astro
catdynamics | July 25, 2007President threatens veto of NASA appropriations: too much science
dontcha know...
From NASAwatch:
the House appropriations bill on NASA included extra funding for Science and Aeronautics, and restrictions on spending on Exploration and, more importantly, Exploration Development, including new firewalls between Science and ED.
"...the Administration does not endorse funding in excess of the request for Aeronautics, Education, and Science, where increases for near-term support would create unsustainable outyear funding requirements"
NASA is not just "burning every spare piece of firewood",…
catdynamics | July 19, 2007I haven't spent much time in that den of iniquity, DC, lately
but... third hand rumours percolate back to me, and if I can't sleep, neither should you
a few weeks ago, a commenter said something to the effect that "NASA would do nothing until JWST was out of the way" - I thought at the time it was over pessimistic, but now I'm not so sure, maybe he knew something I did not...
I hear there was a little to-do at a Big Center, and basically there will be a handful of SMEX and maybe one MIDEX or Discovery class mission for astrophysics (aka "universe"), but no more Big Missions. Ever.
So no…
catdynamics | July 18, 2007Find and classify your own damned galaxy....
Everyone is blogging it, and it is important, and about to fall off the scienceblogs front page
The Galaxy Zoo lets you browse Sloan Sky Survey data and do first order galaxy classification of hitherto unknown moderately faint galaxies.
This is subtly important - a frighteningly large fraction of modern astronomical data is never looked at.
Literally. The data is analysed by automated pipelines, there is a lot of it, but a lot is never looked at by actual mark I eyeballs. So we're probably missing something unexpected.
Go browse, it is summer…
catdynamics | July 11, 2007Tinetti et al have a paper in Nature, July 12th, claiming infrared spectroscopic detection of water on an extrasolar planet.
Just appeared on the exoplanet.eu mailing list/web site
Paper is there Water vapour in the atmosphere of a transiting extrasolar planet (pdf)
(here is Nature link)
Detection is by comparing broadband IRAC mid-infrared data from Spitzer with detailed atmospheric models.
Object is transiting hot Jovian HD189733b - Jupiter mass planet in 2 day orbit around a K dwarf about 60 lightyears away.
Claims is the absorption seen in mid-IR is only consistent with water vapour at…
catdynamics | July 6, 2007I just noticed curious language in the DoE Senate Appropriations Committe statement on JDEM
From AIP's FYI #66
"Joint Dark Energy Mission. - The Committee has consistently urged
the Department to move forward toward launch of the Joint Dark
Energy Mission [JDEM]. Unfortunately, in spite of the Committee's
support and the Department's own scientific facilities planning
process, this has not happened. The Department's fiscal year 2008
request for JDEM will cripple the Department's capacity to move
forward either in partnership with NASA or as a single agency
mission in 2008. Unfortunately,…
catdynamics | July 6, 2007High mass planets around metal poor red dwarfs, may put small crack in big theory
New planets just put up on exoplanet.eu - from JJ of the California-Carnegie-AAT group. These were mentioned at Santorini, but I don't think I talked specifically about them at the time, not sure if I failed to note the detailed parameters or because they were just "talked about" rather than formally announced. Outer planet solution does not seem to have fully converged yet, but if I recall the discussion something about a Jupiter mass must be out there - it may move a little bit as more data comes in.
GJ317b…
catdynamics | July 3, 2007Congratulations Dr Brian May
Hm, I wonder if he will be looking for a postdoc...
catdynamics | July 1, 2007Oh man, Heathrow is not exactly the easiest of airports at the best of times, but landing an hour after the UK went to "critical" security status is not a good time. In the rain.
Oh, and I understand about the whole bus thing, that you don't want large vehicles driven up to the terminal right now - but someone needs to tell people when they do this. Lot of people queued up for a long time waiting, in the rain.
Much more cheerful than Athens though. Mustn't grumble, eh?
Ok, so from the comments at the Extreme Solar Systems conference, and here, I infer we will have some energetic "what is a…
catdynamics | June 30, 2007Extreme Solar Systems conference has finished, and the lovely WiFi service at Athens airport just crashed and wiped out what I wrote... aargh.
Hrmph, the previous version was much snappier and comprehensive, with amusing and informative hyperlinks.
Ok, before my battery runs out, here goes...
Lots of new instruments coming online.
Some new dedicated or semi-dedicated planet hunting telescopes.
Good prospects for near future space missions.
Shortage of time for followups. we're probably missing stuff because of slow followup and poor cadence on good targets, this will get much worse as…
catdynamics | June 29, 2007Still catching up on the Extreme Solar Systems conference...
Lots of interesting stuff on planetary atmospherics.
Models are currently mainly looking at mean temperatures (at the 5-10% level) and horizontal global heat transport. Clear need to incorporate vertical transport and chemistry.
Interesting suggestion by Fortney that titanium oxide may play significant role.
Also clear that the hot Jupiters are very black in the optical, with albedos of 5% or less, which is puzzling.
Clearly they are bright in the infrared.
Some interesting future projects planned - MARVELS is a Sloan survey…
catdynamics | June 29, 2007Did I mention that I have been here a week and not got to the beach yet...
One of the penalties of being an organiser. Of course I slept that one free afternoon, but that was after trying to find the Olympic Airways office for 3 hours - they shut it, apparently people kept bothering them or something - did I mention it has been rather hot here?
Then there are these mystery people who keep sending me lengthy snippets of text they claim to be "thesis chapters" or something. Strange behaviour.
The Macs are nice, but the screen contrast is not good enough to read 20-40 pages of text in the…
catdynamics | June 29, 2007Still at the Extreme Solar Systems conference in Santorini where it has cooled off a bit.
One of the locals assures me this is the worst since the great heat wave of 1916 and that I should come back in october... must make the most of this once-per-century opportunity.
So, more planet news...
There are a couple of more transiting planets in the pipeline - sounds like there is another hot Neptune in the pipeline, and I hear the TrES group found another bloated (1.7 Jovian radii?!) hot Jupiter which was first announced at another meeting a week or two ago.
The COROT people are being very coy…
catdynamics | June 28, 2007I'm still working my way through my notes from day 1 of the conference...
did I mention I have a lots of notes.
Actually, by my count, half-way through day 3, I've seen four very interesting announcements that are embargoed, two because of Nature/Science submission issues, which I will of course honour, and two because the people involved asked us not to discuss the results - so I won't;
and anyway, Ingrid would beat me up if I leaked the latest at this stage...
So, what do we have...
Back to California-Carnegie-AAT team, and JJ reiterates results announced at the AAS on planets around giant…
catdynamics | June 28, 2007More planet news from the Extreme Solar Systems conference
In addition to the Jupier like planet (did I mention that I like that result...?)
the California-Carnegie-AAT team has several more long period jovians, possibly with low eccentricity orbits.
Looking at known planet hosts, 179 stars, 25 are known already to have second planets (including 5 triples and 2 quads) and 35 are showing long term velocity trends consistent with giant planets in long period orbits.
They see many indications or resonant coupling between planets in the multiple systems (I recall 1/4 of the planets being in mean…
catdynamics | June 28, 2007There have been several interesting items at the Extreme Solar Systems conference here in Santorini
I think the surprise announcement from the California exoplanets groups that they have a genuine Jupiter analog - a Jupiter mass planet in a long period, low eccentricity orbit, very similar to our own Jovian - is a key, and long awaited, discover.
The Swiss group has 12 new planets, several with long ( > 2000 day) orbital period and apparent low eccentricities.
They are seeing a deficit of planets with 10-100d orbital periods, which is interesting, things are piling up at multi-year periods…
catdynamics | June 26, 2007the long rumoured planet candiate around a nearby white dwarf has finally been made public
Fergal Mullally (U Texas) announced that they have strong evidence for a 2+ Jupiter mass planet around the white dwarf GD66 - a pulsating moderate temperature hydrogen white dwarf that is about 50 pc away.
Detection was through timing of pulsations, over a period of few years they have significant non-monotonic timing variation consistent with a planet in a circular 4 year orbit (or somewhat period longer if eccentric) - probably have to wait for JWST for imaging confirmation, but timing will verify,…
catdynamics | June 25, 2007The Extreme Solar System conference at Santorini is off with a bang!
Number of announcements already in the first session, I'll catch up on the highlights later, and just give the, in my opinion, most interesting.
The California-Carnegie-AAT group has a genuine extrasolar Jupiter analog!
Jason Wright announced it in the first session.
It is one of several systems that have been monitored for ~ decade and been known to show a long term trend in velocity.
The velocity variation peaked a few years ago, but had not shown a full cycle, so the orbit was poorly constrained. The second turn just…
catdynamics | June 25, 2007Ok, Santorini has broadband and WiFi
We're on. I'll intermittently live blog the meeting as I can and if and when anything on particular interest comes up.
And we're off, on time...
catdynamics | June 25, 2007ok, I confess, I am now lounging on a small mediterranean island
Santorini to be specific.
(I hope, since I am using the movable type "scheduling" function, and am confidentially anticipating all flights and connections flew and connected)
I am not just lounging by the pool, indeed I suspect and fear I may never see a pool or beach during my stay; I am, rather, at the Extreme Solar Systems Conference, where I am also running the "Extreme Habitability" workshop. Should be fun.
I'll post news, if and when I can. No idea what internet facilities I will find.
There are pre-meeting rumours…
catdynamics | June 20, 2007Greg at systemic makes a bold, and probably accurate prediction
observational sensitivity is now reaching parameter spaces where we can detect genuinely nice habitable planets, and the odds are that we will in fact see some real soon now
For what it is worth, I think he is right.
We're not at the point of seeing precise Earth analogues right now, but we are close, and we are at the point where we can detect either Earth like planets around nearby low mass stars, or "super-Earths" around Sun like stars.
The super-Earths are rocky planets with masses several times those of Earth. They are…