Nine African partner countries are members of the SKA AVN, including Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia.

A vital part of the effort towards building SKA on the African continent over the next decade is to develop the skills, regulations and institutional capacity needed in SKA partner countries to optimise African participation in the SKA, said Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor.

The AVN programme is aimed at transferring skills and knowledge in African partner countries to build, maintain, operate and use radio telescopes.

It will bring new science opportunities to Africa on a relatively short time scale and develop radio astronomy science communities in SKA partner countries, Minister Pandor said.

The Leverhulme-Royal Society Trust and Newton Fund in the UK are co-funding extensive human capital development programmes in the SKA AVN partner countries.

A seven-member Ghanaian team has undergone training in South Africa and has been trained in all aspects of the project, including the operation of the telescope.

Several PhD students and one MSc student from Ghana have received SKA SA bursaries to pursue further education in various fields of astronomy and engineering. The Royal Society has awarded funding, in collaboration with Leeds University, to train two PhDs and 60 young aspiring scientists in the field of astrophysics.

Based on the success of the Leverhulme-Royal Society programme, a joint UK-South Africa Newton Fund intervention [the Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA)] has since been initiated in other partner countries to grow high technology skills that can lead to broader economic development in Africa.

A Ministerial Forum comprising Ministers from the nine SKA AVN partner countries convenes on an annual basis to provide strategic and political leadership on the cooperation with the SKA and AVN projects, and on other relevant radio astronomy programmes and initiatives.

The next SKA AVN Ministerial Forum will be held in Accra, Ghana, in August when the Kutunse radio telescope will officially be launched.

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Ghana, SKA South Africa partner to harness radio astronomy - BizNis Africa

A team of astronomers at the University of Cambridge was on the lookout for new exoplanets when they came across an exciting accidental discovery: They found the smallest star measured to this day.

This tiny new star, which is being called EBLM J0555-57Ab, is about 600 light-years from Earth, and has a comparable mass (85 Jupiter masses) to the estimated mass of TRAPPST-1. The new star, though, has a radius about 30 percent smaller. Like TRAPPIST-1, EBLM J0555-57Ab is likely an ultracool M-dwarf star.

The team used data from an experiment called WASP (the Wide Angle Search for Planets), which is typically used in the search for planets rather than stars, to look for new exoplanets. During their studies, they noticed a consistent dimming of EBLM J0555-57Abs parent star, which signified an object in orbit. Through further research to measure the mass of any orbiting companions, they discovered the object theyd detected was too massive to be a planet it was instead a tiny star.

Though EBLM J0555-57Ab is incredibly small, it still has enough mass for hydrogen fusion, which powers the Sun and makes it Earths energy source. Just barely bigger than Saturn, the star has a gravitational pull 300 times stronger than Earths. If the star were much smaller (about 83 Jupiter masses), there wouldnt be enough pressure in its center for the process to occur, and it would instead have formed as a brown dwarf, rather than a true star.

The team plans to use this newly discovered star to better understand planets orbiting stars. Details of this discovery will be published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal.

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Astronomers just discovered the smallest star ever - Astronomy Magazine

Remnant of Supernova 1987A as seen by ALMA. Purple area indicates emission from SiO molecules. Yellow area is emission from CO molecules. The blue ring is Hubble data that has been artificially expanded into 3D. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); R. Indebetouw; NASA/ESA Hubble

Supernovas the violent endings of the brief yet brilliant lives of massive stars are among the most cataclysmic events in the cosmos. Though supernovas mark the death of stars, they also trigger the birth of new elements and the formation of new molecules.

In February of 1987, astronomers witnessed one of these events unfold inside the Large Magellanic Cloud, a tiny dwarf galaxy located approximately 163,000 light-years from Earth.

Over the next 30 years, observations of the remnant of that explosion revealed never-before-seen details about the death of stars and how atoms created in those stars like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen spill out into space and combine to form new molecules and dust. These microscopic particles may eventually find their way into future generations of stars and planets.

Recently, astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to probe the heart of this supernova, named SN 1987A. ALMAs ability to see remarkably fine details allowed the researchers to produce an intricate 3D rendering of newly formed molecules inside the supernova remnant. These results are published in theAstrophysical Journal Letters.

The researchers also discovered a variety of previously undetected molecules in the remnant. These results appear in theMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

When this supernova exploded, now more than 30 years ago, astronomers knew much less about the way these events reshape interstellar space and how the hot, glowing debris from an exploded star eventually cools and produces new molecules, said Rmy Indebetouw, an astronomer at the University of Virginia and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville. Thanks to ALMA we can finally see cold star dust as it forms, revealing important insights into the original star itself and the way supernovas create the basic building blocks of planets.

Supernovas Star Death to Dust Birth

Prior to ongoing investigations of SN 1987A, there was only so much astronomers could say about the impact of supernovas on their interstellar neighborhoods.

It was well understood that massive stars, those approximately 10 times the mass of our sun or more, ended their lives in spectacular fashion.

When these stars run out of fuel, there is no longer enough heat and energy to fight back against the force of gravity. The outer reaches of the star, once held up by the power of fusion, then come crashing down on the core with tremendous force. The rebound of this collapse triggers a powerful explosion that blasts material into space.

As the endpoint of massive stars, scientists have learned that supernovas have far-reaching effects on their home galaxies. To get a better understanding of these effects, Indebetouw helps break down the impact of these star-shattering events. The reason some galaxies have the appearance that they do today is in large part because of the supernovas that have occurred in them, he said. Though less than ten percent of stars become supernovas, they nonetheless are key to the evolution of galaxies.

Throughout the observable universe, supernovas are quite common, but since they appear on average about once every 50 years in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way, astronomers have precious few opportunities to study one from its first detonation to the point where it cools enough to form new molecules. Though SN 1987A is not in our home galaxy, it is still close enough for ALMA and other telescopes to study in fine detail.

Capturing 3D Image of SN1987A with ALMA

For decades, radio, optical, and even X-ray observatories have studied SN 1987A, but obscuring dust in the remnant made it difficult to analyze the supernovas innermost core. ALMAs ability to observe at millimeter wavelengths a region of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and radio light make it possible to see through the intervening dust and gas. The researchers were then able to study the abundance and location of newly formed molecules especially silicon monoxide (SiO) and carbon monoxide (CO), which shine brightly at the short submillimeter wavelengths that ALMA can perceive.

The new ALMA image and animation show vast new stores of SiO and CO in discrete, tangled clumps within the core of SN 1987A. Scientists previously modeled how and where these molecules would appear. With ALMA, the researchers finally were able to capture images with high enough resolution to confirm the structure inside the remnant and test those models.

Aside from obtaining this 3D image of SN 1987A, the ALMA data also reveal compelling details about how its physical conditions have changed and continue to change over time. These observations also provide insights into the physical instabilities inside a supernova.

New Insights from SN 1987A

Earlier observations with ALMA verified that SN 1987A produced amassive amount of dust. The new observations provide even more details on how the supernova made the dust as well as the type of molecules found in the remnant.

One of our goals was to observe SN 1987A in a blind search for other molecules, said Indebetouw. We expected to find carbon monoxide and silicon monoxide, since we had previously detected these molecules. The astronomers, however, were excited to find the previously undetected molecules formyl cation (HCO+) and sulfur monoxide (SO).

These molecules had never been detected in a young supernova remnant before, noted Indebetouw. HCO+ is especially interesting because its formation requires particularly vigorous mixing during the explosion. Stars forge elements in discrete onion-like layers. As a star goes supernova, these once well-defined bands undergo violent mixing, helping to create the environment necessary for molecule and dust formation.

The astronomers estimate that about 1 in 1000 silicon atoms from the exploded star is now found in free-floating SiO molecules. The overwhelming majority of the silicon has already been incorporated into dust grains. Even the small amount of SiO that is present is 100 times greater than predicted by dust-formation models. These new observations will aid astronomers in refining their models.

These observations also find that ten percent or more of the carbon inside the remnant is currently in CO molecules. Only a few out of every million carbon atoms are in HCO+ molecules.

New Questions and Future Research

Even though the new ALMA observations shed important light on SN 1987A, there are still several questions that remain. Exactly how abundant are the molecules of HCO+and SO? Are there other molecules that have yet to be detected? How will the 3D structure of SN 1987A continue to change over time?

Future ALMA observations at different wavelengths may also help determine what sort of compact object a pulsar or neutron star resides at the center of the remnant. The supernova likely created one of these dense stellar objects, but as yet none has been detected.

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

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Heart of an exploded star observed in 3D - Astronomy Now Online

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From simulated gooey alien planet surfaces to open telescope viewings on the Davey Lab roof, Penn State's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics will offer an interactive perspective on the science of astronomy when it hosts the 18th Annual AstroFest.

AstroFest came to life 18 years ago when Nahks Tr'Ehnl was still a Penn State student double majoring in art and astronomy. Tr'Ehnl said he and a few other classmates were in town for the summer and decided to incorporate a festival of astronomy at the same time as the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.

"Several members of the astronomy club just happened to be here in town for the summer and thought it would be nice to have an open house," Tr'Ehnl said. "I wanted to tie in both art and astronomy. Then, things just started to pick up from there."

Between Wednesday, July 12 and Saturday, July 15, the fifth floor of Davey Lab will be open from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. to the community for free. Participants will have the opportunity to stargaze the night sky after 10 p.m. on the roof of Davey Lab and, if the weather permits, viewers should get the opportunity to see Jupiter, Saturn, the Ring Nebula and Globular Cluster M13, among others.

Festivalgoers can also watch cosmic rays pass through a cloud chamber, participate in their own bottle rocket launchings, and play an astronomy video game featured in Penn State's Astro 001 course.

Tr'Ehnl, who was also the co-creator of the video game, said the video game could help people understand astronomy better.

"As a subject, astronomy is mainly visual, as far as observational astronomy goes," Tr'Ehnl said. "Videogames are produced in a 3-dimensional format which helps demonstrate spatial relations between stars and planets to offer viewers a different perspective."

According to AstroFest co-founder Jane Charlton, who is also a professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the festival will host 14 different astronomy-related presentations which will each last 30 minutes long. Presentation topics will vary from the solar eclipse, expected on Aug. 21, to black holes.

"People come all four nights and don't repeat a single thing," Charlton said. "We always have new demonstrations every year because of new volunteers, and that's what keeps me going."

Other activities featured during the four-night activities will include astronomy origami, also known as "astrogami, planetarium shows, finding habitable zone planets and an astronomy idol competition.

"I want it to be a mini Disney world of astronomy," Charlton said. "Showing people outside of the Penn State community about astronomy is important, and most of them always seem to be have a good time."

Tr'Ehnl said that people go to AstroFest during the busy week because they are curious as to what's going on in the science community.

"[AstroFest] is a very important way for people to see what astronomers do and feel a connection to it, TrEhnl said. That this is what funding for science comes from, what results come from NASA and why we as taxpayers are impacted by it. All these things that you may hear on the news and TV are a chance to get hands-on with it and get to ask direct questions to the people who do the science."

Chris Palma, another professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said the department hosts AstroFest every year because they want people to get excited about astronomy.

"Astronomy is a popular science, Palma said. Its all on TV, which is why we all feel an obligation to help run programs like AstroFest. If I want people to get anything out of AstroFest, I just want them to have a good time."

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AstroFest to present four nights of stargazing, space exploration - The Daily Collegian Online