Authors: T. A. Movsessian, T. Yu. Magakian, A. V. Moiseev and M. D. Smith
A&A 508, 773 (2009) Received 8 February 2009 / Accepted 28 September 2009
Keywords: stars: formation, ISM: jets and outflows, ISM: clouds
Unveiling the molecular environment of the ring nebula RCW 78
Authors: C. E. Cappa, M. Rubio, M. C. Martín and G. A. Romero
A&A 508, 759 (2009) Received 2 February 2009 / Accepted 28 September 2009
Keywords: ISM: bubbles, ISM: individual objects: RCW 78, stars: Wolf-Rayet, stars: individual: WR 55
Revealing the sub-AU asymmetries of the inner dust rim in the disk around the Herbig Ae star R Coronae Austrinae
Authors: S. Kraus, K.-H. Hofmann, F. Malbet, A. Meilland, A. Natta, D. Schertl, P. Stee and G. Weigelt
A&A 508, 787 (2009) Received 26 July 2009 / Accepted 28 October 2009
Keywords: stars: pre-main-sequence, circumstellar matter, accretion, accretion disks, planetary systems: protoplanetary disks, planetary systems: formation, techniques: interferometric
Probing the dust properties of galaxies up to submillimetre wavelengths – I. The spectral energy distribution of dwarf galaxies using LABOCA
Authors: M. Galametz, S. Madden, F. Galliano, S. Hony, F. Schuller, A. Beelen, G. Bendo, M. Sauvage, A. Lundgren and N. Billot
A&A 508, 645 (2009) Received 23 July 2009 / Accepted 28 September 2009
Keywords: galaxies: ISM, galaxies: dwarf, infrared: ISM, dust, extinction
On the physical origin of the second solar spectrum of the Sc II line at 4247 Å
Author: L. Belluzzi
A&A 508, 933 (2009) Received 21 July 2009 / Accepted 6 August 2009
Keywords: atomic processes, polarization, scattering, Sun: atmosphere
Hubble’s New Deep Field
Hubble's latest Ultra Deep Field image. Click for larger (you will be glad you did). Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory and the University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (UCO/Lick Observatory and Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team
Just look at what Hubble’s new camera can do!
Astronomers aimed Hubble at the same region of the sky as the famous Deep Field image taken in 2004. This time around they used the WFC3 camera which can see in the near infrared allowing an even deeper look into the universe.
Click the image for a larger version, the faintest and reddest galaxies were formed just 600 million years after the Big Bang – Hubble’s deepest look into the past so far.
Visit the Hubble site (they have a zoomable image too!)
A Black Hole Switches On
Switching on a black hole. Click for larger. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.Machacek; Optical: ESO/VLT; Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech
Check this out! A galactic collision wakens a black hole. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere you can see this if you have a telescope, the coordinates are (Equatorial) RA: 20h 17m 57s Dec: -70°44′23″
From NASA:
This composite image of data from three different telescopes shows an ongoing collision between two galaxies, NGC 6872 and IC 4970. X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown in purple, while Spitzer Space Telescope’s infrared data is red and optical data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) is colored red, green and blue.
Astronomers think that supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies. Not only do the galaxies and black holes seem to co-exist, they are apparently inextricably linked in their evolution. To better understand this symbiotic relationship, scientists have turned to rapidly growing black holes — so-called active galactic nucleus (AGN) — to study how they are affected by their galactic environments.
The latest data from Chandra and Spitzer show that IC 4970, the small galaxy at the top of the image, contains an AGN, but one that is heavily cocooned in gas and dust. This means in optical light telescopes, like the VLT, there is little to see. X-rays and infrared light, however, can penetrate this veil of material and reveal the light show that is generated as material heats up before falling onto the black hole (seen as a bright point-like source).
Despite this obscuring gas and dust around IC 4970, the Chandra data suggest that there is not enough hot gas in IC 4970 to fuel the growth of the AGN. Where, then, does the food supply for this black hole come from? The answer lies with its partner galaxy, NGC 6872. These two galaxies are in the process of undergoing a collision, and the gravitational attraction from IC 4970 has likely pulled over some of NGC 6872’s deep reservoir of cold gas (seen prominently in the Spitzer data), providing a new fuel supply to power the giant black hole.
Sooty Stars
The term “sooty star” or “carbon star” almost makes them sound like big chunks of coal. You know that wouldn’t work. In the interest of brevity, quick definition of a carbon star is an evolved giant (or sometimes a dwarf) with circumstellar “clouds” of carbon dust. It’s seeing the star through this atmosphere of carbon that gives it its red appearance; because carbon absorbs “blue” light. Classical carbon stars are massive; non-classical less so. Most are long-period variables.
Image: Greg Parker, New Forest Observatory
This is an image of La Superba – Y Canum Venaticorum (Y CVn), one of the reddest stars in the sky, and among the brightest of the red giants. It’s a semi-regular variable carbon star.
Image: H. Olafsson, Stockholm Observatory (et al)
This is TT Cygni. The ring you see around the star is a shell of gas expanding outward.
Classical carbon stars are single giants at the end of their lifespan. Non-classical carbon stars are those in a binary system where one is a white dwarf and the other a red giant. The giant accreted carbon from its companion, now the dwarf, to become the carbon star.
Carbon stars are somewhat rare, and they quickly evolve out of this phase because they lose tremendous amounts of mass. Their carbon “shell” becomes part of the interstellar dust; providing the raw materials for the creation of new generations of stars and planets.
Spokes, Two Moons and a Star
Ghostly Spokes on the rings of Saturn. Click for larger. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The Cassini spacecraft has returned a fine example of the phenomenon of “spokes” in Saturn’s rings. Saturn has made (almost) one orbit since the Voyager spacecraft fist discovered the rings in 1980 and 1981.
Here’s a short YouTube video of the spokes.
The Cassini caption:
Bright spokes grace Saturn’s B ring in this Cassini image.
To learn more about the ghostly radial markings called spokes, see PIA11144 and PIA08288. Spokes appear bright when they are viewed at phase, or Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, angles higher than about 45 degrees. The phase angle in this image is 61 degrees.
Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across) orbits between the A ring and the thin F ring. Epimetheus (113 kilometers, or 70 miles across) orbits beyond the F ring in the top left of the image. The bright dot in the top right is a star.
Scale in the original image was 71 kilometers (44 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of 1.5 and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from about 12 degrees above the ringplane.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (746,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 61 degrees.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
Hidden Black Holes
I think black holes are fascinating; spooky, mysterious, and difficult to understand, sure, but fascinating nonetheless. With the new work NASA/ESA is doing in combining Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer telescopes, it seems they can see “hidden”, or “missing” black holes.
Missing? We lost them?
No, not exactly. A “missing” black hole is just a black hole that powered the earliest active galaxies. These have been implied by earlier images, but because they’re so very distant ( some are up to 13 billion ly away) they are hard to image. And how does one “image” a black hole, anyway? Ah, you know the answer to that one, don’t you? It wouldn’t even make an interesting riddle question. Hawking Radiation… the energy emitted by matter as it falls into a black hole, which is capable of escaping the pull of the black hole.
What’s interesting in the images above is that you’re seeing the Hawking Radiation, meaning there’s a black hole there, but you’re not seeing a galaxy around the black hole. There are seven known sources of Hawking Radiation that we’ve found so far that seem to be missing a galaxy.
There is some speculation that in looking at these black holes, we are looking at the remnants of the first galaxies formed after the big bang.
Interested? Read a little more about it here, at the HubbleSite news center.
Exoplanet(s) seen with Subaru?
The August 2009 discovery image of GJ758 B and C, taken with Subaru HiCIAO in the near infrared wavelength. Without angular differential imaging, the star's speckle halo (burst-like feature in the center) would overwhelm the signals from the planet candidates. Images and captions: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
A research team using a brand new planet-hunting instrument on the Subaru Telescope called the High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru next generation Adaptive Optics, (let’s just call it HiCIAO), has found and imaged not one but two possible exoplanets.
The star named GJ 758, a sun much like our own was found to have at least one and possibly two other constituents that are very possibly exoplanets – maybe. The other amazing thing is how close the two objects are to the parent star, at about the same distance as Uranus and Neptune is to ours. Sure that is a ways, but to be able to see them in the glare of the parent sun and at 50 light-years is astounding.
Maybe? Why maybe? The first object called GJ 758 B has a mass of 10 to 40 times Jupiter, and the general feeling is it is either a giant planet or a lightweight brown dwarf. The temperature of this object is about 600 K ( 620oF / 327oC), you might be thinking it has to be a brown dwarf at that temperature, but the temperature could be explained by compression heating due to gravity.
The object designated GJ 758 C has a similar mass to the first, but the researchers are being pretty careful saying its presence is “suggested” and are not saying it is really there. Better to err on the side of caution.
We will know more in about a week when the results are published and I can’t wait!
Size comparison between representatives of our Solar System (Sun, Jupiter, and Earth) and the GJ 758 system. GJ 758 B’s temperature of about 600 K makes it glow cherry-red. You will note the depiction of GJ 758 B is about the same diameter or a little smaller than Jupiter and I mentioned the mass of GJ 758 B is 10 to 40 times as massive. The size I was referring to is the mass, how much stuff is packed into the package.
I Know You Know This One!
UPDATE: SOLVED! At 4:08 CDT.
There you are; back for another riddle? This one is easy… you should get it in a few minutes. I’ve been timing you guys, and last week it took an hour and 25 minutes for Patricia to solve the riddle. How are you going to do this week?
I know you know this one; it’s probably one of the first “things” of its class you looked at… and I know that when you saw it, you were impressed.
Okay, you know the rules! I’ve been getting some great subjects about which to post from the people who are solving the riddles, and I am really looking forward to this week’s chosen topic. Ready? This object is…
Known for its beauty.
Can be seen with the naked eye.
We are watching the death of this object.
Seen in the Northern Hemisphere in the autumn and early winter.
Thought of as one of the most luminous objects in the galaxy.
This is a single object.
It would take about 4.5 billion suns to equal it (yes, that’s a “b” for “billion”).
It is the prototype for its class.
When it is gone, its gift to us will be a thing of great mystery.
Do you know the answer? I’m hanging out in the comment section, so give it a shot!
No Green Stars?
Click here to view the embedded video.
Ah, it’s a rods and cones thing.
Hubble and NGC 4710
Hubble sees NGC 4710. Click for a larger version. Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Goudfrooij (STScI)
This past January the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble took this image of the galaxy NGC 4710. The galaxy is about 60 million light-years away in the direction of Coma Berenices.
The galaxy is pretty much edge on and one of the striking things about it is the “X” pattern around the bulge. According to the press release the “X” is caused by the vertical motions of the stars around the core. Another interesting thing about galaxy is the apparent lack of globular clusters around the bulge and that is being attributing to a slow assembly, I would have thought the other way. Do check out the press release below too, it contains a lot of information packed into a concise read.
I wanted to make this into a background, things didn’t work out very well. If you haven’t clicked on the image yet, give it a try, you can spot a couple even more distant galaxies. To see a even larger version and one that is “zoomable” have a look at the Hubble page at NASA for links.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
These observations were obtained by a team led by Paul Goudfrooij from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Click the “more” link below to read the press release:
Just as many people are surprised to find themselves packing on unexplained weight around the middle, astronomers find the evolution of bulges in the centres of spiral galaxies puzzling. A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4710 is part of a survey that astronomers have conducted to learn more about the formation of bulges, which are a substantial component of most spiral galaxies.
When targeting spiral galaxy bulges, astronomers often seek edge-on galaxies, as their bulges are more easily distinguishable from the disc. This exceptionally detailed edge-on view of NGC 4710 taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard Hubble reveals the galaxy’s bulge in the brightly coloured centre. The luminous, elongated white plane that runs through the bulge is the galaxy disc. The disc and bulge are surrounded by eerie-looking dust lanes.
When staring directly at the centre of the galaxy, one can detect a faint, ethereal “X”-shaped structure. Such a feature, which astronomers call a “boxy” or “peanut-shaped” bulge, is due to the vertical motions of the stars in the galaxy’s bar and is only evident when the galaxy is seen edge-on. This curiously shaped puff is often observed in spiral galaxies with small bulges and open arms, but is less common in spirals with arms tightly wrapped around a more prominent bulge, such as NGC 4710.
NGC 4710 is a member of the giant Virgo Cluster of galaxies and lies in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices (the Hair of Queen Berenice). It is not one of the brightest members of the cluster, but can easily be seen as a dim elongated smudge on a dark night with a medium-sized amateur telescope. In the 1780s, William Herschel discovered the galaxy and noted it simply as a “faint nebula”. It lies about 60 million light-years from the Earth and is an example of a lenticular or S0-type galaxy – a type that seems to have some characteristics of both spiral and elliptical galaxies.
Astronomers are scrutinising these systems to determine how many globular clusters they host. Globular clusters are thought to represent an indication of the processes that can build bulges. Two quite different processes are believed to be at play regarding the formation of bulges in spiral galaxies: either they formed rather rapidly in the early Universe, before the spiral disc and arms formed; or they built up from material accumulating from the disc during a slow and long evolution. In this case of NGC 4710, researchers have spotted very few globular clusters associated with the bulge, indicating that its assembly mainly involved relatively slow processes.
LEGO in the Age of Aquarius
Rob Seaman is open to the idea of bribery. To those of us who know him well this will not come as a surprise. All in a good cause though…
Rob has this to say:
This is a blatant attempt at bribery.
Lego in the Age of Aquarius
The VOEvent working group has been shameless from the very beginning in seeking ways to promote its agenda of world dominion. An early notion was to build a LEGO NXT robotic telescope to demonstrate this IVOA celestial transient alert protocol. The initial prototype was shown at the Hotwired I workshop in 2007. This first model was joined by a second telescope by the time of the Austin American Astronomical Society meeting in 2008.
With two telescopes it is possible to demonstrate behavioral interactions as observatories pursue the discovery and follow-up of transient phenomena. Such interactions can be arbitrarily complex, but even a simple “Simon says” interaction as demonstrated in Austin provides the opportunity for rich discussions with colleagues on diverse scientific and technical issues. Ideally the robotic behavior would be explicitly tied via either pseudo or actual interfaces to other astronomical facilities such as provided through the Virtual Observatory, World-Wide Telescope, Google Sky or SkyAlert.
Indeed a third LEGO NXT kit was purchased with the hope of elaborating on the pedagogical behavior available in 2008. Circumstances intervened (including the departure of two successive VOEvent programmers at NOAO – for unrelated reasons) and this kit remains in the box.
The LEGO NXT kit is the bribe, offered as a prize to the best interface between virtual astronomical technology (for instance as displayed on a nearby monitor and/or handheld device) and the two model robotic telescopes. This simulation must be robust enough to be suitable for low maintenance, multi-day, multi-audience demonstrations. The intent is that I will deliver this presentation for the duration of the upcoming high profile AAS meeting in Washington, DC. Glory (and explicit credit) will accrue to all involved!
VOEvent is a technology for enabling autonomous astronomical architectures for pursuing empirical investigations. How can this be conveyed to the public, or perhaps even more challenging, to astronomers?
Hack day at .Astronomy 2009 is on the Wednesday. In support of this mission, I will be giving a talk titled “LEGO in the Age of Aquarius – Presenting complex technologies to diverse audiences” during the “unconference” sessions in Leiden on Monday or Tuesday.
If you’re interested get your thinking caps on and see if you can leave the meeting with a shiny new Lego NXT kit. You’ll have (free) access to Amazon EC2 and S3 and Google’s App Engine during the meeting (within limits!), access to Arduino microcontrollers and the tools you’ll need to do something interesting with them, as well as iPhone and Android handsets and their respective SDKs. Hack day may be on Wednesday, but you can hack all week…
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Unconference
We’ve had a few emails from participants recently, asking whether or not their talk was accepted for the conference. On our programme page you’ll see that we talks some formal organised each morning (except on the Hack Day). Every afternoon we will be an unconference - where the talks, workshops and discussions are user-generated and organised organically during the week.
We have a series of breakout rooms, large- and small-meeting rooms at the Lorentz Centre. These will be used to facilitate whatever talks etc the group requires. If you’ve never been to an unconference before, don’t worry. The idea is that if you have a talk or workshop you’d like to run then you’re free to put it up on a large communal whiteboard. People will indicate preferences for talks and thus we will build up each afternoon’s sessions as the day goes along.
Alongside the unconference sessions we will also have 101 workshops running. These are beginners guides to specific subjects (e.g. Google Maps, Podcasting, Python) and are all indicated on the programme.
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One Week to Go
A week from today will be the beginning of the 2009 .Astronomy conference in Leiden. If you have any questions about the event then please email the organising committee with them ahead of time and we shall try to get back to you ASAP.
There will be various ways to engage with the conference online during the event, UStream, Flickr, Twitter and others that will be set up this week. If you are taking part and want to connect with us via these services then do it now so we can maximise the smooth running of the event itself.
Our morning talks will be streamed live where possible and this stream is available from the main page of this website under the ‘Live Feed’ tab.
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2008 Proceedings
If you’re interested in buying a copy of the proceedings of the 2008 .Astronomy Conference in Cardiff then now’s the time! Since the 2009 event is about to kick off we’re reducing the price to £15/€17. If you’re attending the conference then postage is free because you can collect your copy next week during the conference.
If you’d like to pick up the previous conference proceedings then email Rob with the number of books you’d like to reserve and you can then collect them during the conference next week.
If you’re not going to be in Leiden you can still buy a copy. It will cost £16/€19 and you’ll need to email Rob with the number of copies you’d like and the postal address you want them sent to.
All payments need to made via PayPal or in cash at the conference if necessary.
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Press Release: .Astronomy
P R E S S R E L E A S E
————————————————————-
.Astronomy 2009: Workshop on Astronomy and the New Media
Next week, from 30 November to 4 December, an unconventional workshop takes place in Leiden, The Netherlands, to discuss novel concepts of thinking and working in astronomy today. Participants of the .Astronomy conference (read: dot astronomy) will explore new ways of exploiting the data deluge that will be produced by upcoming surveys and instruments for the benefit of their science and of society as a whole. Novel ways of communicating science to a wide audience have burst onto the scene in recent years: the web 2.0, blogs, podcasts and social networking.
Google Sky and Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope have brought astronomy into the home with stunning elegance. No science is better suited to engaging the general public in real scientific research and discovery than astronomy. Examples of this are the hugely popular Galaxy Zoo project, or the increasing number of robotic telescopes made available to citizen scientists for scientific and educational purposes. Online communication and network-based technologies are changing the face of science, for professional astronomers as well as for the general public.
In 2008 the first .Astronomy conference took place in Cardiff. The second edition is taking place at the Lorentz Center of Leiden University. Some of the themes covered during the meeting are citizen science projects, new media for outreach and communication, network-based research tools and data visualisation. One day of the meeting is a dedicated ‘Astronomy Hack Day’ where the topics above will be explored in a hands-on way. Developers will brainstorm about new ideas and applications. One of the objectives of the meeting is to come up with a new citizen science project, where the general public is invited to be directly involved in producing new scientific results. The morning talks of the .Astronomy workshop will be streamed online.
E N D O F P R E S S R E L E A S E
—————————————————————————————————
Contact:
Dr. Carolina Ödman
Tel: +31 (0)71 527 58 16 Mob: +31 (0)6 41 275 298
E-mail: odman@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Dr. Sarah Kendrew
Tel: +31 (0)71 527 84 56
E-mail: kendrew@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Robert Simpson
Tel: +44 (0)7929 508961
E-mail: robert.simpson@astro.cf.ac.uk
.Astronomy 2009 is an event of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
.Astronomy 2009 is supported by the Lorentz Center, NWO, ASTRON, the European programme RadioNet, the British Council/Platform Beta Techniek’s Partnership in Science programme and the Royal Astronomical Society.
Links:
http://www.dotastronomy.com/
http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/
Twitter: @dotastronomy
Blog: http://www.dotastronomy.com/
Original press release on http://www.astronomie.nl/
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Day One: Citizen Science
The first day of any conference is always a busy one and .Astronomy was no exception. This morning I gave an introduction to update the participants on the various services at their disposal and the sponsors that allowed the event to take place.
The morning then proceeded with talks from Gijs Verdoes about AstroWISE and Robert Hollow about PULSE@Parkes. Gijs’ slides are already available online if you’re interested. Unfortunately these two talks were accidentally not recorded on on our UStream feed so they cannot be replayed.
After coffee we had a talk about Galaxy Zoo and the Zooniverse by Chris Lintott and Arfon Smith. They described the way that the Zoo has evolved and expanded in the past few months and how it intends to expand into the future (Moon Zoo, Crow Zoo?!). The video of this talk should appear after UStream is done processing things…
In the afternoon – after a sojourn to the outer reaches of Leiden University for lunch – we had our first Unconference sessions. The first of which involved 101 workshops in Python, WordPress and LEGO NXT. The later session had participant-generated workshops and talks about APLPy and Radio Astronomy vs. Galaxy Zoo.
Links to participants’ posts:
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