Monster Star Had Never-Before-Seen Titanic Eruption

Tatiana López is an aerospace engineering student at the University of Concepción in Chile, and a certified mentor for PROVOCA, an AUI/NRAO program that promotes and supports young women pursuing STEM vocations in Chile. She is also the only Latin American woman that participated in the Asclepios II Mission, a Switzerland-based analog space program designed by and for students that required two years of training followed by 15 days in an underground Moon simulation at the former Gotthard Mountain military fortress located in the Swiss Alps.

Still in Europe, preparing for her last couple of weeks of exams in Munich, she is slowly returning to her “back on Earth” routines, not a trivial thing to do after two weeks locked up with six young analog astronauts. Totally deprived of natural light for days, colors and luminosity were too intense for her eyes, so she is progressively removing her sunglasses.

Tatiana explains that one of the things during the mission that affected her the most was losing track of time. “The lack of natural light, combined with tight schedules of daily activities, which varied each day, meant that you did not know exactly what time of day it was. Suddenly, it was bedtime, and you didn’t know if you were that tired. It felt like a nap and then back to work,” says Tatiana.

On top of that, there were time trial experiments that forced the crew to stay focused on their individual tasks, since a single mistake could mean an accident. In this regard, the PROVOCA Mentor points out, “Although we were evaluated and received prior psychiatric and psychological support to maintain mental health during confinement, there was a technique that helped us a lot. We were taught to concentrate on a “mental cross fixation” for a minute or so, and that allowed us to reduce oxygen consumption and resume activities more efficiently. Beyond that, and in extreme situations, there is nothing left but to turn off your brain and trust what you have learned.”

Her training as a PROVOCA Mentor also allowed her to strengthen skills that turned out to be key during the mission, such as active listening, teamwork, critical thinking, and leadership. As Mission Communications Officer for Asclepios II, Tatiana was responsible for accompanying her colleagues remotely on their field trips and providing them with support and calm in adverse situations. “I think that my preparation as a mentor allowed me to pay attention to all the elements involved when you communicate, both what is said and what is not, and thus interpret the emotions and attitudes my colleagues were facing in each experiment outside for 3 continuous hours, in the dark without light, with a lack of oxygen and wearing a suit that weighed between 15 to 22 pounds.”

One of the most extreme experiences she faced was the simulation of a solar flare that woke her up at three in the morning with a warning alarm. After the alarm was triggered, everyone had to run to protect their equipment and lock themselves in a security room, waiting for instructions from the mission control room. She also comments that on another occasion, a couple of crew members forgot to report before entering a “dead zone” outside, where there was no communication signal. This mistake was a learning opportunity that allowed them to correct the protocols for subsequent experiments of this kind.

For 15 days, they were fed with freeze-dried food, specially developed for astronauts. On one occasion, the team received a chicken pie and a jar of salmon as a gift, which they devoured. Another time, they were able to request soy sauce and a jar of chili, which made the eating experience a little more pleasant and varied. “When you’re pretending to be in space, you can’t bring salt or other granular foods, as they pose a choking hazard to the crew and a risk to the equipment. I really missed adding a little flavor to the food. Upon my return to Chile, my family awaits me with a delicious barbecue at home.”

During her spare time, Tatiana enjoyed drawing and painting in watercolor, an activity that helped her relax and manage anxiety, and incidentally decorated the walls of the ship, something her colleagues were grateful for.

On a daily basis, she had to report to the control base on an individual blog, including not only what she was doing minute by minute, like the type of diet she was eating and her physical training, but also the emotions she was experiencing. “There were reports after each individual and group experiment, and those will allow scientists to understand how men and women respond physically, mentally, and emotionally to various situations and environmental and physical conditions; it’s a very interesting exercise for planning a future Lunar mission.”

Now that the mission is over, Tatiana confesses that she has mixed feelings, as she longs to be reunited with her family in Concepción but she regrets leaving this family of friends with whom she has shared the last two years of training. She also takes a moment to evaluate her participation in Asclepios II. “From this experience, I will treasure many technical, scientific, and behavioral learnings, as well as friendships for the rest of my life. Moreover, I know that I will continue looking for new opportunities that bring me closer to space, that fascinating place that attracted me as a child and I am still in love with.”

With permission, this piece has been translated to and adapted for English from an original AUI/NRAO Chile news piece. Original Spanish by Andrea Riquelme.

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Mikulski is a long-time supporter of the Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have awarded the 2022 Karl G. Jansky Lectureship to Professor Françoise Combes, Chair of Galaxies and Cosmology at the College of France and Astronomer at the Paris Observatory. The Jansky Lectureship is an honor established by the trustees of AUI to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of radio astronomy.

Professor Combes is being honored for her significant contributions to the fields of galaxy evolution, the interstellar medium, dark matter, and radio astronomy. Her expertise in a wide range of fields over the course of an outstanding scientific career has extended her influence to the entire breadth of astronomy. She is author of more than 1,200 publications and more than 20 books.

She received a Ph.D in astrophysics from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, and her work has been recognized by numerous honors and awards. These include Fellowship in the American Astronomical Society, the R.M. Petrie Prize of the Canadian Astronomical Society, the Tycho Brahe Prize from the European Astronomical Society, the Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award, and an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society.

A longtime scientific editor of Astronomy & Astrophysics, she has served in advisory roles for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, the Square Kilometer Array, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the International Astronomical Union.

Combes will deliver her Jansky Lectures, entitled, “Symbiosis between black holes and galaxies,” in Charlottesville, VA, on Feb. 14, 2023, and in Socorro, NM, on Feb. 17, 2023.

First awarded in 1966, the Jansky Lectureship is named in honor of the man who, in 1932, first detected radio waves from a cosmic source. Karl Jansky’s discovery of radio waves from the central region of the Milky Way started the science of radio astronomy.

Other recipients of the Jansky award include eight Nobel laureates (Drs. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Edward Purcell, Charles Townes, Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, William Fowler, Joseph Taylor, and Reinhard Genzel) as well as Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, discoverer of the first pulsar, and Vera Rubin, discoverer of dark matter in galaxies.

A complete list of past recipients is here.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)— an international observatory co-operated by the US National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)— have for the first time recorded millimeter-wavelength light from a fiery explosion caused by the merger of a neutron star with another star. The team also confirmed this flash of light to be one of the most energetic short-duration gamma-ray bursts ever observed, leaving behind one of the most luminous afterglows on record. The results of the research will be published in an upcoming edition of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the brightest and most energetic explosions in the Universe, capable of emitting more energy in a matter of seconds than our Sun will emit during its entire lifetime. GRB 211106A belongs to a GRB sub-class known as short-duration gamma-ray bursts. These explosions— which scientists believe are responsible for the creation of the heaviest elements in the Universe, such as platinum and gold— result from the catastrophic merger of binary star systems containing a neutron star. “These mergers occur because of gravitational wave radiation that removes energy from the orbit of the binary stars, causing the stars to spiral in toward each other,” said Tanmoy Laskar, who will soon commence work as an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah. “The resulting explosion is accompanied by jets moving at close to the speed of light. When one of these jets is pointed at Earth, we observe a short pulse of gamma-ray radiation or a short-duration GRB.”

A short-duration GRB usually lasts only a few tenths of a second. Scientists then look for an afterglow, an emission of light caused by the interaction of the jets with surrounding gas. Even still, they’re difficult to detect; only half-a-dozen short-duration GRBs have been detected at radio wavelengths, and until now none had been detected in millimeter wavelengths. Laskar, who led the research while an Excellence Fellow at Radboud University in The Netherlands, said that the difficulty is the immense distance to GRBs, and the technological capabilities of telescopes. “Short-duration GRB afterglows are very luminous and energetic. But these explosions take place in distant galaxies which means the light from them can be quite faint for our telescopes on Earth. Before ALMA, millimeter telescopes were not sensitive enough to detect these afterglows.”

At roughly 20 billion light-years from Earth, GRB 211106A is no exception. The light from this short-duration gamma-ray burst was so faint that while early X-ray observations with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory saw the explosion, the host galaxy was undetectable at that wavelength, and scientists weren’t able to determine exactly where the explosion was coming from. “Afterglow light is essential for figuring out which galaxy a burst comes from and for learning more about the burst itself. Initially, when only the X-ray counterpart had been discovered, astronomers thought that this burst might be coming from a nearby galaxy,” said Laskar, adding that a significant amount of dust in the area also obscured the object from detection in optical observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Each wavelength added a new dimension to scientists’ understanding of the GRB, and millimeter, in particular, was critical to uncovering the truth about the burst. “The Hubble observations revealed an unchanging field of galaxies. ALMA’s unparalleled sensitivity allowed us to pinpoint the location of the GRB in that field with more precision, and it turned out to be in another faint galaxy, which is further away. That, in turn, means that this short-duration gamma-ray burst is even more powerful than we first thought, making it one of the most luminous and energetic on record,” said Laskar.

Wen-fai Fong, an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University added, “This short gamma-ray burst was the first time we tried to observe such an event with ALMA. Afterglows for short bursts are very difficult to come by, so it was spectacular to catch this event shining so bright. After many years of observing these bursts, this surprising discovery opens up a new area of study, as it motivates us to observe many more of these with ALMA, and other telescope arrays, in the future.” 

Joe Pesce, National Science Foundation Program Officer for NRAO/ALMA said, “These observations are fantastic on many levels. They provide more information to help us understand the enigmatic gamma-ray bursts (and neutron-star astrophysics in general), and they demonstrate how important and complementary multi-wavelength observations with space- and ground-based telescopes are in understanding astrophysical phenomena.”

And there’s plenty of work still to be done across multiple wavelengths, both with new GRBs and with GRB 211106A, which could uncover additional surprises about these bursts. “The study of short-duration GRBs requires the rapid coordination of telescopes around the world and in space, operating at all wavelengths,” said Edo Berger, Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. “In the case of GRB 211106A, we used some of the most powerful telescopes available— ALMA, the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Hubble Space Telescope. With the now-operational James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and future 20-40 meter optical and radio telescopes such as the next generation VLA (ngVLA) we will be able to produce a complete picture of these cataclysmic events and study them at unprecedented distances.”

Laskar added, “With JWST, we can now take a spectrum of the host galaxy and easily know the distance, and in the future, we could also use JWST to capture infrared afterglows and study their chemical composition. With ngVLA, we will be able to study the geometric structure of the afterglows and the star-forming fuel found in their host environments in unprecedented detail. I am excited about these upcoming discoveries in our field.”

Resource

“The First Short GRB Millimeter Afterglow: The Wide-Angled Jet of the Extremely Energetic SGRB 211106A,” Laskar et al (2022), The Astrophysical Journal Letters, pre-print: arxiv

About NRAO

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

About ALMA

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The post Out With a Bang: Explosive Neutron Star Merger Captured for the First Time in Millimeter Light appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Following a generous grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), the National Science Foundation‘s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) will soon launch a two-year project to engage BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students in learning about the electromagnetic spectrum and the excitement of amateur— also called ham— radio. The new project, Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS), is expected to offer its first student-facing trainings in January 2023.

ARDC selected EMS because of NRAO’s proven track record in supporting underrepresented minority students in the sciences by combining mentoring and instruction from content experts with best practices in equity.

As a part of NRAO’s broader impacts-focused SuperKnova learning platform, EMS will combine the expertise of NRAO staff, amateur radio enthusiasts, and other subject matter experts to develop a scalable and shareable curriculum, introduce students to EMS and radio technologies through hands-on activities, and support students in attaining technical and general class licenses in amateur radio.

Amateur radio provides a hands-on entry point to understanding the radio spectrum and its practical uses, including communications, astronomy, and community emergency infrastructure and response. Early support and engagement with amateur radio has the potential to create pathways for students to a future career or lifelong hobby in the sciences. The $315,123 ARDC grant will allow NRAO to develop and execute the program for two cohorts of students. It will also result in the development of a nine-month EMS curriculum that will be freely available to school groups, community clubs, and educational institutions.

NRAO Director Tony Beasley said, “Amateur radio continues to be incredibly important to the nation and global communications, and NRAO is excited to be working with ARDC to bring a new generation and diverse communities to the field.”

About NRAO
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Furthering NSF’s mission to advance the progress of science, the NRAO enables research into the Universe at radio wavelengths and provides world-class telescopes, instrumentation, and expertise to the scientific community. NRAO’s mission includes a commitment to broader, equitable, inclusive participation in science and engineering, training the next generation of scientists and engineers, and promoting astronomy to foster a more scientifically literate society. NRAO operates three research facilities: the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), which are available for use by scientists from around the globe, regardless of institutional or national affiliation. NRAO welcomes applicants who bring diverse and innovative dimensions to the Observatory and to the field of radio astronomy. For more information about NRAO, go to https://public.nrao.edu.

About ARDC
Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a California-based foundation with roots in amateur radio and the technology of internet communication. The organization got its start by managing the AMPRNet address space, which is reserved for licensed amateur radio operators worldwide. Additionally, ARDC makes grants to projects and organizations that follow amateur radio’s practice and tradition of technical experimentation in both amateur radio and digital communication science. Such experimentation has led to advances that benefit the general public, including the mobile phone and wireless internet technology. ARDC envisions a world where all such technology is available through open source hardware and software, and where anyone has the ability to innovate upon it. To learn more about ARDC, please visit https://www.ampr.org.

Media Contact:

Amy C. Oliver
Public Information & News Manager, NRAO
434-242-9584
aoliver@nrao.edu

Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
ARDC Communications Manager
858-477-9903
dan@ardc.net

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A team of engineers testing the design efficiency of reflectors for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s upcoming next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) has received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Harold A. Wheeler Applications Prize Paper Award for their research entitled, “An Optimal 18 m Shaped Offset Gregorian Reflector for the ngVLA Radio Telescope.” The award is presented to the authors of the best applications paper published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation during the previous year. 

“The IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation is the top academic engineering journal in the field of electromagnetics and antenna design, receiving hundreds of submissions annually from leading researchers across the world,” said the paper’s lead author, Robert Lehmensiek, who will soon join NRAO’s Central Development Laboratory (CDL) as a research engineer. “This award recognizes our work as being at the forefront of global antenna design.” 

Dirk I.L. de Villiers, a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and co-author of the research added, “To be selected for the Harold A. Wheeler prize among so many high-quality papers is a great honor as this specifically highlights excellence in practical antenna design. Hopefully, this recognition by the broader antenna research and engineering community serves as further validation that the ngVLA will have a world-leading reflector system capable of doing all it was envisaged to do by the system designers.”

The award-winning research presented the optics design, and estimated the receiving sensitivity, of the 18-m shaped offset Gregorian reflector system proposed for use in the 244 antennas that will make up the main and long baseline arrays in the upcoming ngVLA. “In this research, we used detailed electromagnetic analyses to fully explore the performance parameters of the proposed antenna system for different reflector shapes,” said Lehmensiek, who led the research while an antenna engineer at EMSS Antennas, a contractor to NRAO for the ngVLA. “Ultimately, that allowed us to suggest a best-performing antenna reflector system for the ngVLA radio telescope.”

For the future ngVLA, the best-performing system will mean better focusing, more sensitivity, and better and faster science. “Better focusing means a more sensitive antenna. Improving the sensitivity of one reflector by even one percent equates roughly to having the collecting area of two extra dishes available in a 200-dish system,” said De Villiers. “More collecting area means we capture more of the faint radiation from the Universe in our telescope, and this directly translates to being able to make images, and do other science, faster. Like having a camera with a larger aperture allows you to take photos with higher shutter speed in low light, having a more sensitive radio telescope allows us to detect fainter signals while observing for a shorter time.”

“We are very excited to have Dr. Lehmensiek as CDL’s new electromagnetics and optics team lead,” said Bert Hawkins, Director of CDL. “In addition to continuing his award-winning work on antennas with the ngVLA project team, he will contribute to a number of other important observatory initiatives, including the ALMA Band 6 Version 2 receiver upgrade project, and the Next Generation RADAR collaboration between NRAO, Green Bank Observatory (GBO), and Raytheon Intelligence & Space.”

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Radio astronomers usually learn about the universe by passively observing the sky. But sometimes radio astronomy can be a bit more active. Join our host Summer Ash of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory as she talks about how astronomers can use radar to understand our astronomical neighbors in new and interesting ways.

The post The Baseline #12: Planetary Radar— Shining Light On Our Nearest Neighbors appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), has selected the recipients of its 2022 AUI Scholarship, each of whom will be awarded a $3,500 renewable scholarship ($14,000 over four years to each scholar) to support their academic careers. Six outstanding high school seniors were selected based on their academic achievement, community involvement, and leadership skills.

Funded by AUI, the scholarship program recognizes the achievements of the children of full and part-time employees of AUI and its affiliated centers, and assists them with the ongoing costs of collegiate education.

Recipients of this year’s award come from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and AUI.

The AUI Scholarship program is conducted by International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc.

AUI 2022 Scholarship Recipients

• Elijah Doran, AUI
• Casey Lockledge, NRAO HQ
• Daniel Cuenca, NRAO HQ
• Magdalene Sanchez, NRAO Socorro
• Nicholas Torres, NRAO Socorro
• Logan Christopher Cordova, NRAO Socorro

Read more about the 2022 AUI Scholarship recipients here.

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