astro
catdynamics | May 11, 2007I hear second hand rumours about the Beyond Einstein NRC review committee status
I am reliably informed, that the committee did reach their conclusions, probably very shortly after the Chicago townhall meeting, and that they have a definite ranking. The formal report is being written.
They report to NASA in June and the formal announcment is by September.
No word on what the actual recommendations are.
Curious as I am, I would rather see the committee maintain its integrity than leak the news prematurely and mess up the process. I can wait.
catdynamics | May 10, 2007The Angry Physicist makes a good spot
Press conference next week on a "ring of dark matter" discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope, Advanced Camera for Surveys (RIP).
This is almost certainly this result reported at the AAS
The authors took strong and weak lensing data from a moderate redshift cluster and see a ring mass density enhancement at about 1.5 core radii.
The interpret it, with supporting collisionless numerical models, as a "turnaround ripple" from a near head-on collision of two clusters 1-2 Gyrs ago.
I am skeptical but intrigued. Not having seen the actual paper, I'd worry…
catdynamics | May 9, 2007Rob at Galactic Interactions has existential issues
Sean has some thoughts on the issue
It is an interesting topic, but one that is very hard to comment on.
The criteria for tenure vary somewhat between different universities, but at the "R1" level (annoying but useful bio concept that) the broad guideline, in my humble opinion as a tenured faculty member who is not on the promotion and tenure committee(!) is
"million dollars, fifty papers and don't screw up on the teaching".
The actual number depend on details, some fields just don't have that sort of money, or the number of papers expected…
catdynamics | May 3, 2007Corot has first discovery announcement
Corot Exo1b - 1.3 Jupiter masses, radius of 1.5-1.8 Jupiter radiii around G dwardf with 1.5 day orbital period.
So another short period, bloated Jupiter. Star is 500 pc away, so I'm guessing roughly 12th magnitude.
Specs at extrasolar encyclopedia
The big news is the very high precision photometry they are claiming, their sensitivity looks very good, and they should go to lower masses than anticipated over the next year.
Current photometry looks to be 50 micromagnitudes, compared with specs of 0.7 millimagnitudes and they still haven't beaten down the…
catdynamics | May 2, 2007New Scientist has a teaser article(sub) about Corot...
Sounds like Corot is exceeding specs and will exceed specifications - if I translate it correctly they will get to under 100 ppm, compared to specs of 700 ppm for photometry of their brighter sources.
That is pushing close to Kepler sensitivity and will make them sensitive to smaller, and lower mass, planets.
They will still be limited to shorter orbital periods, but they may push into the habitable planets in the habitable zone for K dwarfs, and definitely for M dwarfs.
Soooon.
Nature is also dropping hints(sub)
This is fun.
catdynamics | May 2, 2007There is a new head of Research and Analysis in NASA's science directorate
Dr Yvonne Pendleton out of NASA Ames astrobio takes over SARA at HQ
She wants to hear from people about R&A issues, general concerns, the specific issues still go to program officers. Non-responsive program officers are a general concern, apparently (mine are all very nice and responsive, really).
She is also going to meetings: AAS, Bioastro, DPS and AGU to actually tell people what is going on.
Er, wow. That is good.
I hope that is good, if not, then it is very brave...
catdynamics | May 2, 2007The Astrophysical Journal is on the move!
Word.
The Astrophysical Journal, a primary reasearch publication outlet of the American Astronomical Society is moving. Publication will apparently be done by the Institute of Physics, UK!
And the Editor's office is moving to Canada, we hear (anyone care to confirm that...?)
Third hand reports suggest the University of Chicago Press is doing things differently, and not in an entirely good way, at least from the academic publishing perspective.
One too many MBAs methinks.
catdynamics | May 2, 2007ACS or STIS asks the Astro Dyke
You vote.
Good question, says the Space Telescope Users Committee, in an e-mail.
Which would you rather have back?
The Advanced Camera for Surveys or Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
The former produced some of the most fantastic pictures ever taken, the latter is a broad band high resolution spectrograph that is very scientifically productive.
The new instruments going up are Cosmic Origins Spectrograph - a medium resolution fixed aperture UV spectroscope, and Wide Field Camera 3 - a broad band moderately wide field camera.
COS is definitely not a STIS…
catdynamics | May 1, 2007Wired has a slightly breathless short about the Terrestrial Planet Finder... to be launched in 2016!
I guess they didn't get the memo
TPF is off the table.
Downgraded to small scale lab feasibility demos, the engineering team disbanded.
Even if they change their minds, again, there is no possibility of TPF(c) or anything like it to fly by 2016.
Back to the drawing board. Literally.
There will be a planet imager, eventually, it may be a radically different concept mission, there are a couple of very interesting concepts being thrown around, but their feasibility is not demonstrated.
If NASA…
catdynamics | May 1, 2007Corot is a very nifty little satellite.
It is a french space agency small satellite, designed to measure convection, rotation and to find planets.
It started off as an astroseismology mission, in the Proteus class of standardised mini-satellite buses (hey! now there's a concept, standardized satellite buses for different class missions to reduce long term cost and enhance mission development... now if only someone else would do that, and stick with it for more than one funding cycle!).
It is tiny little thing, 300 kg, launched on a Russian Soyuz into a polar orbit, looking out orthogonally…
catdynamics | April 30, 2007Neil de Grasse Tyson on the Colbert Report tonight. Third time.
Talking Gliese 581 and "Night at the Planetarium" - the sequel.
Excellent.
catdynamics | April 29, 2007What is a fair non-science criterion for changing proposal funding priorities?
Below I ranted on possible political reprioritization of NASA funding
but I decided I wasn't clear in what I was worried about.
Consider a hypothetical (NASA) proposal I send in.
It is of course a very good proposal, ranked somewhere in the top 10%.
Here are some possible outcomes.
a) Top ranked proposal, it is funded.
b) Not funded: because funding was shifted within NASA to Exploration to expedite completion of Aries launcher
c) Not funded: slightly lower ranked proposal by underrepresented proposer in…
catdynamics | April 29, 2007IAU sighs in relief as everyone finally stops talking about that Pluto thing last year...
Clerical error catastrophe at the ISR
And remember to wear your Margaret block.
catdynamics | April 26, 2007Philosophia Naturalis #9 is up at Science and Reason
Lots of good stuff.
catdynamics | April 25, 2007if you want to help find planets, in the comfort of your home (as opposed to staying up all night on cold clear winter evenings), there is a place that you can go...
systemic is a web-site/blog run by Prof Greg Laughlin at UCSC to play with planet data
they do a lot of stuff, testing stability, inclination models, planet interactions etc all setup to run at the click of a button, you provide CPU cycles and eyeballs to look over the output.
systemic includes both synthetic data - testing observations of model systems, and real data, so users can run "solutions" for know systems, trying to fit…
catdynamics | April 25, 2007earlier this year I was a co-author on a paper which, among other things, attempted to "predict" which of the currently known planetary systems we might expect to find future planets in the habitable zones - specifically terrestrial or "super Earth" planets.
Gliese 581 was on our list (p. 33)
I like it.
catdynamics | April 25, 20072nd Battalion, 14th Regiment, 10th (Light) Infantry Division
Busy folks.
catdynamics | April 24, 2007The Swiss-French planet hunter team have a new interesting discovery.
A low mass "super Earth" in a potential habitable zone.
Nature news story
UPDATE: Details are up on the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia
and Udry's web page
and here is the actual preprint (PDF)
Hm, interesting, the full solution gives a finite eccentricity to the middle planet, which is interesting, but it could still be very small. Dynamically, looking at formation it makes a big difference if the middle planet has e << 0.1 or e ~ 0.1-0.2
Interestingly the numbers in the submitted paper are slightly different from…
catdynamics | April 23, 2007AGILE - Italian gamma ray observatory, like a faster, lighter GLAST - launched successfully
catdynamics | April 20, 2007The Astrophysics division at the Science Mission Directorate has been renamed and has a new director.
It is now Universe.
They haven't updated their organization chart yet, but I hear Jon Morse is the new director.
I also hear there is someone new being brought in to take over R&A.
Should be interesting. Don't know if ROSES '07 can be amended, but things should be very different next year.
Now all we need is some money; and no micromanagement from the political levels; and some consistency in directives from the White House.