catdynamics | January 23, 2010
Andrew Lange RIP.
Andrew Lange - story at Cosmic Variance
Lange's "How DId the Universe Begin" Segre Distinguished Lecture at Berkeley Nov 2009.
Lange's 2004 KITP talk on "Future Directions in Cosmic Microwave Background Observations"
Audio/Web Cam
catdynamics | January 22, 2010The buzz is on - the New Apple Mega Must-Have is to be announced next friday,
and we exclusively reveal:
the iSlap!
The App that gives instant feedback to your blog commenters.
Developed after desperate physics sciencebloggers triggered their highly trained social networks as the Two Culture debate broke its frame.
inspired by Cory Doctorow's "Markets"
catdynamics | January 20, 2010why are there no cats in Middle Earth?
No, the nine cats of Queen Berúthiel don't count
why are there no household or companion cats in the primary texts?
Hrmph.
catdynamics | January 17, 2010signs of the times at the MLA
There are, currently, 73 faculty level positions gossiped about on the Astrophysics Jobs Rumour Mill - this seems a bit low, even considering we are mid-season and not all jobs will be wiki'd yet.
As a non-random sample, I looked at the 2006-7 season and there were then 184 positions rumourmongered about.
IF that is representative, it is a fearsome statistic.
But, there aren't a lot of astro related jobs and Poisson noise is fractionally large.
Even then, I am sensing a > 3 σ fluctuation in the job market.
But, other faculties are larger, and provide more…
catdynamics | January 17, 2010hey y'all - where have the Hubble Fellowships gone?
Einstein has announced (congratulations to the winners)
- the Hubble committee met, I'm told
so where are the offers?
Inquiring minds gots to know.
the rumour mill is grinding and needs some grist
catdynamics | January 12, 2010Apple offers a "login picture", and on many of my accounts I have a selection of astronomical pictures to choose from, rather than the default set.
Mostly HST images, natch.
So... one evening, sitting on the sofa cuddled up with the laptop, the Dynamic Wife leans over and says: "what's that then?".
"My login picture" says I.
"And what is it?" she asks rhetorically.
"er, a supernova..." says I.
She looks at me.
There is silence.
So, now my login picture is a globular cluster...
one of the nice old Messier ones.
catdynamics | January 7, 2010The primary reason to go to the big annual society meetings is, of course
the hot science results
networking for jobs
schmoozing with your peeps
The Swag!
Yes, that is why we go.
The NASA Space Calendars, the Hubble Mission buttons, the institutional logo USB sticks, the 3-D bookmarks, and, of course, the legendary High Energy Astrophysics Red and Black pens.
But each year there are one or two inspired surprise original Swag.
Who can forget the Lockheed Lunar Stress Ball? The foam space shuttle?
The photometrically accurate B,V,R ruler set?
This year the fancy Swag was definitely the…
catdynamics | January 6, 2010more invaluable science nuggets and pretty pictures
The Galileoscope is a very cheap but functional 50mm astronomical refractor kit for introducing kids to optical observing; NB PRICE GOES UP NEXT WEEK!
They can also be donated - through an online click.
But, now Ric and Jean Edelman of Edelman Financial Services have donated $250,000 to the AAS to buy and distribute 15,000 Galileoscopes for distribution to teachers around the US for use in classroom.
Nice one.
Hm. Y'know Goldman Sachs could go a long way towards repairing their public image with a token $250,000,000 donation towards a…
catdynamics | January 6, 2010Infrared sky survey spacecraft WISE releases first light image
few square degrees in Carina
it is gorgeous
full res here
Ned's WISE
NASA WISE
I'll put up a copy of the image soon as I can - only have a printed copy right now in the mean time click through.
catdynamics | January 6, 2010more assorted science results from AAS
Jimmy Irwin et al (UoM) has a Chandra x-ray source in an extragalactic globular - and they have Magellan spectra.
Surprise! No H lines.
There is O and N - WTF is N emission doing there?
Suggestion is that it is a white dwarf tidally disrupted by an intermediate mass black hole...
Maybe. That N emission is bothersome, shouldn't be there.
Press release at Chandra website.
click to embiggen
Nidever et al have Green Bank Radio Telescope data showing the Magellanic stream is quite extended...
Press release at NRAO
Pretty Picture!! - click to embiggen…
catdynamics | January 6, 2010Random snippets from the AAS.
My apologies - a lot of this is press release fodder you can find on any random science aggregator or pop-sci blog.
I usually prefer to find my own topics and news to write about, but I was busier than usual with real life and crap, so I will channel the highlights, just in case you missed some:
John Grunsfeld, astronaut and physicist, and Hubble repairman extraordinaire, appointed Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute - go John.
Crockett (Lowell, UCLA) et al find a 6 MJ/sin(i) planet in a 0.1 AU (14 d e~ 0.5) orbit.
Around a 1 Myr T-Tauri…
catdynamics | January 5, 2010helvítis fokking fokk!
this is why you should never go with the 2.0 - always wait for 2.1
so, er, funny thing happened...
the Icelandic President vetoed the law passed by Alþingi right at the end of 2009. The one that acceded to all UK and Dutch demands in the IceSave fiasco.
This is a first.
As you know, faithful reader, Iceland, as usual, lead the world last year,
into catastrophic banking crisis this time.
The grossly corrupt, overleveraged, Icelandic banks did a classic domino collapse, triggered in some sense by the Lehman Bros collapse in the US, through a classic bank run, and capped…
catdynamics | January 5, 2010time to check in on the Sun, eh?
hey, there is a little black spot on the sun today (click to embiggen)
but it is very little.
We are now in a somewhat unusual protracted and low solar minimum - the Sun has cycled, the few small spots seen have reversed from the previous cycle - but this is getting a wee bit worrying.
Current Solar Cycle - from NOAA (click to embiggen)
The current minimum is starting to get people worried about whether the Sun is gone back into a protracted low activity phase, like during the Maunder minimum, and the associated "Little Ice Age".
A protracted solar…
catdynamics | January 5, 2010Prof. Sion and collaborators at Villanova think they have found a genuine progenitor system for type Ia supernova, in our neighbourhood, in the Milky Way.
Type Ia supernovae are thermonuclear detonations of white dwarfs which acquire more mass, somehow, and go over the Chandrasekhar limit (about 1.4 solar masses).
Type Ia supernovae are not as common as the core-collapse type II/Ib/Ic supernovae from massive young stars.
They are astrophysically important, since most should involve the detonation of a Chandrasekhar mass of light elements, probably O/Ne/Mg mixture, to iron, with associated…
catdynamics | January 5, 2010NASA Administrator Charles Bolden addressed a packed room filled with anxious astronomers at lunch today.
It was interesting, both in what he said and in what was omitted.
I'll get to actual science at the AAS Real Soon Now , so more politics in the meantime.
Bolden's talk was primarily a scripted speech, and he acknowledged as much.
There were no announcements of new initiatives, mission commitments or statements on funding - evidently the White House has not yet settled on a plan for NASA, in particular how to handle "Exploration" - ie human spaceflight.
The preamble anecdote on HST…
catdynamics | January 4, 2010The annual AAS meeting opened up with the award of the van Biesbroeck Prize of the society to Father Dr George Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory.
The van Biesbroeck Prize is for extraordinary service to astronomy, in particular his role organizing the Vatican Observatory Summer Schools, and the role he has played at the juncture of science and religion.
A topic that occasionally stirs sciencebloggers, and their readers, from torpor.
Dr Coyne gave a brief and gracious speech, but touched on what I thought was a bit of a strawman: he appealed, and I paraphrase, for people to…
catdynamics | January 4, 2010liveblogging the AAS...
It is freezing in DC, but at the Marriott hotel across from the National Zoo the action is hot and heavy as 3000+ astronomers swarm to the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
This is for the 7 astronomers who phoned it in, literally in one case, you know who you are.
Or, in case you got stuck in the exhibit hall lobby at 9:17 this morning and never found your way out of the basement again. Hope the WiFi signal is holding up down there.
There is a flurry of new results, though through some freudian mishap I just typed "flurry on few results" instead…
catdynamics | January 3, 2010PSU Prof. Mike Gooseff liveblogs from the Antarctic...
Gooseff on the Ice
liveblog from an antarctic expedition, primary audience is a Kindegarten and 2nd grade class in State College.
It is very cool...
Apparently the McMurdo station just held "Icestock", with headline funk band "Porn Spill" leading the lineup, starring Stix Dickson on the drums.
From Icestock 2008.
Porn Spill 2007 - Play that funky music boys.
Icestock 2006
and the Make Out Party of '06.
Hm, better than the morose folk songs we used to get from the foreman in working camps up in Iceland...
catdynamics | January 2, 2010European Commission has produced a gorgeous map of global accessibility to cities.
gem: Global Map of Accessibility
Click to embiggen
Here is map with legend (click to embiggen)