Hi all,
(NB, all times are summer time when in force, for convenience)
May I wish you all the very best of Season's Greetings, and Remember – you still need to STAY SAFE!
1. IAA lecture via Zoom, 6 January, 7.30 p.m.: Prof Stephen Smartt, (QUB) "Searching for Kilonovae in the nearby Universe" More details in next bulletin
2. Reach for the Stars astrophotography competition, run by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and the Irish Times jointly with the support of the IAS - John Flannery will be one of the judges. Details available at this site::
https://www.dias.ie/ga/2020/12/16/reach-for-the-stars-diass-astrophotography-competition/ or see
We're sponsoring a new DIAS astrophotography competition! - Alice PR & Events
Or else, just go to dias.ie, the host website, and you should see it flagged in the announcements.
3. Last Teaser answered! Congratulations to Peter Millar ( Again!) who sent the right answer next morning. Next correct answers came from my old friend Liam Smyth in Dublin (good to know that he's still on the ball), Paul Evans and Conn Buckley.
The question was - What links the following numbers: 27, 57, 76, 97? (apart from the fact that they all contain the number 7) Answer: they are the numbers of the four planetary nebulae in the Messier Catalogue.
4. Another Teaser – I hope this one is a bit harder!
Who's next in this sequence? Huygens, Cassini, Herschel, Bond/Lassell, Pickering, ?
5. ISS The ISS started a new series of morning passes on 18 December. Full details for your location, and lots of other astronomy information, on the excellent free site www.heavens-above.com
6. Paul Evans has produced another excellent 'Lockdown Video guide to the sky for December: https://youtu.be/bh5IDvpXs7Y
7. John Flannery's excellent astro calendar for 2021 is now available on line.
The download link is https://bit.ly/3mmSUU
8. REGULAR FORTNIGHTLY SPACE and ASTRONOMY WEBINAR – Next is January 12
Presented by me and the amazing Nick Howes, they are approximately 40 minutes long, every second Tuesday, at 7.30 p.m., covering whatever is topical in space and astronomy. The next one will be on Tuesday 12 January: youtube.com/spacestorelive
It's a Zoom webinar, and will be Live streamed to YouTube SpaceStore Live! Channel and Live streamed to Facebook Live. I'll post any last minute news via Twitter.
9. STFC Summer School at AOP postponed to January 2021 This year AOP was going to organize the STFC summer school for starting PhD students in astronomy. This event will now take place online and has been postponed to early January 2021 to attract also student's contributions on their proposed research topics, through short talks and poster. We have put together an exciting program of lectures, complementary skills workshops and meet the speaker breakout sessions and we would be glad to also invite students from everywhere in Ireland. Please feel free to forward the appended message to your postgraduate program coordinator as well as to your own students.
STFC 2020 INTRODUCTORY ASTRONOMY SCHOOL – 2nd Announcement. We should be grateful if you would circulate the details for the STFC Introductory Astronomy school to STFC funded students that could benefit from the school. The dates of the remote school are 11- 15 January 2021 and registration needs to be completed by 12 December 2020. PhD students are encouraged to present a short talk or poster outlining their proposed research topic – prizes will be awarded.
On behalf of the school organizing committee, Marc Sarzi & Simon Jeffrey. http://astro-online.iopconfs.org/home
10. Davagh Dark Sky Park and Observatory closed until further notice
See https://www.midulstercouncil.org/visitor/things-to-do/star-gazing/davagh-dark-sky-observatory , and https://www.facebook.com/omdarksky/ I'll post any updates here. Or phone 03000 132 132 for changing Covid-19 advice.
11. Undergrad Summer Placements at I-Lofar at Birr.
Thanks to support from Berkeley, I will have 2 summer undergraduate research placements available next summer working with I-LOFAR, based at Birr Covid-permitting.
Any questions on this can be fired my way. Application deadline is Feb 12th.
https://lofar.ie/2021-research-summer-internship/
https://seti.berkeley.edu/Internship.html
Dr. E. F. Keane, evan.keane@GMAIL.COM,
12. INTERESTING WEBLINKS (Disclaimer - Use of material herein from various sources does not imply approval or otherwise of the opinions, political or otherwise, of those sources). NB: If the title in the weblink does not indicate the subject matter, I give a brief simple intro before the link. I may also comment about the link afterwards.
ASTROPHYSICS
Most accurate distance measure for the most distant galaxy known. Astronomers precisely trace distance to oldest and farthest known galaxy (newatlas.com) and
Where to the giant jets from Black Holes discharge their energy? Researchers identify where giant jets from black holes discharge their energy -- ScienceDaily
Everything you always wanted to know about Time Crystals https://www.facebook.com/46126453526/posts/10157870141073527/?sfnsn=scwspmo
Ancient Galaxy Clusters Offer Clues about the Early Universe - Scientific American
https://www.space.com/ghostly-circles-puzzle-astronomers Obviously WTF stands for Widefield Tenuous Filaments… ;-)
This intergalactic filament is 50 million-light-years long, the longest we've ever seen | Space
Two strange blobs of X-ray energy are swirling out of the galaxy's center (msn.com)
A 'monster' star 2 million times brighter than the sun disappears without a trace | Live Science
Astrophysics Gets Turned On Its Head: Black Holes Come First (resonancescience.org)
Two strange blobs of X-ray energy are swirling out of the galaxy's center | Space
Physicists Achieve Best Ever Measurement of Fine-Structure Constant - Scientific American
COSMOLOGY
Physicists attempt to unify all forces of nature and rectify Einstein's biggest failure (msn.com)
EARTH & MOON
2020 Will Rival 2016 for Hottest Year on Record - Scientific American. And as well as this year not having an El Nino, there was significant cooling from the smoke from the Australian, Californian and Siberian wildfires.
'Greenland' offers grim take on how humanity will respond to a comet impact | Space
China lands its Moon rocks in Inner Mongolia | Science | AAAS (sciencemag.org)
EXOLIFE
Better chance for life on Enceladus Saturn moon, Enceladus, could support life in its subsurface ocean: Discovery provides more evidence that the -- ScienceDaily
EXOPLANETS
Scientists think they've detected radio emissions from an alien world (msn.com) and
Astronomers detect possible radio emission from exoplanet -- ScienceDaily
A pair of lonely planets were born like stars A pair of lonely planet-like objects born like stars -- ScienceDaily
FILM
'Greenland' offers grim take on how humanity will respond to a comet impact | Space
'Star Trek: Discovery' concludes Georgiou's journey in 'Terra Firma, Part 2' | Space
SOLAR SYSTEM
Asteroid samples from Bennu delight Japanese scientists Asteroid samples leave Japanese scientist 'speechless' | Japan | The Guardian
Angel, devil and blood-red heart appear at Martian south pole | Live Science
Dark storm on Neptune reverses direction, possibly shedding a fragment -- ScienceDaily
NASA's Juno spacecraft sheds new light on 25-year Jupiter 'hot spot' mystery | Space
SPACE
UCD opens its dedicated space centre, under Prof Lorraine Hanlon UCD opens dedicated space research centre (rte.ie)
Chinese spacecraft returns to Earth carrying moon rocks (msn.com)
NASA adds Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket as a launcher for future missions (msn.com)
Reid Wiseman named new chief astronaut at NASA for 'exciting times to come' (msn.com)
Boeing reveals mission patch for second Starliner orbital flight test | Space
SpaceX booster touches down on land! Amazing views all the way down
NASA SLS megarocket for the moon resumes testing after equipment hiccup (msn.com)
I flew weightlessly on a Zero-G plane and it was nothing like I expected | Space
Russia has developed an anti-satellite missile https://www.facebook.com/1272698526/posts/10218918038323284/?sfnsn=scwspmo
Origami helps rocket design Researchers use origami to solve space travel challenge -- ScienceDaily
Telescopes, Instruments, Techniques:
How life might have developed in Space Device mimics life's first steps in outer space -- ScienceDaily
13. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION. This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://documents.irishastro.org.uk/iaamembership.doc
If you are a UK taxpayer, please tick the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button. See also https://irishastro.org/
The Irish Astronomical Association is registered with The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC 105858
DISCLAIMER: Any views expressed herein are mine, and do not necessarily represent those of the IAA.
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
iaa
No comments:
Post a Comment