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Testing Gravity
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 22, 2013 The “Physical Applications of Millisecond Pulsars” conference is under way at the Aspen Center for Physics, going through thursday when the X-Games take over. The meeting started with surveys of current observational and instrumentation projects, in particular the amazing serendipitous discoveries being made by NASA’s Fermi γ-ray observatory, in conjunction with ground based radio telescopes,…
Siding Spring Observatory Fire
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 13, 2013 astropixie has running update on the Siding Spring Observatory Fire in Warrumbungle National Park in Australia. PS: Day After the Fire update from astropixie – telescopes mostly ok, astronomy facilities not so much #ClimateChange
AAS221 Sciency Bits
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 10, 2013 Gemini AO LASER As we come to the end of the 221st annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, it is time to reflect upon the diverse science presented at the meeting. And what a lot of science it was. Fortunately, there were also a lot of people to make sense of it and press…
#AAS221 highlights
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 10, 2013 The AAS felt curiously light on major news this year. Not that there weren’t a lot of developments and announcements of results, rather that there didn’t seem to any major obvious breakthroughs. Of course, it is the little ones that get you… Critically there is, of course, the annual, informal contest for the “best swag”.…
JW$T – tensions bubble up at #AAS221
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 10, 2013 The James Webb Space Telescope is large, overbudget and in a category of its own. Literally. And now stirring over some controversy as the reality of science funding starts smacking scientists in the face. Last year, as I’m, sure you remember, the JWST funding line was take out of the Astrophysics Division and segregated in…
Hot and Cold
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 9, 2013 Space based infrared observations find double planetesimal belts around Vega. Su et al. (ApJ in press) got Spitzer and Herschel observations of Vega, and find emission consistent with an inner warm asteroid belt and an outer cool planetesimal belt, with a gap between. This is similar to what we see in the Solar System but…
Hot Stars Reveal the Secret of Aging Well
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 7, 2013 On the Blues and the Lifestyles and Fates of the Hottest Stars as they Cluster in the Heavens: or, why aging gracefully depends on your lifestyle and environment… The Stellar Dynamical Clock – is a Nature paper that came out in the Christmas double issue, always my favourite and very good value, might I add.…
#AAS221
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 7, 2013 It was at the gathering, and all the astronomers were there, drinking coffee among the posters, hearing the NSF in despair… I am at my almost regular pilgrimage to the Annual Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, where I hope to do some semi-liveblogging of developments and science news in my copious spare time. I…
The Meaning of It All
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on December 21, 2012 Hubble’s Constant: H0 = 42! 42 scots miles/sec/Mpc that is. Finally we know the natural units for cosmology.
Change at the Top of the ApJL
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on December 20, 2012 The venerable Astrophysical Journal, Letters has a new editor: Prof. Fred Rasio. Fred is the 4th editor in the journal’s 45 year existence. The Letters are for the publication of rapid, short papers, which are timely, and often somewhat speculative. Fred takes over from Chris Sneden, who did a fabulous job over the last decade,…