Hi all,
1. IAA Lecture, Wed 4 January, 7.30 p.m, LARMOR LECTURE THEATRE, Physics Building, QUB, by Professor Stephen Smartt, PhD, FRS, CBE, MRIA, Christchurch College, U of Oxford
"The final fate of massive stars"
Abstract: We know that supernovae are produced at the end of the nuclear burning lives of some massive stars when the core collapses. But do all massive stars produce a supernova ? They must end their lives somehow as their cores can't resist the pull of gravity for ever. Whether or not they produce a
luminous explosion or collapse to form black holes with little mass ejected and faint emission is still debated. I will review the latest work on trying to work out how massive stars end their lives.
Biography.
Stephen was until recently Professor of Astrophysics at QUB, and is now the Wetton Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford and the Director of the Hintze Centre for Astrophysical Surveys.
Stephen is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and was awarded the George Darwin lectureship from the Royal Astronomical Society in 2018. He is a recipient of the Royal Irish Academy's Gold Medal in the physical and mathematical sciences and the Royal Astronomical Society's Herschel Medal. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2020 and awarded a CBE in Queen Elizabeth II's birthday honours list in 2022.
Research Interests: I work on processing data from several large sky survey projects. One of them, the ATLAS project, is a network of 4 telescopes funded by NASA, which can scan the whole visible sky every 24hrs. We process the data in real time, linking discoveries to galaxy and star catalogues and trigger ESO and other facilities for multi-wavelength follow-up. I work on preparation for the Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time and have a scientific leadership role in the UK's Lasair project. With colleagues at Queen's and the U of Hawaii I search for the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave sources, mostly from merging neutron stars. We use the Pan-STARRS twin telescope system and then the ESO telescopes for follow-up. I was one of the founding members of ENGRAVE which is a European wide effort to optimise the use of the VLT and ESO facilities for follow-up of the optical and near-infrared emission from gravitational wave sources. I sit on the Rubin Science Advisory Committee, the Virgo Science and Technology Advisory Committee and the Royal Society's Schools Partnerships grant panel.
I can assure you that this will be a fascinating talk!)
NB: The lectures are now held in the LARMOR Lecture Theatre, also in the Physics Building, which is much bigger, and will allow greater distancing between attendees. Directions. The Larmor is at the other end of the Physics building to the entrance to the Bell LT, which we used previously. It's on the side of the Physics building which is closest to, and parallel to, University Road. There is a ramp to allow wheelchair axis. Please try to be there early, to facilitate a prompt start – access should be available from shortly after 7 p.m.
ADMISSION FREE – All welcome!
2. Mercury is visible as an evening star low down in the SSW, initially just a bit further out from the Sun than Venus, although that situation reverses on 29 December when they pass each other. Start looking low in the SW about 30 minutes after local sunset, with binoculars at first. But never do this before sunset!
3. Venus is now appearing very low down in the SSW evening twilight. Also see under 'Mercury' above.
4. ISS. The International Space Station continues its series of morning passes over Ireland until 4 January . Details on www.heavens-above.com
5. Latest Sunrise
The latest sunrise of the winter for our latitudes occurs after the solstice; in Belfast it will be on Dec 29 at 08h 46m 49s.
Obviously, the further West you are, the later it will be, by 4 minutes per degree of longitude. The offset from the solstice occurs because of the difference between clock time, in which each day is exactly 24h, and actual solar time, which varies for a number of reasons, primarily the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit.
6. Two comets coming.
This link gives a guide how to find them. One MAY become a naked-eye object early next year. Sneak Peek at Two Promising Comets - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope (skyandtelescope.org)
7. QUADRANTIDS This meteor shower peaks on the night of January 3-4. The radiant lies between the end of the handle of the Plough / Big Dipper, and the head of Draco. It's a rich shower: during the fairly short peak the ZHR can reach 100 for a few hours, but the view will be spoiled this year by the almost Full Moon. Still if you can keep the Moon hidden behind a building or evergreen tree, you should still see some good meteors, especially later in the night when the radiant is higher.
The Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) is the rate which would be seen by an experienced observer, in a VERY dark sky, and with the radiant in the zenith: actual observed rates very rarely reach the nominal ZHR for various reasons.
8. Perihelion: The Earth will be closest to the Sun in its annual orbit on January 4 at 16.17, at a distance of 0.9832956 AU, or 147,098,927km.
9. IAA New Year Party, Jan 14
Venue: McBride's, The Square, Comber, Co. Down, Sat 14 January, at 6 p.m. Cost, £10 per person. Good news: after the break caused by Covid, we're now resuming this annual event. Unfortunately the local Tudor Cinema is now closed, but we will have the use of the room in McBride's for the whole evening, and we'll be showing a space- or astronomy-themed DVD film or documentary – details TBA. There will be an enhanced selection of finger food, buffet style, plus tea or coffee, and you can buy your own drinks as you wish in the adjoining bar. After that, the film, and then a quiz, with lots of prizes to choose from. The best value in the galaxy!
N.B. – Bring your own pens to write down the quiz answer; we'll supply the paper.
LOCATION: 1-3 The Square, Comber: BT23 5DX. Or: H723+4P . Parking is available on and around The Square.
Payment MUST be made in advance, either by Bank transfer, or Paypal, or cheque to the Treasurer, or * cash paid to the Treasurer on the night of the January 4 lecture meeting.
* Paypal: See https://irishastro.org/join-the-iaa/ Instead of 'joining' just click on the 'Donate' button and say it's for the NY Party
* Bank transfer: treasurer@irishastro.org
* Cheque: Send to : Mr Pat O'Neill, IAA, , 55 Cranmore Pk, Belfast BT9 6JG.
### Payment MUST be received no later than 11 January!
10. Galway Astrofest returns: Saturday 28 January,
New Venue: the Menlo Park Hotel, Headford Road, Galway,
Lecture Program; Trade Displays and Exhibition; Lunchtime Workshop; Festival Evening Dinner
More details soon
11. Mars still near its best.
Our ruddy neighbour is still almost at its best for the year, bright at mag -1.4. and with an apparent diameter of about 15", and now gets higher up earlier in the evenings. And moderate-sized telescope will show the South polar cap, and a larger one will show other features on the disc.
12. JUPITER
The giant planet is still by far the brightest object in the night sky apart from the Moon. It still shines at around mag -2.4. The 4 Galilean moons will be easy to see, even in binoculars.
13. N. I Science Festival, 2023, Feb 16 – 26,
The IAA will be doing at least one major event, at Lough Neagh Discovery Centre, N of Lurgan, on Saturday 25 February. More details later. Keep the date free!
14. Irish Astronomy Week, 20 - 26 March - UPDATE
This has been proposed by Ronan Newman from Co Mayo, and member of Galway Astronomy Club, and has been well received. The date agreed is for the week commencing Monday 20 March, ending on Sunday 26 March
UPDATE: Ronan has set up a Go Fund me page with a description. So please take moment to check out it out. Websites are expensive!
I've started him off with a €50 donation – I hope many others can do likewise, with whatever you think appropriate.
15. COSMOS 2023: This has now been confirmed for the weekend commencing 24 March. It will be great to have this annual midlands attraction back again. Venue to be announced, but put it in your diaries.
16. New Easy Teaser:
What's next in this sequence? Acrux, Rigil Kentaurus, Hadar (Beta Cen), Achernar, Canopus, Fomalhaut - ?
17. NEW DIFFICULT TEASER:
What links the following: 2, 34, 58, 99 and 112?
18: Non-Astronomical Teasers:
Here's two for the holiday period for the non-astronomer spouse / partner / child / parent / significant other etc: Or indeed, yourselves
Difficult: Donegal and Wexford and one other Irish county share a distinction. What is it, and what's the other county?
Easy: What town in Mayo is unique in Ireland (apart from the fact that every town is unique)?
Please send all Teaser answers to me at my aol address terrymosel@aol.com
19: The very best of SEASON'S GREETINGS to all!
20. 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:
Superdense neutron star likely has a solid crust | Space
James Webb Space Telescope has bagged the oldest known galaxies | Space
JWST spots rare red spiral galaxies in the early universe | Space
Scientists prove wormholes exist in groundbreaking theoretical achievement (msn.com) I don't doubt that wormholes are possible – after all, every other prediction of relativity has been confirmed. But, this is only a simulation in a computer. They say that it "looks like a duck, it walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck". But does it fly like a duck, swim like a duck, taste like a duck? Then we can be nearly sure!
A Black Hole has been Burping for 100 Million Years - Universe Today
A New Way to Produce Primordial Black Holes in the Early Universe - Universe Today
Searching for neutrinos https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/712944530248817/?sfnsn=mo
COSMOLOGY
Latest data removes anomaly in the 'Standard Model': https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04545-z
Gravitons https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/705226811020589/?sfnsn=scwspmo
The Voids Closest to Us May Not be Entirely Empty - Universe Today
Maybe there's no Dark Energy https://www.facebook.com/1649849195252135/posts/3463634857206884/?sfnsn=scwspmo
A New Way to Produce Primordial Black Holes in the Early Universe - Universe Today
Perhaps a Supervoid Doesn't Explain the Mysterious CMB Cold Spot - Universe Today What's so special about that 'cold spot'? - There are lots of other cold spots visible, and maybe one is just a bit colder than others. In a forest, some trees are taller than average, and it's no surprise if one is the tallest of all.
EARTH & MOON
Meet dearMoon crew of artists, athletes and a billionaire | Space Has anybody noticed anything weird about that image of the Moon? It was driving me crazy until I spotted it. And made even more difficult by the fact that the people obscure most of the lower central part! Its actually just one half of the Moon, but then that image has been flipped, and then mirror imaged, and joined together with the original. It takes lots of visual detective work, but keep at it, and you'll find inverted, flipped patterns. Remember, for example, what's in the lower right of the right hand image will be flipped and inverted into the upper left hand image. Start with the pattern of 3 similar sized craters left of centre, two of which are touching, then locate that in the right hand image. Good luck!
Mysterious meteorite may unravel our understanding of the solar system (newatlas.com)
We Could Simulate Living in Lunar Lava Tubes in Caves on Earth - Universe Today
Watch a NASA Supercut of the Entire Artemis I Mission, From Launch to Landing - Universe Today
Asteroids Didn't Create the Moon's Largest Craters. Left-Over Planetesimals Did - Universe Today
Greenland's glaciers might be melting 100 times as fast as previously thought (phys.org)
To Fight Climate Change, We Could Block the Sun. A Lightweight Solar Sail Could Make it Feasible - Universe Today Crazy. It's a bit like saying to young drivers – drive as fast as you like: your seat belts and air bags will help you survive your crashes. And never mind the pollution caused by 400 rocket launches a year for 10 years! Not to mention the terrible effects on Earth-based solar astronomy.
This Interactive Tool Lets you Simulate Asteroid Impacts Anywhere on Earth - Universe Today
They're so good for a laugh! Who are the Flat Earthers and what do they believe? (msn.com) Except that a lot of them align with dangerous conspiracies like extreme religious fundamentalism, QAnon, etc.
EXOPLANETS
Hubble and Spitzer Team up to Find a Pair of Waterworld Exoplanets - Universe Today
James Webb Space Telescope meets the 7 intriguing exoplanets of TRAPPIST-1 | Space
Life on Proxima b Is Not Having a Good Time - Universe Today
Giant Exoplanet is Spiraling Inward to its Doom - Universe Today8 billion Earths in the Milky Way alone! https://www.facebook.com/100057547862871/posts/570345611560363/?sfnsn=scwspmo
EXOLIFE
Life on Proxima b Is Not Having a Good Time - Universe Today
We Could Spread Life to the Milky Way With Comets. But Should We? - Universe Today So how are we going to get our microbes in to the centre of the comet, to protect them from cosmic rays? And then how to get them out again at some distant planetary system? And what about the ethics? – maybe those microbes will eventually evolve into the type of violent, destructive beings that we are?
What dead whales can teach us about finding aliens - Big Think
IMAGES
Amazing long slow multiple-bursting fireball! https://www.facebook.com/groups/26550057298/permalink/10160663673927299/
James Webb Space Telescope's 1st year in space has blown astronomers away | Space
10 greatest images from NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission | Space There's a nice shot of Copernicus, Rheinhold and Landsberg, with the Apollo 12 landing site above right of the latter.
James Webb Space Telescope spots faint galaxy 'PEARLS' | Space
SETI:One of the world's largest lasers could be used to detect alien warp drives | Live ScienceMaybe aliens haven't contacted Earth because they think we're stupid | Live Science and Aliens haven't contacted Earth because we're not interesting yet | Space Or perhaps they look at what's happening in Ukraine, and Yemen, and China, and think: No way - they're not even remotely civilized yet. SOLAR SYSTEMPerseverance deposits first of its sample tubes https://www.facebook.com/543617930/posts/10160101691927931/?sfnsn=scwspmo Mars' ancient atmosphere may not have had much oxygen after all | Space
What Kind of an Impact did DART Have on Dimorphos? The Science Results are Here - Universe Today
Comet Impacts Could Have Brought the Raw Ingredients for Life to Europa's Ocean - Universe Today
Something weird is happening in Jupiter's atmosphere | Space
NASA's InSight recorded a marsquake 5 times more powerful than previous record | Space
NASA's InSight Mars mission comes to an end as all contact is lost (newatlas.com) (next one should be fitted with wipers!)
Perseverance captures audio and video from inside Martian dust devil (newatlas.com)
NASA's DART asteroid smash flung 2 million pounds of rock into space | Space Wow! 2 million pounds! Gee, that's 32 million ounces! Or, as normal people would say, about 900 tons. Why do Americans have this obsession with pounds? They quote the thrust of the rockets like the Saturn 5, or the SLS, etc in the many millions of pounds, instead of in tons. What next - the distance from NY to Washington in feet?
Mysterious meteorite may unravel our understanding of the solar system (newatlas.com)
What dead whales can teach us about finding aliens - Big Think
SPACE
Europe's Vega C rocket fails on 2nd mission, 2 satellites lost | Space
Hole spotted in leaky Russian Soyuz spacecraft | Space
Damaged Soyuz May Leave Crew Without A Ride Home | Hackaday
NASA's 2023 budget includes funding for moon lander besides Starship | Space
Can we save Mars robots from death by dust? | Space
Russian space debris forces space station to dodge, cancels spacewalk | Space
Wild space 'ferry' idea uses paragliders to return to Earth | Space
Three-legged MARM robot could soon be tending to spacecraft in orbit (newatlas.com)
Nigeria, Rwanda become 1st African nations to sign Artemis Accords | Space
Watch a NASA Supercut of the Entire Artemis I Mission, From Launch to Landing - Universe Today
What will NASA's Artemis I mission teach us? | Live Science
Soyuz spacecraft suffers 'fairly substantial' leak at space station | Space
South Korea's 1st moon probe Danuri begins to enter lunar orbit | Space
We Could Simulate Living in Lunar Lava Tubes in Caves on Earth - Universe Today
Inside-out asteroids: A practical method for creating space habitats (newatlas.com) Never say 'never'….
Ultra-light electric motor to feed Australia's first home-grown rocket (newatlas.com)
Nuclear fusion: What does it mean for space exploration? | Space
How do astronauts take a shower? A look at life on the ISS (msn.com)
China's launch methane-fueled rocket fails, 14 satellites lost | Space
Russia will leave the International Space Station by 2024 (msn.com)
Boom! Watch this inflatable space station explode on video | Space
Telescopes, Instruments etc.
James Webb Space Telescope back to science operations after glitch | Space
James Webb Space Telescope's 1st year in space has blown astronomers away | Space
Construction Begins on NASA's Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter (spacedaily.com)
UK-led robotic sky scanner reveals its first galactic fingerprint – UKRI
New tool to search for neutrinos https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/712944530248817/?sfnsn=mo
SOFIA's last flight https://www.facebook.com/100000732234194/posts/6079908385376842/?sfnsn=scwspmo
21. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION. This link gives options to join the IAA.
https://irishastro.org/join-the-iaa/ If you are a UK taxpayer, please select 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
