I noticed today this same topic is covered in the March issue of Astronomy magazine. We may be slackers, but we might accidentally be doing something right if we're nailing the same topics as Astronomy magazine.
Showing posts with label Slacker Astronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slacker Astronomy. Show all posts
Kevin Krisciunas on Slacker Astronomy
I noticed today this same topic is covered in the March issue of Astronomy magazine. We may be slackers, but we might accidentally be doing something right if we're nailing the same topics as Astronomy magazine.
Slacker Astronomy Interview on 365 Days of Astronomy Today
Extrasolar Asteroids and Ophiuchans
The Kepler mission is designed to discover Earth-like planets around other stars. The Kepler space telescope will stare at a field bordering Cygnus and Lyra for three to five years, continuously monitoring over 150,000 stars for exoplanet transits. According to a recent paper from Howell and collaborators, Kepler should also be able to detect asteroids orbiting white dwarfs.
And just for fun, Steve and I talk about the long lost astrological sign Ophiuchus.
Slacker Astronomy on 365 Days of Astronomy
Michael, Doug and I talk about "heat!" What is heat? What is temperature? What is the difference? What does any of this have to do with astronomy?
We take a crack at explaining it all on 365 Days of Astronomy. You tell me; how did we do?
My fear is the end result was something like this:
I'll be interested in the comments this time around.
Caroline Moore and Supernovae on Slacker Astronomy
The latest Slacker Astronomy podcast is all about various types of supernovae and features an interview with the youngest person to ever discover a supernova, Caroline Moore.
So click here or go to http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/ to hear the latest podcast.
Caroline Moore (middle) displays the award give to her by the AAVSO in November 2009.
Paula Szkody, AAVSO President (left) Arne Henden, AAVSO Director (right)
So click here or go to http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/ to hear the latest podcast.
Catching Up
Okay, I'm back! After a rare two week hiatus, we have quite a bit of catching up to do!
While preparing for the AAVSO fall meeting, and then away attending the meeting, I haven't had time to keep you all up to date on what is going on in the variable star and astronomy world that whirls around me each week. So we'll take a few steps back and then plow forward.
October 31, AAVSO announced a special request for observations of 3C 66A, an active galaxy in Andromeda, while it is in its current highly active bright state. I planned to write a blog about this since it is one of my favorite variable objects, and at 2 billion light years, the furthest object I can actually see in my telescope. I hope to write about it this week, but there is a lot of new activity that may take priority over it.
Also just at the end of October the fourth nova in Sagittarius for 2009 was discovered. It is now known as V5584 Sgr. Just yesterday, a new possible nova was discovered in Scutum.
Saturday, November 7, the Slacker Astronomy crew, Michael, Doug and I, aired an episode on 365 Days of Astronomy about the recent, extremely bright, bolide that exploded over Canada, very near our friend Doug's university!
The AAVSO Cataclysmic Variable Section has begun a long-term observing campaign to monitor Z Cam type dwarf novae. I presented the first of what will be several research papers on this at the fall meeting November 7.
I've also started a new web site devoted to Z Cams that I hope will become the authoritative reference on this topic in years to come. I'll be writing more about this exciting project in the weeks to come. This news has not been announced anywhere else except at the AAVSO meeting last weekend, so you readers are getting a scoop here.
Previews of other things coming down the pipe
I interviewed Caroline Moore, the youngest person to discover a supernova, at the fall meeting. She is an incredible young lady. That will be airing as part of a Slacker Astronomy podcast soon.
I have another 365 Days of Astronomy Simostronomy podcast coming up December 7. Its called 'Don't lick the telescope, and other observing tips for winter.'
I received an advance copy of 'The Monthly Sky Guide' by Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion, so there will be a book review coming soon.
Something notable always seems to happen just around the holidays, a new nova, a rare CV outburst, or something else. What will it be this year? Stay tuned, and we'll find out together.
While preparing for the AAVSO fall meeting, and then away attending the meeting, I haven't had time to keep you all up to date on what is going on in the variable star and astronomy world that whirls around me each week. So we'll take a few steps back and then plow forward.
Also just at the end of October the fourth nova in Sagittarius for 2009 was discovered. It is now known as V5584 Sgr. Just yesterday, a new possible nova was discovered in Scutum.
Saturday, November 7, the Slacker Astronomy crew, Michael, Doug and I, aired an episode on 365 Days of Astronomy about the recent, extremely bright, bolide that exploded over Canada, very near our friend Doug's university!
The AAVSO Cataclysmic Variable Section has begun a long-term observing campaign to monitor Z Cam type dwarf novae. I presented the first of what will be several research papers on this at the fall meeting November 7.
I've also started a new web site devoted to Z Cams that I hope will become the authoritative reference on this topic in years to come. I'll be writing more about this exciting project in the weeks to come. This news has not been announced anywhere else except at the AAVSO meeting last weekend, so you readers are getting a scoop here.
Previews of other things coming down the pipe
I interviewed Caroline Moore, the youngest person to discover a supernova, at the fall meeting. She is an incredible young lady. That will be airing as part of a Slacker Astronomy podcast soon.
I have another 365 Days of Astronomy Simostronomy podcast coming up December 7. Its called 'Don't lick the telescope, and other observing tips for winter.'
I received an advance copy of 'The Monthly Sky Guide' by Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion, so there will be a book review coming soon.
Something notable always seems to happen just around the holidays, a new nova, a rare CV outburst, or something else. What will it be this year? Stay tuned, and we'll find out together.
New Slacker Astronomy Episode
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Slacker Astronomy Podcast--Polaris
The latest Slacker Astronomy podcast hit the Internet yesterday. This one was a lot of fun!The main topic of discussion is Polaris, the North Star. We talk about the fact that it is a variable star (of course!), some of the mythology surrounding it, and I conduct an interview with Dr. Ed Guinan (shown right) of Villanova University about research he and his graduate student, Scott Engle, are doing on this interesting, but difficult to study star.
So click on over to Slacker Astronomy and check out the North Star Special.
Simostronomy on Slacker Astronomy pt. 2
It took us a while, but the second part of my discussion with Michael and Doug on Slacker Astronomy is now online.
You can download the podcast here.
In this episode, we talk about where research in cataclysmic variables is going, what astronomers are expecting to find and some of the surprises we've found along the way. I was fortunate to get three astronomers from the Wild Stars in the Old West II conference, Christopher Tout, Paula Szkody and Boris Gaensicke, to give up their coffee break time to let me interview them for this show.
My thanks to Michael and Doug for having me on the show, and to Paula, Christopher and Boris for giving me something interesting to contribute.
Boris Gaensicke / Christopher Tout /Paula Szkody
So check it out:
You can download the podcast here.
In this episode, we talk about where research in cataclysmic variables is going, what astronomers are expecting to find and some of the surprises we've found along the way. I was fortunate to get three astronomers from the Wild Stars in the Old West II conference, Christopher Tout, Paula Szkody and Boris Gaensicke, to give up their coffee break time to let me interview them for this show.My thanks to Michael and Doug for having me on the show, and to Paula, Christopher and Boris for giving me something interesting to contribute.
Boris Gaensicke / Christopher Tout /Paula Szkody So check it out:
Podcast: Simo-Slacker Interviews Pt. II
Simo Slacker!
As promised, the interviews I did with five astronomers at the Wild Stars in the Old West II conference are now coming online, thanks to my friends at Slacker Astronomy, Michael Koppelman and Doug Welch. The first part of the series is now available.
The first interview in this episode is with Brad Schaefer from LSU. Brad is very excited about the results of his research on recurrent novae. These cataclysmic variables grab our attention and spark our imaginations because of the incredible amplitude of their outbursts, typically 8-12 magnitudes, and the rarity of these spectacular events. Many of these outbursts are once-in-a-lifetime events. Like an apparition of Halley's comet, witnessing an outburst of T CrB twice in a lifetime would be a matter of uncommon luck, longevity or both.
Artist's depiction of the recurrent nova, RS Ophiuchi, in outburst.
(Illustration Credit & Copyright: David A. Hardy & PPARC; Astronomy Picture of the Day 2006 July 26).
I've written about recurrent novae before. The cause of a nova eruption is a thermonuclear reaction on the surface of the white dwarf. After years of mass exchange between the binary pair, temperature and pressure at the surface of the white dwarf build sufficiently to cause the layer of accreted material to explode like a hydrogen bomb. This bomb, however, can have the mass of 30 Earths! Once the temperature becomes high enough, this layer begins to expand. Minutes into the process the shell can be radiating at 100,000 solar luminosities and expanding outwards at 3000 km/s. Eventually the shell envelopes the entire binary and the orbital motion of the pair acts like a propeller to whip things up. After 1000 days or so the envelope expands to the point it can be seen as nebulosity surrounding the pair. Over hundreds of years the shell dissipates into the interstellar medium.
Most novae probably erupt more than once in their lifetime, with the mass of the white dwarf determining the amount of accreted material that needs to accumulate before triggering on outburst. Systems with a white dwarf of 0.6 solar masses might take as long as 5 million years between eruptions. A system with a 1.3 solar mass white dwarf might only take 30,000 years between eruptions. Systems with recurrence times of 100 years or less probably have very massive white dwarf primaries.
With so few known examples and the rarity of these events it is no wonder that recurrent novae eruptions are extremely interesting to astronomers. Monitoring these stars for outbursts over decades of relative inactivity is still one of the extremely valuable contributions visual observers can provide to science.
The second interview is with Steve Howell, of NOAO. Steve and I talked about the advances that have been made in CV research since the last Wild Stars meeting ten years ago. I also asked him where he thinks new research is heading.
But, I have to admit, I really wanted to talk to him about his awesome image of magnetic accretion. I saw this in his poster presentation at the meeting and was blown away by the whole concept of the complicated, beautiful way mass is accreted in polars.
Image credit: S. Howell / P. Marenfeld/NOAO
The first interview in this episode is with Brad Schaefer from LSU. Brad is very excited about the results of his research on recurrent novae. These cataclysmic variables grab our attention and spark our imaginations because of the incredible amplitude of their outbursts, typically 8-12 magnitudes, and the rarity of these spectacular events. Many of these outbursts are once-in-a-lifetime events. Like an apparition of Halley's comet, witnessing an outburst of T CrB twice in a lifetime would be a matter of uncommon luck, longevity or both.
Artist's depiction of the recurrent nova, RS Ophiuchi, in outburst.(Illustration Credit & Copyright: David A. Hardy & PPARC; Astronomy Picture of the Day 2006 July 26).
I've written about recurrent novae before. The cause of a nova eruption is a thermonuclear reaction on the surface of the white dwarf. After years of mass exchange between the binary pair, temperature and pressure at the surface of the white dwarf build sufficiently to cause the layer of accreted material to explode like a hydrogen bomb. This bomb, however, can have the mass of 30 Earths! Once the temperature becomes high enough, this layer begins to expand. Minutes into the process the shell can be radiating at 100,000 solar luminosities and expanding outwards at 3000 km/s. Eventually the shell envelopes the entire binary and the orbital motion of the pair acts like a propeller to whip things up. After 1000 days or so the envelope expands to the point it can be seen as nebulosity surrounding the pair. Over hundreds of years the shell dissipates into the interstellar medium.
Most novae probably erupt more than once in their lifetime, with the mass of the white dwarf determining the amount of accreted material that needs to accumulate before triggering on outburst. Systems with a white dwarf of 0.6 solar masses might take as long as 5 million years between eruptions. A system with a 1.3 solar mass white dwarf might only take 30,000 years between eruptions. Systems with recurrence times of 100 years or less probably have very massive white dwarf primaries.
With so few known examples and the rarity of these events it is no wonder that recurrent novae eruptions are extremely interesting to astronomers. Monitoring these stars for outbursts over decades of relative inactivity is still one of the extremely valuable contributions visual observers can provide to science.
The second interview is with Steve Howell, of NOAO. Steve and I talked about the advances that have been made in CV research since the last Wild Stars meeting ten years ago. I also asked him where he thinks new research is heading.
But, I have to admit, I really wanted to talk to him about his awesome image of magnetic accretion. I saw this in his poster presentation at the meeting and was blown away by the whole concept of the complicated, beautiful way mass is accreted in polars.
Image credit: S. Howell / P. Marenfeld/NOAOI hope you enjoy the podcast. My sincere thanks to Michael, Doug, Brad and Steve for making these Simo-interviews possible.
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