Category Archives: Astronomy

Joshua Doucette found his academic and career paths through research, joining faculty-led teams in space physics and particle physics during his undergraduate years at Iowa. These rewarding experiences have launched his next phase: the pursuit of a doctorate in physics.

Story: Richard C. Lewis

Photography:Justin Torner

A simple request from Joshua Doucette opened his academic and careerpaths.

The fall of his first year at the University of Iowa, Doucette decided he wanted to do research in physics and astronomy. He emailed as many faculty members as he could find in the department who were looking for undergraduate help in theirlabs.

At the same time, Doucette was taking an introductory physics class taught byAllison Jaynes, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Still looking for a research home, Doucette decided to ask Jaynes in person afterclass.

I knew who she was, and shes approachable, hesays.

One in-person meeting later, Doucette was hired. He joined Jayness research group that November and has been with her ever since. Doucette, a senior from Charles City, Iowa, who will graduate in May with a physics degree, has learned new programming languages, contributed to discoveries in space and particle physics, and won a summer research stint at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. He will further his studies as he pursues a doctorate in physics at the University ofWisconsinMadison.

Doucette describes his involvement in research as rewarding in both short and longterms.

The research roles reward you in different ways, Doucette says. You may have a challenging programming problem, and you might need to spend a few hours to get that to work, and then its immediately rewarding to see you have built this application that furthers the research. Then, theres the long-term reward, which is, OK, now Ive built several programs, I can make all these graphs, Im putting in all this data gathered by the spacecraft and actually doing the analysis that leads to discoveries published in peer-reviewedjournals.

As an undergraduate, Doucette has won substantial funding for research-oriented awards and scholarships. Hes earned money from myriad entities, including the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates (ICRU), the U.S. ATLAS SUPER Program, the NASA Iowa Space Grant Consortium, and the UI Department of Physics andAstronomy.

His tip? Find the opportunity, andpounce.

First, youve got to apply. Thats the biggest thing, Doucette says, adding he made sure a faculty member reviewed his applications before he submittedthem.

The awards supported Doucettes varied researchadventures.

His first opportunities came with Jaynes, whose group was examining the Van Allen radiation belts, intense bubbles of energy surrounding Earth named for famed Iowa physicist James VanAllen.

Josh wrote original computer programs to determine the amount of high-energy electrons in the radiation belts, and how those levels change over time, using data from the Van Allen Probes spacecraft mission, says Jaynes, a co-investigator on the NASA-led mission. He also created a program that analyzes a proxy value of a type of magnetospheric wave, so we can estimate how many particles are being lost to the atmosphere from the radiationbelts.

Doucettes contributions earnedpraise.

Im amazed by Joshs abilities and enthusiasm, Jaynes says of the first-generation college student. Hes one of the strongest undergraduate students Ive everencountered.

In spring 2020, as a sophomore, Doucette joined the research group led byUsha Mallik, a particle physicist and professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The next summer, he was selected to join scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island who were involved in investigating upgrades to ATLAS, one of two main detectors operating at the Large Hadron Collider, the particle accelerator that has yielded a host of revelations about the fundamental laws of physics and theuniverse.

I was involved in preparing for the upgrade. We need to have construction, and we need to have testing, Doucette says. And this needs to be done by technicians, not scientists, who chiefly will analyze data. So, people like me need to make software that is easy enough for the technicians to get their jobs done and to operate as automatically as possible.

Doucette chose Iowa after taking classes at North Iowa Area Community College. He says he was influenced partly by an outreach coordinator from the university who visited his highschool.

I told him I wanted to study physics, and he told me Iowa has a world-class, internationally recognized program in physics, Doucette recalls. In hindsight, I say thats the best choice I could havemade.

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Research Ambitions Yield Big Rewards | Physics and Astronomy - The University of Iowa - The University of Iowa

Blood moons? Old news. Lunar eclipses? To some observers, frankly un-spectacular. Aurora borealis? Good luck spotting that. If you're in the market for a celestial phenomenon that really makes its presence known in New York City, there's one word you should have on the tip of your tongue: Manhattanhenge.

Also known as the Manhattan Solstice, Manhattanhenge occurs when the sun comes into perfect alignment with parts of the city's street grid for a few blissful summer evenings. It happens every year around late May and mid-July, twice with a full sun and twice with a half sun, weather permitting. ("Full sun" and "half sun" refer to how much of the solar disk is visible above the horizon.)

"It's perfectly framed by the concrete jungle of New York City I like to call it 'astronomy in your face,'" said Dr. Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) who has become the museum's henge-whisperer. "Manhattanhenge is the event of the summer for the celebration of astronomy."

It's an ideal NYC activity, whether you're interested in grabbing a sunset selfie with Helios' avatar behind you, or you just want to soak in the scene as locals and tourists thrust their iPhones toward the sky and jockey for position in the middle of 42nd Street as if they were extras from World War Z.

According to Faherty, it's beloved because it's an epic sunset happening at a time of year when New Yorkers are already flocking outdoors and looking for any reason to stay outside. It's also, as with everything related to sunsets, romantic, and provides a unique photo opportunity for our social media age. (Cityhenges also happen in other urban areas on a grid, including Chicago, Toronto and Montreal.)

"It is a fantastic picture with the sun lighting up the canyons of New York City, and those beautiful golden light hues of red and yellow and orange," Faherty said. "And so it becomes a special bonding moment for New Yorkers and visitors to the city."

You can find this year's dates, which were announced by MTA Away, below:

While the observable phenomenon goes back as long as Manhattan has had a grid, the actual term Manhattanhenge was first coined in the late 1990s by Neil deGrasse Tyson when he was working as an astrophysicist at the Hayden Planetarium at AMNH.

"He started to promote it as director of the planetarium, and as an homage to Stonehenge, which is probably the most famous henge or dedicated structure to a solar position," explained Faherty, AMNH's senior scientist in the Department of Astrophysics. "He decided that Manhattan gets to have its own henge."

Faherty started working at the museum around 2002, and despite Tyson spreading the info about Manhattanhenge on his "Starstruck" email list, it took several years to take off. "We'd get the emails from the director, and I was always like, 'Oh, yay!'" Faherty said. "And I would invite my friends, we would go outside and look for it, and no one was out there. This was not a popular phenomenon yet it had not spread."

She took it upon herself to start doing public programs on it at AMNH to bring more attention to the phenomenon. And as Tyson's fame grew, more and more people "started to pick up on it that way. Now it is what it is. It went viral. As an astronomical phenomenon might, this one went viral."

Around a decade ago, Tyson passed the Manhattanhenge baton to Faherty, who now calculates its dates and times each year. It's become one of her favorite parts of the job because of how much joy it brings to the city.

"You get people that are so friendly with each other all of a sudden," she said. "New Yorkers aren't known for talking to each other on the street, but this is a very curious city. So you could be out on a Manhattanhenge sunset moment, and cars are stopping and people are in the middle of the street, and everybody's just like, 'What's going on?' And you unify over that and chat, and that is beautiful and fun. You can learn something...and you can have a good conversation."

Faherty says there are tons of places in the city to watch the phenomenon, from 14th Street up to Washington Heights. She notes that despite the borough's symmetry, you should be mindful of things that break the grid and could get in the way of your view, like hills, buildings or Central Park. You may want to find the widest street possible to really get the full effect, but any street that has buildings you love will suffice.

Her top spots to view it include 145th Street (close to Broadway), 72nd Street, and 42nd Street, which remains the most popular spot for a reason. On 42nd Street, she particularly recommends either going to the Tudor City overpass or heading to Pershing Square by Grand Central the latter of which technically isn't legal because people end up blocking the taxis, but is a "super fun" spot always filled with professional photographers. She adds that Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City gets pretty great views as well.

And even if it's raining or overcast on the Manhattanhenge days, that doesn't mean you're out of luck. There'll be tons of gorgeous sunsets to witness between May 29th and July 12th because of what she has termed the "Manhattanhenge effect."

"The effect days can be just as gorgeous," she said. "Because what's happening between those two days is that the sun is still crossing your grid, it's really low in the sky. So you're in the golden hour, you're in that same moment where the beautiful sun rays are close to the horizon, and they're lighting up the canyons in yellows and oranges."

Because I am only human and not above the occasional attempt at capturing mother nature's je ne sais quoi on my phone, here are some tips on how to best photograph a sunset with your iPhone. And if you've never caught Manhattanhenge before, Gabe Elder made the video below showing the crowds of camera-emboldened onlookers in all their awkward glory at the Tudor City overpass in 2018.

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NYC's astronomical event of the summer: Here are the 2022 Manhattanhenge dates - Gothamist

This illustration is an artists impression of the thin, rocky debris disc discovered around the two Hyades white dwarfs. Rocky asteroids are thought to have been perturbed by planets within the system and diverted inwards towards the star, where they broke up, circled into a debris ring, and were then dragged onto the star itself. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, and G. Bacon (STScI)

White dwarfs were once normal stars similar to the Sun but then collapsed after exhausting all their fuel. Historically, these interstellar remnants have been difficult to study. A recent study from astronomers at Swedens Lund University, however, reveals new information about the movement patterns of these perplexing stars.

White dwarfs have a radius of about 1 percent that of the Suns. They have roughly the same mass, which means they have an astonishing density of about 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds) per cubic centimeter. After billions of years, white dwarfs will cool down to a point where they no longer emit visible light, and transform into so-called black dwarfs.

40 Eridani A was the first white dwarf discovered. It is a bright celestial body 16.2 light-years away from Earth, surrounded by a binary system consisting of the white dwarf 40 Eridani B and the red dwarf 40 Eridani C. Ever since it was discovered in 1783, astronomers have tried to learn more about white dwarfs in order to gain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary history of our home galaxy.

In a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a research team can present new findings of how the collapsed stars move.

Illustration of Gaia with the Milky Way in the background. Gaia is an ambitious mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, in the process revealing the composition, formation and evolution of the Galaxy. Credit: ESAD. Ducros, 2013

Thanks to observations from the Gaia space telescope, we have for the first time managed to reveal the three-dimensional velocity distribution for the largest catalog of white dwarfs to date. This gives us a detailed picture of their velocity structure with unparalleled detail, says Daniel Mikkola, doctoral student in astronomy at Lund University.

Thanks to Gaia, researchers have measured positions and velocities for about 1.5 billion stars. But only recently have they been able to completely focus on the white dwarfs in the Solar neighborhood.

We have managed to map the white dwarfs velocities and movement patterns. Gaia revealed that there are two parallel sequences of white dwarfs when looking at their temperature and brightness. If we study these separately, we can see that they move in different ways, probably as a consequence of them having different masses and lifetimes, says Daniel Mikkola.

The results can be used to develop new simulations and models to continue to map the history and development of the Milky Way. Through an increased knowledge of the white dwarfs, the researchers hope to be able to straighten out a number of question marks surrounding the birth of the Milky Way.

This study is important because we learned more about the closest regions in our galaxy. The results are also interesting because our own star, the Sun, will one day turn into a white dwarf just like 97 percent of all stars in the Milky Way, concludes Daniel Mikkola.

Reference: The velocity distribution of white dwarfs in Gaia EDR3 by Daniel Mikkola, Paul J McMillan, David Hobbs and John Wimarsson, 22 February 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac434

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Astronomers Map the Movement of White Dwarfs of the Milky Way - SciTechDaily

Researchers at the University of Victoria are among the first in history to find traces of the first stars in the universe.

Kim Venn, UVic astronomer and director of the Astronomy Research Centre, co-led an international team that found evidence of these post-Big Bang stars in a cluster with the lowest concentration of metals ever observed.

Using the European Space Agencys satellite mission Gaia, Venns team examined a cluster called C19 in the outer reaches of the Milky Way galaxy. The extremely metal-poor stars appeared to share an orbit in the galactic halo. After studying them using spectroscopy the study of how matter absorbs and emits light they determined theyd found what are believed to be traces of first stars.

What an amazing thing, isnt it? Stars that we will never be able to go and touch, that well never be able to send a robot to grab a piece of that atmosphere, and yet we can still figure out their composition from these rainbows, from these spectra, Venn said in an interview on uvic.ca.

Her team is already investigating another stellar cluster and is working on installing a new high-resolution spectrograph in Gemini South observatory in Chile. Thatll allow the team to search for similar stellar streams from the Southern Hemisphere.

New projects will come out of this discovery, like one in which UVic cosmologist Julio Navarro is participating. He has started working with an international team on a project to model the origins of C19 and determine what it could mean for how we understand dark matter.

In astronomy, we often say when it comes to objects theres zero, one, or many, Venn said. So far all weve done is gone from zero to one. Now that we know what to look for and how to find them, we want to find more.

ALSO READ: Victoria SPCA shelter hopping with abundance of bunnies

ALSO READ: B.C. RCMP work with FBI to seize drugs, gold, cash from homes in Vancouver and Victoria

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BC-led astronomy team discovers traces of the universe's first stars Summerland Review - Summerland Review

Why is Bennu spitting rocks into space?

This is one of the weirdest things it does, and thats saying something. Bennu is a small asteroid, only a little over 500 meters wide. Its shaped like two cones stuck together base-to-base. Its not a solid rock but is instead a rubble pile, like a bag of rocks held together by gravity. It has one huge boulder sticking out 22 meters high called Benben Saxum.

And, also, well, its spitting rocks out into space.

Bennu is a near-Earth asteroid, moving around the Sun on a mildly elliptical orbit about the same size as Earths orbit. It can get as close as half a million kilometers to us, so its classified as a Potentially Hazardous Object, though at least for the next three centuries it wont get close enough to us to be a real threat. Still, we want to know more about these rocks that could potentially hit us and ruin our day, so NASA sent the OSIRIS-REx mission there to map Bennu and eventually return samples to Earth for scientists to study.

One of the many discoveries from that mission is that Bennu is, somehow, shooting small rocks from its surface into space. That was one of the biggest surprises from the mission, and its not clear how this is happening. One likely cause is small micrometeorite impacts hitting the surface and blasting away shrapnel. Another is thermal stress: The day/night cycle as Bennu spins makes the rocks on the surface expand and contract as they enter and leave sunlight, which eventually cracks them. This can fling small bits away.

The sizes of these spitballs seen went from very small up to about 10 centimeters across. The gravity on Bennu is hardly more than a whisper, just a few millionths of Earths, but if you can reach back to the dim memories of high school science you might recall the van der Waals force, where some closely packed molecules attract or repel each other due to their electron clouds. This force is weak but in an asteroid whose surface is made up of jagged rocks it can help be a cohesive force holding the asteroid together. This too has to be overcome, and launching a rock the size of your fist away at speeds of a few centimeters to a few meters per second takes some effort, so its impressive Bennu can muster that kind of oomph.

But is that the only way rocks are ejected? Just because we can think of two that cover most of the bases doesnt mean they cover all of them. So a team of scientists looked into another possible launching mechanism: Electrostatic charge [link to paper].

Ultraviolet light from the Sun packs quite a punch, and when a UV photon hits the surface of Bennu it can flick away an electron from an atom there. As more hit and more electrons are lost the rocks gain a positive charge. If enough charge builds up, a rock can feel a force repelling it from its fellow rocks, and that could be enough to overcome the meager gravity and launch it into space.

The Sun also blows a wind of charged subatomic particles, and this solar wind can also hit the surface and build up a static charge, and in the end can also launch bits of rock into space. Its the cosmic equivalent of rubbing a balloon on your hair and sticking it to a wall, though in that case you get an attractive force instead of a repelling one, but its the same physics.

This electrostatic charge buildup is almost certainly happening on Bennu, but what the scientists investigated is the possibility that it actually is strong enough to spit rocks away. What they found is that it can, but the force is pretty small so it only works if the rock is small enough; assuming no van der Waals cohesion rocks up to roughly a centimeter in size can be flung away. So this is likely not the reason we see the bigger ones ejected, but it could ping away smaller ones.

Interestingly, some of the rocks seen ejected were on the night side of Bennu. Sunlight cant explain those at all, obviously, but the solar wind still could. As the particles blow past Bennu it blocks them on the day side, leaving a shadow behind it, a hole, like if you were to stand downwind of a building to get out of the wind. This is called a plasma wake, and the physics is pretty fierce but the magnetic field of the wind can still connect to the surface on the lee side of the asteroid, allowing particles to hit there. However, modeling this, the scientists found the force is far weaker, too weak to explain the rocks launched away during local night on Bennu.

So it looks like electrostatic charging is at best a minor force at work here, but this is still valuable research. For one, it can still work on the smallest bits and probably is very good at lofting dust off the surface. Also, the electrostatic cohesive properties of rubble pile asteroids isnt well known, so a study like this is a good step in figuring that out.

There will be a time in the future when a small bag of rocks like Bennu is aimed right at us, and we have to do something about it so it doesnt hit. In that case the more we know about it, especially the forces holding it together, the better. We probably wouldnt want to blow it up but instead push it aside, but even then we need to understand its structure to be able to do that.

Its not every day that astronomy can literally save the world, but that day will come.

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Electrostatic repulsion may be lofting small rocks off the asteroid Bennu - Syfy

Theyre holding a day of sky-related events 4-10 p.m. Saturday, May 7, in honor of National Astronomy Day, and itll be well worth your time to register. The observatory is north of Lake Maumelle in easternmost Perry County, about 35 from the I-430 and Highway 10 interchange. (Youll get more specific directions after you register.)

The details (including what to bring along and what NOT to bring along), and a registration link:

National Astronomy Day Solar and Lunar observing event River Ridge Observatory.

This special event is free, but attendance will be limited to 80 people. All ages welcome. A link to register is below, and you must register to attend. If you register and have a change of plans, please email info@caasastro.org.

Presentations and Activities:

4:00 6:00 Solar observing with h-alpha solar and Sunspotter scopes.4:00 6:00 Giant Bubbles & Stomp Rockets Observing Field4:00 6:00 Childrens Celestial Art Contest Deck4:00 8:00 Information Tables:2024 Solar Eclipse Display Darcy HowardArkansas Natural Sky Association tableUALR meteor collection4:15 4:25 Welcome to the RRO & Star Party Etiquette Amphitheater4:30 5:15 Novice Observer Program Classroom5:15 6:00 Saving the night sky for wildlife and humans Classroom6:00 7:00 Dinner, telescope show and tell, Q&A, & telescope help Observing Field7:00 7:25 Using binoculars for sky watching, star-hopping, and the celestial scavenger hunt Amphitheater7:30 7:45 Constellation tours Observing Field, Deck, and Parking Area7:45 10:00 Telescope observing, and celestial scavenger hunt

Guidelines and suggestions:This is not a dark-sky event as always on NAD a quarter moon will be up. Still, white flashlights, flashing shoes, and such are not allowed on the observing field and cell phones should be turned off. You can use a white flashlight to get to and from your vehicle as parking will be on the road. Otherwise, you probably dont need a flashlight unless you are doing the celestial scavenger hunt. If you think you might want a light on the Observing Field, bring a red flashlight or place red film (available in some arts and craft shops or auto parts stores) over a white light, or buy a small red key chain light at the event ($5 w/neck-lanyard).

Folding chairs, ground blankets, bug spray, and warmer than you think needed clothes might prove desirable. If you want to try your hand at the celestial scavenger hunt and have binoculars, bring them. There will be a few binoculars for loan, first come first served. Want help with setting up a telescope, bring it. If you register, please plan to attend the whole event. In any case, last entry is at 9:15. No drugs, alcohol, or pets, please.

Eats & Drinks

CAAS is not a Retail Food Establishment and you are welcome to bring your own food. However, grilled chili dogs, sausages, and fixings will be available. Suggested donation of $6 for adults, $4 for children appreciated. Snacks and drinks will be available for sale.

Okay, if you are ready to join in, registerhere.

Link:

National Astronomy Day celebration at River Ridge Observatory Saturday - Arkansas Times

SCITUATE Skyscrapers Inc., Rhode Islands amateur astronomy society, will be celebrating Astronomy Day at several places on Saturday, May 7.

At Roger Williams Parks Museum of Natural History, 1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., members will have exhibits explaining varied astronomical subjects, such as Safely Observing the Sun, Introducing Astronomy, Exoplanets, the James Webb Space Telescope, and Light Pollution and its Effects. In addition, the Cormack Planetarium will have programs at 1 and 2 p.m. (reservations required).

Ladd Observatory, 210 Dolye Ave., Providence, will have safe solar observing on its lawn from 1 to 3 p.m.

Seagrave Memorial Observatory, 47 Peep Toad Road, invites the public to its monthly meeting at 7 p.m., featuring a talk by member Richard Lynch on his recent trip to Italy, where he visited the Vatican Observatory and different sites made famous by astronomer Galileo Galilei in the 1600s. Clear skies permitting, the organizations historic 8-inch Alvan Clark refracting telescope, plus its more modern reflecting telescopes, will be open for deep-sky observing.

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Celebrate Astronomy Day with Skyscrapers Saturday | The Observer | valleybreeze.com - Valley Breeze

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. A Purdue University physics and astronomy professor whose work is dedicated to environmental safety and enhancing renewable energy production has been elected to one of the nations highest science honors.

Laura Pyrak-Nolte, Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Science, has been elected to one of the nations oldest and most prestigious honorary societies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Pyrak-Nolte, who is recognized as the worlds leading expert on the acoustic, mechanical and transport characteristics of porous and fractured media, is one of 261 members of the newest academy class. Her work in this field leads to innovation in the availability of fresh water to drink, the power of geothermal resources to heat and cool our homes, and aids the modern energy economy that relies on the injection and withdrawal of fluids through fracture networks in rock.

Her research has led to novel ways to reveal how seismic waves can be utilized to characterize fractured rock masses and how the fractured medium affects the propagation of seismic waves. She leads the Rock Physics Research Group that studies the physics of fractures in rock, detecting whether they slip or leak fluids into the environment. Understanding fractures is vitally important to a wide range of fields, including improving the safety and efficacy of geothermal energy and natural gas production, carbon sequestration and nuclear waste disposal.

We are enormously proud of ProfessorPyrak-Nolte and her scientific achievements, said Patrick J. Wolfe, the Frederick L. Hovde Deanof the College of Science. "This latest well-deserved recognition for her work in geophysics is absolutely emblematic of our efforts to elevate Purdue Science to ever-greater heights in research and scholarly impact."

Pyrak-Nolte also is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow in American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a fellow in the American Geophysical Union. These allocations recognize Pyrak-Noltes distinguished efforts toward advancing scientific applications.

She also holds courtesy appointments in both the Lyles School of Civil Engineering and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue.

I am honored to have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and I want to thank Purdue, the College of Science, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy for their support during my career, Pyrak-Nolte said.

This distinction recognizes achievements of individuals in academia, the arts, business and public affairs. The 2022 class will be inducted at a ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Those from Purdue previously elected to membership include:

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. Current academy research focuses on science and technology, global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the academys work is advanced by its 4,600 elected members worldwide who are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business and public affairs. Among its fellows are more than 250 Nobel Prize winners and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last four years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap athttps://stories.purdue.edu.

Writers: Bella Vina and Cheryl Pierce

Media contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, apatterson@purdue.edu

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Purdue physics and astronomy professor named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences - Purdue University

Associate Professor Allison Jaynes has been awarded$543,000 from the University of Colorado, Boulder to build and deliver an energetic particle instrument for a rocket mission, COUSIN: A Study of Small-Scale Auroral Region Energy Deposition.

COUSIN is a sounding rocket investigation designed to address fundamental open questions of the auroral electrical current system, focusing on small-scale structure and energetics and their impact on the thermosphere,according to Principal Investigator David Malaspina, assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.The mission is expected to be flown in February 2024 from Esrange Space Center in Sweden and is part of the full European SYSTER sounding rocket mission.

Jaynes is the Principal Investigator for Proton eLectron Advanced Sensor for M-I Coupling (PLASMIC), an energetic particle detector that will measure electrons coming down into Earth's atmosphere from space. It is based on a solid-state silicon detector design to measure energies from 10's keV to several MeV. These energies are important for understanding the total energy budget that is dumped into our atmosphere from space particles.

Malaspina said the COUSIN mission seeks to address two scientific questions:

By addressing these questions, COUSIN will elucidate fundamental electrodynamics processes at scale sizes that have not been comprehensively examined, yet are suspected to play a large role in coupling the Earths solar-wind driven magnetosphere with its charged particle ionosphere and neutral atmosphere, Malaspina said.

PLASMIC is among fiveCOUSIN instruments that are uniquely capable of achieving significant scientific progress by making the first coordinated measurements at small scales (< 2 km) of plasma, precipitation, and neutral parameters required to determine thermospheric energy deposition and response at the altitudes where it maximizes.

Seehttps://malaspinaspacephysics.com/missions-and-instruments/for more information.

Banner image:(a) PLASMIC detector stack flight model (b) PLASMIC daughterboard. Credit: Allison Jaynes

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Jaynes Awarded $543,000 To Build Auroral Particle Detector | Physics and Astronomy - The University of Iowa - The University of Iowa

Have you heard that on May 6, 2022 this Friday! an asteroid the size of the Great Pyramid in Giza may hit Earth?

You might have if you listen to conspiracy-laden YouTube videos and news sites online that make breathless claims without being overly burdened with a predilection for accuracy.

To be clear: No, an asteroid the size of an Egyptian pyramid wont hit the Earth on Friday. First of all, its not anywhere near that big, and second, its likely to miss us by tens of million kilometers.

Heres the deal. On May 4, 2009 the Catalina Sky Surveys telescope in Arizona designed to scan large areas of the sky every night to look for near-Earth asteroids and comets found an asteroid in its observations, now called 2009 JF1.

Asteroids appear as a dot moving from frame to frame as images are taken over the course of a night, and using its position versus time its possible to calculate the shape of its orbit. The initial calculations showed that 2009 JF1s orbit came very close to Earth, within a mere 200,000 kilometers or so, less than half the distance to the Moon. Thats a cause for concern though not necessarily alarm; its difficult to get a very accurate orbital calculation over so short a time frame:

At the time, 2009 JF1 was very faint and was only able to be tracked for roughly 30 hours, not nearly enough to get a good grip on where it would be in the future. Still, extrapolating its motion showed that on May 6, 2022 there was a 1 in 4,000 chance it would hit Earth.

Think of it this way: Thats a 99.975% chance it would miss. Out of caution, as usual, astronomers knew the prediction was extremely rough but kept this rock in mind.

Not that they were particularly worried. Given the asteroids distance and brightness in those 2009 observations, they calculated it was small, probably 10 meters in size. Thats smaller than the asteroid that broke up over Russia in 2013, so clearly not anything that will cause an Earth-shattering kaboom.

Still, this was enough that the European Space Agencys Near-Earth Object Coordination Center which keeps track of such objects put in on their risk list, and the nominal odds were high enough to keep it pretty high up on that list.

That was 13 years ago, and progress marches on. Over the years astronomers have developed software to better analyze asteroid orbits. Also, missions like Gaia have hugely improved our measurements of star positions, which are used as benchmarks for the asteroid orbit calculations. The original observational data were archived, so recently astronomers reanalyzed them using better software and stellar positions.

And guess what? The chance of an impact dropped precipitously. With the new measurements the impact risk went from 1 in 4,000 to 1 in 170,000. In other words, a 99.9994% chance it will miss.

Ill take that action. And because of this new work, the NEOCC took 2009 JF1 off its priority list.

The real situation is that the nominal, or statistically most likely, miss distance will be about 24 million kilometers 15 million km or so. The date of closest approach will actually be May 15, plus/minus a day.

So, were safe. OK? OK.

Now, if you search for the asteroid online youll find a ton of garbage sites about it. I see many saying NASA announced it will hit on May 6, but the weird thing is they never link to that claim. Funny, that. Another NASA says phrase that comes up a lot is, Some asteroids and comets follow orbital paths that take them much closer to the Sun and therefore Earth than usual. However, I can find nothing online from NASA saying that. Mostly these nonsense sites just steal from each other; I have found more credible sites with this statement but nothing like this as a direct quotation from NASA. And a few sites use this quote talking about a completely different asteroid. That doesnt exactly inspire trust.

And a lot of sites are saying 2009 JF1 is huge, 100+ meters across, but again that was never true, even from the very first observations. It was known from day one to be small. Thats why it was never classified as a Potentially Hazardous Object those need to get within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth and be at least 140 meters wide. This one can get closer, but is too small to be a real threat.

I say this every time I hear about these claims of an asteroid impact: Ask yourself about the site or person making this claim. Are they an astronomer? Does it really come from NASA? Or ESA, or any official astronomical organization?

Remember, too: If I hear of an actual asteroidal threat, you can bet your last penny Ill be screaming about it here on the blog and on every social media platform I have access to. So if you dont hear about it from me, youre probably OK.

And stop going to YouTube channels with names like NASALies69420SheepleFlatEarth$NFT$ for your science info. Or anything. I will take that as a personal favor.

Excerpt from:

Bad Astronomy | Asteroid 2009 JF1 will not hit Earth on May 6 2022 | SYFY WIRE - Syfy