Monthly Archives: March 2022

Eugene N. Parker, 94, Dies; Predicted the Existence of Solar Wind – The New York Times

Posted: March 18, 2022 at 7:45 pm

Dr. Parker, he said, was happy when people pointed out a mistake in his calculations but not pleased when people accepted prevalent scientific assumptions without question.

He had little patience for Its well known that Dr. Turner said.

Even though Dr. Chandrasekhar, a future Nobel laureate, disagreed with Dr. Parkers conclusions, he overruled the reviewers, and the paper was published.

Four years later, Dr. Parker was vindicated when Mariner 2, a NASA spacecraft en route to Venus, observed energetic particles streaming through interplanetary space exactly what he had predicted.

When Dr. Zurbuchen joined NASA in 2016, the agency had been working for years on a mission called Solar Probe Plus, which was to swoop close to the sun repeatedly. Dr. Zurbuchen said he disliked the name Solar Probe Plus and wrote to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine asking it to suggest a person to name the mission after.

The unequivocal response: Eugene Parker.

NASA had never before named a spacecraft after a living person. But Dr. Zurbuchen, who had met Dr. Parker years earlier, said he did not have much trouble getting Robert Lightfoot, the acting administrator of NASA at the time, to approve the change in 2017. Dr. Zurbuchen then called Dr. Parker to ask if that would be all right with him. He said, Absolutely. It will be my honor, Dr. Zurbuchen recalled.

Dr. Parker later said he was surprised that NASA had asked for his permission.

A few months afterward, Dr. Parker went to visit the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, where the spacecraft was built and tested. Dr. Fox, then project scientist for the mission, recalled saying, Parker, meet Parker.

The next year, Dr. Parker and his family traveled to Florida to watch the launch of his namesake spacecraft.

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Eugene N. Parker, 94, Dies; Predicted the Existence of Solar Wind - The New York Times

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How Higher Education Is Turning A New Leaf Through An Online Approach – CEOWORLD magazine

Posted: at 7:45 pm

The higher education sector today has seen loads of changes. However, the watershed moment came a few years back with the introduction of online learning. Such is the paramount impact of the e-learning option that most people today are embracing at a rapid pace. The huge shift in the scenario has also led to access to quality education which otherwise was not possible. Although the online classroom seems like a new phase, below are a few reasons why the concept will see more growth in the future.

It Provides For A Customized Learning ApproachIrrespective of what people may say, online learning is the future of higher education. One of the prime benefits of this new approach towards learning is that it is flexible as per every students requirement. Online classes are smaller than the conventional teaching approaches which give more space to teacher and student interaction. Other than that study materials can be accessed at any time which not only improves learning but also offers a dynamic approach.

FlexibilityEver since the online learning approach has been introduced, flexibility is one benefit that has been discussed time and again. Not only this method is giving students to set their own learning space but is also helpful for those who live far away. Apart from this studying online also cultivates vital time management skills in a person which are a common requisite nowadays.

Easily AccessibleLet us be honest here! The introduction of an internet-based approach has pushed new boundaries for the students and as well as higher education. It is mostly because online learning enables you to access study matter from anywhere. This means there is no need to follow a rigid schedule or move from one place to another. The onset of online learning has been a great opportunity for students who want to pursue higher education. For example, if you are interested to study abroad and take up a new job then many online universities are providing courses for you.

Learn From A Wide Range of ProgramsInternet today is blessed with courses that not only help in your career path but also improve your overall skill set. This is possible due to a growing number of top-notch universities which are offering programs for all aspirants out there. From data science to quantum physics, every candidate can choose the niche accordingly and get ready to hone their skill. And the main takeaway is the e-learning option helps you to do this from the comfort of your home.

Cost-EffectiveOnline education is more cost-effective than conventional methods. Why? Well, there are ample reasons for it. E-learning platforms today are so well-versed that every student can avail of a wide range of payment options. Also, some platforms have discounts and scholarships which makes it pocket-friendly also. In other words, one can easily say that online platforms help in cost-cutting as there are blessed with better results with less investment.

Suits Every StudentThe learning graph of every individual is different. Some students grasp lessons quickly while others might take some more time to learn. Similarly, many candidates are visual learners while there are people who love to listen through audio. In such type of scenario, the online education system is a boon. The concept of e-learning is equipped with various options and resources which can be personalized according to the choice of the student. Candidates can easily learn the lessons while being in segue with their daily routine. Also, since online classes are taken from home, students will never want to miss any lessons intentionally.

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How Higher Education Is Turning A New Leaf Through An Online Approach - CEOWORLD magazine

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Jon Lehrer Dance Company To Present The World Premiere of THROUGH THE STORM, May 6 – Broadway World

Posted: at 7:45 pm

The CUNY Dance Initiative and the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College announce a performance by Jon Lehrer Dance Company featuring the world premiere of Through The Storm, a full company work set to an original score by composer Zeno Pittarelli.

The program will include additional works, including four New York City premieres. The performance will take place on Friday, May 6, 2022 at 7pm at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College, 524 W 59th St, New York, NY. Tickets are $35 and are available at http://www.jonlehrerdance.com.

Jon Lehrer Dance Company (JLDC)'s trademark artistic, athletic, and accessible style is known for striking the elusive balance between art and entertainment. Taking the energy and chaos of a storm as inspiration, Through The Storm represents the past two years of struggle, hardship, but most of all the creativity and perseverance artists held on to throughout the pandemic. Visually stunning, evocative, and physically impressive, Through The Storm will be performed both internationally and nationally as part of JLDC's 22/23 season following the premiere. The program also highlights the range of JLDC's repertory with four New York City premieres (full details below).

JLDC is freshly off a successful four-week European tour where the company "captivated the audience with its grandiose choreography and the ensemble's top dance performance without fail. Dynamism, elegance, acrobatics, power and an absolute passion for dance - these are the attributes that could be used to describe the performance." (Zollern-Alb Kurier - Balingen, Germany)

Program

"Through The Storm" (2022) - world premiere

A full company work set to an original score by Zeno Pittarelli.

"Sum of Us" (2021) - New York premiere

An upbeat showcase for the dancers as individuals and as a strong, cohesive group.

"Murmur" (2012) - New York premiere

A lyrically infused quartet based on the phenomenon of murmuration and quantum entanglement.

"Pulp" (2016) - New York premiere

Inspired by the silent films of Buster Keaton and Scooby-Doo cartoons, this zany romp highlights the company's theatrical comedic side.

"Hearth" (2010) - New York premiere

Performed by JLDC Apprentices, this work was inspired by the many strong, caring, and remarkable women in Jon Lehrer's life.

"Solstice"(2019)

A joyous, uplifting tribute to the first day of Summer, commissioned by Artpark in Lewiston, NY for their "Summer Solstice Celebration."

Jon Lehrer Dance Company (JLDC) began in 2007 in Buffalo, NY and has been based in NYC since 2019. Under Jon Lehrer's artistic direction, the company showcases his unique choreography and definitive style. Jon's extensive background in both the modern and jazz dance idioms fosters choreography that is organic, artistic, accessible and often humorous, reflecting life experience and the human condition. Dance Magazine praised "the company took the house not so much by storm as by quantum physics," and Galerie Ortenau in Offenburg, Germany declares, "Dynamic, Powerful, Elegant - brings an absolute passion for the dance." The company was brought to Russia from 2012-2016 sponsored by the US State Department in order to, as they said, "bring the best in American modern dance to the people of Russia." JLDC tours worldwide, to Europe every other year, and made their 4th trip in January 2022 for another world premiere performance.

JLDC's expressive technique and style is a combination of modern, jazz, and physics. It is based on three main elements of movement - Circularity, 3-Dimensionality, and Momentum, which combine to create a form that is best described as "Organically Athletic." Jon Lehrer Dance Company is dedicated to maintaining the impact of dance through performance, education, outreach, community involvement, and collaboration. The professional dancers of JLDC work collaboratively towards a common creative goal, while maintaining and developing their own artistic voice to bring edge-of-your-seat excitement to audiences. JLDC operates with integrity at all levels and respects and honors ideas from constituent groups including dancers, directors, and the public. Jon Lehrer Dance Company actively promotes and values equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism on an institutional and individual level. http://www.jonlehrerdance.com

Jon Lehrer (Founder & Artistic Director of JLDC), who was raised in Queens, New York, took his very first dance class on a dare at age 19 at the University at Buffalo. While dating a dancer, Jon teased her about how easy it must be to get an A in a dance class. The girl dared Jon to try a beginning level modern dance class and his life was changed. Jon ultimately received his BFA in Dance from the University at Buffalo.

As a professional, Jon danced with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Paul Sanasardo, John Passafiume Dancers, in Merv Griffin's "Funderful" in Atlantic City, NJ, and the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. In 1997, Jon was hired by Giordano Dance Chicago, the world's preeminent jazz dance company. After only three years he was promoted to Rehearsal Director and became the Associate Director two years later. During his ten years with Giordano, Jon also became the resident choreographer, creating seven original works on the company that received rave reviews around the world.

Jon has choreographed for several professional dance companies and universities all over the country. He teaches master classes throughout the U.S. and around the world, having been on faculty at Dance Masters of America, Jazz Dance World Congress, Dance Teacher Summer Conference, Chicago National Association of Dance Masters (CNADM), Chautauqua Institution, Florida Dance Educators Organization, and Florida Dance Masters to name a few. Jon has received many awards and honors, including the University at Buffalo Zodiaque Dance Company Distinguished Alumni Award, CNADM's Artistic Achievement Award, University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award, and the "Rising Star" SPARK Award for being an integral part of Buffalo's thriving arts and cultural community.

About Zeno Pittarelli

Composer/Musician Zeno Pittarelli is a musician, engineer, and artist living in New York City. Founder of Newlywed Records and produces, records, mixes + masters in his home studio and remotely. Some of his projects have been featured in major publications including Rolling Stone, NPR, and Stereogum. Pittarelli strives to make moving, exciting, and unique records.

JLDC's residency and performance at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater are part of the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), a transformative incubator that secures two vital yet scarce resources-rehearsal time and performance space-for New York City choreographers and dance companies across the five boroughs. Housed within the City University of New York (CUNY)-the nation's largest public urban university system-CDI is a residency program that supports local artists, enhances the cultural life and education of college students, and builds new dance audiences at CUNY performing arts centers.

CDI receives major support from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Howard Gilman Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Jerome Robbins Foundation, SHS Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. CDI is part of Dance/NYC's New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. CDI is spearheaded by The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. http://www.cuny.edu/danceinitiative

Additional funding for this residency and performance is provided by the John Jay College Student Activities Association, Inc.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York, an international leader in educating for justice, offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College approaches justice as an applied art and science in service to society and as an ongoing conversation about fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit http://www.jjay.cuny.edu.

Since opening its doors in 1988, the Gerald W. Lynch Theater has been an invaluable cultural resource. The Theater is a member of CUNY Stages, a consortium of 16 performing arts centers located on CUNY campuses across New York City and the CUNY Dance Initiative. The Theater is home to the Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival & White Light Festival, as well as the New Yorker Festival, Mannes Opera, the World Science Festival, and the revival of Mummunschanz. The Theater has hosted live and recorded events including David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Inside the Actor's Studio, Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts, Comedy Central Presents one-hour specials, the American Justice Summit, the NYC Mayoral Democratic Debates, and the launch of Jay-Z's REFORM initiative. The Theater welcomes premiere galas, conferences, international competitions, and graduations. For more information, and a schedule of events, please visit http://www.GeraldWLynchTheater.com.

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Jon Lehrer Dance Company To Present The World Premiere of THROUGH THE STORM, May 6 - Broadway World

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Opinion: The best predictor of bitcoin’s price is foretelling a bear market – The Globe and Mail

Posted: at 7:45 pm

Ethan Lous latest book is Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West.

In the cryptocurrency world, theres an event similar to a central bank rate adjustment in the mainstream economy: bitcoins halving.

Its far from the same as changing the benchmark interest rate, but it is also a high-level, wide-impact event that foretells which way the market winds will blow. And much like how central bank rate hikes and the talk of them have dampened the past years surging stocks, bitcoins halving trends are now also pointing to a bear market for cryptocurrency.

The halving is a reduction of the rate at which new bitcoins are introduced into the system. That process happens through so-called miners, who process transactions by solving mathematical puzzles through special computers. The miners are rewarded with bitcoins for their work. Every four years, that reward gets cut in half. The last halving was in 2020, when the reward for processing a block of transactions became 6.25 bitcoins.

Those reductions are significant for price because bitcoin does not have much of a circulating supply. The creator Satoshi Nakamotos more-than 1 million bitcoins, for example, have never moved. Many long-term investors do not sell. And examples abound of people losing their private keys, the equivalent of a password, rendering their coins forever lost.

Research published in the industrys Bitcoin Magazine shows that 76 per cent of the close to 19 million bitcoins currently in the system can be considered illiquid. The new bitcoins that miners introduce into the system are important in satisfying demand.

So, when one day, miners pump out only half as many new bitcoins as before, its a big blow to supply. It does take a while for the impact to trickle into the market, but past halvings have always been followed by sharp price rallies. By the end of 2020, bitcoin was up four times its price at the beginning of that year. Bitcoin prices usually lift the wider cryptocurrency market, too.

At the same time, though, rapid growth brings hype and absurdity the sort that eventually becomes sobering. A year or so after the halving, bitcoin usually reaches an unprecedented price. And there comes a point when people tire of it all and wonder, What am I doing with this $300,000 picture of an ape?

Brutal bust cycles have also always followed the cryptocurrency booms, with drops as much as 80 per cent until the next halving. Such has been the market cycles for the past 13 years bitcoin has been in existence.

Now, we are some two years after the last halving, which could be a cause for concern because this is usually around the time the bust starts.

Of course, like all market phenomena, this is the sort of quantum-physics situation in which having an observer affects the outcome. If everyone knows about this mechanism and thinks that bitcoins prices are affected by the halving, it will be baked in, and then prices will no longer be so affected by the halving. This time around, will we see history repeat?

It might be helpful to look further into history. There is this saying that past performance is no guarantee of future results, but for every such platitude theres an opposite: History doesnt repeat, but it often rhymes, those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it and so on.

The latest bitcoin price peak of nearly US$69,000 was a little more than triple of the last peak of US$20,000, in 2017. Yet that earlier peak was about 20 times of the peak before to it. And before the first halving that sent bitcoin to US$1,000, bitcoins peak was only US$20 that rally was 50-fold.

The numbers might seem bigger now, but in percentage terms, bitcoins price movement has become less volatile. That does validate the view that the impact of the halvings has been increasingly baked in.

Its much like the central bank rate hikes these days. Bankers have not so much been telegraphing them, but beating them in with a stick. That blunts the otherwise sharp shocks, but the downward pressure on stocks is still there.

The bottom line is that, for a decentralized cryptocurrency ecosystem designed with no single point of failure, the bitcoin halving is perhaps the only factor that can have such a big and across-the-board impact. Like a central bank rate adjustment, its a factor that every investor must take into account.

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Opinion: The best predictor of bitcoin's price is foretelling a bear market - The Globe and Mail

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Physics & Astronomy Colloquium – Dr. Amruta Jaodand | Physics and Astronomy | The University of Iowa – The University of Iowa

Posted: at 7:43 pm

Dr. Amruta Jaodand;Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy,California Institute of Technology

Transitional millisecond pulsars (tMSPs) switch between a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) and a radio millisecond pulsar (RMSP) state, establishing a firm evolutionary link between the two source classes. tMSPs provide a great avenue to study the low-level accretion processes that spin-up pulsars to millisecond periods. Systematic, multi-wavelength observational campaigns over the last decade have resulted in surprising finds such as: i) persistent, multi-year-long, low-level (Lx <10^34 ergs/s) accretion state with coherent pulsations; ii) extremely stable, bi-modal X-ray light curves; iii) radio outflows, and iv) uninterrupted pulsar spin down in the X-rays. In this unique state, we have now found the first known UV millisecond pulsar with a dedicated multi-wavelength campaign involving the Hubble space telescope. In my talk I will review observational understanding of tMSPs while highlighting key finds which reveal how these systems have altered our understanding of low level accretion and pulsed emission in neutron stars.

Biography:Dr. Amruta Jaodand is a postdoctoral reseacher in the NuSTAR group at Caltech's Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. Previously, she did her PhD at University of Amsterdam. She works on observational investigations of various neutron stars such as millisecond pulsars, magnetars, gravitational wave engines and X-ray binaries with a deeper expertise in transitional millisecond pulsars and multi-wavelength gravitational wave follow up. As a PI, she has won observational time and funding for ~30 proposals spanning observatories such as XMM, NuStar, Swift, Green Bank Telescope, ZTF and VLA etc. Another interest of hers is astroinformatics in the era of large scale datasets. To that effect she has worked for the past five years in bringing together EU and American astronomers through multiple conferences to probe machine learning and visualisation approaches.

22 MAR 2022: Physics and Astronomy Colloquium3:30pm, Online via ZoomZoom Link:https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/94392147007Meeting ID: 943 9214 7007, No passcode

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Beating the LED streetlights: IDAS light-pollution suppression LPS-D2 filter Astronomy Now – Astronomy Now Online

Posted: at 7:43 pm

An IDAS LPS-D2 filter suitable for two-inch push-fit telescope camera accessories with an M48 0.75 connection thread. The filter has male and female threads on either side, hence it is stackable with other filters and M48 adaptors. The LPS-D2 is also available in 52mm and Canon APS-C clip-filter formats. All images: Ade Ashford.At a glance

Type: light-pollution suppression filter for low-/high-pressure sodium vapour and LED lightsCoating technology: Ion-Gun Assisted Deposition (IGAD)Suitability: DSLR and astro camerasConnection thread: M48 0.75 (male and female on either side, hence stackable)Substrate thickness: 2.5mmDiameter of filter glass: 49mmPrice: 175 (M48 and 52mm); 185 (Canon APS-C clip filter)Manufacturer: ICAS Enterprises, JapanSupplier: rothervalleyoptics.co.uk

Light pollution is a regrettable fact of life for most of us. By night, the sky over our cities and towns even villages is increasingly awash with the glare of unnecessary or misdirected artificial light. This is not only a tremendous waste of energy, but it upsets nocturnal ecosystems and harms human health, disturbed sleep patterns and the disruption of natural circadian rhythms.

For almost three decades, Tokyo-based ICAS Enterprises IDAS Division has been responsible for manufacturing some of the worlds most respected interference filters for suppressing light pollution for astronomers. Their LPS-D1 filter made its debut in 1991 at a time when the main sources of artificial illumination in our towns and cities were low- and high-pressure sodium vapour and mercury vapour lamps. Fortunately for astronomers, both sodium (Na) and mercury (Hg) vapour lamps share a common characteristic: they typically emit light in specific and largely narrow wavelength bands of the spectrum so-called emission lines that can be removed by an interference filter.

The LPS-D1 was designed for one-shot CCD/CMOS colour cameras and DSLRs to eliminate the glow from low-pressure sodium and high-pressure mercury street lights, while substantially reducing the peak intensities of high-pressure sodium light emissions. Both the IDAS D1 and P2 filters pass the desirable spectral lines of hydrogen-beta, oxygen-III, hydrogen-alpha light from nebulae, plus diatomic carbon (C2, the so-called Swan bands) from comets. The LPS-P2 is virtually identical to the D1 except for a slightly greater red sensitivity encompassing sulphur-II emissions.

As many of us up and down the United Kingdom and around the world are now acutely aware, the nature of street lighting is rapidly changing. The mellow yellow glow of low-pressure sodium light is being replaced with the energy-efficient yet brilliant white glare of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). I never thought that I would lament the passing of sodium street lights, but at least their light was relatively easy to mitigate. White LEDs, on the other hand, emit what is largely a continuous spectrum across a swathe of wavelengths (or colours, if you prefer) which is far harder to filter out.

If you consult the accompanying graph that shows the spectral profile of a typical white LED in blue, you will see immediately that it emits its greatest intensity of light almost 98 per cent transmittance in a well-defined peak at a wavelength close to 463 nanometres (nm), which is 4.63 107 metres, or 0.000463mm. Thus, the peak emission of a typical white LED is actually in the violet end of the blue region of the visible spectrum, at wavelengths that research has shown disrupts human circadian rhythms by keeping our brains in an awake state.

After the initial peak intensity, the white LEDs transmittance rapidly drops to around nine per cent at a wavelength of about 486nm in the bluegreen part of the spectrum. Thereafter, the transmittance rises steeply to a secondary, broader peak intensity of 53 per cent at about 560nm in the yellow part of the visible spectrum before gradually tailing off to zero in the far-infrared. If we were to use a conventional IDAS LPS-D1 or P2 filter on a white LED, then its peak intensity and much of its broader secondary intensity would not be filtered out. Clearly, we need another type of interference filter.

I was able to obtain data for the LPS-D2 filter based on a laboratory analysis rather than just rely on the design specification. The accompanying graph is a plot of the filters transmission versus wavelength in yellow, superimposed with that of a typical white LED in cyan. Where the white LEDs light intrudes into the D2 filters transmission curve is shown in green. Furthermore, the graphic shows the emission spectra of desirable nebula light (vertical dashed green lines), plus residual sources of light pollution that we wish to remove or mitigate (vertical red dashed lines). At the top and bottom of the graphic we see a continuous spectrum showing the approximate colour that corresponds to a specific wavelength; V = violet, B = blue, G = green, and so on.

The IDAS LPS-D2 is clearly very effective at removing the initial and most intense transmission spike from a typical white LED centred around 463 nanometres. However, when we come to capturing the desirable emission spectra of nebulae and comets in the blue green part of the spectrum hydrogen-beta, oxygen-III and diatomic carbon the intrusion of the LEDs light rises from a transmission of nine per cent at the hydrogen-beta line to around 30 per cent at the Swan bands of diatomic carbon. Note that some high-pressure mercury light pollution at 436nm and 546nm will also be passed by the LPS-D2 filter. Similarly, the second transmission peak of the LPS-D2 encompasses some of the white LEDs secondary peak light at around 52 per cent transmittance, so your white balance will have some strong green dominance. Fortunately, low-pressure sodium light pollution is fully suppressed and by the hydrogen-alpha and sulphur-II emission lines the white LEDs transmission is down to just 18 and 13 per cent, respectively.

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Beating the LED streetlights: IDAS light-pollution suppression LPS-D2 filter Astronomy Now - Astronomy Now Online

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Mysterious Signal Coming From Our Galaxy Could Be One of The Rarest Known Objects – ScienceAlert

Posted: at 7:43 pm

A mysterious, repeating radio signal in the Milky Way that baffled astronomers could be an object so rare, only one other has ever been tentatively identified.

According to a paper by astrophysicist Jonathan Katz of Washington University at St. Louis, uploaded to preprint server arXiv, and yet to be peer-reviewed, the signal named GLEAM-X J162759.5523504.3 could be a white dwarf radio pulsar.

"Since the early days of pulsar astronomy there has been speculation that a rotating magnetic white dwarf might show pulsar-like activity," Katz wrote in his paper.

"The recently discovered periodic radio transient GLEAM-X J162759.5523504.3 is a candidate for the first true white dwarf pulsar. It has a period of 18.18 minutes (1091 s) and its pulses show low frequency (72215 MHz) emission with a brightness temperature 1016 K implying coherent emission. It has no binary companion with which to interact. It thus meets the criteria of a classical pulsar, although its period is hundreds of times longer than any of theirs."

When a star dies, there are a range of outcomes, once it has ejected its outer material and core, no longer supported by the outward pressure of fusion, it collapses under its own gravity.

If the precursor star is over around 30 times the mass of the Sun, the core collapses into a black hole.

A precursor star between eight and 30 times the mass of the Sun results in a neutron star, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) across and up to around 1.4 times the mass of the Sun.

The core of a precursor star less than eight times the mass of the Sun will collapse into a white dwarf, packing mass up to 1.5 times that of the Sun into a ball between the sizes of Earth and the Moon.

Pulsars are a subset of neutron stars. They're neutron stars that rotate insanely fast, and angled in such a way that beams of bright radio waves shooting from the magnetic poles sweep past Earth on every rotation on the scale of seconds down to milliseconds. (Here's what that sounds like transcribed into audio.)

Scientists have wondered if similar behavior might be observed in white dwarf stars, and in 2016, they seem to have come close,with a star called AR Scorpii. Locked in a binary system with a red dwarf star, AR Scorpii flashes on a timescale of minutes.

However, as Katz notes, its binary orbit is closer than those of neutron star pulsars in binary systems, and the periodic signal lacks coherence. This means that the physical processes that produces the signal might be very different from traditional radio pulsars.

This brings us back to GLEAM-X J162759.5523504.3, located roughly 4,000 light-years away from Earth. From January to March of 2018, data collected by the Murchison Widefield Array in the Australian desert showed it pulsing brightly for roughly 30 to 60 seconds, every 18.18 minutes one of the most luminous objects in the low-frequency radio sky.

It matched the profile of no known astronomical object, but the research team that discovered it thought it might be a hypothetical object known as an ultra-long-period magnetar. That's a neutron star with an extraordinarily powerful magnetic field, but the explanation still didn't quite fit.

"Nobody expected to directly detect one like this because we didn't expect them to be so bright," astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker of the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia explained at the time. "Somehow it's converting magnetic energy to radio waves much more effectively than anything we've seen before."

A pulsar was considered as a possibility, but there are two major problems: the first is that long rotation period, and the second is that the pulses were too bright for a neutron star pulsar. Both these problems, Katz lays out, are resolved if the object is a white dwarf.

If this is the case, it would be the first white dwarf discovered that shares the physics and radiation mechanism of traditional radio pulsars. This means that GLEAM-X J162759.5523504.3 could be a promising target for optical observations; although white dwarfs are very dim, and we might not be able to pick up any visible light at its distance. Nevertheless, given the possibility, it's worth a shot.

And astronomers could also examine other white dwarfs, to see if they match any of the properties of GLEAM-X J162759.5523504.3.

"If it were bright enough, optical observations could also determine its magnetic field, spectroscopically or polarimetrically," Katz explained.

"The fast-rotating, strongly magnetized, white dwarves would be promising targets for low frequency radio observations to determine if any of them are white dwarf pulsars."

The paper has been uploaded to preprint server arXiv.

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Mysterious Signal Coming From Our Galaxy Could Be One of The Rarest Known Objects - ScienceAlert

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Ramadan 2022 set to begin on April 2, UAE astronomy society says – The National

Posted: at 7:43 pm

The Emirates Astronomical Society said on Friday that Ramadan is set to begin on April 2.

Eid Al Fitr and the first of Shawwal will be on May 2.

Ibrahim Al Jarwan, chairman of the board of directors of the society, said that the holy month is expected to last 30 days, according to state news agency Wam.

Residents of Khorfakkan will be the first to start fasting due to the city's location. Abu Dhabi residents will begin eight minutes later.

At the start of Ramadan, the dawn call to prayer in Khorfakkan will be at 4:48am. In the capital it is 4:56am, and in Sila and Ghuwaifat it is 5:08am.

Mr Al Jarwan said each day will call for around 13 hours and 46 minutes of fasting.

The precise start of Ramadan will be confirmed closer to the time through the moon-sighting committee.

First day of Ramadan at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. A canon is fired to mark the beginning of iftar. Victor Besa/The National

Updated: March 18, 2022, 12:27 PM

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Ramadan 2022 set to begin on April 2, UAE astronomy society says - The National

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Science in the Southern Hemisphere: SOFIA Deploys to Chile – PR Newswire

Posted: at 7:43 pm

COLUMBIA, Md., March 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, landed at the Santiago International Airport on March 18, 2022. Like other deployments to the Southern Hemisphere, SOFIA is a partnership between NASA and German Aerospace Agency (DLR) and temporarily changing its base of operations from Palmdale, California, to Santiago, Chile, to observe celestial objects that can only be seen from Southern Hemisphere latitudes.

This is SOFIA's first visit to South America, and its first short-term deployment that will last two weeks. The team will operate from the Santiago International Airport to accomplish eight science flights. SOFIA will primarily observe the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds during the deployment, which are two close neighboring galaxies to our Milky Way. Both are gravitationally bound to each other and are passing by our galaxy for the first time in a hyperbolic orbit.

"Scientific collaboration, particularly in astronomy, has been a cornerstone of the U.S.-Chile relationship dating back to the establishment of the Observatorio de Cerro Santa Lucia in Santiago more than 170 years ago," said Richard Glenn, the U.S. Embassy Chile Charg d'Affaires. "NASA's SOFIA deployment to Chile is the next exciting milestone in that relationship, bringing us closer to the stars than ever before."

This is called a short deployment because of the shorter stay in Chile compared to SOFIA's long deployments, where more than 25 flights are typically planned using multiple instruments. The SOFIA team is taking a single instrument for this deployment, the Far Infrared Field Imaging Line Spectrometer, or FIFI-LS, and will observe several critical Southern Hemisphere celestial targets.

"We are thrilled to deploy to Chile so we can provide more access to the Southern Hemisphere skies for our scientific community," said Naseem Rangwala, SOFIA's project scientist. "We are increasing our deployment tempo with a focus on efficiency and prioritized targets, and we are grateful for the opportunity to do that from Santiago."

Since the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC, is so close to our galaxy, SOFIA can observe it in great detail, on relatively small astronomical scales,to help scientists better understand how stars formed in the early universe. Having the context of the physical areas in which stars form is why these LMC observations are so powerful. Scientists cannot see detailed physical structures in distant, ancient galaxies, so, instead, galaxies like the LMC are observed as local stand-ins. The planned observations are to create the first SOFIA map of ionized carbon in the LMC. These observations pair well with NASA's upcoming Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory, or GUSTO a high altitude balloon-based mission, and they extend the legacy of the Herschel Space Observatory.

In addition to the observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud, SOFIA will observe supernova remnants to investigate how certain types of supernovas might have contributed to the abundance of dust in the early universe. SOFIA will also attempt its first observation to measure the primordial abundance of lithium by looking into the halo of our galaxy where clouds of neutral hydrogen can be found. These clouds have been relatively undisturbed and thus directly probe the properties of pristine gas that existed in the early universe. A successful observation of lithium could have implications for our understanding of fundamental physics and the early universe because there is a significant discrepancy in lithium abundance between the big-bang theory of the evolution of the universe and the observed abundance from astronomical measurements. These observations obtained by SOFIA during this Southern Hemisphere are in line with some of the scientific questions and priorities identified in recently published Astro2020 Decadal Survey.

About SOFIA

SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR. DLR provides the telescope, scheduled aircraft maintenance, and other support for the mission. NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley manages the SOFIA program, science, and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft is maintained and operated by NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703, in Palmdale, California.

About USRA

Foundedin 1969, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. Government, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advance space-related science, technology and engineering. USRA operates scientific institutes and facilities, and conducts other major research and educational programs. USRA engages the university community and employs in-house scientific leadership, innovative research and development, and project management expertise.More information about USRA is available at http://www.usra.edu.

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SOURCE Universities Space Research Association

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What are the rules of polygamy? | HowStuffWorks

Posted: at 7:42 pm

By various estimates and definitions, there are anywhere from five to more than a dozen different sects within the Fundamentalist Mormon community, each with its own Prophet and living space. At one point, they were all one group of Mormons excommunicated for maintaining a polygamous lifestyle, and many of the break-off sects are still connected financially in one way or another, sometimes via land rights or corporations.

Fundamentalist Mormons are spread out around the American West and in parts of Mexico and Canada. Their numbers are hard to pin down due to the secretive nature of their polygamist lifestyles, but most estimates are between 30,000 and 50,000.

The largest of these sects is the FLDS, or Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (primarily in Arizona and Utah). With about 10,000 members, it comprises perhaps 25 percent of Fundamentalist Mormons. The next largest is the AUB, or Apostolic United Brethren, also known as the Allred Group (primarily in Utah). Its numbers are in the area of 7,500.

Other, smaller sects have anywhere from a hundred to about 1,500 members. They include the Centennial Park Group (Arizona), the Davis County Cooperative Society (Utah), the Church of the Firstborn (Mexico), the Bountiful Groups (Canada), the Confederate Nations of Israel (Utah), the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (Utah), and the Missouri Community (Mormons settled in Missouri after Joseph Smith revealed the Second Coming would take place there).

While it's true that some of the wives in polygamous marriages receive government support (only the first wife is legally married -- the others are single mothers), Fundamental Mormons also run farms and have construction companies. They work on construction projects -- legitimate ones -- all over the West and Mexico, and, with a few exceptions, interact with those outside their sects. In most cases, the people they work with outside their communities simply look the other way on the polygamy issue. It's illegal, but in many areas, particularly in Utah, outsiders practice a certain degree of lenience toward the religiously sanctioned plural marriages.

Polygamy, while invariably illegal throughout North America, is still a form of marriage. As such, there are guidelines regarding the way Fundamentalist Mormons form their commitments and carry them out. Perhaps the most basic one is this: Only a specific form of polygamy is sanctioned.

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