Monthly Archives: March 2022

MSU St. Andrews's next virtual Family Astronomy Night is set for 7-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The topic of this event will be "Constellations: The History of Our Skies."

Time allowed for live Q & A throughout the event. ASL Interpretation featured during the event.

Presenters will talk about what it takes to make a constellation, how the most ancient constellations were chosen and named, where and by whom constellations were developed, when most of the sky was locked-in," and why modern astronomers have changed the definition of what a constellation is.

They will also focus on the mission of the recently-launched DART spacecraft in a monthly technology update. And, as always, presenters will show gusts how to find many fun things in the sky this month.

Have you noticed that one part of the winter sky features more of the brightest stars than any other season? Do you know how to use Orion or the Big Dipper as pointer systems to locate many other stars and constellations? Can you find the greatest of the ancient constellations as it briefly peeps above the horizon this month? Were you aware that all five naked-eye planets are hiding in the morning sky?

MSU St. Andrews staff will help guests see all of these things.

Michigan State University is committed to providing equal opportunity for participation in all programs, services, and activities. Accommodation for persons with disabilities may be requested by contacting 989-374-9904.

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Family Astronomy Night to focus on constellations Wednesday - Manistee News Advocate

Longtime amateur astronomer Jaskarn Singh Sid Sidhu now shares his name with an asteroid, after his nomination by fellow astronomers was approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Sidhu, who has his own telescope set up at his Greater Victoria area home, has been a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Victoria centre since 1985 and currently runs its school and telescope loaner programs.

Despite his prolonged involvement, news that the IAU had approved attaching his name to a previously numbered celestial body came as a surprise. Sidhu was sitting in his mini-observatory at home when Victoria branch president Randy Enkin emailed him word of the decision.

I said, Hes pulling my legs. Theres no way. I didnt believe him, Sidhu told Black Press Media.

Astronomical societies across the globe were asked to nominate worthy candidates by the IAU.

Asteroid 10109, now named Sidhu, orbits the Sun outside the orbit of Mars and was discovered in 1992 by astronomers at the Mount Palomar Observatory in California.

In ideal conditions, the asteroid is 12 magnitude and is visible with the aid of a telescope. Currently, the magnitude is closer to 17 magnitude less visible in the night sky and beyond the capabilities of Sidhus home telescopes.

Im trying to convince my wife to let me buy a bigger telescope.

Sidhu became interested in astronomy in 1983 after a friend showed him their telescope during a summer camping trip at Parksvilles Rathtrevor Provincial Park. Since then hes been an active member in the Victoria society, especially its outreach and education programs. His outreach work during the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 saw him awarded the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Presidents Award.

He was nominated for the IAU small bodies nomenclature in 2018 by then-president Chris Purse, according to the RASC Victoria branchs Astronomy Cafe.

He helps fix up donated telescopes and gifts them to aspiring astronomers and is a big part of the societys school program prior to the COVID-19 pandemic he would visit 70 classes per year, Enkin said. The society has been doing some lessons virtually, including a weekly lecture for society members, but Sidhu is crossing his fingers hell be able to visit classes again in September.

The main idea was that if we could take one student, one child off the street, the whole process was worth it, he said.

The Victoria branch of the society, running since 1914, is always looking for new members, from experts to those with zero knowledge, Sidhu said.

Itll make you forget your problem with your wife and the husband and neighbours, etc. Its like a meditation For older people, I say, its a great hobby. For younger people, its a great opportunity for the future of their life.

ALSO READ: Lets start counting those blooms: Greater Victoria Flower Count launches this week

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Humble BC amateur astronomer now officially out of this world Terrace Standard - Terrace Standard

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"I'm driven by challenges, and I think I was born to do this.

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Theyre few, but mighty: women represent about 15 per cent of scientists in Canadian astronomy and related physics fields, but their contributions make them a powerful force. Here are three who are winning awards and mentoring the next generation.

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In January, Kathryn McWilliams, PhD, became the first Canadian to receive an honorary fellowship in geophysics from the U.K.-based Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).

I wasnt expecting it at all; it was very surprising and humbling, says McWilliams, a professor of physics and engineering physics at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

The RAS represents scientists in disciplines including astronomy, geophysics and space science. Its coveted fellowships recognize scientists outside the U.K. who have made significant contributions in their fields.

What I do is commonly called space science the science of the space between the Earth and the sun. Were trying to understand Earths space environment, so its kind of a study of weather and how conditions in space created by the suns activity affect us, explains McWilliams.

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McWilliams directs SuperDARN Canada, part of an international effort that uses radar to learn more about the Earths upper atmosphere. As a summer student in 1992, McWilliams helped build the first radar site, and today, she chairs the International SuperDARN Collaboration, which involves researchers from 10 countries.

It works like a police speed radar trap: we send out a signal into the atmosphere up about 250 kilometers, just below the space station. The moving electrically-charged particles up there modify our signal, and we get an echo back. Then, we can look at how the signal changes to determine how fast those particles are moving.

Our laboratory is practically the size of the solar system, and we work with people all over the world, because no one group could have enough funding or enough money to have all the instruments needed to answer these questions. I love that its a collaborative type of research field.

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Throughout her studies and career, McWilliams was often the only woman in the room, but that never deterred her.

It can be frustrating, but I just kept pushing ahead and taking advantage of opportunities, she says.

Along the way, Ive had good allies. Things have been improving; someone starting a PhD now would have a different experience than I had decades ago. In order to move ahead, you have to prioritize and make your path.

In 2017, Quebec-born Laurie Rousseau-Nepton became the first Indigenous woman in Canada to earn a PhD in astrophysics. After graduating from Universit de Laval, she became the resident astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. Rousseau-Nepton is also the principal investigator for SIGNALS, a large-scale observation program using the cutting-edge telescope to investigate more than 50,000 star-forming regions around the Milky Way.

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The project, which includes an interdisciplinary team of about 70 experts, covers many fields of extragalactic astrophysics, says Rousseau-Nepton, who got involved as a summer student helping to build a camera for the project.

I came here for the first flight when the instrument was installed on the telescope, which was exciting, she says.

Stars form everywhere in galaxies, in the Milky Way and in many neighbouring environments, explains Rousseau-Nepton. Depending on how and where theyre formed, they evolve differently.

In astronomy, we do surveys to try to tackle questions that we dont have answers for yet. Star formation is such an important phenomenon because it drives the evolution of the whole universe, she explains.

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Before, we didnt have the tools to study star-forming regions around the Milky Way deeply. Now, we can see in great detail whats going on, and by studying thousands of them in different environments and areas were trying to figure out how they change and what they will become.

When it wraps this summer, SIGNALS will create the largest database of its kind. Rousseau-Nepton enjoyed collaborating with several female interns during this project.

By mentoring them, Im making sure they gain the best knowledge and tools. I was the only woman student in my group for a while, so I know how it can feel, and I share my experiences with them, she says.

I love my job. I wake up every day thinking, My job is to look into the universe and try to figure things out; isnt that the best? Im driven by challenges, and I think I was born to do this.

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As a child, Brenda Matthews loved science and looking at the night sky, but she didnt plan on merging the two as a career until her final undergraduate year at McMaster University, when she met Christine Wilson, a female astronomer who had just joined the physics department.

Christine was such a source of inspiration to me that I decided to pursue graduate studies in astronomy at the University of Calgary, says Matthews, who returned to McMaster to do her PhD with Wilson.

Having a female supervisor helped me get to the end of my doctorate and decide to continue, because thats one of the stages where women leave.

Today, Matthews is an astronomer at the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, B.C. part of the National Research Council of Canada.

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Matthews researches planetary systems beyond the solar system, studying debris discs the equivalent of our comet and asteroid belts around other stars to see where planets might be located.

To detect planets that are further away, we can take an image of the system to detect that planet, but were limited in the mass of the planet we can detect, she explains.

So, if you want to detect Neptune or Saturn at their positions around other stars, you can place constraints on planets like that by studying their debris discs. We detect them with optical telescopes or near-infrared telescopes, or through emission: Because all the little comets and asteroids can undergo collisions and generate fine solids, we can detect those in the infrared and at longer wavelengths.

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Matthews says astronomy differs from other sciences because its so accessible and visually engaging. Many of us can appreciate seeing the night sky or stunning images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Its important to her to mentor other women pursuing this field.

Its a great job, and if you have a passion for it, you should be able to pursue it, says Matthews, adding that her organization recently formed an equity, diversity and inclusion committee to boost the number of underrepresented groups in the field.

I try to do my part in looking for talent and encouraging them along the way, because that very much benefited me.

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Among the stars: Meet the Canadian women making an impact in astronomy and physics - Vancouver Sun

On 7 March, NASA and the European Space Agency marked the 20th anniversary of the Advanced Camera for Surveys, or ACS, aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. With a wavelength range extending from the ultraviolet through the visible and into the near-infrared regions of the spectrum, the ACS has provided many of Hubbles most spectacular images, revealing uncounted galactic splendours and details, glimpses of the earliest galaxies and providing insights about the inner workings of stars, clusters, nebulae and other deep space denizens.

To mark the anniversary, NASA and ESA showed off prime examples of the cameras work over the years:

There was a sense that ACS would substantially change the way astronomy from space could be done, said Marco Chiaberge, an ESA/AURA astronomer and calibration lead for the ACS instrument. The surveys performed with the ACS led to groundbreaking work for fields such as galaxy evolution, large scale structures, searches for massive exoplanets and more. The impact on the public was also immense because of its unprecedented images.

Added Dan Coe, an ESA/AURA astronomer who was part of the ACS team: Two decades into its mission, the ACS continues to deliver ground-breaking science and some of the most incredible images of the distant Universe, and everything in between. Looking back through the archive of ACS images reminds us of the vast diversity of galaxies, colours and stories that have been shared with the world.

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Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys marks 20th year in space Astronomy Now - Astronomy Now Online

In 2020 a team of astronomers reported locating the closest black hole system at 1,000 light-years from Earth, but fellow researchers contested the results of the study and teamed up to produce a new study together.

The international team of astronomy researchers has published a new paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics that details the HR 6818 system with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. According to the paper, the HR 6818 system isn't a triple system that consists of one star orbiting a black hole every 40 days and a second star orbiting much wider as it was originally thought. It is actually a system that features two stars orbiting each other with no black hole.

The team used two of the VLT's instruments called GRAVITY and the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), and with the results, were able to conclude that HR 6819 is a binary system that features two stars and no black hole. The reasoning for the miscategorization is that astronomers originally observed the system when one of the stars was ripping the atmosphere off of its companion star, which is described as being much like a vampire drawing blood from its victim.

"We agreed that there were two sources of light in the system, so the question was whether they orbit each other closely, as in the stripped-star scenario, or are far apart from each other, as in the black hole scenario," said team lead Thomas Rivinius, a Chile-based ESO astronomer and co-author of a new paper.

The results "confirmed that there was no bright companion in a wider orbit," and "was able to resolve two bright sources separated by only one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. These data proved to be the final piece of the puzzle, and allowed us to conclude that HR 6819 is a binary system with no black hole," said Abigail Frost, KU Leuven researcher and lead author of the study.

"Our best interpretation so far is that we caught this binary system in a moment shortly after one of the stars had sucked the atmosphere off its companion star," said Julia Bodensteiner, KU Leuven researcher and coauthor, in the statement.

"Catching such a post-interaction phase is extremely difficult as it is so short" and that HR 6819 "presents a perfect candidate to study how this vampirism affects the evolution of massive stars," added Frost.

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Astronomers capture 'vampire' star sucking the life out of a victim - TweakTown

The LAMP mission, short for Loss through Auroral Microburst Pulsations, launched at 2:27 a.m. Alaska Standard time (6:27 a.m. EST) Saturday, Mar. 5, 2022, on a Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket.The rocket launched to a nominal apogee and the principal investigator confirmed that good data was received from the experiment.

The mission team includes Allison Jaynes,assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and LAMP co-investigator and graduate student Riley Troyer.

The mission hopes to understand an often overlooked kind of aurora, called a pulsating aurora, and to test a theory on what causes them.

The LAMP mission is an international collaboration with contributions from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Dartmouth College, University of New Hampshire, and University of Iowa, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Tohoku University, Nagoya University, and Kyutech in Japan.

For more information, see these stories and the LAMP web page:

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NASA Sounding Rocket Launches into Aurora | Physics and Astronomy - The University of Iowa - The University of Iowa

ProfessorCraig Kletzingwas one of three distinguished University of Iowa faculty members who gave presentations at the39th Presidential Lecture on Feb. 27.

The lecture event, titled The University of Iowa at 175: Proud Legacy, Promising Future, was held at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, at Hancher Auditorium and concluded a multi-day celebration of the UIs 175thanniversary.

In his presentation, "Space Science at the University of Iowa," Kletzing talked about space physics at Iowa, starting with a history of space physics in the department and how it got started. He then discussed past and current space physics projects and concluded with what the department has planned for the future, recognizing some young faculty who will carry this work forward in thefuture. Greg Howes, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy introduced Kletzig.

See Kletzing's presentation starting at 7:10 on YouTube:

Speakers at the Presidential Lecture also includedPatricia Winokur, executive dean, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research, and professor of internal medicine in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, andChristopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program. UI President Barbara Wilson led a discussion with the speakers following their presentations.

Kletzing holds the Donald A. and Marie B. Gurnett Chair in physics and astronomy. He joined the UI faculty in 1996 and his research interests lie in experimental space plasma physics, particularly measuring electric and magnetic wave fields in Earths Van Allen radiation belts. He is the principal investigator for theTandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites(TRACERS) anda $115 million contract award from NASA, announced in June 2019, that is the largest single award in UIhistory.

He has been principal and co-investigator on several sounding rockets and is also the principal investigator of a laboratory plasma experiment collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles, to uncover more about how the auroras transfer energy. Kletzing has served on the National Research Councils Committee on Space and Solar Physics; NASAs Sounding Rocket Working Group; the Geospace Electrodynamic Connections Science and Technology Definition Team; and NASAs 2005 Sun-Solar System Connection Roadmap Committee. He has authored or co-authored more than 290 peer-reviewedpublications.

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Kletzing Speaks at 39th Annual Presidential Lecture | Physics and Astronomy - The University of Iowa - The University of Iowa