From The Arizona State University (US) : “Scientists measure the atmosphere of a planet 340 light-years away”

From The Arizona State University (US)

October 27, 2021

Karin Valentine
Media Relations & Marketing manager
School of Earth and Space Exploration
480-965-9345
Karin.Valentine@asu.edu

An international team of scientists, using the ground-based Gemini Observatory telescope in Chile, is the first to directly measure the amount of both water and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of a planet in another solar system roughly 340 light-years away.

NSF NOIRLab(US) NOAO(US) Gemini South telescope (US) on the summit of Cerro Pachón at an altitude of 7200 feet. There are currently two telescopes commissioned on Cerro Pachón, Gemini South and the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope. A third, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, is under construction.

The team is led by Assistant Professor Michael Line of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, and the results have been recently published in the journal Nature.

There are thousands of known planets outside of our own solar system (called exoplanets). Scientists use both space telescopes and ground-based telescopes to examine how these exoplanets form and how they are different from the planets in our own solar system.

For this study, Line and his team focused on planet WASP-77Ab a type of exoplanet called a hot Jupiter because they are like our solar system’s Jupiter, but with a temperature upwards of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

They then focused on measuring the composition of its atmosphere to determine what elements are present compared with the star it orbits.

“Because of their sizes and temperatures, hot Jupiters are excellent laboratories for measuring atmospheric gases and testing our planet-formation theories,” Line said.

While we cannot yet send spacecraft to planets beyond our solar system, scientists can study the light from exoplanets with telescopes. The telescopes they use to observe this light can be either in space, like the Hubble Space Telescope, or from the ground, like the Gemini Observatory telescopes.

Line and his team had been extensively involved in measuring the atmospheric compositions of exoplanets using Hubble, but obtaining these measurements was challenging. Not only is there steep competition for telescope time, Hubble’s instruments only measure water (or oxygen) and the team needed to also gather measurements of carbon monoxide (or carbon) as well.

“We needed to try something different to address our questions,” Line said. “And our analysis of the capabilities of Gemini South indicated that we could obtain ultra-precise atmospheric measurements.”

Gemini South is an 8.1-meter diameter telescope located on a mountain in the Chilean Andes called Cerro Pachón, where very dry air and negligible cloud cover make it a prime telescope location. It is operated by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory).

Using the Gemini South telescope, with an instrument called the Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrometer (IGRINS), the team observed the thermal glow of the exoplanet as it orbited its host star. From this instrument, they gathered information on the presence and relative amounts of different gases in its atmosphere.

Like weather and climate satellites that are used to measure the amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere, scientists can use spectrometers and telescopes, like IGRINS on Gemini South, to measure the amounts of different gases on other planets.

“Trying to figure out the composition of planetary atmospheres is like trying to solve a crime with fingerprints,” Line said. “A smudged fingerprint doesn’t really narrow it down too much, but a very nice, clean fingerprint provides a unique identifier to who committed the crime.”

Where the Hubble Space Telescope provided the team with maybe one or two fuzzy fingerprints, IGRINS on Gemini South provided the team with a full set of perfectly clear fingerprints.

And with clear measurements of both water and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of WASP-77Ab, the team was then able to estimate the relative amounts of oxygen and carbon in the exoplanet’s atmosphere.

By measuring the Doppler shift illustrated in the right column of this figure, scientists can reconstruct a planet’s orbital velocity in time toward or away from Earth. The strength of the planet signal as shown in the middle column, along the expected apparent velocity (navy dashed curve) of the planet as it orbits the star, contains information on the amounts of different gases in the atmosphere. Credit: P. Smith/M. Line/S. Selkirk/ASU.

“These amounts were in line with our expectations and are about the same as the host star’s,” Line said.

Obtaining ultra-precise gas abundances in exoplanet atmospheres is not only an important technical achievement, especially with a ground-based telescope, it may also help scientists look for life on other planets.

“This work represents a pathfinder demonstration for how we will ultimately measure biosignature gases like oxygen and methane in potentially habitable worlds in the not-too-distant future,” Line said.

What Line and the team expect to do next is repeat this analysis for many more planets and build up a “sample” of atmospheric measurements on at least 15 more planets.

“We are now at the point where we can obtain comparable gas abundance precisions to those planets in our own solar system. Measuring the abundances of carbon and oxygen (and other elements) in the atmospheres of a larger sample of exoplanets provides much needed context for understanding the origins and evolution of our own gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn,” Line said.

They also look forward to what future telescopes will be able to offer.

“If we can do this with today’s technology, think about what we will be able to do with the up-and-coming telescopes like the Giant Magellan Telescope,” Line said.

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

Carnegie Institution for Science (US)’s Las Campanas Observatory in the southern Atacama Desert of Chile in the Atacama Region approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of the city of La Serena,near the southern end and over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) high.

“It is a real possibility that we can use this same method by the end of this decade to sniff out potential signatures of life, which also contain carbon and oxygen, on rocky Earth-like planets beyond our own solar system.”

In addition to Line, the research team includes Joseph Zalesky, Evgenya Shkolnik, Jennifer Patience and Peter Smith of ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration; Matteo Brogi and Siddharth Gandhi of The University of Warwick (UK); Jacob Bean and Megan Mansfield of The University of Chicago (US); Vivien Parmentier and Joost Wardenier of The University of Oxford (UK); Gregory Mace of The University of Texas-Austin(US); Eliza Kempton of The University of Maryland (US); Jonathan Fortney of The University of California-Santa Cruz (US); Emily Rauscher of The University of Michigan (US); and Jean-Michel Désert of The University of Amsterdam [Universiteit van Amsterdam](NL).

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Arizona State University (US) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, Arizona State University is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the U.S.

One of three universities governed by the Arizona Board of Regents, Arizona State University is a member of the Universities Research Association (US) and classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity.” Arizona State University has nearly 150,000 students attending classes, with more than 38,000 students attending online, and 90,000 undergraduates and more nearly 20,000 postgraduates across its five campuses and four regional learning centers throughout Arizona. Arizona State University offers 350 degree options from its 17 colleges and more than 170 cross-discipline centers and institutes for undergraduates students, as well as more than 400 graduate degree and certificate programs. The Arizona State Sun Devils compete in 26 varsity-level sports in the NCAA Division I Pac-12 Conference and is home to over 1,100 registered student organizations.

Arizona State University’s charter, approved by the board of regents in 2014, is based on the New American University model created by Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow upon his appointment as the institution’s 16th president in 2002. It defines Arizona State University as “a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but rather by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves.” The model is widely credited with boosting Arizona State University’s acceptance rate and increasing class size.

The university’s faculty of more than 4,700 scholars has included 5 Nobel laureates, 6 Pulitzer Prize winners, 4 MacArthur Fellows, and 19 National Academy of Sciences members. Additionally, among the faculty are 180 Fulbright Program American Scholars, 72 National Endowment for the Humanities fellows, 38 American Council of Learned Societies fellows, 36 members of the Guggenheim Fellowship, 21 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 3 members of National Academy of Inventors, 9 National Academy of Engineering members and 3 National Academy of Medicine members. The National Academies has bestowed “highly prestigious” recognition on 227 ASU faculty members.

History

Arizona State University was established as the Territorial Normal School at Tempe on March 12, 1885, when the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature passed an act to create a normal school to train teachers for the Arizona Territory. The campus consisted of a single, four-room schoolhouse on a 20-acre plot largely donated by Tempe residents George and Martha Wilson. Classes began with 33 students on February 8, 1886. The curriculum evolved over the years and the name was changed several times; the institution was also known as Tempe Normal School of Arizona (1889–1903), Tempe Normal School (1903–1925), Tempe State Teachers College (1925–1929), Arizona State Teachers College (1929–1945), Arizona State College (1945–1958) and, by a 2–1 margin of the state’s voters, Arizona State University in 1958.

In 1923, the school stopped offering high school courses and added a high school diploma to the admissions requirements. In 1925, the school became the Tempe State Teachers College and offered four-year Bachelor of Education degrees as well as two-year teaching certificates. In 1929, the 9th Arizona State Legislature authorized Bachelor of Arts in Education degrees as well, and the school was renamed the Arizona State Teachers College. Under the 30-year tenure of president Arthur John Matthews (1900–1930), the school was given all-college student status. The first dormitories built in the state were constructed under his supervision in 1902. Of the 18 buildings constructed while Matthews was president, six are still in use. Matthews envisioned an “evergreen campus,” with many shrubs brought to the campus, and implemented the planting of 110 Mexican Fan Palms on what is now known as Palm Walk, a century-old landmark of the Tempe campus.

During the Great Depression, Ralph Waldo Swetman was hired to succeed President Matthews, coming to Arizona State Teachers College in 1930 from Humboldt State Teachers College where he had served as president. He served a three-year term, during which he focused on improving teacher-training programs. During his tenure, enrollment at the college doubled, topping the 1,000 mark for the first time. Matthews also conceived of a self-supported summer session at the school at Arizona State Teachers College, a first for the school.

1930–1989

In 1933, Grady Gammage, then president of Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff, became president of Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe, beginning a tenure that would last for nearly 28 years, second only to Swetman’s 30 years at the college’s helm. Like President Arthur John Matthews before him, Gammage oversaw the construction of several buildings on the Tempe campus. He also guided the development of the university’s graduate programs; the first Master of Arts in Education was awarded in 1938, the first Doctor of Education degree in 1954 and 10 non-teaching master’s degrees were approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1956. During his presidency, the school’s name was changed to Arizona State College in 1945, and finally to Arizona State University in 1958. At the time, two other names were considered: Tempe University and State University at Tempe. Among Gammage’s greatest achievements in Tempe was the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed construction of what is Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium/ASU Gammage. One of the university’s hallmark buildings, Arizona State University Gammage was completed in 1964, five years after the president’s (and Wright’s) death.

Gammage was succeeded by Harold D. Richardson, who had served the school earlier in a variety of roles beginning in 1939, including director of graduate studies, college registrar, dean of instruction, dean of the College of Education and academic vice president. Although filling the role of acting president of the university for just nine months (Dec. 1959 to Sept. 1960), Richardson laid the groundwork for the future recruitment and appointment of well-credentialed research science faculty.

By the 1960s, under G. Homer Durham, the university’s 11th president, Arizona State University began to expand its curriculum by establishing several new colleges and, in 1961, the Arizona Board of Regents authorized doctoral degree programs in six fields, including Doctor of Philosophy. By the end of his nine-year tenure, Arizona State University had more than doubled enrollment, reporting 23,000 in 1969.

The next three presidents—Harry K. Newburn (1969–71), John W. Schwada (1971–81) and J. Russell Nelson (1981–89), including and Interim President Richard Peck (1989), led the university to increased academic stature, the establishment of the Arizona State University West campus in 1984 and its subsequent construction in 1986, a focus on computer-assisted learning and research, and rising enrollment.

1990–present

Under the leadership of Lattie F. Coor, president from 1990 to 2002, Arizona State University grew through the creation of the Polytechnic campus and extended education sites. Increased commitment to diversity, quality in undergraduate education, research, and economic development occurred over his 12-year tenure. Part of Coor’s legacy to the university was a successful fundraising campaign: through private donations, more than $500 million was invested in areas that would significantly impact the future of ASU. Among the campaign’s achievements were the naming and endowing of Barrett, The Honors College, and the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts; the creation of many new endowed faculty positions; and hundreds of new scholarships and fellowships.

In 2002, Michael M. Crow became the university’s 16th president. At his inauguration, he outlined his vision for transforming Arizona State University into a “New American University”—one that would be open and inclusive, and set a goal for the university to meet Association of American Universities (US) criteria and to become a member. Crow initiated the idea of transforming Arizona State University into “One university in many places”—a single institution comprising several campuses, sharing students, faculty, staff and accreditation. Subsequent reorganizations combined academic departments, consolidated colleges and schools, and reduced staff and administration as the university expanded its West and Polytechnic campuses. Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus was also expanded, with several colleges and schools relocating there. The university established learning centers throughout the state, including the Arizona State University Colleges at Lake Havasu City and programs in Thatcher, Yuma, and Tucson. Students at these centers can choose from several Arizona State University degree and certificate programs.

During Crow’s tenure, and aided by hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, Arizona State University began a years-long research facility capital building effort that led to the establishment of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, and several large interdisciplinary research buildings. Along with the research facilities, the university faculty was expanded, including the addition of five Nobel Laureates. Since 2002, the university’s research expenditures have tripled and more than 1.5 million square feet of space has been added to the university’s research facilities.

The economic downturn that began in 2008 took a particularly hard toll on Arizona, resulting in large cuts to Arizona State University’s budget. In response to these cuts, Arizona State University capped enrollment, closed some four dozen academic programs, combined academic departments, consolidated colleges and schools, and reduced university faculty, staff and administrators; however, with an economic recovery underway in 2011, the university continued its campaign to expand the West and Polytechnic Campuses, and establish a low-cost, teaching-focused extension campus in Lake Havasu City.

As of 2011, an article in Slate reported that, “the bottom line looks good,” noting that:

“Since Crow’s arrival, Arizona State University’s research funding has almost tripled to nearly $350 million. Degree production has increased by 45 percent. And thanks to an ambitious aid program, enrollment of students from Arizona families below poverty is up 647 percent.”

In 2015, the Thunderbird School of Global Management became the fifth Arizona State University campus, as the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. Partnerships for education and research with Mayo Clinic established collaborative degree programs in health care and law, and shared administrator positions, laboratories and classes at the Mayo Clinic Arizona campus.

The Beus Center for Law and Society, the new home of Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, opened in fall 2016 on the Downtown Phoenix campus, relocating faculty and students from the Tempe campus to the state capital.

From Yale University (US) : “Searching for Earth 2.0? Zoom in on a star”

From Yale University (US)

October 26, 2021
By Jim Shelton

Media Contact
Fred Mamoun:
fred.mamoun@yale.edu
203-436-2643

Reconstructed surface of the spotted star Epsilon Eridani with each panel showing the star advanced one-fifth of its rotation. Visualization by Sam Cabot.

Astronomers searching for Earth-like planets in other solar systems have made a breakthrough by taking a closer look at the surface of stars.

A new technique developed by an international team of researchers — led by Yale astronomers Rachael Roettenbacher, Sam Cabot, and Debra Fischer — uses a combination of data from ground-based and orbiting telescopes to distinguish between light signals coming from stars and signals coming from planets orbiting those stars.

A study detailing the discovery has been accepted by The Astronomical Journal.

“Our techniques pull together three different types of contemporaneous observations to focus on understanding the star and what its surface looks like,” said Roettenbacher, a 51 Pegasi b postdoctoral fellow at Yale and lead author of the paper. “From one of the data sets, we create a map of the surface that allows us to reveal more detail in the radial velocity data as we search for signals from small planets.

“This procedure shows the value of obtaining multiple types of observation at once.”

For decades, astronomers have used a method called radial velocity as one way to look for exoplanets in other solar systems.

Radial Velocity Method-Las Cumbres Observatory, a network of astronomical observatories, located at both northern and southern hemisphere sites distributed in longitude around the Earth.

Radial velocity Image via SuperWasp

Radial velocity refers to the motion of a star along an observer’s sightline.

Astronomers look for variations in a star’s velocity that might be caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. This data comes via spectrometers — instruments that look at light being emitted by a star and stretch the light into a spectrum of frequencies that can be analyzed.

As astronomers have rushed to develop methods for detecting Earth-like planets, however, they have run into a barrier that has stopped progress for years. The energy emitted by stars creates a boiling cauldron of convecting plasma that distorts measurements of radial velocity, obscuring signals from small, rocky planets.

But a new generation of advanced instruments is attacking this problem. These instruments include the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph (EXPRES), which was designed and built by Fischer’s team at Yale, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) interferometric telescope array.

EXPRES. Credit: Yale University.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology(US) TESS – Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite replaced the Kepler Space Telescope in search for exoplanets. TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), and managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (US).

CHARA Center for High Angular Resolution Array located on Mount Wilson, California (US)

For the new study, the researchers used TESS data to reconstruct the surface of Epsilon Eridani-a star in the southern constellation of Eridanus that is visible from most of Earth’s surface. They then looked for starspots — cooler regions on the surface of a star caused by strong magnetic fields.

“With the reconstructions, you know the locations and sizes of spots on the star, and you also know how quickly the star rotates,” said Cabot. “We developed a method that then tells you what kind of signal you would see with a spectrometer.”

The researchers then compared their TESS reconstructions with EXPRES spectrometer data collected simultaneously from Epsilon Eridani.

“This allowed us to directly tie contributions of the radial velocity signature to specific features on the surface,” Fischer said. “The radial velocities from the starspots match up beautifully with the data from EXPRES.”

The researchers also used another technique, called interferometry, to detect a starspot on Epsilon Eridani — the first interferometric detection of a starspot on a star similar to the Sun.

Interferometry combines separated telescopes to create a much larger telescope. For this, the researchers used the CHARA Array, the world’s largest optical interferometer, located in California.

Roettenbacher said she and her colleagues will apply their new technique to sets of interferometric observations in order to directly image the entire surface of a star and determine its radial velocity contribution.

“Interferometric imaging is not something that is done for a lot of stars because the star needs to be nearby and bright. There are a handful of other stars on which we can also apply our pioneering approach,” Roettenbacher said.

Former Yale researchers Lily Zhao, who is now at the Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics (US), and John Brewer, who is now at San Francisco State University (US), are among the study’s co-authors.

The research was supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation, an anonymous Yale alumnus, the National Science Foundation, and NASA.

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Yale University (US) is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges chartered before the American Revolution. The Collegiate School was renamed Yale College in 1718 to honor the school’s largest private benefactor for the first century of its existence, Elihu Yale. Yale University is consistently ranked as one of the top universities and is considered one of the most prestigious in the nation.

Chartered by Connecticut Colony, the Collegiate School was established in 1701 by clergy to educate Congregational ministers before moving to New Haven in 1716. Originally restricted to theology and sacred languages, the curriculum began to incorporate humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century, the college expanded into graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first PhD in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale’s faculty and student populations grew after 1890 with rapid expansion of the physical campus and scientific research.

Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools: the original undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and twelve professional schools. While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each school’s faculty oversees its curriculum and degree programs. In addition to a central campus in downtown New Haven, the university owns athletic facilities in western New Haven, a campus in West Haven, Connecticut, and forests and nature preserves throughout New England. As of June 2020, the university’s endowment was valued at $31.1 billion, the second largest of any educational institution. The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States. Students compete in intercollegiate sports as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I – Ivy League.

As of October 2020, 65 Nobel laureates, five Fields Medalists, four Abel Prize laureates, and three Turing award winners have been affiliated with Yale University. In addition, Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including five U.S. Presidents, 19 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 31 living billionaires, and many heads of state. Hundreds of members of Congress and many U.S. diplomats, 78 MacArthur Fellows, 252 Rhodes Scholars, 123 Marshall Scholars, and nine Mitchell Scholars have been affiliated with the university.

Research

Yale is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) (US) and is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”. According to the National Science Foundation (US), Yale spent $990 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 15th in the nation.

Yale’s faculty include 61 members of the National Academy of Sciences (US), 7 members of the National Academy of Engineering (US) and 49 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (US). The college is, after normalization for institution size, the tenth-largest baccalaureate source of doctoral degree recipients in the United States, and the largest such source within the Ivy League.

Yale’s English and Comparative Literature departments were part of the New Criticism movement. Of the New Critics, Robert Penn Warren, W.K. Wimsatt, and Cleanth Brooks were all Yale faculty. Later, the Yale Comparative literature department became a center of American deconstruction. Jacques Derrida, the father of deconstruction, taught at the Department of Comparative Literature from the late seventies to mid-1980s. Several other Yale faculty members were also associated with deconstruction, forming the so-called “Yale School”. These included Paul de Man who taught in the Departments of Comparative Literature and French, J. Hillis Miller, Geoffrey Hartman (both taught in the Departments of English and Comparative Literature), and Harold Bloom (English), whose theoretical position was always somewhat specific, and who ultimately took a very different path from the rest of this group. Yale’s history department has also originated important intellectual trends. Historians C. Vann Woodward and David Brion Davis are credited with beginning in the 1960s and 1970s an important stream of southern historians; likewise, David Montgomery, a labor historian, advised many of the current generation of labor historians in the country. Yale’s Music School and Department fostered the growth of Music Theory in the latter half of the 20th century. The Journal of Music Theory was founded there in 1957; Allen Forte and David Lewin were influential teachers and scholars.

In addition to eminent faculty members, Yale research relies heavily on the presence of roughly 1200 Postdocs from various national and international origin working in the multiple laboratories in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and professional schools of the university. The university progressively recognized this working force with the recent creation of the Office for Postdoctoral Affairs and the Yale Postdoctoral Association.

Notable alumni

Over its history, Yale has produced many distinguished alumni in a variety of fields, ranging from the public to private sector. According to 2020 data, around 71% of undergraduates join the workforce, while the next largest majority of 16.6% go on to attend graduate or professional schools. Yale graduates have been recipients of 252 Rhodes Scholarships, 123 Marshall Scholarships, 67 Truman Scholarships, 21 Churchill Scholarships, and 9 Mitchell Scholarships. The university is also the second largest producer of Fulbright Scholars, with a total of 1,199 in its history and has produced 89 MacArthur Fellows. The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs ranked Yale fifth among research institutions producing the most 2020–2021 Fulbright Scholars. Additionally, 31 living billionaires are Yale alumni.

At Yale, one of the most popular undergraduate majors among Juniors and Seniors is political science, with many students going on to serve careers in government and politics. Former presidents who attended Yale for undergrad include William Howard Taft, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush while former presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton attended Yale Law School. Former vice-president and influential antebellum era politician John C. Calhoun also graduated from Yale. Former world leaders include Italian prime minister Mario Monti, Turkish prime minister Tansu Çiller, Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, German president Karl Carstens, Philippine president José Paciano Laurel, Latvian president Valdis Zatlers, Taiwanese premier Jiang Yi-huah, and Malawian president Peter Mutharika, among others. Prominent royals who graduated are Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, and Olympia Bonaparte, Princess Napoléon.

Yale alumni have had considerable presence in U.S. government in all three branches. On the U.S. Supreme Court, 19 justices have been Yale alumni, including current Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh. Numerous Yale alumni have been U.S. Senators, including current Senators Michael Bennet, Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Chris Coons, Amy Klobuchar, Ben Sasse, and Sheldon Whitehouse. Current and former cabinet members include Secretaries of State John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Cyrus Vance, and Dean Acheson; U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Robert Rubin, Nicholas F. Brady, Steven Mnuchin, and Janet Yellen; U.S. Attorneys General Nicholas Katzenbach, John Ashcroft, and Edward H. Levi; and many others. Peace Corps founder and American diplomat Sargent Shriver and public official and urban planner Robert Moses are Yale alumni.

Yale has produced numerous award-winning authors and influential writers, like Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Sinclair Lewis and Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Vincent Benét, Thornton Wilder, Doug Wright, and David McCullough. Academy Award winning actors, actresses, and directors include Jodie Foster, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Elia Kazan, George Roy Hill, Lupita Nyong’o, Oliver Stone, and Frances McDormand. Alumni from Yale have also made notable contributions to both music and the arts. Leading American composer from the 20th century Charles Ives, Broadway composer Cole Porter, Grammy award winner David Lang, and award-winning jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer all hail from Yale. Hugo Boss Prize winner Matthew Barney, famed American sculptor Richard Serra, President Barack Obama presidential portrait painter Kehinde Wiley, MacArthur Fellow and contemporary artist Sarah Sze, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Garry Trudeau, and National Medal of Arts photorealist painter Chuck Close all graduated from Yale. Additional alumni include architect and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Maya Lin, Pritzker Prize winner Norman Foster, and Gateway Arch designer Eero Saarinen. Journalists and pundits include Dick Cavett, Chris Cuomo, Anderson Cooper, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Fareed Zakaria.

In business, Yale has had numerous alumni and former students go on to become founders of influential business, like William Boeing (Boeing, United Airlines), Briton Hadden and Henry Luce (Time Magazine), Stephen A. Schwarzman (Blackstone Group), Frederick W. Smith (FedEx), Juan Trippe (Pan Am), Harold Stanley (Morgan Stanley), Bing Gordon (Electronic Arts), and Ben Silbermann (Pinterest). Other business people from Yale include former chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings Edward Lampert, former Time Warner president Jeffrey Bewkes, former PepsiCo chairperson and CEO Indra Nooyi, sports agent Donald Dell, and investor/philanthropist Sir John Templeton,

Yale alumni distinguished in academia include literary critic and historian Henry Louis Gates, economists Irving Fischer, Mahbub ul Haq, and Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman; Nobel Prize in Physics laureates Ernest Lawrence and Murray Gell-Mann; Fields Medalist John G. Thompson; Human Genome Project leader and National Institutes of Health (US) director Francis S. Collins; brain surgery pioneer Harvey Cushing; pioneering computer scientist Grace Hopper; influential mathematician and chemist Josiah Willard Gibbs; National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee and biochemist Florence B. Seibert; Turing Award recipient Ron Rivest; inventors Samuel F.B. Morse and Eli Whitney; Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate John B. Goodenough; lexicographer Noah Webster; and theologians Jonathan Edwards and Reinhold Niebuhr.

In the sporting arena, Yale alumni include baseball players Ron Darling and Craig Breslow and baseball executives Theo Epstein and George Weiss; football players Calvin Hill, Gary Fenick, Amos Alonzo Stagg, and “the Father of American Football” Walter Camp; ice hockey players Chris Higgins and Olympian Helen Resor; Olympic figure skaters Sarah Hughes and Nathan Chen; nine-time U.S. Squash men’s champion Julian Illingworth; Olympic swimmer Don Schollander; Olympic rowers Josh West and Rusty Wailes; Olympic sailor Stuart McNay; Olympic runner Frank Shorter; and others.

From National Autonomous University of Mexico [Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México](MX) via phys.org : “Research inspects planetary nebula NGC 6905 and its central star”

From National Autonomous University of Mexico [Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México](MX)

via

phys.org

October 26, 2021
Tomasz Nowakowski

Nordic Optical Telescope ALFOSC color-composite image of NGC 6905. Credit: Gómez-González et al., 2021.

Using the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) astronomers have investigated a planetary nebula known as NGC 6905 and its central star.

Nordic Optical Telescope at IAC (ES) [funded by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and (since 1997) Iceland], at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain, Altitude 2,396 m (7,861 ft).

Results of the study, presented in a paper published October 18 for MNRAS provide more insights into the nature of this object.

Planetary nebulae (PNe) are expanding shells of gas and dust that have been ejected from a star during the process of its evolution from a main sequence star into a red giant or white dwarf. They are relatively rare, but are important for astronomers studying the chemical evolution of stars and galaxies.

At a distance of about 8,800 light years away from the Earth, NGC 6905 also known as the “Blue Flash Nebula” for its characteristic colors, is a high-excitation PN with a clearly clumpy morphology. It is composed of a central roundish cavity with an angular radius of some 0.81 light years and a pair of extended V-shaped structures extending towards two opposite directions. The central star of this PN designated HD 193949 is a Wolf-Rayet-type star with a radius of about 0.15 solar radii, mass of approximately 0.6 solar masses, and effective temperature in the range of 150,000–165,000 degrees K.

A team of astronomers led by Víctor Mauricio Alfonso Gómez-González of the National Autonomous University of Mexico has recently conducted a multi-wavelength study of NGC 6905 and HD 193949, aiming to shed more light on the properties and structure of this object. The research is based mainly on the data from Nordic Optical Telescope’s Alhambra Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (ALFOSC), but also on archival infrared images obtained from telescopes such as NASA’s Spitzer and WISE.

“We present a multi-wavelength characterisation of the planetary nebula (PN) NGC 6905 and its [Wolf-Rayet]-type ([WR]) central star (CSPN) HD 193949. Our Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) Alhambra Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (ALFOSC) spectra and images unveil in unprecedented detail the high-ionization structure of NGC 6905,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

The observations allowed the team to detect the three broad WR bumps, the so-called O-bump, blue bump and red bump, confirming that HD 193949 belongs to the [WO]-class of Wolf-Rayet stars. They also detected 21 WR features which suggest that the spectral type of this CSPN cannot be later than a [WO2]-subtype star. The effective temperature of HD 193949 was measured to be around 140,000 degrees K, therefore lower than previously thought.

Based on the data, the astronomers investigated the physical properties and chemical abundances of different regions of NGC 6905. They found that the low-ionization knots located at the northwest and southeast regions of this PN do not exhibit different electron density nor electron temperature compared to its other regions. The averaged value of electron density was calculated to be 500/cm3, while the electron temperature was estimated to be at a level of 13,000 degrees K.

The researchers noted that NGC 6905 has similar abundances as other WRPN, but a slightly smaller nitrogen to oxygen ratio.

“In particular, comparing the N/O ratio versus the N abundance following previous studies suggests that the CSPN of NGC 6905 had a relatively low initial mass of about 1 solar mass. This makes NGC 6905 one of the WRPN with the less massive central star,” the scientists explained.

The study also allowed the astronomers to conclude that there is no anomalous carbon-enrichment within NGC 6905 which suggests that no very late thermal pulse (VLTP) has been involved in its formation of or the production of its central star. Additionally, the team reproduced the nebular and dust properties of NGC 6905 and found that the total mass of gas in this PN is in the range of 0.31 and 0.47 solar masses, while the mass of dust was estimated to be between 0.00224 and 0.00169 solar masses.

See the full article here.

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The National Autonomous University of Mexico [Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México](MX) is a public research university in Mexico. It ranks highly in world rankings based on the university’s extensive research and innovation. It is the largest university in Latin America and has one of the biggest campuses in the world. UNAM’s main campus in Mexico City, known as Ciudad Universitaria (University City), is a UNESCO World Heritage site that was designed by some of Mexico’s best-known architects of the 20th century. Murals in the main campus were painted by some of the most recognized artists in Mexican history, such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. In 2016, it had an acceptance rate of only 8%. UNAM generates a number of strong research publications and patents in diverse areas, such as robotics, computer science, mathematics, physics, human-computer interaction, history, philosophy, among others. All Mexican Nobel laureates are either alumni or faculty of UNAM.

UNAM was founded, in its modern form, on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to its predecessor, the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, the first to be founded in North America. UNAM obtained its autonomy from the government in 1929. This has given the university the freedom to define its own curriculum and manage its own budget without government interference. This has had a profound effect on academic life at the university, which some claim boosts academic freedom and independence.

UNAM was the birthplace of the student movement of 1968, which turned into a nationwide rebellion against autocratic rule and began Mexico’s three-decade journey toward democracy.

From W.M. Keck Observatory (US) : “Infant Planet Discovered by University of Hawai’i-Led Team Using Mauna Kea Telescopes”

W.M. Keck Observatory two ten meter telescopes operated by California Institute of Technology(US) and The University of California(US), at Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii USA, altitude 4,207 m (13,802 ft). Credit: Caltech.

Keck Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics on two 10 meter Keck Observatory telescopes, Maunakea Hawaii USA, altitude 4,207 m (13,802 ft).

Maunakea Observatories Hawai’i (US) altitude 4,213 m (13,822 ft).</a

From W.M. Keck Observatory (US)

October 22, 2021

Mari-Ela Chock
Tel 808-881-3827
Cell 808-554-0567
mchock@keck.hawaii.edu

A direct image of the planet 2m0437, which lies about 100 times the earth-sun distance from its parent star. the image was taken by ircs on the Subaru elescope on Mauna Kea. the much-brighter host star has been mostly removed, and the four “spikes” are artifacts produced by the optics of the telescope. Credit: Subaru telescope.

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

One of the youngest planets ever found around a distant infant star has been discovered by an international team of scientists led by The University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa(US) faculty, students, and alumni.

Thousands of planets have been discovered around other stars, but what sets this one apart is that it is newly-formed and can be directly observed. The planet, named 2M0437b, joins a handful of objects advancing our understanding of how planets form and change with time, helping shed new light on the origin of the solar system and Earth.

The in-depth research has been accepted for publication in the MNRAS.

“This serendipitous discovery adds to an elite list of planets that we can directly observe with our telescopes,” explained lead author Eric Gaidos, a professor in the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa Department of Earth Sciences. “By analyzing the light from this planet we can say something about its composition, and perhaps where and how it formed in a long-vanished disk of gas and dust around its host star.”

The researchers estimate that the planet is a few times more massive than Jupiter, and that it formed with its star several million years ago, around the time the main Hawaiian Islands first emerged above the ocean. The planet is so young that it is still hot from the energy released during its formation, with a temperature similar to the lava erupting from Kīlauea Volcano.

Key Mauna Kea Telescopes

In 2018, 2M0437b was first seen with the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea by Institute for Astronomy University of Hawai’i (US) (IfA) visiting researcher Teruyuki Hirano. For the past several years, it has been studied carefully utilizing other telescopes on the Mauna.

Gaidos and his collaborators used W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea to monitor the position of the host star as it moved across the sky. With Keck Observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera, second generation (NIRC2) [below] in combination with the Keck II telescope’s adaptive optics system [above], the team was able to verify that planet 2M0437b was truly a companion to the star, and not a more distant object. The observations required three years because the star moves slowly across the sky.

“The exquisite data from the Keck Observatory allowed us to confirm that the faint neighbor is moving through space along with its star, and thus is a true companion,” explained Dr. Adam Kraus, a professor in the Department of Astronomy at The University of Texas-Austin (US) and co-author on the paper. “Eventually, we might even be able to measure its orbital motion around the star.”

The planet and its parent star lie in a stellar “nursery” called the Taurus Cloud. 2M0437b is on a much wider orbit than the planets in the solar system; its current separation is about 100 times the Earth-Sun distance, making it easier to observe. However, sophisticated adaptive optics are still needed to compensate for the image distortion caused by Earth’s atmosphere.

“Two of the world’s largest telescopes, adaptive optics technology, and Mauna Kea’s clear skies were all needed to make this discovery,” said co-author Michael Liu, an astronomer at IfA. “We are all looking forward to more such discoveries, and more detailed studies of such planets with the technologies and telescopes of the future.”

Future Research Potential

Gathering more in-depth research about the newly-discovered planet may not be too far away. “Observations with space telescopes such as NASA’s Hubble and the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope could identify gases in its atmosphere and reveal whether the planet has a moon-forming disk,” Gaidos added.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration(US)/European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne] [Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU) Hubble Space Telescope

National Aeronautics Space Agency(USA)/European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU)/ Canadian Space Agency [Agence Spatiale Canadienne](CA) Webb Infrared Space Telescope(US) James Webb Space Telescope annotated. Scheduled for launch in October 2021 delayed to December 2021.

The star that 2M0437b orbits is too faint to be seen with the unaided eye, but currently from Hawaiʻi, the young planet and other infant stars in the Taurus Cloud are almost directly overhead in the pre-dawn hours, north of the bright star Hokuʻula (Aldeberan) and east of the Makaliʻi (Pleiades) star cluster.

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 (US) 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.

Instrumentation

Keck 1

HIRES – The largest and most mechanically complex of the Keck’s main instruments, the High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer breaks up incoming starlight into its component colors to measure the precise intensity of each of thousands of color channels. Its spectral capabilities have resulted in many breakthrough discoveries, such as the detection of planets outside our solar system and direct evidence for a model of the Big Bang theory.

Keck High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES), at the Keck I telescope.[/caption]height=”375″ class=”size-full wp-image-32389″ /> Keck High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES), at the Keck I telescope.

LRIS – The Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph is a faint-light instrument capable of taking spectra and images of the most distant known objects in the universe. The instrument is equipped with a red arm and a blue arm to explore stellar populations of distant galaxies, active galactic nuclei, galactic clusters, and quasars.

UCO Keck LRIS on Keck 1.

VISIBLE BAND (0.3-1.0 Micron)

MOSFIRE – The Multi-Object Spectrograph for Infrared Exploration gathers thousands of spectra from objects spanning a variety of distances, environments and physical conditions. What makes this huge, vacuum-cryogenic instrument unique is its ability to select up to 46 individual objects in the field of view and then record the infrared spectrum of all 46 objects simultaneously. When a new field is selected, a robotic mechanism inside the vacuum chamber reconfigures the distribution of tiny slits in the focal plane in under six minutes. Eight years in the making with First Light in 2012, MOSFIRE’s early performance results range from the discovery of ultra-cool, nearby substellar mass objects, to the detection of oxygen in young galaxies only 2 billion years after the Big Bang.

Keck/MOSFIRE on Keck 1, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA.

OSIRIS – The OH-Suppressing Infrared Imaging Spectrograph is a near-infrared spectrograph for use with the Keck I adaptive optics system. OSIRIS takes spectra in a small field of view to provide a series of images at different wavelengths. The instrument allows astronomers to ignore wavelengths where the Earth’s atmosphere shines brightly due to emission from OH (hydroxl) molecules, thus allowing the detection of objects 10 times fainter than previously available.
Keck OSIRIS on Keck 1

Keck 2

DEIMOS – The Deep Extragalactic Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph is the most advanced optical spectrograph in the world, capable of gathering spectra from 130 galaxies or more in a single exposure. In ‘Mega Mask’ mode, DEIMOS can take spectra of more than 1,200 objects at once, using a special narrow-band filter.

[ Keck/DEIMOS on Keck 2.

NIRSPEC – The Near Infrared Spectrometer studies very high redshift radio galaxies, the motions and types of stars located near the Galactic Center, the nature of brown dwarfs, the nuclear regions of dusty starburst galaxies, active galactic nuclei, interstellar chemistry, stellar physics, and solar-system science.

NIRSPEC on Keck 2.

ESI – The Echellette Spectrograph and Imager captures high-resolution spectra of very faint galaxies and quasars ranging from the blue to the infrared in a single exposure. It is a multimode instrument that allows users to switch among three modes during a night. It has produced some of the best non-AO images at the Observatory.

KECK Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI)

KCWI – The Keck Cosmic Web Imager is designed to provide visible band, integral field spectroscopy with moderate to high spectral resolution, various fields of view and image resolution formats and excellent sky-subtraction. The astronomical seeing and large aperture of the telescope enables studies of the connection between galaxies and the gas in their dark matter halos, stellar relics, star clusters and lensed galaxies.

Keck Cosmic Web Imager on Keck 2 schematic.

Keck Cosmic Web Imager on Keck 2.

NEAR-INFRARED (1-5 Micron)

ADAPTIVE OPTICS – Adaptive optics senses and compensates for the atmospheric distortions of incoming starlight up to 1,000 times per second. This results in an improvement in image quality on fairly bright astronomical targets by a factor 10 to 20.

LASER GUIDE STAR ADAPTIVE OPTICS [pictured above] – The Keck Laser Guide Star expands the range of available targets for study with both the Keck I and Keck II adaptive optics systems. They use sodium lasers to excite sodium atoms that naturally exist in the atmosphere 90 km (55 miles) above the Earth’s surface. The laser creates an “artificial star” that allows the Keck adaptive optics system to observe 70-80 percent of the targets in the sky, compared to the 1 percent accessible without the laser.

NIRC-2/AO – The second generation Near Infrared Camera works with the Keck Adaptive Optics system to produce the highest-resolution ground-based images and spectroscopy in the 1-5 micron range. Typical programs include mapping surface features on solar system bodies, searching for planets around other stars, and analyzing the morphology of remote galaxies.

Keck NIRC2 Camera on Keck 2
ABOUT NIRES
The Near Infrared Echellette Spectrograph (NIRES) is a prism cross-dispersed near-infrared spectrograph built at the California Institute of Technology by a team led by Chief Instrument Scientist Keith Matthews and Prof. Tom Soifer. Commissioned in 2018, NIRES covers a large wavelength range at moderate spectral resolution for use on the Keck II telescope and observes extremely faint red objects found with the Spitzer and WISE infrared space telescopes, as well as brown dwarfs, high-redshift galaxies, and quasars.

Keck Near-Infrared Echellette Spectrometer on Keck 2

Future Instrumentation

KCRM – The Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper will complete the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI), the world’s most capable spectroscopic imager. The design for KCWI includes two separate channels to detect light in the blue and the red portions of the visible wavelength spectrum. KCWI-Blue was commissioned and started routine science observations in September 2017. The red channel of KCWI is KCRM; a powerful addition that will open a window for new discoveries at high redshifts.

KCRM – Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper KCRM on Keck 2.

KPF – The Keck Planet Finder (KPF) will be the most advanced spectrometer of its kind in the world. The instrument is a fiber-fed high-resolution, two-channel cross-dispersed echelle spectrometer for the visible wavelengths and is designed for the Keck II telescope. KPF allows precise measurements of the mass-density relationship in Earth-like exoplanets, which will help astronomers identify planets around other stars that are capable of supporting life.

KPF Keck Planet Finder on Keck 2

From ESOblog (EU): “A day in the life of an ALMA astronomer”

From ESOblog (EU)

At

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU) (CL)

22 October 2021
People@ESO

Marie-Lou Gendron-Marsolais

Marie-Lou Gendron-Marsolais is an ESO fellow with duties at Alma since October 2018. She obtained her PhD in 2018 at The University of Montréal [Université de Montréal](CA) under the supervision of Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo. She now shares her time between her work for ALMA and the study of galaxy clusters. Her research focuses on the complex relation between supermassive black holes located at the center of galaxies and their environment.

ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array [below], is an ensemble of 66 antennas that observe the cold dark universe from the remote Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Atacama Desert. The antennas work together as a single kilometre-sized telescope, giving us unique insights on all sorts of cosmic objects, from planet nurseries to the very first galaxies. But how is it like to operate such a complex machine? Marie-Lou Gendron-Marsolais, an ESO Fellow in Chile, has given us an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of an ALMA astronomer.

It is 6:30 am and the crisp cold air would wake up even the most sleepy astronomer. On the short walk from my home to the ALMA office along the deserted streets of Santiago, the sky is still completely dark and I look up to see if some bright stars are piercing the light pollution of the megalopolis. The moon is accompanied by Jupiter and Saturn, offering a surprisingly harmonious spectacle that makes me smile.

Most people think that astronomy is a science exclusively done by night, but it is not the case for many telescopes. It all depends on the light you are looking for! There is much more light than just the colours of the rainbow and, with specific types of telescope, this “invisible light” is accessible. In the case of ALMA, we collect “radio” light. Since the Sun does not emit much radio light and our atmosphere does not diffuse it, the radio sky is not too bright during the day and we can observe with ALMA any time of the day. Therefore, astronomers are not necessarily night creatures…

This aerial picture shows the Chajnantor Plateau, place of the ALMA Observatory, from high above. Dozens of dishes from the Observatory are spread over the plateau and cast long dark shadows in the red sand. In the centre of the image the crowded gathering of the Atacama Compact Array is visible. Credit: A. Marinkovic/X-Cam/ ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO.

The global pandemic situation has hit ALMA operations hard, forcing us to completely shut down the site for many months. Since then, the devoted work of technicians and engineers has allowed us to restart nearly all of our cherished antennas and start observing again, a daunting task! The observatory is located 1200 km north of Santiago. To reduce the amount of travelling and the number of people on site, we, astronomers, are now observing mostly from Santiago, in our new remote control room.

At the ALMA headquarters, I am welcomed by Jose Miguel, Data Analyst, who has spent the whole night observing. “Perfect weather up there!”, he says, before discussing with me some additional technical details on the work accomplished and the state of the telescope. I wish him a good “descanso” as this is his last night and a new team is taking over today.

After the disinfection of the control room, I take seat in the familiar decor, greeted through videoconference by Hector, Array Operator Deputy Manager, in the room across the corridor, and Ludwig, Array Operator, at the Operations Support Facility up in the desert, just 30 km away from the antennas themselves.

Despite the fatigue and the fact that I haven’t stepped foot in this room for several weeks, my eyes sweep across the four control screens full of different tools, plots and scrolling terminals, and almost instantaneously everything comes back. It is a bit like riding a bike — you just never forget how to do it! But perhaps it has to do with the fact that I have spent more than 600 hours here in the last 2 and a half years! And still, each time, I learn new things. ALMA is a very complex machine.

Ludwig, who’s in charge of keeping the antennas in good condition, guides me through the plan of the day as he will leave the site in a couple of hours after a complicated shift. I know very well from experience that living more than a week at 3000 metres above sea level in the harsh weather of the Atacama Desert is far from relaxing. Last night, the temperature dropped to -15 ºC, and in the last 2 weeks ALMA has been hit by severe snowstorms and high winds. It took days for the team to clear the snow and recover the telescopes…

But the weather now is incredible. Our weather stations constantly measure the amount of water vapour above the antennas, which is currently exceptionally low. The extreme dryness of the air is what makes the Chajnantor plateau ideal for radio astronomy — it is absolutely essential since water in the atmosphere will absorb the light we are trying to collect. I wish Ludwig a safe trip home.

Marie-Lou observing remotely at the ALMA office in Santiago. Note that due to COVID restrictions there is never more than one person in the control room; they operate one at a time. Credit: M. L. Gendron-Marsolais.

Today, the engineers have not requested to work on the antennas, so we have the go ahead for a whole day of scientific observations. It is hard to tell from here, but about a hundred engineers work everyday at the site, making sure our 66 antennas are performing at their very best. My job, as an astronomer, is the very last step of a long chain of complex tasks accomplished by dozens of people –– this is how we run ALMA.

The voice alarm of my console announces the beginning of the observation project I just scheduled: “Array-81, started”. It is always very rewarding to think that soon, somewhere around the world, the astronomers in charge of this project will receive their precious data, analyse them, and eventually make their contribution to our understanding of the Universe.

A cup of coffee in hand, I schedule projects depending on the elevation of the targets in the sky, the stability of the weather, the scientific priority of the project, etc., optimising every minute of ALMA time. From galaxies with intense star formation to young nearby stars, the observations we carry out vary greatly. The science that can be done with ALMA covers a wide variety of subjects, from our own Solar System up to the most distant galaxies.

During our daily 3pm online meeting, I report on the projects observed, the weather conditions and the various problems encountered in the last 24h to the program management group. After some discussion, tasks are allocated and we agree on a plan for the next day.

Focused on the evolution of the last observations taken, I am surprised by the smiling Satoko, a science operations astronomer, softly knocking on the door. The last 8 hours have passed very quickly! Since ALMA can observe day and night, astronomers work on three 8-hour-long shifts and mine is now over. It is now time to pass over the control to my colleague and take a well-deserved rest.

See the full article here .

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European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU) is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

European Southern Observatory(EU) La Silla HELIOS (HARPS Experiment for Light Integrated Over the Sun).

ESO 3.6m telescope & HARPS atCerro LaSilla, Chile, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

MPG Institute for Astronomy [Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie](DE) 2.2 meter telescope at/European Southern Observatory(EU) Cerro La Silla, Chile, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU)La Silla Observatory 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU) , Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert •ANTU (UT1; The Sun ) •KUEYEN (UT2; The Moon ) •MELIPAL (UT3; The Southern Cross ), and •YEPUN (UT4; Venus – as evening star). Elevation 2,635 m (8,645 ft) from above Credit J.L. Dauvergne & G. Hüdepohl atacama photo.

European Southern Observatory(EU)VLTI Interferometer image, Cerro Paranal, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level, •ANTU (UT1; The Sun ),
•KUEYEN (UT2; The Moon ),
•MELIPAL (UT3; The Southern Cross ), and
•YEPUN (UT4; Venus – as evening.

ESO Very Large Telescope 4 lasers on Yepun (CL)

Glistening against the awesome backdrop of the night sky above ESO’s Paranal Observatory, four laser beams project out into the darkness from Unit Telescope 4 UT4 of the VLT, a major asset of the Adaptive Optics system.

ESO/NTT NTT at Cerro La Silla , Chile, at an altitude of 2400 metres.

Part of ESO’s Paranal Observatory, the VLT Survey Telescope (VISTA) observes the brilliantly clear skies above the Atacama Desert of Chile. It is the largest survey telescope in the world in visible light, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

European Southern Observatory/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Array in Chile in the Atacama at Chajnantor plateau, at 5,000 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU) 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).

European Southern Observatory(EU)/MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE) ESO’s Atacama Pathfinder Experiment(CL) high on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama region, at an altitude of over 4,800 m (15,700 ft).

Leiden MASCARA instrument cabinet at Cerro La Silla, located in the southern Atacama Desert 600 kilometres (370 mi) north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2,400 metres (7,900 ft).

ESO Next Generation Transit Survey telescopes, an array of twelve robotic 20-centimetre telescopes at Cerro Paranal,(CL) 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

ESO Speculoos telescopes four 1 meter robotic telescopes at ESO Paranal Observatory 2635 metres 8645 ft above sea level.

TAROT telescope at Cerro LaSilla, 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

European Southern Observatory(EU) ExTrA telescopes at erro LaSilla at an altitude of 2400 metres.

A novel gamma ray telescope under construction on Mount Hopkins, Arizona. A large project known as the Čerenkov Telescope Array composed of hundreds of similar telescopes to be situated in the Canary Islands and Chile at, ESO Cerro Paranal site The telescope on Mount Hopkins will be fitted with a prototype high-speed camera, assembled at the. University of Wisconsin–Madison and capable of taking pictures at a billion frames per second. Credit: Vladimir Vassiliev.

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU), The new Test-Bed Telescope 2is housed inside the shiny white dome shown in this picture, at ESO’s LaSilla Facility in Chile. The telescope has now started operations and will assist its northern-hemisphere twin in protecting us from potentially hazardous, near-Earth objects.The domes of ESO’s 0.5 m and the Danish 0.5 m telescopes are visible in the background of this image.Part of the world-wide effort to scan and identify near-Earth objects, the European Space Agency’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 (TBT2), a technology demonstrator hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, has now started operating. Working alongside its northern-hemisphere partner telescope, TBT2 will keep a close eye on the sky for asteroids that could pose a risk to Earth, testing hardware and software for a future telescope network.

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU) The open dome of The black telescope structure of the‘s Test-Bed Telescope 2 peers out of its open dome in front of the rolling desert landscape. The telescope is located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, which sits at a 2400 metre altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert.

From Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN): “LAMOST Helps Detect Dust in the Outskirts of Andromeda Galaxy and Triangulum Galaxy”

LAMOST telescope located in Xinglong Station, Hebei Province, China, Altitude 960 m (3,150 ft).

From Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN)

Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院] (CN)

Mar 18, 2021

XU Ang
The National Astronomical Observatories of China [ 国家天文台] at Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院](CN)
annxu@nao.cas.cn

Dust as an annoying thing is quite common in our everyday lives. But the ubiquitous dust in the vast universe is a subject of great interest to astronomers.

A recent work led by Doctoral Candidate ZHANG Ruoyi and Prof. YUAN Haibo from the Department of Astronomy, Beijing Normal University [北京師範大學](CN), reports the detection of dust in the outskirts of Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31) and Triangulum Galaxy (Messier 33).

Andromeda Galaxy Messier 31 with Messier 32 -a satellite galaxy Credit:Terry Hancock- Down Under Observatory (US).

The Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 33, via The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This beautifully detailed image of the galaxy Messier 33. This nearby spiral, the second closest large galaxy to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is packed with bright star clusters, and clouds of gas and dust. This picture is amongst the most detailed wide-field views of this object ever taken and shows the many glowing red gas clouds in the spiral arms with particular clarity.

Part of ESO’s Paranal Observatory the VLT Survey Telescope (VISTA) observes the brilliantly clear skies above the Atacama Desert of Chile. It is the largest survey telescope in the world in visible light, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Messier 31 and Messier 33 are the largest and 3rd largest galaxies in the Local Group, respectively.

Local Group. Andrew Z. Colvin 3 March 2011

It is extremely challenging to detect dust in the outskirts of Messier 31 and Messier 33, as their signals are very weak, in terms of either dust absorption in optical and/or emission in far infrared, compared to those of dust in the Milky Way. Therefore, the signals from Galactic foreground dust have to be removed carefully.

Fortunately, thanks to the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), also known as Guoshoujing Telescope, operated by The National Astronomical Observatories of China [ 国家天文台] at Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院](CN), millions of high-quality spectra have been recorded, providing a great opportunity to map the dust distribution in the Milky Way.

Using a sample of about 190,000 stars from the LAMOST and Gaia, the researchers constructed a large and precise two-dimensional foreground dust reddening map toward the M31 and M33 region.

“This foreground dust reddening map tells people how much light is absorbed by dust in the Milky Way,” said ZHANG Ruoyi, the leading author of this study. The map shows the complex structure of dust clouds toward the Messier 31, suggesting that the map should be used for precise foreground reddening corrections for targets in Messier 31.

By carefully removing the foreground reddening from the SFD98 dust reddening map, which contains dust signals from all the Milky Way, Messier 31 and Messier 33, the distribution of dust in the outskirts of Messier 31 and Messier 33 are revealed in great detail to a very large distance. Dust in the Messier 31 and Messier 33 disks extends out to about 2.5 times their optical radii.

The researchers also found that a significant amount of dust in clumpy and filamentary structures exists in the halo of Messier 31, out to a distance of over 100 kiloparsec (1 kiloparsec equals to 3260 light years), which is about 5 times its optical radius.

Where do the dust clouds in the halo come from? Are their properties similar to those in the disk? There are interesting questions to be answered. “Our results combined with future observations, e.g., observations by FAST, will provide new clues on the distributions, properties, and cycling of dust in spiral galaxies,” said Prof. YUAN Haibo, the corresponding author.

Figure: Left: Foreground reddening map of LAMOST. The solid ellipses mark the optical extent of Messier 31, Messier 33, and two satellites Messier 32 and Messier 101. Right: Dust reddening map of Messier 31 and Messier 33. The two dotted ellipses centered on Messier 31 and Messier 33 represent the extent of their dust disks. The large circle centered on Messier 31 represents the extent of its dust halo. Image by ZHANG Ruoyi.

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Chinese Academy of Sciences-National Astronomical Observatories Xinglong Observatory Station, located in Xinglong Station, Hebei Province, China.

The Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN) of the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) (IAU code: 327, coordinates: 40°23′39′′ N, 117°34′30′′ E) was founded in 1968. At present, it is one of most primary observing stations of NAOC. As the largest optical astronomical observatory site in the continent of Asia, it has 9 telescopes with effective aperture larger than 50 cm. These are the Guo Shoujing Telescope, also called the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), the 2.16-m Telescope, a 1.26-m optical & near-infrared telescope, a 1-m Alt-Az telescope, an 85-cm telescope (NAOC-Beijing Normal University [北京師範大學](CN) Telescope, NBT), an 80-cm telescope (Tsinghua University [清华大学](CN)-NAOC Telescope, TNT), a 60-cm telescope, a 50-cm telescope and a 60/90-cm Schmidt telescope.
The average altitude of the Xinglong Observatory is about 900 m. The Xinglong Observatory is located at the south of the main peak of the Yanshan Mountains, in the Xinglong County, Hebei Province, which lies about 120 km (about 2 hours’ drive) to the northeast of Beijing. A shuttle bus runs between NAOC campus and Xinglong Observatory every Tuesday and Friday. The mean and media seeing values of the Xinglong Observatory are 1.9′′ and 1.7′′, respectively. On average, there are 117 photometric nights and 230 observable nights per year based on the data of 2007-2014. Most of the time, the wind speed is less than 4 m/s (the mean value is 2 m/s), and the sky brightness is about 21.1 mag arcsec2 in V band at the zenith.

Each year, more than a hundred astronomers use the telescopes of the Xinglong Observatory to perform the observations for the studies on Galactic sciences (stellar parameters, extinction measurements, Galactic structures, exoplanets, etc.) and extragalactic sciences (including nearby galaxies, AGNs, high-redshift quasars), as well as time-domain astronomy (supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, stellar tidal disruption events, and different types of variable stars). In recent years, besides the basic daily maintenance of the telescopes, new techniques and methods have been explored by the engineers and technicians of the Xinglong Observatory to improve the efficiency of observations. Meanwhile, the Xinglong Observatory is also a National populscience and education base of China for training students from graduate schools, colleges, high schools and other education institutes throughout China, and it has hosted a number of international workshops and summer schools.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院] (CN) is the linchpin of China’s drive to explore and harness high technology and the natural sciences for the benefit of China and the world. Comprising a comprehensive research and development network, a merit-based learned society and a system of higher education, CAS brings together scientists and engineers from China and around the world to address both theoretical and applied problems using world-class scientific and management approaches.

Since its founding, CAS has fulfilled multiple roles — as a national team and a locomotive driving national technological innovation, a pioneer in supporting nationwide S&T development, a think tank delivering S&T advice and a community for training young S&T talent.

Now, as it responds to a nationwide call to put innovation at the heart of China’s development, CAS has further defined its development strategy by emphasizing greater reliance on democratic management, openness and talent in the promotion of innovative research. With the adoption of its Innovation 2020 programme in 2011, the academy has committed to delivering breakthrough science and technology, higher caliber talent and superior scientific advice. As part of the programme, CAS has also requested that each of its institutes define its “strategic niche” — based on an overall analysis of the scientific progress and trends in their own fields both in China and abroad — in order to deploy resources more efficiently and innovate more collectively.

As it builds on its proud record, CAS aims for a bright future as one of the world’s top S&T research and development organizations.

From Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN): “LAMOST Releases Its Updated Seventh Data to Astronomers Worldwide”

LAMOST telescope located in Xinglong Station, Hebei Province, China, Altitude 960 m (3,150 ft).

From Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN)

Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院] (CN)

Oct 21, 2021

XU Ang
The National Astronomical Observatories of China [ 国家天文台] at Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院](CN)
annxu@nao.cas.cn

LAMOST published its updated Seventh Data Release (DR7 v2.0) to astronomers worldwide on Sept. 30, 2021. DR7 v2.0 covers the spectra obtained from the pilot survey through the seven-year regular survey from October 2011 to June 2019.

Footprint of the LAMOST pilot survey and the seven-year regular low-resolution survey (top); Footprint of the LAMOST medium-resolution commissioning and the first-year regular medium-resolution survey (bottom). Image by LAMOST.

Obtained from the low-resolution observation of 4,922 plates and medium-resolution observation of 679 plates, a total of 14.23 million spectra are released in the DR7 v2.0, including 10.43 million low-resolution spectra, 0.98 million medium-resolution non-time-domain spectra and 2.82 million medium-resolution time-domain spectra. The number of high-quality spectra reaches 11.35 million.

Moreover, a stellar spectral parameter catalogue of 6.91 million stars is also released this time, which is currently the largest stellar spectral parameter catalogue in the world. The dataset is accessible at http://dr7.lamost.org.

After the DR7 v1.0 was released to domestic astronomers and international partners in March 2020, the Data Processing Department of LAMOST Operation and Development Center has updated and optimized the DR7 dataset twice using the upgraded data processing software, and the corresponding datasets of DR7 v1.2 and DR7 v1.3 have been released, successively.

On this basis, the DR7 v2.0 dataset released this time has been further updated. The catalogues of confirmed cataclysmic variable stars, white dwarf stars and sub-dwarf stars were added, and the temperature range of stellar parameters was expanded to 8,500K-18,000K.

The spectral data and related products of LAMOST provide valuable insights for the study of the Galactic structure, origin and evolution, stellar physics, special and compact celestial objects, quasars, and so on.

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Chinese Academy of Sciences-National Astronomical Observatories Xinglong Observatory Station, located in Xinglong Station, Hebei Province, China.

The Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN) of the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) (IAU code: 327, coordinates: 40°23′39′′ N, 117°34′30′′ E) was founded in 1968. At present, it is one of most primary observing stations of NAOC. As the largest optical astronomical observatory site in the continent of Asia, it has 9 telescopes with effective aperture larger than 50 cm. These are the Guo Shoujing Telescope, also called the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), the 2.16-m Telescope, a 1.26-m optical & near-infrared telescope, a 1-m Alt-Az telescope, an 85-cm telescope (NAOC-Beijing Normal University [北京師範大學](CN) Telescope, NBT), an 80-cm telescope (Tsinghua University [清华大学](CN)-NAOC Telescope, TNT), a 60-cm telescope, a 50-cm telescope and a 60/90-cm Schmidt telescope.
The average altitude of the Xinglong Observatory is about 900 m. The Xinglong Observatory is located at the south of the main peak of the Yanshan Mountains, in the Xinglong County, Hebei Province, which lies about 120 km (about 2 hours’ drive) to the northeast of Beijing. A shuttle bus runs between NAOC campus and Xinglong Observatory every Tuesday and Friday. The mean and media seeing values of the Xinglong Observatory are 1.9′′ and 1.7′′, respectively. On average, there are 117 photometric nights and 230 observable nights per year based on the data of 2007-2014. Most of the time, the wind speed is less than 4 m/s (the mean value is 2 m/s), and the sky brightness is about 21.1 mag arcsec2 in V band at the zenith.

Each year, more than a hundred astronomers use the telescopes of the Xinglong Observatory to perform the observations for the studies on Galactic sciences (stellar parameters, extinction measurements, Galactic structures, exoplanets, etc.) and extragalactic sciences (including nearby galaxies, AGNs, high-redshift quasars), as well as time-domain astronomy (supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, stellar tidal disruption events, and different types of variable stars). In recent years, besides the basic daily maintenance of the telescopes, new techniques and methods have been explored by the engineers and technicians of the Xinglong Observatory to improve the efficiency of observations. Meanwhile, the Xinglong Observatory is also a National populscience and education base of China for training students from graduate schools, colleges, high schools and other education institutes throughout China, and it has hosted a number of international workshops and summer schools.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院] (CN) is the linchpin of China’s drive to explore and harness high technology and the natural sciences for the benefit of China and the world. Comprising a comprehensive research and development network, a merit-based learned society and a system of higher education, CAS brings together scientists and engineers from China and around the world to address both theoretical and applied problems using world-class scientific and management approaches.

Since its founding, CAS has fulfilled multiple roles — as a national team and a locomotive driving national technological innovation, a pioneer in supporting nationwide S&T development, a think tank delivering S&T advice and a community for training young S&T talent.

Now, as it responds to a nationwide call to put innovation at the heart of China’s development, CAS has further defined its development strategy by emphasizing greater reliance on democratic management, openness and talent in the promotion of innovative research. With the adoption of its Innovation 2020 programme in 2011, the academy has committed to delivering breakthrough science and technology, higher caliber talent and superior scientific advice. As part of the programme, CAS has also requested that each of its institutes define its “strategic niche” — based on an overall analysis of the scientific progress and trends in their own fields both in China and abroad — in order to deploy resources more efficiently and innovate more collectively.

As it builds on its proud record, CAS aims for a bright future as one of the world’s top S&T research and development organizations.

From European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)(CL): “Meet the 42- ESO images some of the biggest asteroids in our Solar System”

From European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)(CL)

12 October 2021

Pierre Vernazza
Marseille Observatory [Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille](FR)
Marseille, France
Tel: +33 4 91 05 59 11
Email: pierre.vernazza@lam.fr

Josef Hanuš
Charles University in Prague [Univerzita Karlova](CZ)
Prague, Czech Republic
Email: josef.hanus@mff.cuni.cz

Laurent Jorda
Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille
Marseille, France
Tel: +33 4 91 05 69 06
Email: laurent.jorda@lam.fr

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Media Manager
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6670
Cell: +49 151 241 664 00
Email: press@eso.org

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile [below], astronomers have imaged 42 of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. Never before had such a large group of asteroids been imaged so sharply. The observations reveal a wide range of peculiar shapes, from spherical to dog-bone, and are helping astronomers trace the origins of the asteroids in our Solar System.

The detailed images of these 42 objects are a leap forward in exploring asteroids, made possible thanks to ground-based telescopes, and contribute to answering the ultimate question of life, the Universe, and everything [1].

“Only three large main belt asteroids, Ceres, Vesta and Lutetia, have been imaged with a high level of detail so far, as they were visited by the space missions Dawn and Rosetta of NASA and the European Space Agency, respectively,” explains Pierre Vernazza, from The Marseille Observatory [Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille](FR), who led the asteroid study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

NASA/DLR Dawn Spacecraft (2007-2018)

ESA/Rosetta spacecraft, European Space Agency’s legendary comet explorer Rosetta .

“Our ESO observations have provided sharp images for many more targets, 42 in total.”

The previously small number of detailed observations of asteroids meant that, until now, key characteristics such as their 3D shape or density had remained largely unknown. Between 2017 and 2019, Vernazza and his team set out to fill this gap by conducting a thorough survey of the major bodies in the asteroid belt.

Most of the 42 objects in their sample are larger than 100 km in size; in particular, the team imaged nearly all of the belt asteroids larger than 200 kilometres, 20 out of 23. The two biggest objects the team probed were Ceres and Vesta, which are around 940 and 520 kilometres in diameter, whereas the two smallest asteroids are Urania and Ausonia, each only about 90 kilometres.

By reconstructing the objects’ shapes, the team realised that the observed asteroids are mainly divided into two families. Some are almost perfectly spherical, such as Hygiea and Ceres, while others have a more peculiar, “elongated” shape, their undisputed queen being the “dog-bone” asteroid Kleopatra.

By combining the asteroids’ shapes with information on their masses, the team found that the densities change significantly across the sample. The four least dense asteroids studied, including Lamberta and Sylvia, have densities of about 1.3 grams per cubic centimetre, approximately the density of coal. The highest, Psyche and Kalliope, have densities of 3.9 and 4.4 grammes per cubic centimetre, respectively, which is higher than the density of diamond (3.5 grammes per cubic centimetre).

This large difference in density suggests the asteroids’ composition varies significantly, giving astronomers important clues about their origin. “Our observations provide strong support for substantial migration of these bodies since their formation. In short, such tremendous variety in their composition can only be understood if the bodies originated across distinct regions in the Solar System,” explains Josef Hanuš of the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, one of the authors of the study. In particular, the results support the theory that the least dense asteroids formed in the remote regions beyond the orbit of Neptune and migrated to their current location.

These findings were made possible thanks to the sensitivity of the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument mounted on ESO’s VLT [2].

European Southern Observatory(EU) SPHERE extreme adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility on the VLT UT3, Cerro Paranal, Chile, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

“With the improved capabilities of SPHERE, along with the fact that little was known regarding the shape of the largest main belt asteroids, we were able to make substantial progress in this field,” says co-author Laurent Jorda, also of the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille.

Astronomers will be able to image even more asteroids in fine detail with ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in Chile and set to start operations later this decade [below]. “ELT observations of main-belt asteroids will allow us to study objects with diameters down to 35 to 80 kilometres, depending on their location in the belt, and craters down to approximately 10 to 25 kilometres in size,” says Vernazza. “Having a SPHERE-like instrument at the ELT would even allow us to image a similar sample of objects in the distant Kuiper Belt.

Kuiper Belt. Minor Planet Center.

This means we’ll be able to characterise the geological history of a much larger sample of small bodies from the ground.”

Notes

[1] In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the number 42 is the answer to the “Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Today, 12 October 2021, is the 42nd anniversary of the publication of the book.

[2] All observations were conducted with the Zurich IMaging POLarimeter (ZIMPOL), an imaging polarimeter subsystem of the SPHERE instrument that operates at visible wavelengths.
More information

This research was presented in a paper to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The team is composed of P. Vernazza (Aix Marseille University, CNRS, CNES, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France [LAM]), M. Ferrais (LAM), L. Jorda (LAM), J. Hanuš (Institute of Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic [CU]), B. Carry (Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, France [OCA]), M. Marsset (Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, USA [MIT]), M. Brož (CU), R. Fetick (French Areospace Lab [ONERA] and LAM), M. Viikinkoski (Mathematics & Statistics, Tampere University, Finland [TU]), F. Marchis (LAM and SETI Institute, Carl Sagan Center, Mountain View, USA), F. Vachier (Institut de mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University Paris 06 and Université de Lille, France [IMCCE]), A. Drouard (LAM), T. Fusco (French Areospace Lab [ONERA] and LAM), M. Birlan (IMCCE and Astronomical Institute of Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania [AIRA]), E. Podlewska-Gaca (Faculty of Physics, Astronomical Observatory Institute, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland [UAM]), N. Rambaux (IMCCE), M. Neveu (University of Maryland College Park, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, US [UMD]), P. Bartczak (UAM), G. Dudziński (UAM), E. Jehin (Space sciences, Technologies and Astrophysics Research Institute, Université de Liège, Belgium [STAR]), P. Beck (Institut de Planetologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, UGA-CNRS, France [OSUG]), J. Berthier (IMCCE), J. Castillo-Rogez (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,USA [JPL]), F. Cipriani (European Space Agency, ESTEC – Scientific Support Office, Noordwijk, The Netherlands [ESTEC]​​), F. Colas (IMCCE), C. Dumas (Thirty Meter Telescope, Pasadena, USA [TMT]), J. Ďurech (CU), J. Grice (Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux et Observations Spatiales, CNRS and Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Guyancourt, France [UVSQ] and School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK [OU]), M. Kaasalainen (TU), A. Kryszczynska (UAM), P. Lamy (Departamento de Fisica, Ingeniería de Sistemas y Teoría de la Señal, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain), H. Le Coroller (LAM), A. Marciniak (UAM), T. Michalowski (UAM), P. Michel (OCA), T. Santana-Ros (Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain and European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile), P. Tanga (OCA), A. Vigan (LAM), O. Witasse (ESTEC), B. Yang (European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile), P. Antonini (Observatoire des Hauts Pays, Bédoin, France), M. Audejean (Observatoire de Chinon, Chinon, France), P. Aurard (AMU, Observatoire de Haute Provence, Institut Pythéas, Saint-Michel l’Observatoire, France [OHP]), R. Behrend (Geneva Observatory, Sauverny, Switzerland and High Energy Physics and Astrophysics Laboratory, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco [UCA]), Z. Benkhaldoun (UCA), J. M. Bosch (B74, Avinguda de Catalunya 34, 25354 Santa Maria de Montmagastrell (Tarrega), Spain), A. Chapman (Cruz del Sur Observatory, San Justo city, Buenos Aires, Argentina), L. Dalmon (OHP), S. Fauvaud (Observatoire du Bois de Bardon, Taponnat, France and Association T60, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France), Hiroko Hamanowa (Hong Kong Space Museum, Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong, PR China [HKSM]), Hiromi Hamanowa (HKSM), J. His (OHP), A. Jones (I64, SL6 1XE, Maidenhead, UK), D-H. Kim (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daejeon, Korea [KASI] and Chungbuk National University, Chungdae-ro, Seowon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea), M-J. Kim (KASI), J. Krajewski (Faculty of Physics, Astronomical Observatory Institute, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland), O. Labrevoir (OHP), A. Leroy (Observatoire OPERA, Saint Palais, France [OPERA] and Uranoscope, Gretz-Armainvilliers, France), F. Livet (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, Paris, France, UMR 7095 CNRS et Sorbonne Universités), D. Molina (Anunaki Observatory, Calle de los Llanos, Manzanares el Real, Spain), R. Montaigut (Club d’Astronomie de Lyon Ampere, Vaulx-en-Velin, France and OPERA), J. Oey (Kingsgrove, NSW, Australia), N. Payre (OHP), V. Reddy (Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, USA), P. Sabin (OHP), A. G. Sanchez (Rio Cofio Observatory, Robledo de Chavela, Spain), and L. Socha (Cicha 43, 44-144 Nieborowice, Poland).

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

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European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)(CL) is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

European Southern Observatory(EU) La Silla HELIOS (HARPS Experiment for Light Integrated Over the Sun)

ESO 3.6m telescope & HARPS atCerro LaSilla, Chile, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

MPG Institute for Astronomy [Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie](DE) 2.2 meter telescope at/European Southern Observatory(EU) Cerro La Silla, Chile, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU)La Silla Observatory 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU) , Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert •ANTU (UT1; The Sun ) •KUEYEN (UT2; The Moon ) •MELIPAL (UT3; The Southern Cross ), and •YEPUN (UT4; Venus – as evening star). Elevation 2,635 m (8,645 ft) from above Credit J.L. Dauvergne & G. Hüdepohl atacama photo.

European Southern Observatory(EU) VLTI Interferometer image, Cerro Paranal, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level, •ANTU (UT1; The Sun ),
•KUEYEN (UT2; The Moon ),
•MELIPAL (UT3; The Southern Cross ), and
•YEPUN (UT4; Venus – as evening star).

ESO Very Large Telescope 4 lasers on Yepun (CL)

Glistening against the awesome backdrop of the night sky above ESO’s Paranal Observatory, four laser beams project out into the darkness from Unit Telescope 4 UT4 of the VLT, a major asset of the Adaptive Optics system.

ESO/NTT NTT at Cerro La Silla , Chile, at an altitude of 2400 metres.

Part of ESO’s Paranal Observatory the VLT Survey Telescope (VISTA) observes the brilliantly clear skies above the Atacama Desert of Chile. It is the largest survey telescope in the world in visible light, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

European Southern Observatory/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Array in Chile in the Atacama at Chajnantor plateau, at 5,000 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU) 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).

European Southern Observatory(EU)/MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE) ESO’s Atacama Pathfinder Experiment(CL) high on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama region, at an altitude of over 4,800 m (15,700 ft).

Leiden MASCARA instrument cabinet at Cerro La Silla, located in the southern Atacama Desert 600 kilometres (370 mi) north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2,400 metres (7,900 ft).

ESO Next Generation Transit Survey telescopes, an array of twelve robotic 20-centimetre telescopes at Cerro Paranal,(CL) 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

TAROT telescope at Cerro LaSilla, 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

European Southern Observatory(EU) ExTrA telescopes at erro LaSilla at an altitude of 2400 metres.

A novel gamma ray telescope under construction on Mount Hopkins, Arizona. A large project known as the Čerenkov Telescope Array composed of hundreds of similar telescopes to be situated in the Canary Islands and Chile at, ESO Cerro Paranal site The telescope on Mount Hopkins will be fitted with a prototype high-speed camera, assembled at the. University of Wisconsin–Madison and capable of taking pictures at a billion frames per second. Credit: Vladimir Vassiliev.

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU), The new Test-Bed Telescope 2is housed inside the shiny white dome shown in this picture, at ESO’s LaSilla Facility in Chile. The telescope has now started operations and will assist its northern-hemisphere twin in protecting us from potentially hazardous, near-Earth objects.The domes of ESO’s 0.5 m and the Danish 0.5 m telescopes are visible in the background of this image.Part of the world-wide effort to scan and identify near-Earth objects, the European Space Agency’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 (TBT2), a technology demonstrator hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, has now started operating. Working alongside its northern-hemisphere partner telescope, TBT2 will keep a close eye on the sky for asteroids that could pose a risk to Earth, testing hardware and software for a future telescope network.

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU) The open dome of The black telescope structure of the‘s Test-Bed Telescope 2 peers out of its open dome in front of the rolling desert landscape. The telescope is located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, which sits at a 2400 metre altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert.

From Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN) via phys.org : “Nature of unknown gamma-ray sources revealed”

LAMOST telescope located in Xinglong Station, Hebei Province, China, Altitude 960 m (3,150 ft).

From Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN)

Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院] (CN)

via

phys.org

October 11, 2021
Li Yuan, Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院] (CN)

Fig. 1 Artistic representation of an active galaxy jet. Credit: M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL).

An international team of astronomers has unveiled the nature of hundreds of gamma-ray emitting sources, discovering that most of them belong to the class of active galaxies known as blazars.

Their recent study was published in The Astronomical Journal.

One of the most intriguing challenges in modern gamma-ray astronomy is searching for low-energy counterparts of unidentified gamma-ray sources. Unidentified sources constitute about 1/3 of all celestial objects detected by the Fermi satellite to date, the most recent gamma-ray mission with unprecedented capabilities for observing the high energy sky.

Since the largest population of known gamma-ray sources are blazars, astronomers believe they can also classify most unidentified gamma-ray sources as blazars. However, they can completely understand their nature only by observing blazar candidates at visible frequencies.

Blazars are extremely rare, black hole-powered galaxies. They host a supermassive black hole in their central regions that sweep out matter at almost the speed of light in the form of a powerful jet pointing towards the Earth. Particles accelerated in these jets can emit light up to the most energetic gamma-rays, thus being visible by instruments onboard the Fermi satellite.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration(US) Fermi Large Area Telescope

National Aeronautics and Space Administration(US)/Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope.

Fig. 2 Example of the completely featureless optical spectrum of the BL Lac known as J065046.49+250259.6. Credit: Harold A. Peña Herazo.

The team, led by Dr. Harold Peña Herazo from The National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics(MX), analyzed hundreds of optical spectra collected by the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fabre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) at the Xinglong Station in China [above].

LAMOST is hosted by The National Astronomical Observatories of China [ 国家天文台] at Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院](CN). It provided a unique opportunity to unveil the nature of blazar-like sources that can potentially be counterparts of unidentified gamma-ray sources.

From the list of sources discovered by the Fermi satellite, the researchers selected a sample of Blazar Candidates of Uncertain type (BCUs), which share several properties in common with blazars. However, optical spectroscopic observations are necessary to determine their proper classification and confirm their nature.

Using spectroscopic data available in the LAMOST archive, the researchers were able to classify tens of BCUs as blazars. “LAMOST data also permitted verifying the nature of hundreds of additional blazars by searching for emission or absorption lines used to determine their cosmological distances,” said Prof. GU Minfeng from The Shanghai Astronomical Observatory [上海天文台]Chinese Academy of Sciences [上海天文台](CN).

The vast majority of sources belong to the blazar class known as BL Lac objects and have a completely featureless optical spectrum. This makes measuring their cosmological distances an extremely challenging task. However, thanks to the LAMOST observations, a few more of them have luckily revealed visible signatures in their optical spectra.

“Our analysis showed great potential for the LAMOST survey and allowed us to discover a few changing-look blazars,” said Dr. Peña Herazo, currently a postdoctoral fellow at The East Asian Observatory – Hilo, Hawaii(US).

“It is worth noting that the possibility of using LAMOST observations to estimate blazar cosmological distances is critical to studying this population, its cosmological evolution, the imprint in the extragalactic gamma-ray background light in the gamma-ray spectra, and the blazar contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray background,” said Prof. Francesco Massaro from the University of Turin.

“I started working on this optical campaign and analyzing spectroscopic data in 2015, and nowadays, thanks to the observations available in LAMOST archive, we certainly made a significant step toward the identification of gamma-ray sources with blazars. Future perspectives achievable thanks to LAMOST datasets will definitively reveal the nature of hundreds of new blazars in the years to come,” commented Dr. Federica Ricci at The University of Bologna [Alma mater studiorum – Università di Bologna](IT) and INAF-Institute for Radio Astronomy of Bologna [Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna](IT).

The group’s previous study was also published in The Astronomical Journal.

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Chinese Academy of Sciences-National Astronomical Observatories Xinglong Observatory Station, located in Xinglong Station, Hebei Province, China.

The Xinglong Observatory [兴隆观测站] (CN) of the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) (IAU code: 327, coordinates: 40°23′39′′ N, 117°34′30′′ E) was founded in 1968. At present, it is one of most primary observing stations of NAOC. As the largest optical astronomical observatory site in the continent of Asia, it has 9 telescopes with effective aperture larger than 50 cm. These are the Guo Shoujing Telescope, also called the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), the 2.16-m Telescope, a 1.26-m optical & near-infrared telescope, a 1-m Alt-Az telescope, an 85-cm telescope (NAOC-Beijing Normal University [北京師範大學](CN) Telescope, NBT), an 80-cm telescope (Tsinghua University [清华大学](CN)-NAOC Telescope, TNT), a 60-cm telescope, a 50-cm telescope and a 60/90-cm Schmidt telescope.

The average altitude of the Xinglong Observatory is about 900 m. The Xinglong Observatory is located at the south of the main peak of the Yanshan Mountains, in the Xinglong County, Hebei Province, which lies about 120 km (about 2 hours’ drive) to the northeast of Beijing. A shuttle bus runs between NAOC campus and Xinglong Observatory every Tuesday and Friday. The mean and media seeing values of the Xinglong Observatory are 1.9′′ and 1.7′′, respectively. On average, there are 117 photometric nights and 230 observable nights per year based on the data of 2007-2014. Most of the time, the wind speed is less than 4 m/s (the mean value is 2 m/s), and the sky brightness is about 21.1 mag arcsec2 in V band at the zenith.

Each year, more than a hundred astronomers use the telescopes of the Xinglong Observatory to perform the observations for the studies on Galactic sciences (stellar parameters, extinction measurements, Galactic structures, exoplanets, etc.) and extragalactic sciences (including nearby galaxies, AGNs, high-redshift quasars), as well as time-domain astronomy (supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, stellar tidal disruption events, and different types of variable stars). In recent years, besides the basic daily maintenance of the telescopes, new techniques and methods have been explored by the engineers and technicians of the Xinglong Observatory to improve the efficiency of observations. Meanwhile, the Xinglong Observatory is also a National populscience and education base of China for training students from graduate schools, colleges, high schools and other education institutes throughout China, and it has hosted a number of international workshops and summer schools.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院] (CN) is the linchpin of China’s drive to explore and harness high technology and the natural sciences for the benefit of China and the world. Comprising a comprehensive research and development network, a merit-based learned society and a system of higher education, CAS brings together scientists and engineers from China and around the world to address both theoretical and applied problems using world-class scientific and management approaches.

Since its founding, CAS has fulfilled multiple roles — as a national team and a locomotive driving national technological innovation, a pioneer in supporting nationwide S&T development, a think tank delivering S&T advice and a community for training young S&T talent.

Now, as it responds to a nationwide call to put innovation at the heart of China’s development, CAS has further defined its development strategy by emphasizing greater reliance on democratic management, openness and talent in the promotion of innovative research. With the adoption of its Innovation 2020 programme in 2011, the academy has committed to delivering breakthrough science and technology, higher caliber talent and superior scientific advice. As part of the programme, CAS has also requested that each of its institutes define its “strategic niche” — based on an overall analysis of the scientific progress and trends in their own fields both in China and abroad — in order to deploy resources more efficiently and innovate more collectively.

As it builds on its proud record, CAS aims for a bright future as one of the world’s top S&T research and development organizations.

From European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)(CL): “From mirror petals to laser stars- ELT adaptive optics milestones reached”

From European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)(CL)

6 October 2021

Elise Vernet
Responsible for M4 Unit at ESO
Garching bei München, Germany
evernet@eso.org

Steffan Lewis
ELT Optical Control Project Manager at ESO
European Southern Observatory
Garching bei München, Germany
slewis@eso.org

Enrico Marchetti
Wave Front Sensor Camera Development Project Manager at ESO
Garching bei München, Germany
emarchet@eso.org

Nick Kornweibel
ELT Control System Project Manager at ESO
Garching bei München, Germany
nkornwei@eso.org

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Media Manager
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6670
press@eso.org

The largest adaptive mirror ever built, the M4 mirror for ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) [below], has reached an important milestone in its development: all six petal-shaped segments that make up the mirror are now completed.

M4, the fourth mirror in the light path of the telescope, can change shape quickly and very precisely, and is a key part of the ELT’s adaptive optics system. Light from cosmic objects is distorted by our planet’s atmosphere, producing blurred images. To correct for these distortions, the ELT will use advanced adaptive-optics hardware and software, some of which has been specially developed for the telescope. This includes powerful lasers that create artificial reference stars when there aren’t stars bright enough close to the object of interest to allow measurements of atmospheric distortions, and fast and accurate sensing cameras that measure these distortions. The measurements are then passed to extremely fast real-time computers that can calculate the necessary shape corrections to be applied to M4. In addition to the completion of the M4 petals, these systems have also all recently achieved key milestones.

Thanks to its adaptive-optics system, ESO’s ELT will deliver images sharper than those taken by current and future telescopes in space, like the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.

Final petal of M4 adaptive mirror delivered

With a diameter of 2.4 metres, M4 is the largest deformable mirror ever made and one of the most challenging and exciting components of what will be the largest visible and infrared telescope in the world. It is made up of six ultra-thin segments, the last two of which have now been finalised.

The six petals of M4 are made from Zerodur©, a special glass-ceramic material manufactured by SCHOTT in Germany. The French company Safran Reosc began polishing the M4 petals in 2017, turning each 35 mm-thin sheet of Zerodur© into a flexible segment less than 2-mm thick. All petals were checked by ESO engineers before being sent to Italian company AdOptica, who received the final one just a few months ago.

During the final production stages AdOptica have applied a coating to the mirror’s back surface and put in place lateral supports to connect the petals to the M4 mechanical structure. In addition, the companies’ technicians have glued more than 5000 magnets onto the mirror’s back surface, which play a role in deforming the flexible segments of M4, making adjustments 1000 times per second to an accuracy of 50 nanometers — as small as the tiniest viruses.

Now Safran Reosc is working to produce an identical set of petals, bringing the total number to 12. These will serve as spares and will be swapped out with the original six petals when they require recoating after a few years of use, minimising disruption to telescope observing time.

M4 reference body progressing

Because the M4 petals are so thin and need to be deformed to incredible accuracy, they require a very stable structure to support them: a reference body with attached magnets that support the mirror and adjust its shape. This reference structure is made by French company Mersen from Boostec® silicon carbide, one of the stiffest light materials available, and then polished by Belgian company AMOS, who are in the final stages of this process.

Getting the reference body to its final shape is extremely challenging. AMOS aims to get the structure flat to an accuracy of 5 microns, which has been made difficult by the fact that its surface has many holes to fit the M4 actuators.

Once the reference body is finished and delivered, AdOptica can begin the lengthy process of integrating the complete M4 unit, the structure comprising the mirror, its reference body and all support and connection elements. AdOptica is expected to do the first tests on the fully integrated M4 mirror in the final quarter of 2022.

Guide star laser accepted

One of the most visible components of the ELT’s adaptive optics systems will be its “laser guide star system” consisting of 6 lasers generating artificial guide stars in the upper atmosphere. To measure the distortions caused by the Earth’s atmosphere, the ELT’s adaptive optics system requires bright stars close to the object of study. Because these stars are not always conveniently placed, the ELT’s laser systems will allow astronomers to create artificial stars anywhere in the sky that is required, by exciting sodium atoms located at around 90km altitude in the atmosphere.

The first laser source for ESO’s ELT was finished by German company TOPTICA Projects in May 2021 and was delivered to ESO where it has now completed acceptance tests.

Progress for sensing cameras and ultra-fast computers

Another essential component of ESO’s ELT adaptive optics system are the so-called wavefront sensing cameras, which act as the “eyes” of the telescope by sensing the light from guide stars. ESO’s ELT will be equipped with three complementary types of wavefront sensing cameras, each with a distinct image sensor or detector, which will be used both by the telescope itself and by the science instruments.

These cameras are considered so critical for the functioning of the ELT adaptive optics that ESO has decided to do much of the work in-house. Two types of cameras, called ALICE and LISA, are designed at ESO while the third camera type, FREDA, is an adaptation of a commercially available camera (C-RED One) made by the French company First Light Imaging and modified to ELT standards by ESO engineers. In addition, ESO has developed, in collaboration with international company Teledyne, the detector for LISA, which will be ready for production by the end of this year. The design and prototyping activities for all three cameras should be completed next year.

Special computers on the ELT, called adaptive optics real-time computers, will then use the signals from the cameras to calculate how mirrors like M4 need to be deformed to correct for distortions caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere. A prototype computer developed at ESO has recently shown it can receive data from camera sensors and transmit it to the actuators that deform the mirror in just a few hundreds of microseconds.

While we are still a few years away from seeing the ELT’s complex adaptive optics systems completed, these recent advances show that significant progress is being made towards the scientific first light set for 2027. Once in operation, ESO’s ELT will dramatically change what we know about our Universe and will make us rethink our place in the cosmos.

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European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU) is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

European Southern Observatory(EU) La Silla HELIOS (HARPS Experiment for Light Integrated Over the Sun)

ESO 3.6m telescope & HARPS atCerro LaSilla, Chile, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

MPG Institute for Astronomy [Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie](DE) 2.2 meter telescope at/European Southern Observatory(EU) Cerro La Silla, Chile, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU)La Silla Observatory 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU) , Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert •ANTU (UT1; The Sun ) •KUEYEN (UT2; The Moon ) •MELIPAL (UT3; The Southern Cross ), and •YEPUN (UT4; Venus – as evening star). Elevation 2,635 m (8,645 ft) from above Credit J.L. Dauvergne & G. Hüdepohl atacama photo.

European Southern Observatory(EU) VLTI Interferometer image, Cerro Paranal, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level, •ANTU (UT1; The Sun ),
•KUEYEN (UT2; The Moon ),
•MELIPAL (UT3; The Southern Cross ), and
•YEPUN (UT4; Venus – as evening star).

ESO Very Large Telescope 4 lasers on Yepun (CL)

Glistening against the awesome backdrop of the night sky above ESO’s Paranal Observatory, four laser beams project out into the darkness from Unit Telescope 4 UT4 of the VLT, a major asset of the Adaptive Optics system.

ESO/NTT NTT at Cerro La Silla , Chile, at an altitude of 2400 metres.

[caption id="attachment_28382" align="alignnone" width="632"] Part of ESO’s Paranal Observatory the VLT Survey Telescope (VISTA) observes the brilliantly clear skies above the Atacama Desert of Chile. It is the largest survey telescope in the world in visible light, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

European Southern Observatory/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Array in Chile in the Atacama at Chajnantor plateau, at 5,000 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU) 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).

European Southern Observatory(EU)/MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE) ESO’s Atacama Pathfinder Experiment(CL) high on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama region, at an altitude of over 4,800 m (15,700 ft).

Leiden MASCARA instrument cabinet at Cerro La Silla, located in the southern Atacama Desert 600 kilometres (370 mi) north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2,400 metres (7,900 ft).

ESO Next Generation Transit Survey telescopes, an array of twelve robotic 20-centimetre telescopes at Cerro Paranal,(CL) 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

TAROT telescope at Cerro LaSilla, 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

European Southern Observatory(EU) ExTrA telescopes at erro LaSilla at an altitude of 2400 metres.

A novel gamma ray telescope under construction on Mount Hopkins, Arizona. A large project known as the Čerenkov Telescope Array composed of hundreds of similar telescopes to be situated in the Canary Islands and Chile at, ESO Cerro Paranal site The telescope on Mount Hopkins will be fitted with a prototype high-speed camera, assembled at the. University of Wisconsin–Madison and capable of taking pictures at a billion frames per second. Credit: Vladimir Vassiliev.

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU), The new Test-Bed Telescope 2is housed inside the shiny white dome shown in this picture, at ESO’s LaSilla Facility in Chile. The telescope has now started operations and will assist its northern-hemisphere twin in protecting us from potentially hazardous, near-Earth objects.The domes of ESO’s 0.5 m and the Danish 0.5 m telescopes are visible in the background of this image.Part of the world-wide effort to scan and identify near-Earth objects, the European Space Agency’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 (TBT2), a technology demonstrator hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, has now started operating. Working alongside its northern-hemisphere partner telescope, TBT2 will keep a close eye on the sky for asteroids that could pose a risk to Earth, testing hardware and software for a future telescope network.

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU) The open dome of The black telescope structure of the‘s Test-Bed Telescope 2 peers out of its open dome in front of the rolling desert landscape. The telescope is located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, which sits at a 2400 metre altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert.