Category Archives: Astronomy

PHYS0834. Exploring the Cosmos. 3 Credit Hours.

This GenEd course will use the fascinating science surrounding the makeup, origin, and future of our Universe to teach the methods by which scientists study nature. The course will also explore the (sometimes controversial) history of the subject, including the intersections of ethics and science as well as the role of different cultures. Note: Students may not receive credit for both PHYS 0846 (The Universe As We Know It) and PHYS0834 (Exploring the Cosmos).

Course Attributes: GS

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

PHYS0839. Powering the Future. 3 Credit Hours.

How can we provide inexpensive, safe, environmentally clean energy supplies for the United States and the world as a whole despite rising population and increasing affluence? Study problems of our conventional fossil and nuclear fuel use, and how they might be relieved; explore the physical and technological possibilities for using energy much more efficiently; investigate various renewable-energy sources (such as solar, hydrogen cells, hydropower, and biofuels) that significantly reduce effects on the environment. In the course lab projects, you will research and develop a sustainable energy proposal for your own home, campus, or community. NOTE: This course fulfills a Science & Technology (GS) requirement for students under GenEd and Science & Technology Second Level (SB) for students under Core. Students cannot get credit for this course if they have successfully completed Physics 0939.

Course Attributes: GS

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

PHYS0847. How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life. 3 Credit Hours.

How does a computer store information? Do humans and other animals see color the same way? What is stopping terrorists from developing nuclear weapons? What makes certain musical notes sound good together? What are the facts about global warming? Does the radiation from cell phones cause cancer? A basic knowledge of science is essential to being a smart consumer, an informed voter, and a full participant in society. How Things Work will survey a variety of important, topical questions relevant to technology, the natural world, and current events using lectures combined with illustrative in-class demonstrations such as a rocket powered by water, a magnet made to levitate using superconductors and liquid nitrogen, a crank-operated electric generator, a CT scan machine, and an engine fueled by ice. NOTE: This course fulfills a Science & Technology (GS) requirement for students under GenEd and Science & Technology Second Level (SB) for students under Core.

Course Attributes: GS

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

PHYS0872. The Science of Sound. 3 Credit Hours.

For living things the ability to hear sounds is an essential tool for survival, and sound is central to speech and languages. In the arts sound also plays a fundamental role, above all in music. The close connection between music, mathematics, and physics has long fascinated scientists. Advances in electronics and computing are revolutionizing the composition, production, and recording of sound. Science of Sound is an interdisciplinary course involving elements of physics, physiology, psychology, music, and engineering. After a four-week introduction to the fundamental physics of sound waves, we will consider human hearing and the human voice; scales, harmony, and sound production by musical instruments; architectural acoustics; and the electronic reproduction of sound. The course includes many in-class demonstrations. NOTE: This course fulfills a Science & Technology (GS) requirement for students under GenEd and Science & Technology Second Level (SB) for students under Core. Students cannot get credit for this course if they have completed Physics 1003: Acoustics.

Course Attributes: GS

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

PHYS0939. Honors Powering the Future. 3 Credit Hours.

How can we provide inexpensive, safe, environmentally clean energy supplies for the United States and the world as a whole despite rising population and increasing affluence? Study problems of our conventional fossil and nuclear fuel use, and how they might be relieved; explore the physical and technological possibilities for using energy much more efficiently; investigate various renewable-energy sources (such as solar, hydrogen cells, hydropower, and biofuels) that significantly reduce effects on the environment. In the course lab projects, you will research and develop a sustainable energy proposal for your own home, campus, or community. (This is an Honors course.) NOTE: This course fulfills a Science & Technology (GS) requirement for students under GenEd and Science & Technology Second Level (SB) for students under Core. Students cannot get credit for this course if they have successfully completed Physics 0839.

Cohort Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Cohorts: SCHONORS, UHONORS, UHONORSTR.

Course Attributes: GS, HO

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

PHYS1001. Physics: Matter and Motion. 4 Credit Hours.

An introduction to the ideas and techniques used in the study of motion. Application to a wide variety of physical systems ranging from air molecules to footballs to black holes. Mostly descriptive using photographic techniques, films, and demonstrations. NOTE: (1) No laboratory. (2) This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Science & Technology First Level (SA) requirement. To determine if this course in combination with another course can satisfy the GenEd Science & Technology requirement, see your advisor. (3) Students who have taken a higher number introductory physics sequence cannot take this course for credit.

Course Attributes: SA

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (any MATH course numbered 0701 to 0702, any MATH course numbered 0800 to 4999 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MC3, 'Y' in MC4, 'Y' in MC5, 'Y' in MC6, 'Y' in MC3A, 'Y' in MC6A, STAT1001 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in STT2, STAT1102 (may be taken concurrently), STAT1902 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MATW, or 'Y' in MC3S)

PHYS1004. Introduction to Astronomy. 3 Credit Hours.

After a description of local space which includes the universe of galaxies, red shift, and the big bang will be discussed. White dwarfs, red giants, pulsars, black holes, and quasars will be covered. The treatment will be mostly descriptive, utilizing slides, NASA films, and several trips to our planetarium. NOTE: (1) No laboratory. (2) This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Science & Technology Second Level (SB) requirement. To determine if this course in combination with another course can satisfy the GenEd Science & Technology requirement, see your advisor.

Course Attributes: SB

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (MATH1021, any MATH course numbered 1022 to 3080 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MC5, 'Y' in MC6, 'Y' in MC6A, STAT1001, 'Y' in STT2, STAT1102, STAT1902, or 'Y' in MATW)

PHYS1005. Light, Art, and Nature. 4 Credit Hours.

An introduction to the properties of light, whether interpreted as rays, waves, or photons. Discussion of the basic ideas of geometric and wave optics, with application to the analysis of photography, color, vision, and modern physics. Emphasis is on factors that permit the artist and observer to understand and more fully control the design and interpretation of images of all kinds. Demonstrations, experiments, and video and computer simulations to analyze signals received by the eyes or instruments. NOTE: (1) Course is primarily designed for students interested in the visual arts, but is open to anyone. Minimal mathematics. (2) This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Science & Technology First Level (SA) requirement.

Course Attributes: SA

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (any MATH course numbered 0701 to 0702, any MATH course numbered 0800 to 4999 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MC3, 'Y' in MC4, 'Y' in MC5, 'Y' in MC6, 'Y' in MC3A, 'Y' in MC6A, STAT1001 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in STT2, STAT1102 (may be taken concurrently), STAT1902 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MATW, or 'Y' in MC3S)

PHYS1006. Medical Physics. 3 Credit Hours.

Medical Physics is an introductory science elective course that is open to students with little exposure to science or mathematics. With nominal (high school level) mathematics preparation, students can learn how basic principles of physics are utilized in medical processes. Topics to be examined include: the nature of radiation, radiation exposure, nuclear medicine, CT and MR imaging, and ultrasound techniques.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (MATH1021, any MATH course numbered 1022 to 3080 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MC5, 'Y' in MC6, 'Y' in MC6A, STAT1001, 'Y' in STT2, STAT1102, STAT1902, or 'Y' in MATW)

PHYS1007. Science & Science Fiction in Film. 3 Credit Hours.

This course takes a captivating look at physical phenomena depicted in a collection of popular science fiction films. These include Deep Impact (1998) in which Earth is threatened by a giant comet, The Peacemaker (1998) where a terrorist's atomic bomb is planted in New York City, I Robot (2007) with a detective fighting to prevent a takeover of the human race by robots, and Contact (1997) featuring an astronomer who discovers the first real message from an alien civilization. Other films deal with global warming, astronomy, electricity and magnetism.

There are no in-person meetings of this class. Students discuss films on the course web site and submit answers to weekly questions via the Internet at times that are individually convenient for each student. E-Mail the course instructor, Dr. Dubeck, at ldubeck@temple.edu for access to the course web site.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

PHYS1008. Physics Seminar I. 1 Credit Hour.

Physics Seminar I serves as a survey introduction to physics of the 21st century and the numerous, diverse career paths followed by those with a physics degree. The intent of this course is to build a community of physics majors while they are at the beginning of their typical course of study, with the introductory physics courses providing common points of discussion. Students will attend talks, lab tours and open-ended question-and-answer roundtable discussions given by physics degree holders. One section of the class will focus on speakers from across the spectrum of physics related research at Temple University, including solid state, optical, nuclear, medical and chemical physics. The course will also provide a venue for those from non-academic sectors where the physics degree is highly valued, such as national laboratories, industrial research, patent law, finance and others. This is a required course for BS and BA in Physics and BS in Physics with Teaching majors and is recommended for other physics related majors.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (PHYS1021 (may be taken concurrently), PHYS1061 (may be taken concurrently), PHYS1961 (may be taken concurrently), PHYS2021 (may be taken concurrently), or PHYS2921 (may be taken concurrently))

PHYS1021. Introduction to General Physics I. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

This course is an algebra-based introduction to physics. Topics covered in this course include mechanics, waves and oscillations, and elements of thermodynamics. Biological applications discussed where appropriate.

NOTE:

(1) Completing a 2 semester physics sequence will satisfy your Science and Technology (GS) GenEd requirements. (2) Two sections are required for this course: a 0.0 credit Laboratory section and the 4.0 credit Lecture & Recitation section. The course number for the Lecture & Recitation are the same for the Laboratory, but have unique section numbers. (3) Some pre-professional health programs require a calculus-based course such as Physics 1061.

Course Attributes: SA

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (MATH1021, any MATH course numbered 1022 to 3080 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MC5, 'Y' in MC6, 'Y' in MC6A, STAT1001, 'Y' in STT2, STAT1102, STAT1902, or 'Y' in MATW)

PHYS1022. Introduction to General Physics II. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

This second semester algebra-based introductory physics course is a follow-up to Physics 1021. Topics covered in this course include electricity and magnetism, optics, atomic, molecular, and nuclear physics. Biological applications discussed where appropriate.

NOTE:

(1) Completing a 2 semester physics sequence will satisfy your Science and Technology (GS) GenEd requirements. (2) Two sections are required for this course: a 0.0 credit Laboratory section and the 4.0 credit Lecture & Recitation section. The course numbers for the Lecture & Recitation are the same for the Laboratory, but have unique section numbers. (3) Some pre-professional health programs require a calculus-based course such as Physics 1062.

Course Attributes: SB

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (PHYS 1011, PHYS1021, PHYS1061, PHYS2021, or PHYS2921)

PHYS1031. Basic Core Physics I. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

This is the first semester of general physics for post-baccalaureate students. It includes a quantitative introduction to kinematics, dynamics, work, energy, momentum, static equilibrium, fluids, vibrations, waves, sound, temperature, kinetic theory, heat, and the laws of thermodynamics. Special emphasis is given to applications of these topics to health sciences.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

PHYS1032. Basic Core Physics II. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

This is the second semester of general physics for post-baccalaureate students. It includes a quantitative introduction to electricity and magnetism, optics, atomic, molecular, and nuclear physics. Special emphasis is given to applications of these topics to health sciences.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

PHYS1061. Elementary Classical Physics I. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

Calculus-based introductory physics focused on developing algorithmic problem-solving skills and intended as a preparation for advanced courses in physics as well as preparation for further study in upper division science and engineering. Topics include elementary vector algebra, one-dimensional motion, particle dynamics, work and energy, conservation of energy, conservation of linear momentum, collisions, rotational kinematics and dynamics, conservation of angular momentum, oscillations, waves, and gravitation.

NOTE:

(1) By completing a 2 semester physics sequence you will satisfy your Science and Technology (GS) GenEd requirements. (2) Students cannot receive credits for both Physics 1061 and 2021. (3) Two sections are required for this course: a 0.0 credit Laboratory section and the 4.0 credit Lecture & Recitation section. The course numbers for the Lecture & Recitation are the same for the Laboratory, but have unique section numbers. (4) Some pre-health programs require a calculus-based course such as this course, Physics 1061.

Course Attributes: SA

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- (except where noted) in (MATH1041 (C or higher; may be taken concurrently), MATH1941 (C or higher; may be taken concurrently), MATH 1038 (C or higher; may be taken concurrently), MATH1042 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1044 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1942 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1951 (may be taken concurrently), any MATH course numbered 2043 to 3080 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MA06, 'Y' in MATW, 'Y' in CRMA08, or 'Y' in CRMA21)

PHYS1062. Elementary Classical Physics II. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

This second semester calculus-based introductory physics course is a follow-up to Physics 1061. The course focuses on developing algorithmic problem-solving skills and is intended as a preparation for advanced courses in physics as well as preparation for further study in upper division science and engineering. Topics include temperature, heat and the first law of thermodynamics, kinetic theory of gases, entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, electrical charges, the electric field, Gauss's Law, electrostatic potential, capacitors and dielectrics, current, resistance, Kirchhoff's laws, the magnetic field, Ampere's Law, Faraday's Law, inductance, geometrical optics, and interference and diffraction of light.

NOTE:

(1) By completing a 2 semester physics sequence you will satisfy your Science and Technology (GS) GenEd requirements. (2) Students cannot receive credit for both Physics 1062 and 2022. (3) Two sections are required for this course: a 0.0 credit Laboratory section and the 4.0 credit Lecture & Recitation section. The course numbers for the Lecture & Recitation are the same for the Laboratory, but have unique section numbers. (4) Some pre-health programs require a calculus-based course such as this course, Physics 1062.

Course Attributes: SB

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (PHYS1061, PHYS2021, or PHYS2921) and (MATH1042 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1044 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1942 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1951 (may be taken concurrently), any MATH course numbered 2043 to 3080 (may be taken concurrently), or 'Y' in MATW)

PHYS1083. Directed Reading/Study. 1 to 4 Credit Hour.

Independent study in physics. NOTE: This course may be repeated for credit.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.

PHYS1961. Honors Elementary Classical Physics I. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

This undergraduate level course is intended for Honors students majoring in physics and related fields. Physics 1961 is the first part of a two-semester course in classical physics starting with classical mechanics for Physics 1961 and electricity and magnetism for Physics 1962. Topics for Physics 1961 include one- and two-dimensional motion; forces and particle dynamics, work and energy, conservation of energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum; collisions, rotational kinematics and dynamics, gravitation, oscillations, waves, and fluid dynamics. This course differs from the Physics 1061 course in the number of topics and a more mathematical treatment and discussion. A strong background in algebra and trigonometry and some understanding of vector algebra is required. A math review will take place during the first week of classes including basic elements of algebra, trigonometry, vector algebra and some calculus. This course is taught in the Studio Physics format combining elements of lecturing and recitation supplemented with a separate, but integrated lab. Each student is assigned to a certain lecture section (Lecture plus Recitation) and lab section. This course requires registration for a 0.0 credit Laboratory section in addition to the 4.0 credit Lecture and Recitation section. The Laboratory sections corresponding to a course are listed under the same course number as the Lecture and Recitation sections, but have unique section numbers.

Cohort Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Cohorts: SCHONORS, UHONORS, UHONORSTR.

Course Attributes: HO

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- (except where noted) in (MATH1941 (C or higher; may be taken concurrently), MATH1041 (C or higher; may be taken concurrently), MATH 1038 (C or higher; may be taken concurrently), MATH1942 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1042 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1951 (may be taken concurrently), any MATH course numbered 2043 to 3080 (may be taken concurrently), 'Y' in MA06, 'Y' in MATW, 'Y' in CRMA08, or 'Y' in CRMA21)

PHYS1962. Honors Elementary Classical Physics II. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

This undergraduate level course is intended for Honors students majoring in physics and related fields. Physics 1962 is the second part of a two semester course in classical physics starting with classical mechanics for Physics 1961 and electricity and magnetism for Physics 1962. Topics for Physics 1962 include temperature, heat and the first law of thermodynamics, kinetic theory of gases, entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, electrical charges, the electric field, Gauss's Law, electrostatic potential, capacitors and dielectrics, current, resistance, the magnetic field, Ampere's Law, Faraday's Law, inductance, geometrical optics, and interference and diffraction of light. This course differs from Physics 1062 in the number of topics and a more mathematical treatment and discussion. A strong background in algebra and trigonometry along with elementary understanding of vector algebra is required. Basic understanding of calculus is helpful. A math review will take place during the first week of classes including basic elements of vector algebra and calculus, in particular vector calculus. This course is taught in the Studio Physics format combining elements of lecturing and recitation supplemented with a separate, but integrated lab. Each student is assigned to a certain lecture section (Lecture plus Recitation) and lab section. This course requires registration for a 0.0 credit Laboratory section in addition to the 4.0 credit Lecture and Recitation section.

Cohort Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Cohorts: SCHONORS, UHONORS, UHONORSTR.

Course Attributes: HO

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (MATH1942 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1042 (may be taken concurrently), MATH1951 (may be taken concurrently), any MATH course numbered 2043 to 3080 (may be taken concurrently), or 'Y' in MATW) and (PHYS1961, PHYS1061, PHYS2921, or PHYS2922)

PHYS2021. General Physics I. 0 or 4 Credit Hours.

Calculus-based introductory physics. Topics include mechanics, gravitation, energy conservation, fluids and waves. Biological applications discussed where appropriate. NOTE: By completing a 2 semester physics sequence you will satisfy your Science and Technology (GS) GenEd requirements. Students cannot receive credits for both Physics 1061 and 2021. This course is an option for pre-health, neuroscience and genomic medicine majors.

Two sections are required for this course. This course requires registration for a 0.0 credit Laboratory section in addition to the 4.0 credit Lecture & Recitation section. The Laboratory sections corresponding to a course are listed under the same course number as the Lecture & Recitation sections, but have unique section numbers.

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Physics (PHYS) < Temple University

Unistellars eVscope has proven its ability to do serious astronomy, with more to come in 2022.

Theres a revolution underway in how amateur astronomers contribute to modern astronomy. Smartscopestelescopes controlled remotely via tablets or smartphonesare making there way into the modern amateur telescope market and out into the field. These have the ability to not only bring deep-sky astronomy to light-polluted urbanites, but to lower the bar for entry into deep-sky astrophotography. One of the leading manufacturers of smartscopes is Unistellar. First offered as a Kickstarter project in 2017, Unistellars line now includes the eVscope eQuinox, and the new eVscope2.

The Age of Smartscopes

But beyond just providing pretty pictures and a tour of the night sky, eVscope users are contributing to some serious science, in a big way. This is always the hallmark of any new breakthrough in technology: you never know what wild and wonderful directions that people will take it in, once its unleashed. We recently caught up with Unistellars Chief Scientific Officer Franck Marchis, (also Senior Planetary Astronomer at the SETI Institute), on where astronomy with these unique telescopes may be headed.

As an astronomer, when you arrive in a control room, everything is ready: you just enter the coordinates, or just the name of the target, says Marchis. I always wondered why we dont do that for amateur astronomers.

Weve recently reviewed the eVscope, eQuinox telescope, and the main competitor on the market, Vaoniss Stellina. Unistellars eVscope and eQuinox are built around a simple 4.5-inch mirror reflector. The unit is ultra-portable and lightweight at 19.8 lbs (9kg). Setup is as simple as locking the unit on the tripod, bonding it to the app via WiFi, adjusting the focus, and letting the scope plate-solve its location and pointing direction in the sky.

But its the science efforts underway with Unistellar that really set it apart. The Unistellar application has a tab devoted just to science and astronomy campaigns.

One unique effort is looking at asteroid occultations of bright stars. These events feature a background star winking out briefly as the foreground asteroid moves in front of it, casting a shadow across the Earth. If enough observers can catch and time these cords, we can outline the profile shape of the asteroid. Tiny unseen moonlets of asteroids have also been observed as brief events near the main occultation. Already, Unistellar campaigns have looked at Patroclus, Orus and 11351 Leucus, in support of NASAs Lucy Mission to the Trojan asteroids.

Next up, Unistellar campaigns have made followup observations of transiting exoplanets. Thats right. Amateurs can now detect the tiny fluctuation in brightness as an unseen world passes in front of its host star, from their own driveway. Already, Unistellar has demonstrated this ability during campaigns to monitor Kepler-167b and HD 80606 b, and sends out alerts for periodic upcoming events.

Unistellar citizen astronomer Kevin Voeller also recently collected data on exoplanet WASP-148b.

Which begs the question of the possibility for users to discover planets as well. Certainly, the ability is there for dedicated networks of Unistellar scopes. The telescope could also be used to monitor variable stars and follow and discover galactic novae and extra-galactic supernovae as well.

Teams have also followed near-Earth asteroids with the Unistellar telescope, characterizing their rotation rate as they fluctuate in brightness. One such recent campaign revolved around the close Earth flybys of asteroids 1994 PC1 and 4660 Nereus. This is all part of Unistellars planetary defense effort; you cant have too many telescopes out there worldwide looking for flying space rocks.

And speaking of distant objects, users have recently used Unistellar telescopes to track the James Webb Space Telescope en route to its new home at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point. Nearly a million miles from the Earth, JWST moves like a distant satellite against the starry background. Unistellar has documented 110 JWST observations thus far, and noted the variability of the observatory after sunshield deployment as a 6 hour flash or glint, seen mainly due to the rotational position of the observer on Earth.

Our community is excited that they see this, that they connect to JWST so its very good outreach, and good science, says Marchis. learning that the glint off JWST happens and why it happens could be useful in the future.

This also raises the possibility of using a Unistellar telescope to track satellites (perhaps even classified, unpublished satellites) in distant High Earth (HEO) or geostationary/geosynchronous (GEO) orbits.

Finally, the eVscope has the potential to track and find comets. Already, weve seen users follow the fine apparitions of comet F3 NEOWISE in 2020 and A1 Leonard at the end of 2021.

Whats next for Unistellar? Later this year, the team plans to lead efforts to follow an occultation of asteroid Didymos near Abu Dhabi, leading up to the impact of NASAs DART mission on the asteroids tiny moon Dimorphos on September 26th, 2022. The team also has plans for satellite tracking, to include characterizing the brightness of Starlink and OneWeb satellite constellations, improved access to data cloud storage and more.

The important part is that were not just a company that which is building telescopes, says Marchis. We see ourselves as a company that is democratizing astronomy, so people can enjoy the dark sky.

Just the recent Unistellar user statistics alone are impressive:

2021 summary statistics for exoplanet transits:

-413 observations by 100 different observers in 17 countries, with 92 detections.

2021 summary statistics for planetary defense:

-11 campaigns, by 95 users submitting 290 observations from 20 countries.

2021 summary statistics for asteroid occultations:

-214 occultation events attempted with 395 observations, 106 are positive (for a~27% positivity rate)

With the advent of the eVscope, we may be seeing as big a revolution in amateur astronomy as the introduction of Celestrons orange-tube C8 telescope in the early 1970s. Having lived through the last half-century of amateur astronomy, its simply amazing how much has changed. Watch for more exciting astronomy to come!

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Unistellars Plans for Science and Astronomy in 2022 - Universe Today

A mysterious object unlike anything that astronomers have seen before has been discovered in our galactic backyard.

In research published Wednesday, scientists described the strange, spinning mass, which is said to release an enormous burst of energy every 20 minutes.

That radiation, which crosses the line of sight of telescopes on Earth for 60 seconds at a time, is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky.

It was detected by a team at the Australia-based International Center for Radio Astronomy Research, who were mapping radio waves in the Universe.

They believe that the cosmic flasher could be a super-dense star or a white dwarf collapsed cores of stars with a powerful magnetic field.

This object was appearing and disappearing over a few hours during our observations, said Dr. Natasha Hurley-Walker, an astronomer from Curtin University in Australia who led the team.

That was completely unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because theres nothing known in the sky that does that.

And its really quite close to us about 4,000 lightyears away. Its in our galactic backyard.

The object was discovered using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in the Australian outback.

Its whats known to astronomers as a transient an object in the night sky that turns on and off, such as a dying star.

So-called slow transients appear over the course of several days and vanish after a few months. One example is a stellar explosion called a supernova.

Fast transients such as a type of neutron star called a pulsar flash on and off within seconds or even milliseconds.

The newly discovered object is unusual because it fits neither category, beaming its radio waves across the galaxy in bouts lasting roughly a minute.

Study co-author Dr. Gemma Anderson said that the space thingamajig is smaller than the Sun but incredibly bright.

Its firing out highly-polarised radio waves, suggesting that it has a powerful magnetic field.

Dr. Hurley-Walker said the observations match the description of a hypothetical object called an ultra-long period magnetar.

Its a type of slowly spinning neutron star that has been predicted to exist theoretically, she said.

But nobody expected to directly detect one like this because we didnt expect them to be so bright.

Somehow its converting magnetic energy to radio waves much more effectively than anything weve seen before.

The team is continuing to monitor the object with the MWA to get a better idea of what it might be.

More detections will tell astronomers whether this was a rare one-off event or a vast new population wed never noticed before, Dr. Hurley-Walker added.

The research was published in the journal Nature.

This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.

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Astronomers spot 'spooky' object in our 'galactic backyard' that's unlike 'anything ever seen - New York Post

Learn more about the James Webb Telescope

Scientists across the UC system have played a major part in the James Webb Telescope project. Learn more about the role of UC Santa Cruz astronomers and project adviser UC Santa Cruz distinguished professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics Garth Illingworth here.

NASAs latest and snazziest mission, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched on Christmas Day, deployed its 21-foot-wide mirror a mere two weeks ago and reached its orbital destination earlier this week. With a flashy new telescope now nearly a reality, astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, are chomping at the bit to start observing.

After months of anxiety about whether the $10 billion telescope 25 years in the making and the successor to the highly successful Hubble Space Telescope would even survive launch, let alone unfold from its chrysalis into a gold-blinged telescope, these astronomers feel confident enough to plan summertime observations of nearby galaxies and of some of our closest neighbors in the solar system.

Im so thankful that it launched and everything appears to be working. I think its going to be just incredible, said Ned Molter, a UC Berkeley doctoral student working with campus astronomer Imke de Pater, who leads one of 13 teams given the chance to make early observations with the JWST. I speak for many of us to say were over the moon about the launch.

What a beautiful Christmas present to have the James Webb Space Telescope launch on Christmas Day, echoed Dan Weisz, a UC Berkeley associate professor of astronomy who leads another team awarded observing time as part of the early release science program. The whole of 2022 is going to be a Webb extravaganza. The first part of the year well get the telescope up to speed and commissioned, and in early summer and fall well start observing and then publishing a slew of papers about the first results. It is going to be the year of Webb. Its fantastic.

After its launch exactly one month ago, on Dec. 25, the JWST began coasting through space to its final destination, a point referred to as L2: a special place in the solar system a Lagrange point where the gravitational pull on the telescope by Earth is exactly balanced by the gravitational pull of the sun. The JWST settled into orbit around L2 on Monday, Jan. 24, where it will remain forever, looking outward into the cosmos from the side of Earth that is opposite the sun.

As the telescope transited to that point 945,000 miles from Earth and four times farther from Earth than the moon scientists began aligning the primary mirror, which is a cluster of 18 smaller, gold-plated hexagonal mirrors, with the secondary mirror to get the sharpest images possible. Other scientists tested the many instruments onboard to make sure they work properly to record infrared light from objects in space.

Following the six-month-long commissioning phase, 13 teams chosen by NASA will take the new telescope for a spin, putting its instruments through their paces by targeting astronomical objects that will be the major focus of scientists during the telescopes planned 10 years of operation, and probably much longer.

To have two of the 13 led by people at Berkeley was pretty exceptional, said de Pater, a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School and Distinguished Professor Emerita of astronomy and earth and planetary science who wrote her proposal in 2017 before her retirement from teaching last year.

Given the JWSTs primary mission to study dim, distant galaxies and faint exoplanets, the observations planned by de Pater and her team of about 50 astronomers may seem out of character: They will turn the telescope on one of the brightest objects in the sky, Jupiter.

They (NASA) wanted to get involvement from the astronomy community to see what is feasible, what Webb can do, and really pushing it to the limits, de Pater said. We came up with the idea to look at the Jovian system, because Jupiter is extremely bright, but next to Jupiter, you have these really faint rings and some really faint satellites. Moreover, we will look at faint spectral features on Io and Ganymede while they are eclipsed in Jupiters shadow, a quite challenging experiment since the two bodies will be very close to Jupiter and invisible at visible wavelengths. We thought it would make a really nice proposal to look at these large differences in brightness.

During her decades-long career, de Pater has used radio telescopes and optical and infrared telescopes, such as the pair at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Hubble Space Telescope, to study the atmospheres of our solar systems large planets, with particular attention to Jupiters large storm, the Great Red Spot; the volcanoes of Jupiters moon, Io; the icy surface of another Jovian moon, Ganymede; and Jupiters rings. She is particularly eager to take advantage of the JWSTs ability to detect mid-infrared light, which will give her access to different layers of Jupiters atmosphere, ones she has not been able to explore using earthbound telescopes.

We hope to find out more about the dynamics in the Great Red Spot and the aurora over the South Pole, and the chemistry and physics of the troposphere and into the stratosphere, she said.

Molter, who expects to graduate in August and remain with de Pater as a postdoctoral fellow to work with the JWST, plans to use the telescopes Aperture Masking Interferometer to study the individual volcanoes on Io. With new mid-infrared data, he hopes to accurately measure the temperatures of the volcanoes, which will allow comparison with volcanoes on Earth.

As a new graduate student back in 2017, he had hoped to write his thesis using JWST observations of Ios volcanoes, but as the launch date was pushed further and further out, he elected to study the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune instead.

We sort of pivoted away from the Io science when Webb was being delayed so much, Molter laughed. I had to graduate in a certain amount of time, so I found other projects.

Weisz, an associate professor of astronomy, and his team will use their allotted time with the JWST to observe the Milky Way Galaxy and its nearby satellite galaxies. Weiszs main interest is galaxy formation, and in particular, the role of dark matter the still mysterious stuff that makes up 85% of the matter in the universe in galaxy formation.

He and his team of about 50 astronomers are focused on three different targets. One is M-92, one of the oldest globular clusters in the Milky Way and one of the most photographed by Hubble. The hope is that the JWST can detect the oldest and faintest stars and thus provide a more precise age for the cluster previewing what the JWST could do for all of the 100 or so globular clusters in the Milky Way.

Another target is an ultrafaint dwarf galaxy a satellite of the Milky Way 98,000 light years from Earth that has surprisingly little normal, visible matter, but instead appears to be mostly dark matter. The JWST should be able to detect the galaxys very faint stars and, with data from Hubble, map their motions in 3D, allowing astronomers to precisely weigh the dark matter and plot its distribution, constraining some of the theories of what dark matter may actually be.

Even farther away 3.26 million light years is a star-forming galaxy that Weisz hopes will test the resolution of the JWST, and perhaps improve the cosmic distance ladder used to measure the expansion of the universe. All three targets will require exploring the capabilities not only of the telescope, but of the detectors that produce the data.

Were building the software needed to basically take the JWST images and turn them into scientifically useful data products, like radiation fluxes, luminosities of individual stars, and galaxies and star clusters in our Milky Way and nearby universe, he said. And then, were releasing all the analysis software, the pipelines used to reduce it, the catalogs were making all of that stuff is just going to be made public as soon as were done, so the community can immediately take it and apply it to their use observing or use it to plan future proposals.

While Weisz expects the JWST to help advance his field of galaxy formation in the local universe and refine distance measurements in the cosmos, he predicts the greatest discoveries will be about the very early universe and the conditions on planets around other stars, which were NASAs primary goals for the JWST. Some key questions about the history of the universe and of life in the universe could be answered in the next few years all potentially worth the price of the JWST.

I think Webb has gotten a lot of negative attention because of its $10 billion price tag when it was only supposed to be a couple billion, Weisz said. But at the end of the day, you look at this and you say, Boy, if this is now going to last 10, 15 years, and its going to open windows onto planets and ancient stars in the early universe and tell us about how we got here, it really is just kind of in line with all the other amazing things that NASA has done. You look at it in terms of its discovery potential, and I really think its a great value.

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Astronomers to put new space telescope through its paces - University of California

Are you actively engaged in, or interested in learning more about recent advances in quantum science and technology? The race to a quantum future is on. Across the globe, countries, and governments are competing to establish and grow their commercialization of quantum technologies. There is an imminent concern by experts in the field that the U.S. may not be able to lead the quantum race due to lack of trained quantum scientists and engineers. This journal club aims to address this concern and introduce engineers and scientists at the University of Iowa to quantum computing, sensing, and communication technologies that have powerful applications in many industries, including medicine, defense, financial services, and natural resources.

The Jumpstarting a Quantum Simulation Program team at the University of Iowa are organizing a Journal Club to bring together a community of interested graduate students, research staff, and faculty learn about research ongoing across campus as well as around the world. The Journal club will be held biweekly on Wednesdays in IATL 334, with a hybrid online option available. The time will alternate between 4 pm and 9 am on Wednesdays to accommodate a wider range of schedules.

Each week one speakers selected from the attendees will present a seminal paper from their field.

The first week (2nd of February 4 pm) we will start with Prof. Ravi Uppu, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy and PI of the Jumpstarting team.

The second week (16th of February 9 am), Prof Fatima Toor, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and team member will present.

If you would like to learn more, please email thomas-folland@uiowa.edu, with Quantum Literature in the subject to be added into the outlook group to learn more and receive updates to scheduling throughout the semester.

Excerpt from:

Literature Group - Professor Ravitej Uppu | Physics and Astronomy | The University of Iowa - Iowa Now

Next time you are in Uttarakhand, look up Starscapes: Indias only chain of astronomical observatories that lets you have a date with the night sky.

Paul Savio, Co-Founder and CEO of the venture talks about the inception, offerings, and future plans of this unique endeavour.

Paul Savio: Starscapes was born out of a passion project that started in 2015. Ramashish Ray, who is the founder, had a cottage in Kausani, Uttarakhand, which had a telescope. Tourists and guests enjoyed the dark skies there. This led to us setting up a small observatory at Kausani with ticketed shows. Initially, none of those who came to the observatory came looking for an astro-tourist experience they just happened to discover it when in Kausani. But the responses of those who did visit us ranged from a wholesome delightful session to being quite overwhelmed by it all. This was the primary insight we gathered theres a huge base of tourists who delight in finding new experiences wherever they go, especially linked to nature. While theres plenty of avenues to discover wildlife, mountains and oceans, there isnt much for those who would enjoy exploring the skies. And more significantly, most people dont know that they would enjoy this experience till they go through it.

Our goal was to create a platform for such people, who can get to experience something new, and find a unique connect with nature, while satiating their curiosity about the cosmos.

Paul Savio: While the experience started in 2015, it became a business around 2017, known as Stargate Observatories (now called Starscapes). For the next three years, we experimented with various products, some of which became a staple offering. We conducted astro-tours to Spiti Valley and Narkanda, conducted astrophotography workshops at our observatory in Kausani and other remote dark sky locations like the Sandhan Valley in Maharashtra, and held multiple school and college workshops. During the annular solar eclipse in 2019, we conducted an online photography contest which saw participation from places like Sri Lanka and the Middle East. However, we had to cease operations in 2020 as tourism dropped to zero. Over the last two years, we focused on rebuilding the company base-up, with a focus on going to the customer with a value proposition comprising varied experiences related to astronomy. We rebranded as Starscapes Experiences in 2021, and opened up observatories in Bhimtal and Jaipur. (We have also partnered with Club Mahindra, currently at their property in Madikeri (Coorg).) In December 2021, we partnered with the Government of Uttarakhand in conducting an Astro Party at Benital Astro Village, a location designated to become Indias first astro-tourism spot.

Paul Savio: Starscapes has observatories in Kausani and Bhimtal in Uttarakhand. We have recently launched a mobile observatory in Jaipur.

By May 2022, we plan to launch observatories in Coorg and Ooty. By the end of the year, we plan to have operations at Munnar, Pondicherry, Shimla and Goa.

Our locations are all tourist spots, chosen based on light pollution (darkness of the sky), weather (number of cloudless days) and accessibility (how well connected the place is). Since our objective is to reach out to casual astronomy enthusiasts, we find it is critical to our business model to be present at locations which are a drive away from big towns. The locations we finalise have fairly dark skies, measuring four or lesser on the Bortle Scale (a measure of night-sky darkness, one being extreme remote locations and nine being inner cities). The locations are also importantly tourist spots, since novel experiences are sought out and best enjoyed by tourists.

Paul Savio: Our business is designed to reach out to people looking for new experiences, and not just those who seek out astronomy experiences. Thus, we aim to introduce many people to this field.

Our offerings have a particular inclination towards younger audiences. Rocket-building, modelling a sundial, and many other activities get children to experientially understand things that are normally taught theoretically in school. Our observatory shows too are structured as discussions, and not as lectures. And children dont hesitate in asking questions, without any fear of sounding inane. This always increases the entire groups engagement and enthusiasm.

Children lead the conversation today, and set the trend for tomorrow. Helping them experience the universe and the science that goes into exploring it, in a fun way, will help grow their interest in astronomy. Their friends, parents, and eventually the rest of society will follow.

Paul Savio: Ironically, the act of physically setting up the observatory is the easy part. Once the location is finalised based on light pollution (dust pollution is usually inconsequential in places where light pollution is low) and weather, we need to identify a spot that has maximum visibility of the sky.

The difficult part is getting in place the team that conducts the shows. Our observatories are not just places where one can come and look at certain objects in the sky. There are detailed shows at set timings. You buy a ticket for a 45 minute show, during which our expert StarGuide takes you on a journey across the night sky, blending science, history and mythology into a thrilling storytelling session. You will learn to identify stars and constellations, and various other celestial objects. And then you would get to look at some of them through a state-of-the-art telescope, which the StarGuide undergoes over a months worth of training to be able to effectively use.

We are particular about choosing StarGuides from the vicinity of the observatory, thus lending a local flavour to our shows. Also, our StarGuides are primary conversationalists, and most of them do not have a science background. Since our shows are structured to be discussive, the guests feel like theyre having a fireside chat with an equal, and not attending a lecture from someone who is an expert. All our StarGuides have learnt how to conduct shows during their month-long induction, and constantly get refresher-training sessions from our team of trainers. Our very first StarGuide was a teacher at an ashram for girls in Kausani. With absolutely no knowledge of astronomy, he picked up everything on the job and is today a trainer of others. He incidentally still teaches at the ashram.

Herein lies our biggest challenge identifying individuals living in the small towns or villages where our observatory is, selecting them for their skills in having conversations with guests and working with children, and training them on the subject about which they may possibly have no clue. By the end of the training, they will know how to operate telescopes, identify deep sky objects, read the sky with ease, conduct workshops for children, and click photos of celestial objects as well as any astrophotographer would. They are our biggest assets.

Paul Savio: Our offerings are primarily focused on getting you out of your home and becoming one with nature. Having said that, we do have some and soon will be ranging other services that can be accessible anytime anywhere. We conduct photography contests that can be participated in remotely. We will soon be bringing mobile observatories in towns, where we can put up a temporary setup at your condominium and conduct workshops and activities, along with a sky show through a telescope. And well soon launch an online community where astronomy enthusiasts can avail services such as setting up your own backyard observatories, buying telescopes, planning astronomy themed parties, and many more.

Paul Savio: Starscapes will regularly host a number of engaging sessions related to stargazing. Some of the activities include

Paul Savio: It is possibly the first memory of stargazing I have, as a child in primary school. I had already learned to identify stars before this moment. On this day we were at a village in Kerala, and it was a clear summer sky. Having lived in a city all along, seeing so many stars in the sky was a novel experience. The sky was absolutely cloudless, except for one wispy trail. I mentioned this to my father who was also there with me, and his response was thats not a cloud. Thats the Milky Way. Discovering in a flash that what I was staring at was not many droplets of water, but millions of stars, was a humbling experience like never before.

Paul Savio: The pandemic has certainly made people miss the outdoors. This has spurred travel in the interludes between the waves, and made people look for something new to do. Having said that, conversation around astronomy has been growing for the last 10 years. Space has been in the news for all the good reasons: ISRO has faced repeated successes and will soon be sending humans to space, NASA is going back to the Moon, and private players have entered space travel, bringing with them a fair amount of glamour. All these have piqued the interest of the rest of us into identifying and taking part in conversations related to astronomy.

Paul Savio: The star-studded skies over the Himalayan peaks at the Pangong Lake would definitely be among my favourite spots that I have visited. But if we would like to talk about accessible locations, Kausani (a small hill station 10 hours drive from Delhi) is a stellar location, in every sense of the word. Its altitude and remoteness yield clean air and dark skies, that make it a worthy location for idyllic stargazing. Recently, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Madikeri in Coorg (just six hours from Bengaluru) has a brilliant night sky. In fact, it falls in the same Bortle Scale class as Kausani.

Paul Savio: Two events I am really looking forward to in the next couple of years are incidentally two that I have wanted to experience ever since I was a child. The first is to be at the beach at Sri Harikota, when Gaganyaan III lifts off with the first completely Indian space crew ever. It is expected to happen by August 2023. The second will be to visit the USA and experience first-hand the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. This will be the next total solar eclipse over easily accessible land (theres one in 2023 over Papua and a few other islands of Indonesia but getting there wont be easy). This is especially significant considering that from India, the next total solar eclipse visible wont be till March 2034 in Kashmir, and the one following that will be in June 2114!

Related: Check Out 9 Of The Best Hotels Around The World For Stargazing!

This story first appeared in Travel and Leisure India

Original post:

This start-up will inspire you to go stargazing in Uttarakhand - Prestige Online

MeerKATs radio view of the central regions of the Milky Way, highlighted by glowing red emissions surrounding the galaxys central black hole. Image: I. Heywood, SARAO.

Ever wonder what you might see if your eyes were sensitive to radio waves instead of visible light? Then check out the latest images from the 64-antenna MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, revealing the heart of the Milky Way as as it appears in radio emissions.

The stunning imagery shows previously known and newly-discovered features, including supernova remnants, huge magnetised radio filaments and the blazing inferno surrounding the 4-million-solar-mass black hole at the core of the galaxy.

The imagery is based on detailed analysis of a survey carried out during the telescopes commissioning, resulting in a mosaic of 20 observations captured during 200 hours of telescope time. The result is a 100-megapixel mosaic with a resolution of 4 arc seconds.

The images reveal never-before-seen supernova remnants, including a rare, almost perfectly spherical example, along with numerous stellar nurseries, cirrus-like emissions made up of many parallel radio filaments and a mesmerising view of the mouse, a runaway pulsar possibly ejected in a supernova blast.

At the heart of the mosaic is the supermassive black hole at the core of the Milky Way, shining like a giant red eye embedded in a vast cloud of less powerful emissions.

Ive spent a lot of time looking at this (mosaic) in the process of working on it, and I never get tired of it, says Ian Heywood from the University of Oxford, Rhodes University and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. Hes the lead author of a study in The Astrophysical Journal.

When I show this image to people who might be new to radio astronomy, or otherwise unfamiliar with it, I always try to emphasise that radio imaging hasnt always been this way, and what a leap forward MeerKAT really is in terms of its capabilities, he said. Its been a true privilege to work over the years with colleagues from SARAO who built this fantastic telescope.

Isabella Rammala, a Rhodes/SARAO doctoral student, assisted with imaging and data processing.

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MeerKAT paints a mesmerising portrait of the Milky Way Astronomy Now - Astronomy Now Online

Classification: Academic Level ASalary package: $76,271 - $95,732 per annum plus 17% superannuationTerm: Full time, Fixed Term (2 years)Position Description & Selection Criteria:PD and PEWER - Postdoctoral Fellow_updated.pdf

Closing Date: 21 February 2022

The Area

TheANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics(RSAA) operates Australias largest optical observatory and has access to the worlds largest optical telescopes.

Our staff and students have made major contributions to astronomy, mapping the structure and formation of the Milky Way, discovering planets orbiting other stars, measuring dark matter both within our Galaxy and in the wider Universe, and discovering the accelerating expansion of the Universe.

Our astronomers include winners of the Prime Ministers Prize for Science and the Nobel Prize.

At our administrative home at theMount Stromlo Observatorywe host theAdvanced Instrumentation and Technology Centrewhich is a national facility established to support the development of the next generation of instruments for astronomy and space science.

Our research telescopes are situated in the ANUSiding Spring Observatory, located in the Warrumbungle region of New South Wales. The observatory began as a field station for the Mount Stromlo Observatory and has since become Australias premier optical and infrared observatory, housing the state-of-artSkyMappertelescope.

The Position

The Postdoctoral Fellow will join the Astro-Machine-Learning group that specialises in the study of wide range topics (Galactic Archaeology, star formation and cosmology) in big-data astronomy through lens of statistics and machine learning.

The Person

To excel in this role you will have:

The Australian National University is a world-leading institution and provides a range of lifestyle, financial and non-financial rewards and programs to support staff in maintaining a healthy work/life balance whilst encouraging success in reaching their full career potential. For more information, please click here.

To see what the Science at ANU community is like, we invite you to follow us on social media at Instagram and Facebook.

For more information about the position please contact Associate Professor Yuan-Sen Ting on E: yuan-sen.ting@anu.edu.au.

ANU Values diversity and inclusion and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to those of all backgrounds and identities. People with a disability are encouraged to apply. For more information about staff equity at ANU, click here.

Application information

In order to apply for his role, please make sure that you upload the following documents:

Applications which do not address the selection criteria may not be considered for the position.

The successful candidate will be required to undergo a background check during the recruitment process. An offer of employment is conditional on satisfactory results.

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Postdoctoral Fellow, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics job with AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (ANU) | 278733 - Times Higher Education...

Looking back to 2021, there were many great space stories in the news, including two lunar eclipses back in May and November. By coincidence, two more total lunar eclipses will occur in May and November 2022. We were also entertained by three great meteor showers in January, August and December, but the moon ran major interference. The Northern Lights were prominent last month particularly in western Canada, painting the sky green.

The never-ending list of exoplanets continues to grow, with a total of 4,884 confirmed worlds and another 8,288 candidates. This search continues via ground and space-based telescopes. So, next time you look up at those twinkling points of light, you are looking at mini solar systems of at least one planet orbiting its parent star. After all, the sun is but one of 300 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.

It was this time last year that the Japanese Hayabusa mission successfully return soil samples from the asteroid Itokawa. The samples show that water and organic matter which originate from the asteroid itself have evolved chemically through time. It has long been the thought ofastronomers and scientists that building blocks of organic compounds needed to create life began in the solar system and were delivered to the young earth via meteorites. Missions such as this have shed new light on this theory. Meteorites and comets contain small amounts of water. Impacts over millions of years have most likely delivered water to the earth.

Comparable to the list of exoplanets, 70 more rogue planets have been detected floating through space. These are outcasts from their solar system, cast away by some event such as the star exploding, thus launching it on a path to nowhere. Or some could have been overpowered by larger planets in their solar system and were slingshot out of it, far away from the light and (possible) warmth of their sun.

Until recently, the sun has been studied by earth-bound telescopes and orbiting satellites. The amount of information learned is outstanding but the missing key was a physical examination. Never before had a spacecraft touched the sun until the Solar Parker Probe launched in 2018. Over the years the craft made multiple manoeuvres as it gets closer to the sun. In December of 2021, the probe touched the upper atmosphere of the suns corona, which is only seen from Earth during a total solar eclipse when the moon blocks the blinding light. Over the next few years the probe will skim closer to our star and by the year 2025 is will be racing at an unheard ofspeed of 690,000 kilometres per hour, or 192 kilometres per second. Its 11.4-centimetre thick heat shield alloys it to operate at about 29 degrees Celsius and not fry the electronics.

The newest addition to the Martian fleet came with the deployment of the SUV-sized rover Perseverance and Ingenuity helicopter anchored under it. The two blades of the small helicopter spin in opposite directions to help give lift in the thin Martian atmosphere. To date, it has logged 30 minutes in a series of short flights. This is the first time such a vehicle has been used on the red planet.

Private companies have proved they have the right stuff to launch into space not just NASA. Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin allowed 90-year-old William Shatner and retired National Football League (NFL) star Michael Strahan to touch space by passing the 100 Karman Line. But Elon Musk has taken space travel one step further by transporting astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station via the SpaceXDragon cargo ship. It is the same Dragon capsule that was almost used as an emergency escape vehicle. The International Space Station was subjected to a dangerous debris field of a purposely blown-up satellite. The danger has all but passed, but there were some anxious moments.

Space is dangerous. Along with solar radiation from the sun and cosmic rays from the cosmos, more than 23,000 pieces of orbital debris larger than a softball are being tracked. Half a million pieces are the size of a marble or larger, with approximately 100 million pieces of debris-about one millimetre and a bit larger. All moving at 28,000 km/hr, or almost 8 km/sec.

In September of 2022, the DART mission will arrive at the 800-metre wide asteroid Didymos to deflect a small 160-metre wide moonlet Dimorphos. This is a test to see if a potential asteroid coming towards earth can be slightly deflected, thus changing course and missing our planet. Fear not this particular asteroid is only a test subject and is no way on a collision course with our home planet.

The long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope (successor to the Hubble Space Telescope) was launched on Christmas Day. It has a much larger mirror system and will study infant galaxies in the near-infrared, thus allowing us to see through the gas and dust of the earliest galaxies. The sun shield measures the size of a tennis court and will shade the telescope from the heat of the sun and block the light of the earth and moon. It will operate at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth, where the temperature of space is -223 degrees Celsius. The JWST will be capable of looking back to the beginning of the universe, some 13.8 billion years ago. One of its many projects will be to see if black holes helped create the galaxies, or if they came afterwards. It will also look for signs of life in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets.

Clear skies.

Known as The Backyard Astronomer, Gary Boyle is an astronomy educator, guest speaker and monthly columnist for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, as well as past president of the Ottawa Centre of the RASC. He has been interviewed on more than 50 Canadian radio stations as well as television across Canada and the United States. In recognition of his public outreach in astronomy, the International Astronomical Union has honoured him with the naming of Asteroid (22406) Garyboyle. Follow him on Twitter: @astroeducator, Facebook and his website: http://www.wondersofastronomy.com

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2021 Astronomy Year In Review - The Review Newspaper

The field of extrasolar planet studies continues to reveal some truly amazing things about our Universe. After decades of having just a handful of exoplanets available for study, astronomers are now working with a total of 4,884 confirmed exoplanets and another 8,288 awaiting confirmation. This number is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years as next-generation missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Euclid, PLATO, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST) reveal tens of thousands more.

In addition to learning a great deal about the types of exoplanets that are out there and what kind of stars are known to give rise to them, astronomers have also made another startling discovery. There is no shortage of exoplanets in our galaxy that dont have a parent star. Using telescopes from around the world, a team of astronomers recently discovered 70 additional free-floating planets (FFPs), the largest sample of Rogue Planets discovered to date, and nearly doubling the number of FFPs available for study.

The research team responsible for the discovery was led by Nuria Miret-Roig, a postdoctoral researcher with the Laboratoire dAstrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB) and the University of Vienna. She was joined by multiple researchers from the LAB, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) in Kyoto, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, and the Centro de Astrobiologa (CAB) and Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial (DIA) in Spain. The study that describes their findings was recently published in Nature Astronomy.

To break it down, astronomers have speculated about the existence of FFPs (also known as Rogue Planets) for decades, and numerical simulations have indicated that they may be entirely common. In fact, some research has shown that there may be billions of these planets floating around in interstellar space potentially outnumbering stars in the Milky Way! The exact mechanisms for how planets go rogue remain a mystery, but several theories exist.

Among them, astronomers have conjectured that planets regularly form in interstellar space, that they are pulled away by gravitational interactions with passing stars, that supernovae kick them out, or that they free float into space after their sun dies. As Roig and her colleagues indicated in their study, previous research has identified FFPs in young stellar clusters and within the Galactic Field. Still, the samples were always small or heterogeneous in age and origin.

Moreover, rogue planets are usually impossible to image in visible light, much like trying to discern exoplanets that orbit stars several thousand times brighter. To do this, astronomers need to have access to very sensitive telescopes and instruments. Second, they also need to identify planetary-mass members within an overwhelming multitude of field stars and background galaxies. This is equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack, but where the needle is the least-shiny object.

To overcome this, Roig and her team combined the proper motions of objects in the night sky with multi-wavelength photometry obtained by multiple observatories over 20 years. These included the Isaac Newton Group (ING) on the island of La Palma (off the coast of Spain), the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Manua Kea, Hawaii, and the ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT), Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope, all of which are located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.

They also relied on astrometric observations by the European Space Agencys (ESA) space-based Gaia Observatory. As Herv Bouy the project leader of the new research said in a recent ING press release.

The vast majority of our data come from ESO observatories, which were absolutely critical for this study. Their wide field of view and unique sensitivity were keys to our success. We used tens of thousands of wide-field images from ESO facilities, corresponding to hundreds of hours of observations, and literally tens of terabytes of data.

Lastly, the team took advantage of how younger rogue planets are still warm from formation, allowing direct detection by sensitive telescopes and cameras. This is where the new deep wide-field observations by infrared and optical telescopes came into play, which provided the team with over 80,000 wide-field images (100 terabytes of data). From this, the team found at least 70-170 new FFPs comparable in mass to Jupiter and located in the Scorpius and Ophiuchus constellations, the closest star-forming region to our Solar System.

As Miret-Roig said in a recent ESO press release, this was the largest single-sample of FFPs ever discovered:

We did not know how many to expect and are excited to have found so many. We measured the tiny motions, the colors and luminosities of tens of millions of sources in a large area of the sky. These measurements allowed us to securely identify the faintest objects in this region, the rogue planets.

This discovery also means that astronomers will have nearly twice the data set they previously had, which will come in handy when follow-up observations happen in the near future. This large sample is already helping astronomers refine their theories about the nature and origin of rogue planets. Basically, the number of FFPs observed in the Upper Scorpius association exceeds what astronomers would expect if they only formed as stars do in the interstellar medium.

This suggests that there could be many more mechanisms at play and that previous estimates that suggested there could be billions of FFPs in our galaxies are correct. Assuming the fraction of FFPs that they observed in Upper Scorpius is similar to that of other star-forming regions, said Bouy, there would be several billion Jupiter-mass planets roaming the galaxy and even more Earth-mass planets many of which have been observed in the Milky Way:

There could be several billions of these free-floating giant planets roaming freely in the Milky Way without a host star. These objects are extremely faint and little can be done to study them with current facilities. The ELT will be absolutely crucial to gathering more information about most of the rogue planets we have found.

The ESOs Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is currently under construction in the Atacama Desert and is expected to gather its first light by 2027. With its 39-meter (128-foot) primary mirror and advanced suite of spectrometers, coronographs, and adaptive optics, the ELT will be able to directly image exoplanets, rogue planets, and characterize their atmospheres. That same year, NASAs Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will also launch for space and begin conducting exoplanet surveys that could include FFPs as small as Mars.

The FFPs we identified are also excellent targets for follow-up studies. In particular, they will be essential to study planetary atmospheres in the absence of a blinding host star, making the observation far easier and more detailed, Bouy added. The comparison with atmospheres of planets orbiting stars will provide key details about their formation and properties. Additionally, studying the presence of gas and dust around these objects, what we call circumplanetary discs, will shed more light on their formation process.

Another implication of this study is what it could mean for models of planet formation and evolution, which are key to understanding the origin of habitable planets and life. Said Miret-Roig:

The discovery of this large population of young FFPs has important implications for the formation and early evolution of planetary systems and, specifically, on the timescale of the processes involved. Our observations suggest that giant-planet systems must form and become dynamically unstable within the observed lifetime (3-10 million years) of the region to contribute to the population of FFPs. Current studies suggest that dynamical instability among the giant planets in our Solar System may also have occurred at early times, although it was much less violent than the instability needed to eject planets as massive as the ones we have found.

Theres also the exciting possibility that FFPs could host life, possibly tucked away in subterranean pockets where the slow decay of radioactive elements or convection provides the necessary heat. Another possibility is that FFPs could have moons that possess thick atmospheres and water on their surface, raising the possibility of life again. Could any of these possibilities be real? With hundreds or thousands of FFPs available for study in the coming years, well find out one way or another.

Further Reading: ESO, Isaac Newton Group, Nature Astronomy

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Astronomers Find 70 Planets Without Stars Floating Free in the Milky Way - Universe Today