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"
Abstract:
The LIGO-Virgo gravitational wave detectors carried out the their third observing run (called O3) during 2019-2020. Many black hole mergers were detected, along with one confident binary neutron star merger and a possible black hole - neutron star system. At the same time, wide-field optical sky surveys are discovering a remarkable diversity in how stars merge, collapse and explode. Only one
gravitational wave source has had a discovery of an electromagnetic counterpart. In 2017 a pair of merging neutron stars produced what we now call a kilonova ("a thousand novas"!). This was a remarkably fast transient, which decayed in a matter of days. Many surveys have been searching for these kilonovae without success but given they can be as bright as supernovae they should be detectable irrespective of gravitational wave signals. I will discuss our efforts to uncover
this new class of object and reasons why we haven't found them yet.
Biography
Stephen Smartt is a professor of astrophysics at Queen's University. He has worked at the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes on La Palma and the University of Cambridge. He leads several international projects, mostly focused on regularly surveying the sky to find anything that changes and his group manage the large scale data processing of two NASA funded surveys. He has discovered supernova progenitors, the faintest supernovae and most luminous explosions as well as mergers of compact stars. In 2018 he was awarded the Royal Irish Academy's Gold Medal and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2020.
(I would add that Stephen is an internationally renowned expert on supernovae!)
The link is......Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88696378331?pwd=Z2JDN2k0eE9mUmVia2Y5ampnem5pQT09Meeting ID: 886 9637 8331
Passcode: 180521
2. ISS The ISS continues its series of morning passes until 7 January. Full details for your location, and lots of other astronomy information, on the excellent free site www.heavens-above.com
3. 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.
4. Teasers – Correction! Apologies to Danny Collins, who in fact sent in the first correct answer to the one on the satellites of Saturn, and to Lindsay Green who was second, and to John Hall who may have been third. But Danny sent it in under a completely different subject heading, so I missed it. His came in within half an hour of the bulletin issue. So well done Danny, and apologies again. Also apologies to Lindsay, who was in second with the correct answer. His went into SPAM in my gmail account. I can't remember what happened to John's answer - it all got very confusing!
NB – to be safe,
(1) always use the correct subject heading in your emails! I get about 80 - 100 per day, so it's easy for me to miss one that's mis-titled!
(2) always send your reply to my aol account (terrymosel@aol.com), as there seem to be less problems with it.
5. Last Teaser answered already !
I hoped it would last a but longer, but I didn't reckon on Dublin brainbox Patricia Carroll! who came in with the right answer next morning.
The question was - What links the following? Bootes, Cancer, Coma, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius, Scorpius, Serpens Caput, Serpens Cauda, Virgo ? And the answer is that they are the constellations that Pluto has moved through or into since its discovery in 1931 (not in that order, of course – that would have been too easy!). Since it has quite a highly inclined orbit, some of those are not zodiacal constellations. Very well done, Patricia.
I'm now working on another one….
6. John Flannery's excellent astro calendar for 2021 is now available on line.
The download link is https://bit.ly/3mmSUU
7. 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.
8. 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
9. 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.
10. 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,
11. 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
A BH is seen 'spaghettifying' a star in real time. https://www.facebook.com/7155422274/posts/10159604656227275/?sfnsn=scwspmo
The two best estimate methods of the age of the Universe have been confirmed by a third method. – almost 13.8bn years old https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2915766255318860&id=100006565414017&sfnsn=scwspmo and
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-astronomers-universe-billion-years.html and
Astronomers agree: Universe is nearly 14 billion years old -- ScienceDaily
Einstein is right – yet again! https://www.facebook.com/35695491869/posts/10158860605681870/?sfnsn=scwspmo
COSMOLOGY
The missing (ordinary) may have been found https://www.facebook.com/35695491869/posts/10158861916366870/?sfnsn=scwspmo
Did a holographic phase transition in the early universe release gravitational waves? (msn.com)
EARTH & MOON
Planet Earth has remained habitable for billions of years 'because of good luck' (msn.com)
Earth's spin is getting faster! Earth is spinning faster than it has for 50 years (and we might have to 'subtract' a second) (msn.com) This is fascinating! Many factors should be making it slow down, so there must be something going on in the core or mantle to move denser material closer to the centre, so the faster spin would conserve angular momentum.
EXOLIFE
Planet Earth has remained habitable for billions of years 'because of good luck' (msn.com)
The Milky Way is probably full of dead civilizations (msn.com)
EXOPLANETS
Odd signal from Proxima Centauri system
https://www.facebook.com/100001810852957/posts/4785528091517505/?sfnsn=scwspmo
but see –
Bad space weather may make life impossible near Proxima Centauri | Space
IMAGES
Last month's TSE – a fabulous image. https://www.facebook.com/1435649623389388/posts/2814826305471706/?sfnsn=scwspmo
SOLAR SYSTEM
The mystery of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the Solar System Largest canyon in the solar system revealed in stunning new images (msn.com)
SPACE
Elon Musk reveals 'catch and quick release' plan for SpaceX's Super Heavy booster | Daily Mail Online That would be ambitious, but it would be great if he can pull it off.
See also SpaceX targets bold new 'catch' strategy for landing Super Heavy rockets (msn.com)
'ISS Experience' puts viewers aboard the space station in 3D 360-degree VR (msn.com)
Musk powers forward Elon Musk hints simultaneous Starship test for Mars spaceship will happen 'in a few weeks' (msn.com)
Good news for space New law is first to protect Apollo sites from future moon missions (msn.com)
SpaceX targets bold new 'catch' strategy for landing Super Heavy rockets | Space
SUN:
Sunquakes may be coming from deep below its surface. NASA suspects sunquakes are coming from deep beneath the sun's surface (msn.com)
TELESCOPES, INSTRUMENTS
Congress asks for report on Arecibo radio telescope collapse (msn.com)
12. 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
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