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Astronomy posts
- September 1, 2010
- 01:20 PM
- 245 views
This (Long) Week in the Universe: August 24th – September 1st
by S.C. Kavassalis in The Language of Bad Physics
What have people been talking about this week in high energy physics, astrophysics, gravitation, general relativity and quantum gravity?... Read more »
Lisa J. Kewley, David Rupke, H. Jabran Zahid, Margaret J. Geller, & Elizabeth J. Barton. (2010) Metallicity Gradients and Gas Flows in Galaxy Pairs. arXiv. DOI: 1008.2204
Mayer L, Kazantzidis S, Escala A, & Callegari S. (2010) Direct formation of supermassive black holes via multi-scale gas inflows in galaxy mergers. Nature, 466(7310), 1082-4. PMID: 20740009
Mikhail Gorchtein, Stefano Profumo, & Lorenzo Ubaldi. (2010) Probing Dark Matter with AGN Jets. arXiv. arXiv: 1008.2230v1
J. K. Webb, J. A. King, M. T. Murphy, V. V. Flambaum, R. F. Carswell, & M. B. Bainbridge. (2010) Evidence for spatial variation of the fine structure constant. arXiv. arXiv: 1008.3907v1
Harold V. Parks, & James E. Faller. (2010) A Simple Pendulum Determination of the Gravitational Constant. Phys. Rev. Let. arXiv: 1008.3203v2
L. Borsten, D. Dahanayake, M. J. Duff, A. Marrani, & W. Rubens. (2010) Four-qubit entanglement from string theory. Physical Review Letters. arXiv: 1005.4915v2
- August 30, 2010
- 06:26 AM
- 45 views
when a few million years don’t mean much…
by Greg Fish in weird things
Oh those scientists with their constant corrections. Slightly more than a century ago, they said our planet and the entire solar system was a few hundred million years old, then they said it was 4.56 billion years old after fiddling around with radioactive isotopes in asteroids and meteors. Now, they’re changing the age of the [...]... Read more »
Bouvier, A., & Wadhwa, M. (2010) The age of the Solar System redefined by the oldest Pb–Pb age of a meteoritic inclusion. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo941
- August 29, 2010
- 10:36 AM
- 42 views
the birth of a supermassive monster, revisited
by Greg Fish in weird things
We know that black holes can grow to become absolutely enormous in size, tipping the scales at billions and billions of times the mass of our sun. The numbers involved make the gravitational monsters in question very hard to visualize, and pose a big mystery. Did they form from the remnants of the first stars [...]... Read more »
Mayer, L., Kazantzidis, S., Escala, A., & Callegari, S. (2010) Direct formation of supermassive black holes via multi-scale gas inflows in galaxy mergers. Nature, 466(7310), 1082-1084. DOI: 10.1038/nature09294
- August 27, 2010
- 06:19 PM
- 62 views
Serendipitous astronomy
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Within the constellation of Ursa Major, about 134 million light years away, an almighty collision is occurring between two galaxies. As the clouds of gas and dust are swirled together an intense burst of star formation is triggered, but is that all that’s been awoken? Has this galactic merger also provided a hidden central black [...]... Read more »
Perez-Torres, Miguel A.; Alberdi, Antxon; Romero-Canizales, Cristina; Bondi, Marco. (2010) Serendipitous discovery of the long-sought AGN in Arp 299-A. Accepted for publication in Letters to Astronomy and Astrophysics. info:/1008.4466
- August 24, 2010
- 07:36 PM
- 46 views
Library love
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
I love libraries. I’m a member of four, not including University ones. Without libraries and the ability to borrow whatever I fancy, I think I’d be broke and living in a book-cave! So, I was sad this morning to hear that the number of adults visiting libraries in the UK has been decreasing steadily over [...]... Read more »
Nissinboim, A., Ebel, D. S., Harlow, G. E., Boesenberg, J. S., Sherman, K. M., Lewis, E. R., Brusentsova, T. N., Peale, R. E., Lisse, C. M., & Hibbitts, C. A. (2010) The American Museum of Natural History Mineral Library for Spectroscopic Standards. Lunar and Planetary Institute Science Conference. info:/
- August 24, 2010
- 07:00 PM
- 61 views
This Week in the Universe: August 17th – August 23rd
by S.C. Kavassalis in The Language of Bad Physics
What have people been talking about this week in high energy physics, astrophysics, gravitation, general relativity and quantum gravity?... Read more »
Lo Curto, G., Mayor, M., Benz, W., Bouchy, F., Lovis, C., Moutou, C., Naef, D., Pepe, F., Queloz, D., Santos, N.... (2010) The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets XXVII. Astronomy and Astrophysics. info:other/10.1051/0004-6361/200913523
D. J. Champion, G. B. Hobbs, R. N. Manchester, R. T. Edwards, D. C. Backer, M. Bailes, N. D. R. Bhat, S. Burke-Spolaor, W. Coles, P. B. Demorest.... (2010) Measuring the mass of solar system planets using pulsar timing. Astrophysical Journal. arXiv: 1008.3607v1
Berné O, Marcelino N, & Cernicharo J. (2010) Waves on the surface of the Orion molecular cloud. Nature, 466(7309), 947-9. PMID: 20725034
B. W. Ritchie, J. S. Clark, I. Negueruela, & N. Langer. (2010) A VLT/FLAMES survey for massive binaries in Westerlund 1: II. Dynamical constraints on magnetar progenitor masses from the eclipsing binary W13. Astronomy . arXiv: 1008.2840v1
Ephraim Fischbach,, Peter A. Sturrock,, Jere H. Jenkins,, Daniel Javorsek II,, John B. Buncher,, & John T. Gruenwald. (2010) Evidence for Solar Influences on Nuclear Decay Rates . Fifth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry. info:/1007.3318
P. E. Koehler, F. Bečvář, M. Krtička, J. A. Harvey, & K. H. Guber. (2010) Anomalous fluctuations of s-wave reduced neutron widths of $^{192,194}$Pt resonances. Phys. Rev. Lett. , 105(7). arXiv: 1007.3675v1
Palenzuela, C., Lehner, L., & Liebling, S. (2010) Dual Jets from Binary Black Holes. Science, 329(5994), 927-930. DOI: 10.1126/science.1191766
- August 23, 2010
- 11:04 AM
- 45 views
In the news this month: pulsar irregularities
After massive stars like explode, the object left behind is thought to be either a or a black hole, depending on the final mass of the progenitor star. are neutron stars that have strong magnetic fields and behave somewhat like cosmic lighthouses, projecting beams of radio emission into space as they spin. Studying the pulses of radiation as the beams sweep past the Earth can provide valuable information on the physics of these extreme objects, allowing astronomers to probe physics under cond........ Read more »
Lyne, A., Hobbs, G., Kramer, M., Stairs, I., & Stappers, B. (2010) Switched Magnetospheric Regulation of Pulsar Spin-Down. Science, 329(5990), 408-412. DOI: 10.1126/science.1186683
- August 20, 2010
- 01:40 PM
- 69 views
Cylons and Smelloscopes: False Positives and False Negatives in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
by The Astronomist in The Astronomist.
Are there planets outside of our solar system? Is there life on other planets? Is life on other planets like life on Earth? These are questions that astronomers, astrobiologists, chemists, and geologists are trying to answer with current experiments. In order to answer these questions we must observe distant planets and we must determine what life on those planets may be like. Detecting extrasolar planets is tricky enough, but imaging what alien life is like may well be stranger than science fic........ Read more »
Beichman, C. A., Woolf, N. J., & Lindensmith, C. A. (1999) The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) : a NASA Origins Program to search for habitable planets. JPL publication. info:/
- August 19, 2010
- 06:46 PM
- 64 views
Nemesis meets its, uh, nemesis
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Interesting fact of the day: examining the fossil record suggests that mass extinctions on Earth occur approximately once every 26 million years (Myr). One possible explanation for this is a companion dwarf star to the Sun on a 26 Myr orbit. Every time is passes by, the theory goes, it messes up the Oort cloud [...]... Read more »
Adrian L. Melott, & Richard K. Bambach. (2010) Nemesis Reconsidered. MNRAS. arXiv: 1007.0437v1
- August 18, 2010
- 11:23 AM
- 67 views
Could The Planck Satellite Discover A New Species Of Neutrino?
by Joseph Smidt in The Eternal Universe
It has been known for some time that the WMAP data is more consistant with the existence of four neutrino species than three. Nevertheless, most cosmologists shrug this off as three is by no means ruled out. However, Hamann et al. 2010 demonstrate that such a dismissal may be a mistake.
It turns out, when WMAP 7 year data is combined with Sloan data, the three neutrino species model is ruled
... Read more »
Jan Hamann, Steen Hannestad, Georg G. Raffelt, Irene Tamborra, & Yvonne Y. Y. Wong. (2010) Cosmology seeking friendship with sterile neutrinos. Eprint. arXiv: 1006.5276v1
- August 17, 2010
- 12:31 PM
- 57 views
Spaceballs!
by Invader Xan in Supernova Condensate
Causing quite a big stir in the astrochemical world recently is the astronomical detection of C60, more popularly known as fullerene. This is kind of a big deal. Fullerenes have been known about since the 1980s when Harry Kroto et al first5 created them by vapourising graphite with electrical discharges. Since then, it's been found that C60 molecules are very stable and readily formed molecules. Lots of people have hypothesised them existing in space, but up until now there's been no conclusive........ Read more »
Cami, J., Bernard-Salas, J., Peeters, E., & Malek, S. (2010) Detection of C60 and C70 in a Young Planetary Nebula. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1192035
- August 16, 2010
- 01:26 PM
- 68 views
This Week in the Universe: August 10th – August 16th
by S.C. Kavassalis in The Language of Bad Physics
What have people been talking about this week in high energy physics, astrophysics, gravitation, general relativity and quantum gravity? ... Read more »
Assef, R., Kochanek, C., Brodwin, M., Cool, R., Forman, W., Gonzalez, A., Hickox, R., Jones, C., Le Floc'h, E., Moustakas, J.... (2010) LOW-RESOLUTION SPECTRAL TEMPLATES FOR ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI AND GALAXIES FROM 0.03 TO 30 μm. The Astrophysical Journal, 713(2), 970-985. DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/713/2/970
Albert P. Linnell, Paula Szkody, Richard M. Plotkin, Jon Holtzman, Mark Seibert, Thomas E. Harrison, & Steve B. Howell. (2010) GALEX and Optical Light Curves of WX LMi, SDSSJ103100.5 202832.2 and SDSSJ121209.31 013627.7. The Astrophysical Journal. arXiv: 1003.2564v1
Kjær, K., Leibundgut, B., Fransson, C., Jerkstrand, A., & Spyromilio, J. (2010) The 3-D structure of SN 1987A's inner ejecta. Astronomy and Astrophysics. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201014538
Knispel, B., Allen, B., Cordes, J., Deneva, J., Anderson, D., Aulbert, C., Bhat, N., Bock, O., Bogdanov, S., Brazier, A.... (2010) Pulsar Discovery by Global Volunteer Computing. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1195253
Hansen, S., Juncher, D., & Sparre, M. (2010) AN ATTRACTOR FOR DARK MATTER STRUCTURES. The Astrophysical Journal, 718(2). DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/718/2/L68
V. M. Abazov et al. (D0 Collaboration). (2010) Evidence for an Anomalous Like-Sign Dimuon Charge Asymmetry. Phys. Rev. Lett. , 105(8), 1801. info:/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.081801
V. M. Abazov et al. (D0 Collaboration). (2010) Evidence for an anomalous like-sign dimuon charge asymmetry. Phys. Rev. D, 82(3), 32001. info:/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.032001
- August 11, 2010
- 12:56 PM
- 52 views
No rings round Rhea
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
This afternoon I set myself a challenge – take a paper published on the astronomy arXiv today and blog about it by the end of the day. Luckily for me an intriguing non-detection in our own Solar System popped up. Back in 2008 it was widely reported that the Cassini spacecraft had detected a ring [...]... Read more »
Matthew S. Tiscareno, Joseph A. Burns, Jeffrey N. Cuzzi, & Matthew M. Hedman. (2010) Cassini imaging search rules out rings around Rhea. Geophys. Res. Lett. 37, L14205 (2010). arXiv: 1008.1764v1
- August 10, 2010
- 06:58 PM
- 78 views
Finding Buckyballs in Space
by Steve W in Bridgehead Carbons
When you hear about molecules in interstellar space or on the moons of Saturn they tend to be small molecules like methane, ammonia or water. A big organic molecule would be something like glycine, the simplest amino acid, with only 5 "big" atoms (carbon, oxygen and nitrogen) and 5 Hydrogen atoms. So finding buckyballs with 60 or 70 carbon atoms is really quite extraordinary. It's a big difference, and buckyballs contain only carbon atoms - no other elements not even hydrogen, the mo........ Read more »
Cami, J., Bernard-Salas, J., Peeters, E., & Malek, S. (2010) Detection of C60 and C70 in a Young Planetary Nebula. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1192035
- August 10, 2010
- 08:31 AM
- 93 views
Amateur Impact Hypothesis Makes It Into Major Archaeology Journal
by Martin Rundkvist in Aardvarchaeology
Shortly after my buddy Jeff Medkeff died in 2008, a joint book review of ours was published in Skeptic Magazine. Here we criticised a book by Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell, two aeronautics engineers, where they claimed that a 7th century BC cuneiform tablet from Mesopotamia described an asteroid striking the Austrian Alps in 3123 BC. Their argument was in our opinion extremely speculative or pseudoscientific, regardless of whether you saw it from an astronomical, geological or archaeological poin........ Read more »
Barbara Rappenglück, Michael A. Rappenglück, Kord Ernstson, Werner Mayer, Andreas Neumair, Dirk Sudhaus, & Ioannis Liritzis. (2010) The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria (south-east Germany). Antiquity, 428-439. info:/
- August 4, 2010
- 11:48 AM
- 75 views
The Search for Earth-Like Planets
by agoldstein in Beyond the Bench
“Are we alone in the universe?”
From Copernicus to Galileo to Tombaugh, scientists have spent lifetimes attempting to answer this question. Planetary size, distance, and relation to the stars they orbit have presented continuous obstacles. In recent years, however, astronomers, physicists, and engineers have developed increasingly sophisticated methods and instruments that are enabling progress on the hunt for planets that might—or might not—be capable of sustaining life........ Read more »
S. R. Martin, ., & A. J. Booth, . (2010) Demonstration of exoplanet detection using an infrared telescope array. Astronomy . DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201014942
- August 3, 2010
- 05:28 PM
- 125 views
New limit on neutrino mass… from cosmology, not particle physics
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Physicists at University College London have found a new upper limit on the mass of a neutrino – one of the tightest constraints yet from either particle physics or cosmology. Neutrinos are elementary particles that travel close to the speed of light, but are very difficult to detect because they are not electrically charged. In [...]... Read more »
Thomas, S., Abdalla, F., & Lahav, O. (2010) Upper Bound of 0.28 eV on Neutrino Masses from the Largest Photometric Redshift Survey. Physical Review Letters, 105(3). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.031301
- August 3, 2010
- 12:18 AM
- 53 views
by Ryan in The Martian Chronicles
The other day in Mars journal club, we took a look at a paper about the “fan” in Eberswalde crater. You may recognize this name: it is one of the four finalist landing sites for MSL. The site was chosen because at the western end of the crater, there is a feature that most Mars [...]... Read more »
Jerolmack, D. (2004) A minimum time for the formation of Holden Northeast fan, Mars. Geophysical Research Letters, 31(21). DOI: 10.1029/2004GL021326
- August 2, 2010
- 01:15 PM
- 72 views
This Week in the Universe: July 27th – August 2nd
by S.C. Kavassalis in The Language of Bad Physics
What have people been talking about this week in high energy physics, astrophysics, gravitation, general relativity and quantum gravity?... Read more »
A. Kappes for the IceCube Collaboration. (2010) IceCube: Neutrino Messages from GRBs. Proceedings: Deciphering the Ancient Universe with Gamma-Ray Bursts. arXiv: 1007.4629v1
Adam Moss, James P. Zibin, & Douglas Scott. (2010) Precision Cosmology Defeats Void Models for Acceleration. arXiv. arXiv: 1007.3725v1
Hiyama, E., Kamimura, M., Yamamoto, Y., & Motoba, T. (2010) Five-Body Cluster Structure of the Double-Λ Hypernucleus _{ΛΛ}^{11}Be. Physical Review Letters, 104(21). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.212502
Peter Sorensen. (2010) A coherent understanding of low-energy nuclear recoils in liquid xenon. arXiv. arXiv: 1007.3549v2
Stephen D. H. Hsu. (2010) White holes and eternal black holes. arXiv. arXiv: 1007.2934v1
- August 2, 2010
- 06:02 AM
- 63 views
Massive star formation not so different after all?
by sarah in SarahAskew
In my previous post on the Zooniverse Project IX I’m involved in, I talked about the importance of star formation in the Universe and some of the difficulties we face in studying it. Some big unanswered question particularly remain in our understanding of how massive stars form. Fittingly, the latest edition of Nature has a [...]... Read more »
Kraus S, Hofmann KH, Menten KM, Schertl D, Weigelt G, Wyrowski F, Meilland A, Perraut K, Petrov R, Robbe-Dubois S.... (2010) A hot compact dust disk around a massive young stellar object. Nature, 466(7304), 339-42. PMID: 20631793
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