Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
June 29, 2007
Still catching up on the Extreme Solar Systems conference...
Lots of interesting stuff on planetary atmospherics.
Models are currently mainly looking at mean temperatures (at the 5-10% level) and horizontal global heat transport. Clear need to incorporate vertical transport and chemistry.…
June 29, 2007
Did I mention that I have been here a week and not got to the beach yet...
One of the penalties of being an organiser. Of course I slept that one free afternoon, but that was after trying to find the Olympic Airways office for 3 hours - they shut it, apparently people kept bothering them or…
June 29, 2007
Still at the Extreme Solar Systems conference in Santorini where it has cooled off a bit.
One of the locals assures me this is the worst since the great heat wave of 1916 and that I should come back in october... must make the most of this once-per-century opportunity.
So, more planet news...…
June 28, 2007
I'm still working my way through my notes from day 1 of the conference...
did I mention I have a lots of notes.
Actually, by my count, half-way through day 3, I've seen four very interesting announcements that are embargoed, two because of Nature/Science submission issues, which I will of course…
June 28, 2007
Philosophia Naturalis 11 is up at Highly Allochthonous
Good stuff.
June 28, 2007
More planet news from the Extreme Solar Systems conference
In addition to the Jupier like planet (did I mention that I like that result...?)
the California-Carnegie-AAT team has several more long period jovians, possibly with low eccentricity orbits.
Looking at known planet hosts, 179 stars, 25 are…
June 28, 2007
There have been several interesting items at the Extreme Solar Systems conference here in Santorini
I think the surprise announcement from the California exoplanets groups that they have a genuine Jupiter analog - a Jupiter mass planet in a long period, low eccentricity orbit, very similar to our…
June 27, 2007
Petros M. Nomikos conference center in Fira, Santorini is a very nice medium capacity facility (~ 200 for the main room, which we are filling)
Well worth a visit, if you're planning a small meeting.
I forgot to bring my camera, but MacPro has a small built in web-cam...
View to Firastefani west…
June 27, 2007
Iranian news agency is reporting that the Bushehr nuclear power station is going online in October 2007
That is interesting.
It means the reports earlier that the fuel was delivered quietly by the Russians was accurate and they must be loading the reactor starting right now, if they want to be…
June 26, 2007
the long rumoured planet candiate around a nearby white dwarf has finally been made public
Fergal Mullally (U Texas) announced that they have strong evidence for a 2+ Jupiter mass planet around the white dwarf GD66 - a pulsating moderate temperature hydrogen white dwarf that is about 50 pc away.…
June 25, 2007
The Extreme Solar System conference at Santorini is off with a bang!
Number of announcements already in the first session, I'll catch up on the highlights later, and just give the, in my opinion, most interesting.
The California-Carnegie-AAT group has a genuine extrasolar Jupiter analog!
Jason…
June 25, 2007
Ok, Santorini has broadband and WiFi
We're on. I'll intermittently live blog the meeting as I can and if and when anything on particular interest comes up.
And we're off, on time...
June 25, 2007
ok, I confess, I am now lounging on a small mediterranean island
Santorini to be specific.
(I hope, since I am using the movable type "scheduling" function, and am confidentially anticipating all flights and connections flew and connected)
I am not just lounging by the pool, indeed I suspect…
June 22, 2007
So, it will be friday, and we will ask: oh mighty iPod One - will we have robust detection of candiates for genuinely habitable extrasolar planets around nearby main sequence stars by 2010?
And, if so, can you tell us more...
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Never-Played…
June 22, 2007
The incoherent ponderer ponders the joys of doing physics as a professor at a research university...
but to offset his irrational exuberance, he points to the classic "two geeks" post by Steve Hsu
Ouch.
Read the comments.
The first one, on the analogy with art careers is a point frequently made,…
June 21, 2007
Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov
"We have recently discussed the question with the Foreign Minister of Iran. We have no misunderstanding regarding the execution of contractual obligations regarding the construction of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr. We agreed to continue the…
June 21, 2007
This would be funny, but...
Congress questions VP Office claim to not be an entity within the executive branch
"I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the…
June 20, 2007
Greg at systemic makes a bold, and probably accurate prediction
observational sensitivity is now reaching parameter spaces where we can detect genuinely nice habitable planets, and the odds are that we will in fact see some real soon now
For what it is worth, I think he is right.
We're not at the…
June 19, 2007
A Supreme Court Justice cites a television show in his deliberations on torture...?
"Senior judges from North America and Europe were in the midst of a panel discussion about torture and terrorism law, when a Canadian judge's passing remark - "Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do…
June 19, 2007
Depends...
When I were a lad, we would occasionally get dismissed from school, particularly in early spring, usually at noon.
These were known as "Sun"-days, and were those rare days on which the sun shone in a clear blue sky and the temperatures reached a balmy 10-15 C (50-60F you heathens).
This…
June 15, 2007
It is a lazy sunny friday, and we ask humbly, what excitement lies ahead, oh mighty iPod one?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Old King Cole
The Crossing: Engill í Rólu - Bubbi
The Crown: Koka Kola - Clash
The Root: Confessions - Violent Femmes
The Past: Brain Stew - Green Day
The…
June 14, 2007
Note to self: when submitting NSF proposals through Fastlane -
if you do a last minute revision then run LaTeX twice before generating the new PDF file, or the bibtex cross-cites break... ugly.
Apparently the panel really hates that. Really, really hates that.
Never had such a unanimous referee…
June 14, 2007
EADS Astrium, the European conglomerate that builds the Ariane rockets has come up with a concept vehicle for suborbital flights
Hybrid jet and rocket plane about the size of a business jet. Capable of suborbital hops, allegedly, like the Rutan's Space Ship One
Nominal market is high end tourism at…
June 13, 2007
House subcommittee on Science and Related Agencies has marked up its appropriations bill
Looking good...
They give NASA and extra $290 million, majority for Science.
Sounds like they also plan to put in the barriers between line item spending in NASA, to preclude some divisions (exploration)…
June 13, 2007
My earlier rumouring was false, I hear third hand that the NRC committee on Beyond Einstein has not consolidated their reporting and sent it to the NRC, they are having one more meeting right about nowish.
Interesting.
Still due to submit to NASA Sep 8th, with an announcement on Sep 9th from…
June 12, 2007
There is a claim that the Russians have delivered the fuel for Iran's Bushehr reactor.
The source is DEBKA, which is interesting in and of itself.
The story is quite detailed, both in timeline and claims of political motivation (Putin pissed off at Bush, natch), but DEBKA is not entirely reliable…
June 8, 2007
Stormy friday, which is weird, ought it not to be thursday...
We approach the mighty iPod and ask, oh Mighty iPod One: is there a characteristic accretion signature of late stages of binary supermassive black hole mergers?, and is it LISA relevant?
The Covering: Gó Gó Partí - Stuðmenn
The…
June 6, 2007
Good news is that the east coast Whole Foods are now carrying plain skyr
Aahhh.
This is the real stuff, not the oversweetened flavoured vanilla stuff they've been pushing.
The bad news is that I bought it all.
Really, I think I cleaned out all the Whole Foods north of NYC.
BwaHaHaHaha!