From NOIRLab: “MAROON-X Embarks on its Exoplanet Quest”

NOIRLab composite

From NOIRLab

Astronomers using the recently installed instrument MAROON-X on Gemini North have determined the mass of a transiting exoplanet orbiting the nearby star Gliese 486. As well as putting the innovative new instrument through its paces, this result, when combined with data from the TESS satellite, precisely measures key properties of a rocky planet that is ideal for follow-up observations with the next generation of ground- and space-based telescopes.

MAROON-X Exoplanet hunter on NOIRLab Gemini North Telescope from Bean Exoplanet Group at U Chicago.

MAROON-X on NOIRLab Gemini North Telescope

NASA/MIT Tess

NASA/MIT Tess in the building.

NASA/MIT TESS replaced Kepler in search for exoplanets.

TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Additional partners include Northrop Grumman, based in Falls Church, Virginia; NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley; the Center for Astrophysics – Harvard and Smithsonian in Cambridge; MIT Lincoln Laboratory; and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

The exoplanet-hunting instrument MAROON-X has obtained its first scientific result from its new home at the 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope, part of the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab [1].

NSF’s NOIRLab Frederick C Gillett Gemini North Telescope Maunakea, Hawaii, USA, Altitude 4,213 m (13,822 ft).

Shipped from the University of Chicago(US) in mid-2019, the instrument arrived at Gemini in a collection of wooden packing crates. Despite exhausting 12-hour shifts in the thin air at an altitude of 4300 meters (14,000 feet), the MAROON-X team successfully constructed and installed the instrument in a six-month process known as commissioning. The assembled instrument takes advantage of Gemini North’s location on Maunakea in Hawai‘i — one of the best observing sites on the planet.

“It’s been an intense six-month stretch,” explained Jacob Bean, head of the University of Chicago team behind MAROON-X. “We’ve spent ten years developing the instrument and with MAROON-X now installed on Gemini we will start to get real insights into habitable worlds around other stars.”

The technical core of MAROON-X lies at the end of a bundle of fibers trailing from behind the main mirror of Gemini North to a small room several floors below. Inside this temperature-controlled room and encased in a vacuum chamber, a collection of high-precision optical devices forms the spectrometer at the heart of MAROON-X. This spectrometer measures variations in the light from distant stars to detect the subtle influence of orbiting worlds — making MAROON-X an outstanding exoplanet hunter [2].

MAROON-X’s first science result determined the mass of the newly discovered rocky planet Gliese 486 b, which orbits Gliese 486, a star smaller and dimmer than our own Sun [3]. The planet has a mass roughly three times that of the Earth, but has a similar density. The composition of this newly discovered exoplanet is not its only distinguishing feature — its relative closeness to Earth makes it an ideal candidate for observations with the next generation of astronomical technology.

“The proximity of this exoplanet is exciting because it will be possible to study it in more detail with powerful telescopes such as the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope and the various Extremely Large Telescopes such as the GMT and TMT,” explained Trifon Trifonov, lead author of the paper reporting this discovery.

NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope annotated.

Giant Magellan Telescope, 21 meters, to be at the NOIRLab NOAO Carnegie Institution for Science’s Las Campanas Observatory, some 115 km (71 mi) north-northeast of La Serena, Chile, over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) high.

TMT-Thirty Meter Telescope, proposed and now approved for Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA , Altitude 4,050 m or 13,290 ft, the only giant 30 meter class telescope for the Northern hemisphere.

“Within the next few years, we hope to use transit spectroscopy to search for signs of an atmosphere and possibly determine this planet’s surface composition.”

MAROON-X was developed to find and characterize exactly this type of exoplanet — rocky worlds around nearby stars whose atmospheres are suitable for follow-up investigation using future instruments. As well as next-generation telescopes, MAROON-X was designed to work alongside NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). In the case of Gliese 486 b, the team used MAROON-X measurements and additional data from the CARMENES [4] spectrograph at the Calar Alto Observatory to determine the exoplanet’s mass, and combined this with the planetary radius measured by the TESS mission to find the density of Gliese 486 b — revealing it to be a rocky super-Earth.

CARMENES spectrograph, mounted on the Calar Alto 3.5 meter Telescope, located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a 2,168-meter-high (7,113 ft) mountain in Sierra de Los Filabres.

Calar Alto 3.5 meter Telescope, located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a 2,168-meter-high (7,113 ft) mountain in Sierra de Los Filabres(ES).

“MAROON-X provides a new, valuable addition to Gemini’s visiting instrument program. Demonstrating exciting precision and sensitivity, it is available for use by the astronomical community to discover and characterize new worlds,” said National Science Foundation Division of Astronomical Sciences Program Officer Martin Still.

MAROON-X’s capabilities are already popular amongst the astronomical community, with a surge of requests for observation time following the instrument’s commissioning. Four long observation campaigns have already been completed despite the impact of COVID-19, as MAROON-X can be operated fully remotely. In fact, the observations of Gliese 486 b were some of the first observations obtained with Gemini North after it restarted operations in May 2020. Even without astronomers on site, the capabilities of Gemini and MAROON-X have been impressive — the instrument can detect exoplanets around stars that are 150 times fainter than those visible to the naked eye.

“This result demonstrates the unprecedented capability of MAROON-X,” concluded Jacob Bean. “This is only our first result, and as we find more we will determine what kinds of rocky planets are out there, ultimately helping us learn more about the formation and evolution of the Earth.”

Notes

[1] MAROON-X (M dwarf Advanced Radial velocity Observer Of Neighboring eXoplanets) is a visitor instrument at Gemini North. The Gemini Visiting Instrument program allows the observatory to respond to the emerging needs of the astronomical community by hosting instruments developed by astronomers themselves. This program gives astronomers the opportunity to use specialized instruments for their scientific needs while sharing a diverse range of instruments with the wider astronomical community.

[2] Astronomers can measure the mass of an exoplanet by observing its host star, as the vast majority of exoplanets cannot be directly imaged. Instead, astronomers measure the tiny movements of host stars as they are tugged back and forth by the gravitational attraction of an orbiting planet; the more massive the exoplanet, the more the host star will be tugged to and fro. MAROON-X measures this stellar motion by capturing incredibly precise shifts in the star’s spectrum.

[3] The convention for naming exoplanets is to take the name of the parent star and add a lower case letter as a suffix, starting with the letter b. As this exoplanet is the first to be discovered orbiting the star Gliese 486, it takes the name Gliese 486 b.

[4] CARMENES is the Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with optical and Near-infrared Echelle spectrographs.
More information

This research was published in the paper A nearby transiting rocky planet ideal for atmospheric investigation to appear in the journal Science.

The team was composed of T. Trifonov (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie), J. A. Caballero (Centro de Astrobiología), J. C. Morales (Institut de Ciències de l’Espai in University of Barcelona [Universitat de Barcelona](ES) and Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia [Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya](ES), A. Seifahrt (The University of Chicago(US)), I. Ribas (Institute of Space Sciences [Institut de Ciències de l’Espai](ES) and Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia [Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya](ES)), A. Reiners (Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August-Universität), J. L. Bean (The University of Chicago), R. Luque (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), H. Parviainen (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), E. Pallé (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), S. Stock (Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg(DE)) , M. Zechmeister (The University of Chicago), P. J. Amado (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía), G. Anglada-Escudé (Institut de Ciències de l’Espai and Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), M. Azzaro (Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán), T. Barclay (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center(US), and University of Maryland(US)), V. J. S. Béjar (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), P. Bluhm (Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg), N. Casasayas-Barris (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), C. Cifuentes (Centro de Astrobiología), K. A. Collins (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), K. I. Collins (George Mason University), M. Cortés-Contreras (Centro de Astrobiología), J. de Leon (The University of Tokyo), S. Dreizler (Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August-Universität), C. D. Dressing (University of California at Berkeley), E. Esparza-Borges (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), N. Espinoza (Space Telescope Science Institute), M. Fausnaugh (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), A. Fukui (The University of Tokyo), A. P. Hatzes (Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg), C. Hellier (Keele University(UK)), Th. Henning (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie), C. E. Henze (NASA Ames Research Center(US)), E. Herrero (Institut de Ciències de l’Espai and Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), S. V. Jeffers (Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August-Universität), J. M. Jenkins (NASA Ames Research Center), E. L. N. Jensen (Swarthmore College(US)), A. Kaminski (Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg), D. Kasper (The University of Chicago), D. Kossakowski (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie), M. Kürster (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie), M.Lafarga (Institut de Ciències de l’Espai and Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), D. W. Latham (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), A. W. Mann (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill(US),), K. Molaverdikhani (Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg), D. Montes (Departamento de Física de la Tierra y Astrofísica & Complutense University of Madrid[Universidad Complutense Madrid](ES) Institute of Particle and Cosmos Physics [Instituto de Física de Partículas y Cosmos]), B. T. Montet (University of New South Wales(AU)), F. Murgas (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna), N. Narita (The University of Tokyo, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Astrobiology Center, and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias), M. Oshagh (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), V. M. Passegger (University of Hamburg [Universität Hamburg](DE) and University of Oklahoma(US),), D. Pollacco (University of Warwick(UK)), S. N. Quinn (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), A. Quirrenbach (Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg), G. R. Ricker (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), C. Rodríguez López (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía), J. Sanz-Forcada (Centro de Astrobiología), R. P. Schwarz (Patashnick Voorheesville Observatory), A. Schweitzer (Universität Hamburg), S. Seager (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), A. Shporer (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), M. Stangret (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), J. Stürmer (Universität Heidelberg), T. G. Tan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), P. Tenenbaum (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), J. D. Twicken (SETI Institute(US) and NASA Ames Research), R. Vanderspek (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and J. N. Winn (Princeton University(US)).

See the full article here.

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Stem Education Coalition
What is NSF’s NOIRLab?

NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

From NOIRLab: “Astronomers Confirm Solar System’s Most Distant Known Object Is Indeed Farfarout”

NOIRLab composite

From NOIRLab

10 February 2021

Scott Sheppard
Earth and Planets Laboratory
Carnegie Institution for Science
Tel: +1 202-478-8854
ssheppard@carnegiescience.edu

David Tholen
University of Hawai‘i
tholen@hawaii.edu

Chad Trujillo
Northern Arizona University
chad.trujillo@nau.edu

Amanda Kocz
Press and Internal Communications Officer
NSF’s NOIRLab
Cell: +1 626-524-5884
amanda.kocz@noirlab.edu

This illustration imagines what the distant object nicknamed “Farfarout” might look like in the outer reaches of our Solar System. The most distant object yet discovered in our Solar System, Farfarout is 132 astronomical units from the Sun, which is 132 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Estimated to be about 400 kilometers (250 miles) across, Farfarout is shown in the lower right, while the Sun appears in the upper left. The Milky Way stretches diagonally across the background. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J.da Silva.

This illustration depicts the most distant object yet found in our Solar System, nicknamed “Farfarout,” in the lower right. In the lower left, a graph shows the distances of the planets, dwarf planets, candidate dwarf planets, and Farfarout from the Sun in astronomical units (au). One au is equal to Earth’s average distance from the Sun. Farfarout is 132 au from the Sun. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J.da Silva.

With the help of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, and other ground-based telescopes, astronomers have confirmed that a faint object discovered in 2018 and nicknamed “Farfarout” is indeed the most distant object yet found in our Solar System. The object has just received its designation from the International Astronomical Union.

Farfarout was first spotted in January 2018 by the NAOJ Subaru Telescope, located on Maunakea in Hawai‘i. Its discoverers could tell it was very far away, but they weren’t sure exactly how far. They needed more observations.

NAOJ/Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Hawaii, USA,4,207 m (13,802 ft) above sea level.

Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii USA, altitude 4,213 m (13,822 ft).

“At that time we did not know the object’s orbit as we only had the Subaru discovery observations over 24 hours, but it takes years of observations to get an object’s orbit around the Sun,” explained co-discoverer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science. “All we knew was that the object appeared to be very distant at the time of discovery.”

Sheppard and his colleagues, David Tholen of the University of Hawai‘i and Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University, spent the next few years tracking the object with the Gemini North telescope (also on Maunakea in Hawai‘i) and the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Magellan Telescopes in Chile to determine its orbit.

NSF’s NOIRLab Frederick C Gillett Gemini North Telescope Maunakea, Hawaii, USA, Altitude 4,213 m (13,822 ft).

Carnegie 6.5 meter Magellan Baade and Clay Telescopes located at Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) high.

[1] They have now confirmed that Farfarout currently lies 132 astronomical units (au) from the Sun, which is 132 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. (For comparison, Pluto is 39 au from the Sun, on average.)

Farfarout is even more remote than the previous Solar System distance record-holder, which was discovered by the same team and nicknamed “Farout.” Provisionally designated 2018 VG18, Farout is 124 au from the Sun.

However, the orbit of Farfarout is quite elongated, taking it 175 au from the Sun at its farthest point and around 27 au at its closest, which is inside the orbit of Neptune. Because its orbit crosses Neptune’s, Farfarout could provide insights into the history of the outer Solar System.

“Farfarout was likely thrown into the outer Solar System by getting too close to Neptune in the distant past,” said Trujillo. “Farfarout will likely interact with Neptune again in the future since their orbits still intersect.”

Farfarout is very faint. Based on its brightness and distance from the Sun, the team estimates it to be about 400 kilometers (250 miles) across, putting it at the low end of possibly being designated a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The IAU’s Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts announced today that it has given Farfarout the provisional designation 2018 AG37. The Solar System’s most distant known member will receive an official name after more observations are gathered and its orbit becomes even more refined in the coming years.

“Farfarout takes a millennium to go around the Sun once,” said Tholen. “Because of this, it moves very slowly across the sky, requiring several years of observations to precisely determine its trajectory.”

Farfarout’s discoverers are confident that even more distant objects remain to be discovered on the outskirts of the Solar System, and that its distance record might not stand for long.

“The discovery of Farfarout shows our increasing ability to map the outer Solar System and observe farther and farther towards the fringes of our Solar System,” said Sheppard. “Only with the advancements in the last few years of large digital cameras on very large telescopes has it been possible to efficiently discover very distant objects like Farfarout. Even though some of these distant objects are quite large — the size of dwarf planets — they are very faint because of their extreme distances from the Sun. Farfarout is just the tip of the iceberg of objects in the very distant Solar System.”

Notes

[1] The Gemini North observations of Farfarout were done on 1 May and 2 May 2019 Universal Time, using Director’s Discretionary Time.

Links

University of Hawai‘i press release
NAOJ/Subaru press release
Minor Planet Circular 2021-C187

See the full article here.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition
What is NSF’s NOIRLab?

NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

From NOIRLab: “The Spiral of The Southern Pinwheel-Messier 83”

NOIRLab composite

From NOIRLab

8 February 2021
Amanda Kocz
Press and Internal Communications Officer
NSF’s NOIRLab
Cell: +1 626 524 5884
amanda.kocz@noirlab.edu

A camera designed to reveal the deepest secrets of our Universe captures the Southern Pinwheel galaxy in glorious detail.

The Southern Pinwheel-Messier 83 .

The Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which was originally designed for the Dark Energy Survey, has captured one of the deepest images ever taken of Messier 83, a spiral galaxy playfully known as the Southern Pinwheel. Built by the US Department of Energy, DECam is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.

Dark Energy Survey

Dark Energy Camera [DECam], built at FNAL

NOAO/CTIO Victor M Blanco 4m Telescope which houses the DECam at Cerro Tololo, Chile, housing DECam at an altitude of 7200 feet

Timeline of the Inflationary Universe WMAP

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is an international, collaborative effort to map hundreds of millions of galaxies, detect thousands of supernovae, and find patterns of cosmic structure that will reveal the nature of the mysterious dark energy that is accelerating the expansion of our Universe. DES began searching the Southern skies on August 31, 2013.

According to Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, gravity should lead to a slowing of the cosmic expansion. Yet, in 1998, two teams of astronomers studying distant supernovae made the remarkable discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up.

Saul Perlmutter [The Supernova Cosmology Project] shared the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy, the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, and the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with Brian P. Schmidt and Adam Riess [The High-z Supernova Search Team] for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

To explain cosmic acceleration, cosmologists are faced with two possibilities: either 70% of the universe exists in an exotic form, now called Dark Energy, that exhibits a gravitational force opposite to the attractive gravity of ordinary matter, or General Relativity must be replaced by a new theory of gravity on cosmic scales.

DES is designed to probe the origin of the accelerating universe and help uncover the nature of dark energy by measuring the 14-billion-year history of cosmic expansion with high precision. More than 400 scientists from over 25 institutions in the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia are working on the project. The collaboration built and is using an extremely sensitive 570-Megapixel digital camera, DECam, mounted on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, high in the Chilean Andes, to carry out the project.

Over six years (2013-2019), the DES collaboration used 758 nights of observation to carry out a deep, wide-area survey to record information from 300 million galaxies that are billions of light-years from Earth. The survey imaged 5000 square degrees of the southern sky in five optical filters to obtain detailed information about each galaxy. A fraction of the survey time is used to observe smaller patches of sky roughly once a week to discover and study thousands of supernovae and other astrophysical transients.

Astronomy enthusiasts might wonder why a camera called the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) would be used to image a single spiral galaxy. DECam has in fact already finished its main job, as the instrument was used to complete the Dark Energy Survey, which ran from 2013 to 2019. Like many people, rather than enjoying a quiet retirement, DECam is remaining occupied. Members of the astronomical community can apply for time to use it, and the data collected are processed and made publicly available [1], thanks to the Astro Data Archive at the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) Program at NSF’s NOIRLab. DECam’s continued operation also makes sumptuously detailed images like this one possible.

Messier 83, or the Southern Pinwheel, is located in the southern constellation of Hydra and is an obvious target for a beautiful astronomical image. It is oriented so that it is almost entirely face-on as seen from Earth, meaning that we can observe its spiral structure in fantastic detail. The galaxy lies around 15 million light-years away, which makes it a neighbor in astronomical terms. It has a diameter of around 50,000 light-years, so it is a little diminutive in comparison to our own Milky Way, which has a diameter of 100,000–200,000 light-years. In other ways, however, the Southern Pinwheel probably gives a good approximation of how our Milky Way would look to a distant alien civilization.

Six different filters were used on DECam in order to create this spectacular new view of a classical beauty. Filters allow astronomers to select which wavelengths of light they wish to view the sky in. This is crucial for science observations, when astronomers require very specific information about an object, but it also allows colorful images like this one to be created. Observing celestial objects — such as the Southern Pinwheel — with several different filters means that different details can be picked out. For example, the dark tendrils curling through the galaxy are actually lanes of dust, blocking out light. In contrast, the clustered, bright red spots are caused by glowing, hot hydrogen gas (which identifies these as hubs of star formation). Dusty trails and dynamic ionized gas have different temperatures, and are therefore visible in different wavelengths. Filters allow both to be observed separately, and then combined into one intricate image. In all, 163 DECam exposures, with a total combined exposure time of over 11.3 hours, went into creating this portrait of Messier 83.

Yet these observations were not just about creating a pretty picture. They are helping to prepare for upcoming observations by Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a future program of NOIRLab.

NOIRLab Vera C. Rubin Observatory Telescope currently under construction on the El Peñón peak at Cerro Pachón Chile, a 2,682-meter-high mountain in Coquimbo Region, in northern Chile, alongside the existing Gemini South and Southern Astrophysical Research Telescopes, altitude 2,715 m (8,907 ft).

In ten years of operation, starting in 2023, Rubin Observatory will carry out an unprecedented optical survey of the visible sky named the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). “The Messier 83 observations are part of an ongoing program to produce an atlas of time-varying phenomena in nearby southern galaxies in preparation for Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time,” said Monika Soraisam of the University of Illinois, who is the principal investigator for DECam’s observations of Messier 83. “We are generating multi-color light curves of stars in this galaxy, which will be used to tame the onslaught of alerts expected from LSST using state-of-the-art software infrastructure such as NOIRLab’s own ANTARES alert-broker.” [2]

Built by the US Department of Energy (DOE), DECam is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at CTIO in Chile [all above]. DECam is a powerful instrument that uses 74 highly sensitive charge-coupled devices (CCDs) to take images. CCDs are the same devices that are used to take photos in everyday cell phones. Of course, the CCDs in DECam are much larger, and they were specifically designed to collect very faint red light from distant galaxies. This capability was crucial for DECam’s original purpose, the Dark Energy Survey. This ambitious survey probed one of the most fundamental questions of the Universe — why is our Universe not only expanding, but expanding at an accelerating rate? For six years DECam surveyed the skies, imaging the most distant galaxies to collect more data to enable astronomers to further investigate our accelerating Universe. Taking beautiful images such as this one must seem a lot simpler for DECam.

“While DECam has fulfilled its original goal to complete the Dark Energy Survey, it continues to be a valuable resource for the astronomical community, capturing sweeping views of objects like Messier 83 that both delight the senses and advance our understanding of the Universe,” said Chris Davis, Program Director for NOIRLab at the National Science Foundation.

Notes

[1] Data from DECam typically have an 18-month proprietary period to allow the principal investigators who requested the observations time to perform their research before the data are released publicly for anyone to use.

[2] ANTARES is a software tool built at NOIRLab to process information about changing objects in the night sky and to help distribute that information to the astronomical community.

See the full article here.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition
What is NSF’s NOIRLab?

NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

From NOIRLab: “Big Astronomy Planetarium Program and Online Activities Go Live!”

NOIRLab composite

From NOIRLab

22 September 2020
Peter Michaud
pmichaud@gemini.edu
NewsTeam Manager, NSF’s NOIRLab
Hilo, HI, USA
Tel: +1 808 936 6643

Big Astronomy or Astronomia a Gran Escala is a bilingual planetarium show that extends beyond the dome using web-based and hands-on resources. In Big Astronomy, discover Chile’s grand observatories and meet the people who push the limits of technology and expand what we know about the Universe using world-class telescopes.

Big Astronomy or Astronomia a Gran Escala shares the story of the people and places who make big astronomy and big science happen. The planetarium show transports viewers to Chile where the dark skies and dry, remote setting create ideal conditions to observe the Universe. By 2022, it is expected that most of the world’s ground-based observing infrastructure will be located in Chile, and the US and other countries are investing billions of dollars in furthering astronomy partnerships in the country. Big Astronomy introduces audiences to the wide variety of people involved in advancing astronomical discovery.

Produced by the California Academy of Sciences, the Big Astronomy planetarium show has its world premiere on 26 September 2020. Owing to the pandemic, most planetariums around the world are closed, so the premiere will take place as an immersive 360-degree experience, viewable at noon PDT on either the Big Astronomy YouTube channel or the Academy YouTube channel. On launch day, the Big Astronomy YouTube channel will also offer additional screenings at 5 pm and 7 pm PDT as well as one in Spanish at 2 pm PDT. Beginning on 30 September 2020, viewers can enjoy Big Astronomy on YouTube every Wednesday at 11:30 am PDT until further notice.

The NOIRLab facilities in Chile featured in this extraordinary planetarium production are the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and the international Gemini Observatory.. Other facilities featured are the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

CTIO is home to 35 telescopes, located at an altitude of 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) atop Cerro Tololo in northern Chile. An icon of CTIO is the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, outfitted with the Dark Energy Camera. In Big Astronomy, NOIRLab staff, including electronics/detector engineer Marco Bonati, assistant observer Jacqueline Seron, and astronomer Kathy Vivas, describe their work at the telescope and with the Dark Energy Camera.

Gemini Observatory operates twin 8.1-meter optical telescopes located in Chile and Hawai‘i. Gemini South in Chile, atop Cerro Pachón, began viewing the sky in 2002. For Big Astronomy, NOIRLab staff, including electronics engineer Vanessa Montes and Science Operations Specialist Alysha Shugart, describe how observations are made with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI).

“Chile is one of the best places in the world for astronomy and we are privileged to have a presence in the country,” said Patrick McCarthy, Director of NOIRLab. “The Big Astronomy planetarium show captures in rich detail some of the people and the locations that make our work, and the work of other astronomical institutions, possible.”

The show is now available for planetariums from the Big Astronomy website. Planetariums can download a copy for streaming and as 2k planetarium frames or order 4k planetarium frames with soundtracks in both English and Spanish.

Big Astronomy doesn’t end with the planetarium show, though. The team has also developed an educator guide, a bilingual flat-screen version of the film, and a toolkit with a variety of hands-on activities to further engage learners of all ages. In addition, over the next two years, Big Astronomy will host a series of live virtual events featuring the diverse careers of real people who work at the facilities. All these pieces, including the planetarium show, will culminate in a new research-based model to inform the creation of future, more engaging, planetarium shows.

More information

Big Astronomy is a collaboration between Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, Associated Universities Inc. (AUI), Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), California Academy of Sciences, Peoria Riverfront Museum, Ward Beecher Planetarium at Youngstown State University, the Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA), Vera C. Rubin Observatory construction project, NSF’s NOIRLab facilities Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and the international Gemini Observatory. Big Astronomy is supported by the US National Science Foundation (Award #: 1811436).

See the full article here.

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What is NSF’s NOIRLab?

NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

From The Giant Magellan Telescope: “Major NSF grant accelerates development for one of the world’s most powerful telescopes”

Giant Magellan Telescope, to be at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Las Campanas Observatory, to be built some 115 km (71 mi) north-northeast of La Serena, Chile, over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) high

From The Giant Magellan Telescope

September 16, 2020

Ryan Kallabis
Director of Communications
rkallabis@gmto.org
(626) 204-0554

The Giant Magellan Telescope fast-tracks development of revolutionary optical technologies necessary to transform humanity’s view and understanding of the universe at first light.

The GMTO Corporation has received a $17.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to accelerate the prototyping and testing of some of the most powerful optical and infrared technologies ever engineered.

These crucial advancements for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile will allow astronomers to see farther into space with more detail than any other optical telescope before. The NSF grant positions the GMT to be one of the first in a new generation of large telescopes, approximately three times the size of any ground-based optical telescope built to date.

The GMT and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) are a part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP), a joint initiative with NSF’s NOIRLab to provide superior observing access to the entire sky as never before.

NOIRLab composite

Upon completion of each telescope, US scientists and international partners will be able to take advantage of the program’s two pioneering telescopes to carry out transformational research that answers some of humanity’s most pressing questions, such as are we alone in the universe and where did we come from.

“We are honored to receive our first NSF grant,” said Dr. Robert Shelton, President of the GMTO Corporation. “It is a giant step toward realizing the GMT’s scientific goals and the profound impact the GMT will have on the future of human knowledge.”

Major NSF grant accelerates development of the Giant Magellan Telescope.

One of the great challenges of engineering revolutionary technologies is constructing them to operate at optimal performance. The Giant Magellan Telescope is designed to have a resolving power ten times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope — one of the most productive scientific achievements in the history of astronomy. This advancement in image quality is a prerequisite for the GMT to fully realize its scientific potential and expand our knowledge of the universe.

“Image quality on any telescope starts with the primary mirror,” said Dr. James Fanson, Project Manager of the GMTO Corporation. “The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirror comprises seven 8.4m mirror segments. To achieve diffraction-limited imaging, we have to be able to phase these primary mirror segments so that they behave as a monolithic mirror. Once phased, we must then correct for Earth’s turbulent atmospheric distortion.”

This image quality comparison is of a small patch of sky as observed from the ground through the atmosphere with the naked eye (left), as the Hubble Space Telescope would observe it (center), and a simulation of the Giant Magellan Telescope using adaptive optics to achieve diffraction limited seeing from the ground (right). When online, the GMT will achieve ten times better resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

Phasing involves precisely aligning a telescope’s segmented mirrors and other optical components so that they work in unison to produce crisp images of deep space. Achieving this with seven of the world’s largest mirrors ever built is no easy task. The immense size of the GMT’s primary mirror requires a powerful adaptive optics system to correct for the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmospheric turbulence at kilohertz speeds. In other words, astronomers need to take the subtle “twinkle” out of the stars in order to capture high-resolution data from celestial objects thousands of light-years from our planet.

The NSF grant enables the GMT to build two phasing testbeds that will allow engineers to demonstrate, in a controlled laboratory setting, that its core designs will work to align and phase the telescope’s seven mirror segments with the required precision to achieve diffraction-limited imaging at first light in 2029. This includes a full-scale prototype of the primary mirror support and control system that delivers active optical control. The testbeds will be developed at the University of Arizona Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics (CAAO) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), while actuator testing and integration of the primary mirror support will be developed at Texas A&M University.

A gray steel structure that simulates one of the massive 16.5 ton Giant Magellan Telescope primary mirror segments is installed onto a test cell. The GMT test cell and mirror simulator will be used to test the support structure and actuators that hold the massive telescope in place, including the software that controls the precise movements of the mirrors. Image Credit: Steve West, Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona.

U Arizona mirror lab-Where else in the world can you find an astronomical observatory mirror lab under a football stadium?

Exploded view of a GMT adaptive secondary mirror segment showing the key components which include the adaptive face sheet, rigid reference body, electromagnetic actuators, cold plate, and the 6- degrees-of-freedom segment positioner.

Astronomers will use the GMT’s high-fidelity adaptive mirrors and other revolutionary adaptive optics technologies to detect faint biosignatures from distant exoplanets — one of the GMT’s primary scientific goals.

This work is part of a larger $23 million joint-award to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the GMTO Corporation over the next three years. The GMT project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions.

See the full article here .

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The Giant Magellan Telescope will be one of the next class of super giant earth-based telescopes that promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe. It will be operational in about 10 years and will be located in Chile.

Organizations

The project is US-led in partnership with Australia, Brazil, and Korea, with Chile as the host country.[4] The following organizations are members of the consortium developing the telescope.[27]

Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science
University of Chicago
Harvard University
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Texas A&M University
University of Arizona
University of Texas at Austin
Australian National University
Astronomy Australia Limited
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (한국천문연구원)
University of São Paulo
Arizona State University

The GMT has a unique design that offers several advantages. It is a segmented mirror telescope that employs seven of today’s largest stiff monolith mirrors as segments. Six off-axis 8.4 meter or 27-foot segments surround a central on-axis segment, forming a single optical surface with an aperture of 24.5 meters, or 80 feet in diameter. The GMT will have a resolving power 10 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope. The GMT project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions.

From UC Riverside and NOIRLab: “Newly discovered planet survived the death of its star”

From UC Riverside

and

NOIRLab composite

NOIRLab

September 16, 2020
Holly Ober, UC Riverside
(951) 827-5893
holly.ober@ucr.edu

Andrew Vanderburg
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cell: +1 512-484-8392
Email: avanderburg@wisc.edu

Siyi Xu
NSF’s NOIRLab
Cell: +1 808 765 9596
Email: sxu@gemini.edu

Amanda Kocz
Press and Internal Communications Officer
NSF’s NOIRLab
Cell: +1 626 524 5884
Email: akocz@aura-astronomy.org

In this illustration, WD 1856 b, a potential Jupiter-size planet, orbits its much smaller host star, a dim white dwarf. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Astronomers report what may be the first example of an intact planet closely orbiting a white dwarf.

An international team of astronomers has reported what may be the first example of an intact planet closely orbiting a white dwarf, a dense leftover of a sun-like star that’s only 40% bigger than Earth.

Astronomers have used Gemini North and used the sensitive Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS) to make detailed measurements of the white dwarf star in infrared light from Maunakea, Hawai‘i.

Frederick C Gillett Gemini North Telescope Maunakea, Hawaii, USA, Altitude 4,213 m (13,822 ft).

Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph on Gemini North, Mauna Kea, Hawaii USA.

Other telescopes around the globe and in space were used to find and characterize a giant planet, less than 13.8 times as massive as Jupiter, orbiting a white dwarf star. The research is published in the journal Nature.

The discovery is unique because stars usually destroy nearby planets as they begin to die.

“We know of many white dwarfs but finding planets around them is hard,” said Stephen Kane, a professor of planetary astrophysics at UC Riverside. “How did this planet manage to survive the end stages of its star?”

The Jupiter-sized object, called WD 1856 b, is about seven times larger than the white dwarf. It circles this stellar cinder every 34 hours, over 60 times faster than Mercury orbits our sun. It orbits a cool, quiet white dwarf called WD 1856+534, about 80 light-years away in the northern constellation Draco. The host star is roughly 11,300 miles, or 18,190 kilometers, across and may be up to 10 billion years old.

NASA’s TESS orbiting telescope detects planets when their transit across a star causes a dip in brightness. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA/MIT TESS replaced Kepler in search for exoplanets.

A paper about the system, led by Andrew Vanderburg, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues from several dozen other institutions, including Kane, appears in the journal Nature [above].

The team was composed of Andrew Vanderburg (University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Texas at Austin), Saul A. Rappaport (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Siyi Xu (NSF’s NOIRLab/Gemini Observatory), Ian Crossfield (University of Kansas), Juliette C. Becker (California Institute of Technology), Bruce Gary (Hereford Arizona Observatory), Felipe Murgas (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), Simon Blouin (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Thomas G. Kaye (Raemor Vista Observatory and The University of Hong Kong), Enric Palle (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), Carl Melis (University of California, San Diego), Brett Morris (University of Bern), Laura Kreidberg (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), Varoujan Gorjian (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Caroline V. Morley (University of Texas at Austin), Andrew W. Mann (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Hannu Parviainen (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna), Logan A. Pearce (University of Arizona), Elisabeth R. Newton (Dartmouth College), Andreia Carrillo (University of Texas at Austin), Ben Zuckerman (University of California, Los Angeles), Lorne Nelson (Bishop’s University), Greg Zeimann (University of Texas at Austin), Warren R. Brown (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), René Tronsgaard (Technical University of Denmark), Beth Klein (University of California, Los Angeles), George R. Ricker (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Roland K. Vanderspek (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), David W. Latham (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), Sara Seager (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Joshua N. Winn (Princeton University), Jon M. Jenkins (NASA Ames Research Center), Fred C. Adams (University of Michigan), Björn Benneke (Université de Montréal), David Berardo (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Lars A. Buchhave (Technical University of Denmark), Douglas A. Caldwell (NASA Ames Research Center and SETI Institute), Jessie L. Christiansen (Caltech/IPAC-NASA Exoplanet Science Institute), Karen A. Collins (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), Knicole D. Colón (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Tansu Daylan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), John Doty (Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.), Alexandra E. Doyle (University of California, Los Angeles), Diana Dragomir (University of New Mexico, Albuquerque), Courtney Dressing (University of California, Berkeley), Patrick Dufour (Université de Montréal), Akihiko Fukui (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and The University of Tokyo), Ana Glidden (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Natalia M. Guerrero (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Xueying Guo (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Kevin Heng (University of Bern), Andreea I. Henriksen (Technical University of Denmark), Chelsea X. Huang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Lisa Kaltenegger (Cornell University), Stephen R. Kane (University of California, Riverside), John A. Lewis (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), Jack J. Lissauer (NASA Ames Research Center), Farisa Morales (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Moorpark College), Norio Narita (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and The University of Tokyo), Joshua Pepper (Lehigh University), Mark E. Rose (NASA Ames Research Center), Jeffrey C. Smith (SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center) Keivan G. Stassun (Vanderbilt University and Fisk University), Liang Yu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ExxonMobil Upstream Integrated Solutions).

When a sun-like star runs out of fuel, it swells up to hundreds to thousands of times its original size, forming a cooler red giant star. Eventually, it ejects its outer layers of gas, losing up to 80% of its mass. The remaining hot core becomes a white dwarf.

Any nearby objects are engulfed and incinerated during this process, which in this system would have included WD 1856 b in its current orbit. The researchers estimate the planet must have originated at least 50 times farther away from the white dwarf

“The white dwarf creation process destroys nearby planets, and anything that later gets too close is usually torn apart by the star’s immense gravity,” Vanderburg said. “We still have many questions about how WD 1856 b arrived at its current location without meeting one of those fates.”

The detection of the Jupiter-size body was made using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS [above], which monitors sky sectors for almost a month at a time, and retired Spitzer Space Telescope.

NASA/Spitzer Infrared telescope no longer in service.

The astronomers did not see the planet itself. As a planet transits a star, it blocks some of the light and dims what TESS can see.

Planet transit. NASA/Ames.

However, many things can cause dimming, making it a challenge to determine if a planet is the source. Kane, a member of TESS’ science team, said the satellite’s short orbit of about 1.5 days allowed it to capture many transits, which helped the team determine that it was, in fact, a planet.

“Since the planet had to have originally been much farther away from the star, the interesting question is how did it get to its present location,” Kane said. “I think the two most likely scenarios are through interaction with another planet or with a disc of debris around the star.”

When two nearby planets interact, the result is usually chaotic, with gravitational forces throwing them out of alignment. Kane said interactions between a planet and the disc of debris around another star are smooother. A planet moving through the disc causes friction, pushing it closer to the star. The interaction of planets with discs usually occurs around young stars still in the process of forming.

“In this case, it’s possible that a debris disc could have formed from ejected material as the star changed from red giant to white dwarf. Or, on a more cannibalistic note, the disc could have formed from the debris of other planets that were torn apart by powerful gravitational tides from the white dwarf,” Kane said. “The disc itself may have long since dissipated.”

Earlier this year, Kane was involved in the first discovery of a planet orbiting an infant star. The identification of a planet orbiting a star at the opposite end of its life cycle is one of the many surprising views through the window TESS opens to the universe.

“We’re always looking for something unusual, and this is certainly unusual,” Kane said.

Kane, a member of UCR’s NASA-funded Alternative Earths Astrobiology Center and director of UCR’s NASA-funded Planetary Research Laboratory, is available for media interviews about TESS and his involvement in analyzing its data and observations.

TESS, Spitzer Spot Potential Giant World Circling Tiny Star.

See the full article here .

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UC Riverside Campus

The University of California, Riverside is one of 10 universities within the prestigious University of California system, and the only UC located in Inland Southern California.

Widely recognized as one of the most ethnically diverse research universities in the nation, UCR’s current enrollment is more than 21,000 students, with a goal of 25,000 students by 2020. The campus is in the midst of a tremendous growth spurt with new and remodeled facilities coming on-line on a regular basis.

We are located approximately 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. UCR is also within easy driving distance of dozens of major cultural and recreational sites, as well as desert, mountain and coastal destinations.

From NOIRLab: “Report Offers Roadmap to Mitigate Effects of Large Satellite Constellations on Astronomy”

NOIRLab composite

From NOIRLab

Aug. 25, 2020

Connie Walker
NSF’s NOIRLab, Co-Chair SATCON1
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Email: cwalker@noao.edu

Jeff Hall
Lowell Observatory, Co-Chair SATCON1
Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Email: jch@lowell.edu

Joel Parriott
AAS Director of Public Policy & Deputy Executive Officer
Washington, DC, USA
Tel: +1 202 328 2010 x120
Email: joel.parriott@aas.org

Lars Lindberg Christensen
NOIRLab Head of Communications, Education & Engagement
Tel: +1 520 461 0433
Email: lchristensen@aura-astronomy.org

Rick Fienberg
AAS Press Officer
Tel: +1 202 328 2010 x116
Email: rick.fienberg@aas.org

Astronomers and satellite operators agree there’s a problem; report explores practical ways to address it and identifies issues for further study.

A report by experts representing the global astronomical community, concludes that large constellations of bright satellites in low Earth orbit will fundamentally change ground-based optical and infrared astronomy and could impact the appearance of the night sky for stargazers worldwide. The report is the outcome of the recent SATCON1 virtual workshop, which brought together more than 250 scientists, engineers, satellite operators, and other stakeholders.

The report from the Satellite Constellations 1 (SATCON1) workshop, organized jointly by NSF’s NOIRLab and the American Astronomical Society (AAS), has been delivered to the National Science Foundation (NSF). Held virtually from 29 June to 2 July 2020, SATCON1 focused on technical aspects of the impact of existing and planned large satellite constellations on optical and infrared astronomy. NSF, which funded the workshop, also finances most of the large ground-based telescopes widely available to researchers in the United States. More than 250 astronomers, engineers, commercial satellite operators, and other stakeholders attended SATCON1. Their goals were to better quantify the scientific impacts of huge ensembles of low-Earth-orbiting satellites (LEOsats) contaminating astronomical observations and to explore possible ways to minimize those impacts.

SATCON1 co-chair Connie Walker from NSF’s NOIRLab explains: “Recent technology developments for astronomical research — especially cameras with wide fields of view on large optical-infrared telescopes — are happening at the same time as the rapid deployment of many thousands of LEOsats by companies rolling out new space-based communication technologies.”

The report concludes that the effects of large satellite constellations on astronomical research and on the human experience of the night sky range from “negligible” to “extreme.” This new hazard was not on astronomers’ radar in 2010, when New Worlds, New Horizons — the report of the National Academies’ Astro2010 decadal survey of astronomy and astrophysics — was issued. Astro2010’s top recommendation for ground-based optical astronomy, Vera C. Rubin Observatory, will soon begin conducting exactly the type of observations to which Walker refers.

Vera C. Rubin Observatory Telescope currently under construction on the El Peñón peak at Cerro Pachón Chile, a 2,682-meter-high mountain in Coquimbo Region, in northern Chile, alongside the existing Gemini South and Southern Astrophysical Research Telescopes, altitude 2,715 m (8,907 ft)

When SpaceX launched its first batch of 60 Starlink communication satellites in May 2019 and people all over the world saw them in the sky, astronomers reacted with alarm. Not only were the Starlink satellites brighter than anyone expected, but there could be tens of thousands more like them. As they pass through Rubin’s camera field, they will affect the 8.4-meter (27.6-foot) telescope’s view of the faint celestial objects astronomers hope to study with it.

“Rubin Observatory and the giant 30-meter telescopes coming online in the next decade will substantially enhance humankind’s understanding of the cosmos,” says SATCON1 co-chair Jeff Hall from Lowell Observatory and chair of the AAS Committee on Light Pollution, Radio Interference, and Space Debris.

ESO/E-ELT, 39 meter telescope to be on top of Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. located at the summit of the mountain at an altitude of 3,060 metres (10,040 ft).

Giant Magellan Telescope, 21 meters, to be at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Las Campanas Observatory, to be built some 115 km (71 mi) north-northeast of La Serena, Chile, over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) high

TMT-Thirty Meter Telescope, proposed and now approved for Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA4,207 m (13,802 ft) above sea level, the only giant 30 meter class telescope for the Northern hemisphere

“For reasons of expense, maintenance, and instrumentation, such facilities cannot be operated from space. Ground-based astronomy is, and will remain, vital and relevant.”

Constellations of LEOsats are designed in part to provide communication services to underserved and remote areas, a goal everyone can support. Recognizing this, astronomers have engaged satellite operators in cooperative discussions about how to achieve that goal without unduly harming ground-based astronomical observations. The SATCON1 workshop is just the latest, and most significant, step in this ongoing dialog.

The report offers two main findings. The first is that LEOsats disproportionately affect science programs that require twilight observations, such as searches for Earth-threatening asteroids and comets, outer Solar System objects, and visible-light counterparts of fleeting gravitational-wave sources. During twilight the Sun is below the horizon for observers on the ground, but not for satellites hundreds of kilometers overhead, which are still illuminated. As long as satellites remain below 600 kilometers (not quite 400 miles), their interference with astronomical observations is somewhat limited during the night’s darkest hours. But satellites at higher altitudes, such as the constellation planned by OneWeb that will orbit at 1,200 kilometers (750 miles), may be visible all night long during summer and for much of the night in other seasons. These constellations could have serious negative consequences for many research programs at the world’s premier optical observatories. Depending on their altitude and brightness, constellation satellites could also spoil starry nights for amateur astronomers, astrophotographers, and other nature enthusiasts.

The report’s second finding is that there are at least six ways to mitigate harm to astronomy from large satellite constellations:

1.Launch fewer or no LEOsats. However impractical or unlikely, this is the only option identified that can achieve zero astronomical impact.
2.Deploy satellites at orbital altitudes no higher than ~600 km.
3.Darken satellites or use sunshades to shadow their reflective surfaces.
4.Control each satellite’s orientation in space to reflect less sunlight to Earth.
5.Minimize or eventually be able to eliminate the effect of satellite trails during the processing of astronomical images.
6.Make more accurate orbital information available for satellites so that observers can avoid pointing telescopes at them.

Astronomers have only now, a little over a year after the first SpaceX Starlink launch, accumulated enough observations of constellation satellites and run computer simulations of their likely impact when fully deployed to thoroughly understand the magnitude and complexity of the problem. This research informed the discussion at SATCON1 and led to ten recommendations for observatories, constellation operators, and those two groups in collaboration. Some involve actions that can be taken immediately, while others urge further study to develop effective strategies to address problems anticipated as new large telescopes come online and as satellite constellations proliferate.

The SATCON1 workshop was an important step towards managing a challenging future. NOIRLab director Patrick McCarthy says, “I hope that the collegiality and spirit of partnership between astronomers and commercial satellite operators will expand to include more members of both communities and that it will continue to prove useful and productive. I also hope that the findings and recommendations in the SATCON1 report will serve as guidelines for observatories and satellite operators alike as we work towards a more detailed understanding of the impacts and mitigations and we learn to share the sky, one of nature’s priceless treasures.”

AAS President Paula Szkody of the University of Washington participated in the workshop. She says, “Our team at the AAS was enthusiastic to partner with NOIRLab and bring representatives of the astronomical and satellite communities together for a very fruitful exchange of ideas. Even though we’re still at an early stage of understanding and addressing the threats posed to astronomy by large satellite constellations, we have made good progress and have plenty of reasons to hope for a positive outcome.”

The next workshop, SATCON2, which will tackle the significant issues of policy and regulation, is tentatively planned for early to mid-2021.

See the full article here.

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What is NSF’s NOIRLab?

NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. Its membership (approx. 8,000) also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising the astronomical sciences. The mission of the American Astronomical Society is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe, which it achieves through publishing, meeting organization, education and outreach, and training and professional development.

The SATCON1 workshop was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

From NOIRLab and Gemini Observatory: “A Dizzying Show by Comet NEOWISE”

NOIRLab composite

From NOIRLab

and

Gemini Observatory

Aug. 24, 2020

Peter Michaud
NewsTeam Manager, NSF’s NOIRLab
Hilo, HI, USA
Tel: +1 808 936 6643
Email: pmichaud@gemini.edu

Gemini Observatory images reveal striking details of our recent celestial visitor’s rotation.

Images of Comet NEOWISE obtained with Gemini North on Hawai‘i’s Maunakea on the night of 1 August 2020. This sequence was obtained using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) with the 468/8 nm filter and digitally enhanced using a dedicated algorithm. The field of view is 2 arcminutes across.Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Drahus/P. Guzik

GEMINI/North GMOS

When Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) sped through the inner Solar System during the middle of 2020, astronomers and the general public watched in awe as this “dirty snowball” shed gas and dust into space, producing a striking show visible to the naked eye. Close-up observations, led by Michal Drahus and Piotr Guzik of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, used the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, to observe the materials escaping from the comet over time. One set of observations, obtained on 1 August 2020 from the Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i’s Maunakea, displays a spiraling stream of molecular gas that reveals the rotation of the comet’s nucleus. The timelapse sequence, compressed to only a few seconds, represents about one fifth of the approximately 7.5-hour rotation period of the comet.

The observations, obtained under a research program to explore the rotational dynamics of the comet, took place over several evenings, and were limited by the comet’s relatively close proximity to the Sun and the resulting short observing windows. The Gemini observations allowed the researchers to determine the rotation of the comet to excellent accuracy and to look for changes in the rotation rate.

Comets consist of ices, rocks, and dust left over from the formation of our Solar System. Some comets follow highly elongated orbits which send them close to the Sun where they warm up and cause the frozen gases to vaporize, releasing molecules and debris into space. It is thought that most comets release gasses in geyser-like jets and that is what researchers think is happening in the Gemini images. As the vaporized material erupts from the comet its rotation causes it to appear to spiral outward, much like the water from a spinning garden hose. The very same material impacts the comet’s rotation causing its nucleus to spin-up or spin-down, though for most comets, the effect is too weak to detect.

More information

This research was reported in an Astronomers Telegram.

The team is composed of Michal Drahus (Jagiellonian University in Krakow), Piotr Guzik (Jagiellonian University in Krakow), Andrew Stephens (Gemini Observatory), Steve B. Howell (NASA Ames Research Center), Stanislaw Zola (Jagiellonian University in Krakow), Mikolaj Sabat (Jagiellonian University in Krakow) and Daniel E. Reichart.

Links:

Astronomers Telegram ATel #13945

A sequence of eight images reveals the rotation of Comet NEOWISE using data from the international Gemini Observatory’s Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i’s Maunakea. The images were obtained on 1 August 2020 using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph over a period of 1.5 hours. In this sequence, the set of eight images are looped nine times. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Drahus/P. Guzik/J. Pollard

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NOAO Gemini North on MaunaKea, Hawaii, USA, Altitude 4,213 m (13,822 ft)

Gemini/South telescope, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) campus near La Serena, Chile, at an altitude of 7200 feet on the summit of Cerro Pachon

Gemini’s mission is to advance our knowledge of the Universe by providing the international Gemini Community with forefront access to the entire sky.

The Gemini Observatory is an international collaboration with two identical 8-meter telescopes. The Frederick C. Gillett Gemini Telescope is located on Mauna Kea, Hawai’i (Gemini North) and the other telescope on Cerro Pachón in central Chile (Gemini South); together the twin telescopes provide full coverage over both hemispheres of the sky. The telescopes incorporate technologies that allow large, relatively thin mirrors, under active control, to collect and focus both visible and infrared radiation from space.

The Gemini Observatory provides the astronomical communities in six partner countries with state-of-the-art astronomical facilities that allocate observing time in proportion to each country’s contribution. In addition to financial support, each country also contributes significant scientific and technical resources. The national research agencies that form the Gemini partnership include: the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Canadian National Research Council (NRC), the Chilean Comisión Nacional de Investigación Cientifica y Tecnológica (CONICYT), the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Argentinean Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva, and the Brazilian Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação. The observatory is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the NSF. The NSF also serves as the executive agency for the international partnership.

What is NSF’s NOIRLab?

NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

From Keck Observatory: “100 Cool Worlds Found Near The Sun”

Keck Observatory, two 10 meter telescopes operated by Caltech and the University of California, Maunakea Hawaii USA, altitude 4,207 m (13,802 ft).

From Keck Observatory

August 18, 2020

Artist’s impression of one of this study’s superlative discoveries, the oldest known wide-separation white dwarf plus cold brown dwarf pair. the small white orb represents the white dwarf (the remnant of a long-dead sun-like star), while the brown/orange foreground object is the newly discovered brown dwarf companion. this faint brown dwarf was previously overlooked until it was spotted by citizen scientists because it lies right within the plane of the milky way. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld; Acknowledgement: William Pendrill.

Citizen Scientists Help Locate Some Of The Coolest Brown Dwarfs Ever Discovered.

How complete is our census of the Sun’s closest neighbors? Astronomers and a team of data-sleuthing volunteers participating in Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a citizen science project, have discovered roughly 100 cool worlds near the Sun — objects more massive than planets but lighter than stars, known as brown dwarfs.

With the help of W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii, the research team found several of these newly discovered worlds are among the very coolest known, with a few approaching the temperature of Earth — cool enough to harbor water clouds.

The study will be published in the August 20, 2020 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Discovering and characterizing astronomical objects near the Sun is fundamental to our understanding of our place in, and the history of, the universe. Yet astronomers are still unearthing new residents of the solar neighborhood. The new Backyard Worlds discovery bridges a previously empty gap in the range of low-temperature brown dwarfs, identifying a long-sought missing link within the brown dwarf population.

“These cool worlds offer the opportunity for new insights into the formation and atmospheres of planets beyond the solar system,” said lead author Aaron Meisner from the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. “This collection of cool brown dwarfs also allows us to accurately estimate the number of free-floating worlds roaming interstellar space near the Sun.

To identify several of the faintest and coolest of the newly discovered brown dwarfs, UC San Diego’s Professor of Physics Adam Burgasser and researchers from the Cool Star Lab used Keck Observatory’s sensitive Near-Infrared Echellette Spectrometer, or NIRES, instrument.

UCO NIRES arrives at Keck

“We used the NIRES spectra to measure the temperature and gases present in their atmospheres. Each spectrum is essentially a fingerprint that allows us to distinguish a cool brown dwarf from other kinds of stars,” said Burgasser, a co-author of the study.

Artist’s impression of the oldest known wide-separation white dwarf plus cold brown dwarf pair. The small white orb represents the white dwarf (the remnant of a long-dead Sun-like star), while the brown/orange foreground object is the newly discovered brown dwarf companion. This faint brown dwarf was previously overlooked until it was spotted by citizen scientists, because it lies right within the plane of the Milky Way. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld.

See the full article here .

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Mission
To advance the frontiers of astronomy and share our discoveries with the world.

The W. M. Keck Observatory operates the largest, most scientifically productive telescopes on Earth. The two, 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawaii feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectrometer and world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics systems. Keck Observatory is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA.

Today Keck Observatory is supported by both public funding sources and private philanthropy. As a 501(c)3, the organization is managed by the California Association for Research in Astronomy (CARA), whose Board of Directors includes representatives from the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, with liaisons to the board from NASA and the Keck Foundation.