Category Archives: Astronomy

Astronomy, Science and Technology

Update on the Square Kilometer Array + Cosmic rays as lightning triggers

A member of the Susquehanna Astronomical Society points me to a couple of recent  news items of interest starting with an update on The Square Kilometre Array:

And the latest on cosmic rays setting off lightning bolts: Russian researchers find more evidence to support notion that lightning is caused by cosmic rays – Susquehanna Astronomical Society.

Astronomy, Exoplanets, Space participation

Planet Hunter citizen scientists confirmed exoplanet in star’s habitable zone

Earlier this year participants in the Planet Hunters citizen science project

confirmed with 99.9 percent confidence the discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet called PH2b orbiting within the “habitable zone” of its star, the range where earth-like planets could have liquid water and possibly sustain life. The researchers also announced 42 new planet candidates, including 20 located in the habitable zone of their respective stars.

– Planet Hunters Project Confirms a New Planet in the “Habitable Zone” – Yale Scientific Magazine.

Participants in the project examine data from the Kepler space observatory, which monitors the light from over 100,000 stars simultaneously to look for dimming when a planet passes in front of the star as seen from earth.

With_sun_spotPlanets transiting across the face of a star will dim its light output.

While the Kepler group have software to find such dimming from the planet transits across the face of stars, there are significant advantages of humans examining the light data directly

Citizen scientists working on Planet Hunters, on the other hand, can consider transits on a case-by-case basis, and can visually detect planets which produce fewer dips in the light-curve; these are the planets with a wider orbit and a longer orbital period that Kepler algorithms often overlook. Nine of the recent planet candidates have orbital periods over 400 days, and most have periods longer than 100 days.

“I didn’t expect that volunteers would be able to find a significant number of planets that the Kepler computers couldn’t. Everything found by volunteers causes Kepler to improve their algorithms,” Professor Fischer added.

Examples of a Kepler data for a planetary transit:

SPH10102031 SPH10102031b

Astronomy

NASA ScienceCast: A sunset triangle in May

This NASA ScienceCast program describes this May night sky:

The three brightest planets in this month’s night sky are lining up for a beautiful sunset conjunction at the end of May.

Astronomy

Amateur astronomer captures images of giant Gamma Ray Burst

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Amateur astronomer Patrick Wiggins captured images of the visible light from the largest gamma-ray burst ever recorded.  GRBs are seldom bright enough to be seen with amateur telescopes but this one was especially energetic across the spectrum and for several hours.

Brilliant gamma-ray burst

This animation from NASA shows, before and after, the patch of sky
where GRB 130427A appeared on April 27, 2013. The image was produced
by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Here is a larger view.
Credits: NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration
Astronomy, Space Radio

Grote Reber inducted into Inventors Hall of Fame

A reader points me to the news that Grote Reber, a ham radio operator and amateur astronomer, has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of the radio telescope:

From the induction description:

Grote Reber (1911 – 2002)
Navigational Instrument
Patent No. 2,519,603
Radio telescope

Reber, a pioneering radio astronomer, built the first substantial radio telescope dedicated to astronomy. Radio astronomy allows for the detection of objects and phenomena not possible with optical astronomy, utilizing a radio receiver that can amplify faint cosmic signals, making the waves strong enough to be recorded and charted.

More about Grote from the History of Radio Astronomy | Susquehanna Astronomical Society:

[…] the U.S. Radio Engineer and Amateur Radio Operator, Grote Reber (W8GFZ) (b.1911-d.2002) built the first radio telescope at his home in Wheaton, Illinois. His design was considerably more advanced than Jansky’s, consisting of a parabolic sheet metal mirror 9 meters in diameter, focusing to a radio receiver 8 meters above the mirror. The entire assembly was mounted on a tilting stand allowing it to be pointed in various directions, although not turned. The telescope was completed in 1937.

Reber’s first receiver operated at 3300 MHz and failed to detect signals from outer space, as did his second, operating at 900 MHz. Finally his third attempt at 160 MHz was successful in 1938, confirming Jansky’s discovery. He found that the radio radiation came from all along the plane of the Milky Way and from the Sun. Reber turned his attention to making a radio-frequency sky map, which he completed in 1941 and extended in 1943.

Reber later donated his telescope to the NRAO in Green Bank, West Virginia, and helped supervise its re-construction at that site. The telescope was then mounted on a turntable, allowing it to be pointed in any direction. Reber helped with a reconstruction of Jansky’s original telescope as well.