Daily Archives: August 6, 2017

Like millions of other people, Wanda Diaz Merced plans to observe the August 21 total solar eclipse, when the moons shadow will sweep across the sun and, for a few brief moments, coat parts of the United States in darkness. But she wont see it. Shell hear it.

Diaz Merced, an astrophysicist, is blind, with just 3 percent of peripheral vision in her right eye, and none in her left. She has been working with a team at Harvard University to develop a program that will convert sunlight into sound, allowing her to hear the solar eclipse. The sound will be generated in real time, changing as the dark silhouette of the moon appears over the face of the bright sun, blocking its light. Diaz Merced will listen in real time, toowith her students at the Athlone School for the Blind in Cape Town, South Africa, where she teaches astronomy.

Its an experience of a lifetime, and they deserve the opportunity, Diaz Merced said.

To capture the auditory version of this astronomical event, the team turned to a piece of technology measuring only a couple inches long: the Arduino, a cheap microcomputer popular with tech-savvy, DIY hobbyists. With a few attachments, Arduinos can be used to create all kinds of electronic devices that interact with the physical world, from the useful, like finger scanners that unlock garage doors, to the silly, like motion-detecting squirt guns. Diaz Merceds collaborators equipped an Arduino with a light-detecting sensor and speaker, and programmed it to convert light into a clicking noise. The pace of the clicks varies with the intensity of the sunlight hitting the sensor, speeding up as it strengthens and slowing down as it dims. In the moments of totality, when the suns outer atmosphere appears as a thin ring around the shadow of the moon, the clicks will be a second or more apart.

Allyson Bieryla, an astronomy lab and telescope manager at Harvard, will operate the Arduino from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, inside the path of totality. She will stream the audio on a website online, which Diaz Merced will open on her computer in Cape Town.

So far, Bieryla says, the real challenge has been trying to find a light sensor thats sensitive enough to get the variation in the eclipse. In totality, the sun will appear about as bright as a full moon at midnight. The team has tested the Arduino at night, under the moonlight, to make sure it can pick up the faint luminosity.

Diaz Merced, a postdoctoral fellow at the Office of Astronomy for Development in South Africa, was diagnosed with diabetes as a child. In her early 20s, when she was studying physics at the University of Puerto Rico, she was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy, a complication of the disease that destroys blood vessels in the retina. Her vision began to deteriorate, and a failed laser surgery damaged her retinas further, she said. By her late 20s, she was almost completely blind. She recalls watching a partial solar eclipse in 1998 in Puerto Rico, when she still had some sight.

I was able to experience the wonderfulnessof the sun being dark, of having a black ball in the sky, she said. That is why it is important to use the sound in order to bring an experience that will bring that same feeling to people who do not see or are not visually oriented.

While Diaz Merced experiences the eclipse from a classroom in Cape Town, Tim Doucette will observe the event at a campground in Nebraska, smack-dab in the path of totality. Doucette is a computer programmer by day and an amateur astronomer by night. He runs a small observatory, Deep Sky, near his home in Nova Scotia in a sparsely populated area known for low light pollution and star-studded night skies.

Doucette is legally blind, and has about 10 percent of his eyesight. He had cataracts as a baby, a condition that clouds the lenses of the eye. To treat the disease, doctors surgically removed the lenses, leaving Doucette without the capacity to filter out certain wavelengths. His eyes are sensitive to ultraviolet and infrared light, and he wears sunglasses during the day to protect his retinas. Without shades, Doucette said he cant keep his eye open in the brightness of day. But at night, his sensitivity becomes an advantage. With the help of a telescope, Doucette can see the near-infrared light coming from stars and other objects in the sky better than most people.

My whole life, Ive always been asking people for help, saying, hey, what do you see? Doucette said. When I stargaze with people, the tables are reversed.

Doucette sees best at night, safe from the glare of the sun. He uses starlight to guide him during the short walk from his observatory to his home. When Im walking down the road, especially during the summer months, the Milky Way is just this incredible painting going from north to south, he said. Its millions and millions of points of light. Its like a tapestry of diamonds against a velvety background.

Doucette, armed with his camera equipment, will observe the eclipse with dozens of members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canadas Halifax Center, an association of amateur and professional astronomers. He has only witnessed partial solar eclipses in the past. It should be quite interesting to see what the effect is because of my sensitivity, he said. During totality, when day becomes night, some objects in the sky may become visible, thanks to his sensitivity to their light.

Doucette will wear eclipse sunglasses over his regular pair. Eclipse glasses protect the eyes from sunlight so viewers can look directly at it without hurting their eyes, and they can be bought online for a few dollars. Doucette urged eclipse viewers to use them, citing stories hed heard of people looking at the sun during an eclipse and waking up blind the next morning, their retinas burned. The shades are necessary before and after totality, when the sun is only partially eclipsed and a thin crescent shines with typical intensity.

Once the eclipse is in totality for about two and a half minutes, Im told that its safe to take the glasses off, but Im not willing to risk it, Doucette said. Ill still keep my sunglasses on either way.

Original post:

How Blind Astronomers Will Observe the Solar Eclipse - The Atlantic

BBC News

In pictures: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 - BBC News BBC News The shortlisted images in this year's Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year have now been selected. and more »

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In pictures: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 - BBC News - BBC News

Magazine August 4, 2017 5:00 AM ByNeil Pond Parade @NeilPond More by Neil

Everyone will be looking up on Monday, August 21, when whats being called the Great American Eclipse sweeps across the U.S.

I really encourage you to be in a place where you can see the total solar eclipse, says Bill Nye, known as the Science Guy from his popular 1990s-era PBS kids show. This one moment where the Earth, moon and sun are in a lineit really is spectacular, says Nye, 61, who serves as the CEO of the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, and is star of Bill Nye Saves the World on Netflix.

Check out these eclipse must-knows from Nye and astronomy whiz kids Cannan and Carson Huey-You.

Related: Cannan and Carson Huey-You Interview Bill Nye the Science Guy

The sunlight filtering around the advancing moon creates alternating bands of light and dark on the ground racing across the land. Its crazy; theyre several football fields wide, and they move over you. Its otherworldly and spooky, Nye says.

This aura of gasses that surrounds the sun and shoots out into space for millions of miles is spectacularly visible to the unaided eye as a brilliant, glowing halo during the total eclipse.

The amount of time it will take for the eclipse to zoom across the entire continent.

The longest anyone, anywhere will be able to witness its totalitythats in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Unlike most other total eclipses, the 2017 eclipse will cross directly overheador nearbymany major population areas. Its going right across the United States, Nye says. Take a felt-tip marker and draw from Oregon to Georgia, and there it is.

Thats how long ago the previous coast-to-coast solar eclipse was last seen in the U.S. There will be another total solar eclipse in July 2019, but it will be visible only in parts of Argentina and Chile. The truth is, eclipses arent all that rare. Total solar eclipses occur every two years, says Nye, author of the just-released Everything All at Once. They come in pairs. Theyre more frequent than presidential elections! Most are visible only to relatively few people or from places where many people cant easily goremote mountaintops, the middle of an ocean, unpopulated areas hundreds or thousands of miles away from anything else. That makes the 2017 eclipse extra special.

During the total eclipse, as the light from the sun is blocked, these points of light begin to appear as sunlight streams through the valleys of the moons horizon.

In a total eclipse, the moons shadow flies across the face of the planet at supersonic speed. Thats fastalmost as fast as it took Carson Huey-You and his younger brother, Cannan, science-minded kid geniuses in the Dallas area, to zip far ahead academically of most kids their age.

Carson, 15, enrolled in Texas Christian University when he was 11 and graduated in May with a degree in physics and minors in math and Chinese. He plans to continue with graduate studies in physics toward a masters degree and ultimately a doctorate. Cannan, 11, will enter TCU this fall to study engineering and astrophysics.

Here are 10 things Carson and Cannan want you to know about the upcoming eclipse.

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Great American Eclipse 101: Bill Nye and Two Astronomy Whiz Kids ... - Parade

Zach Fox Staff Writer @ZachFoxSHJ

Local astronomy professors say Spartanburg County residents should at least try to get to the southern part of the county on Aug. 21 to experience the full solar eclipse.

The eclipse path runs through Spartanburg County, but only the southern and southwestern portions of the county will see 100 percent totality that Monday afternoon. Events are scheduled across the Upstate, and state public safety officials are preparing for increased traffic on state roads.

Astronomy professors Andy Leonardi of the University of South Carolina Upstate and Bill Yarborough of Converse College said the eclipse will be a once-in-a-lifetime sight.

What else will be visible in the sky during the eclipse?

Leonardi:Not so much when youre looking up at the sun and the moon itself. The wispy corona that will appear during the eclipse will be pronounced. The little extra bit of light will make the sky look a little different.

Yarborough:What you can see is whats called the suns corona. Surrounding the sun is a very tenuous region thats far, far hotter than the surface. It doesnt emit enough light for us to normally see it. Its like a huge, bright halo. When the moon completely blocks the disk of the sun we normally see, the corona will light up the sky. Its an absolutely incredible view.As far as planets or things of that sort, it wont quite be like a dark night. Itll be like dusk or sunset. Not quite dark enough to see a lot of planets and things like that.

What does it mean that Spartanburg isn't in the path of totality?

Yarborough:What that means for Spartanburg is, the sun will never be completely blocked. A little edge of sun will still be visible from behind the moon. Its still more than a 90 percent eclipse. At any point where the sun is even partially visible, its not safe for the naked eye.In that region, in totality, its safe to look at it without protection. You can briefly take (viewing glasses) off and look before you put them back on.

Is there any way, besides getting safety glasses, to prepare for the eclipse?

Leonardi:Even animals, youll start to hear nighttime animal sounds because they get fooled, too. Its so outside normal experience that you cant honestly prepare for it. Its not like when daytime turns to night, its much different than that.

What's the best way to enjoy the eclipse itself?

Leonardi: You definitely want to give yourself time before the eclipse to see the approach. The eclipse itself lasts for a couple of minutes, but you want to see all the subtle changes first. If they can tear their eyes away for those two minutes, take a little time to glance at the horizon because youll see some weird, unique effects. Youll see sort of sunset effects all across the horizon. ... I would just urge people to do it safely.

Yarborough: Probably the most important thing everyone knows is they need to protect their eyes. Looking up at the sun, even briefly, can do real damage to your eyes. Ordinary sunglasses simply will not protect their eyes from looking up at an eclipse.Its an exciting event, one everyone ought to see. For anybody whos interested, it (traveling to the area of totality) would be worth it. Once you get 10 miles or so south or southwest of Spartanburg, youll be in the edge of the total region. The difference will be noticeable. Anywhere in South Carolina will experience a partial eclipse, however, which is still a sight to see. It wont be something to forget.

More:

Local astronomy professors share eclipse tips - Spartanburg Herald Journal

This artists impression of SN 2017egm shows the power source for this extraordinarily bright supernova. The explosion was triggered by a massive star that collapsed to form a neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field and rapid spin, called a magnetar. Debris from the supernova explosion is shown in blue and the magnetar is shown in red. Credit: M. Weiss/CfA

Many rock stars dont like to play by the rules, and a cosmic one is no exception. A team of astronomers has discovered that an extraordinarily bright supernova occurred in a surprising location. This heavy metal supernova discovery challenges current ideas of how and where such super-charged supernovas occur.

Supernovas are some of the most energetic events in the Universe. When a massive star runs out of fuel, it can collapse onto itself and create a spectacular explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy, dispersing vital elements into space.

In the past decade, astronomers have discovered about fifty supernovas, out of the thousands known, that are particularly powerful. These explosions are up to 100 times brighter than other supernovas caused by the collapse of a massive star.

Following the recent discovery of one of these superluminous supernovas, a team of astronomers led by Matt Nicholl from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass., has uncovered vital clues about where some of these extraordinary objects come from.

Cambridge Universitys Gaia Science Alerts team discovered this supernova, dubbed SN 2017egm, on May 23, 2017 with the European Space Agencys Gaia satellite. A team led by Subo Dong of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University used the Nordic Optical Telescope to identify it as a superluminous supernova.

SN 2017egm is located in a spiral galaxy about 420 million light years from Earth, making it about three times closer than any other superluminous supernova previously seen. Dong realized that the galaxy was very surprising, as virtually all known superluminous supernovas have been found in dwarf galaxies that are much smaller than spiral galaxies like the Milky Way.

Building on this discovery, the CfA team found that SN 2017egms host galaxy has a high concentration of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which astronomers call metals. This is the first clear evidence for a metal-rich birthplace for a superluminous supernova. The dwarf galaxies that usually host superluminous supernovas are known to have a low metal content, which was thought to be an essential ingredient for making these explosions.

Superluminous supernovas were already the rock stars of the supernova world, said Nicholl. We now know that some of them like heavy metal, so to speak, and explode in galaxies like our own Milky Way.

If one of these went off in our own Galaxy, it would be much brighter than any supernova in recorded human history and would be as bright as the full Moon, said co-author Edo Berger, also of the CfA. However, theyre so rare that we probably have to wait several million years to see one.

The CfA researchers also found more clues about the nature of SN 2017egm. In particular, their new study supports the idea that a rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron star, called a magnetar, is likely the engine that drives the incredible amount of light generated by these supernovas.

While the brightness of SN 2017egm and the properties of the magnetar that powers it overlap with those of other superluminous supernovas, the amount of mass ejected by SN 2017egm may be lower than the average event. This difference may indicate that the massive star that led to SN 2017egm lost more mass than most superluminous supernova progenitors before exploding. The spin rate of the magnetar may also be slower than average.

These results show that the amount of metals has at most only a small effect on the properties of a superluminous supernova and the engine driving it. However, the metal-rich variety occurs at only about 10% of the rate of the metal-poor ones. Similar results have been found for bursts of gamma rays associated with the explosion of massive stars. This suggests a close association between these two types of objects.

From July 4th, 2017 until September 16th, 2017 the supernova is not observable because it is too close to the Sun. After that, detailed studies should be possible for at least a few more years.

This should break all records for how long a superluminous supernova can be followed, said co-author Raffaella Margutti of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Im excited to see what other surprises this object has in store for us.

The CfA team observed SN 2017egm on June 18th with the 60-inch telescope at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatorys Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona.

A paper by Matt Nicholl describing these results was recently accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and is available online. In addition to Berger and Margutti, the co-authors of the paper are Peter Blanchard, James Guillochon, and Joel Leja, all of the CfA, and Ryan Chornock of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

A copy of the paper isavailable online.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.

Read more:

Astronomers discover 'heavy metal' supernova rocking out - Astronomy Now Online

NASA has selected nine proposals in its Explorers Program to study the Sun and general space environment. There are five Heliophysics Small Explorer mission proposals, two Explorer Missions of Opportunity Small Complete Mission (SCM) proposals, and one Partner Mission of Opportunity (PMO).

According to the press release, the Heliophysics Small Explorer missions and Explorer Missions of Opportunity SCM missions will be have specific explorations, including weather in the near-Earth environment, magnetic energy, solar wind, and heating and energy released in the atmosphere. The mission in the PMO category will be more focused on creating space instruments.

Ultimately, these missions will all help scientists better understand the influence of the Sun on our solar system, including the planets and the space between them.

The Heliophysics Small explorer proposals will be given $1.25 million for an 11-month mission concept study. Those missions are: Mechanisms of Energetic Mass Ejection eXplorer (MEME-X), Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Image (FOXSI), Multi-Slit Solar Explorer (MUSE), The Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS), and the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission.

MEME-X will study how charged particles leave Earths atmosphere, while TRACERS will study Earths magnetopause, which is the boundary between our planets magnetosphere and the incoming charged particles of the solar wind. FOXSI and MUSE will focus on the Suns atmosphere and the mysterious solar corona, which is only visible from Earth during a total solar eclipse. PUNCH will take a closer look at the solar wind.

The two Each Mission of Opportunity SCM proposals will be given $400,000 for an 11-month concept study. Those proposals are: the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) and the Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) mission.

SunRISE will create a radio telescope array from miniature satellites to study how the Sun releases particles into space. AWE will look back at Earth to study a phenomenon known as gravity waves, which transport energy throughout a planets atmosphere.

The final proposal is in the Partner Mission of Opportunity category and will study three instruments on the Turbulence Heating ObserveR (THOR) mission, a mission that the European Space Agency is considering. THOR looks at how particles in space gain and lose energy.

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NASA has selected nine proposals for Explorers Program ... - Astronomy Magazine