From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “An X-ray look at the heart of powerful quasars”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

5.17.23
Media contacts:
Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk

Science contacts:
Dr Elias Kammoun
Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP), Toulouse
ekammoun@irap.omp.eu

Zsofi Igo
MPG Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE)
zigo@mpe.mpg.de

Artist’s impression of a quasar
Credit: J. da Silva/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Licence type Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

Researchers have observed the X-ray emission of the most luminous quasar seen in the last 9 billion years of cosmic history, known as SMSS J114447.77-430859.3, or J1144 for short. The new perspective sheds light on the inner workings of quasars and how they interact with their environment. The research is published in MNRAS [below].

Hosted by a galaxy 9.6 billion light years away from the Earth, between the constellations of Centaurus and Hydra, J1144 is extremely powerful, shining 100,000 billion times brighter than the Sun. J1144 is much closer to Earth than other sources of the same luminosity, allowing astronomers to gain insight into the black hole powering the quasar and its surrounding environment. The study was led by Dr Elias Kammoun, a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP), and Zsofi Igo, a PhD candidate at the MPG Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE).

Quasars are among the brightest and most distant objects in the known universe, powered by the fall of gas into a supermassive black hole. They can be described as active galactic nuclei (AGN) of very high luminosity that emit vast amounts of electromagnetic radiation observable in radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths. J1144 was initially observed in visible wavelengths in 2022 by the SkyMapper Southern Survey (SMSS).

XMM-Newton/EPIC-pn observation of the quasar SMSS J114447.77-430859.3. ESA/XMM-Newton/Dr Elias Kammoun. Licence type
Attribution (CC BY 3.0).

The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agencia Espacial Europea][Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU) XMM Newton X-ray Telescope.

For this study, researchers combined observations from several space-based observatories: the eROSITA instrument on board the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory, the ESA XMM-Newton observatory, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), and NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift observatory.

eRosita The DLR German Aerospace Center [Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.](DE)/ The MPG Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics [MPG Institut für außerirdische Physik](DE) on Russian German space X-ray telescope The Russian-German space probe Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG).

National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Technical University of Denmark [Danmarks Tekniske Universite](DK)/ASI Italian Space Agency [Agenzia Spaziale Italiana](IT) NuSTAR X-ray telescope.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Penn State Neil Gehrels Swift X-ray, and UV/Visible light Observatory.

The team used the data from the four observatories to measure the temperature of the X-rays being emitted from the quasar. They found this temperature to be around 350 million Kelvin, more than 60,000 times the temperature at the surface of the Sun. The team also found that the mass of the black hole at the quasar’s centre is around 10 billion times the mass of the Sun, and the rate at which it is growing to be of the order of 100 solar masses per year.

The X-ray light from this source varied on a time scale of a few days, which is not usually seen in quasars with black holes as large as the one residing in J1144. The typical timescale of variability for a black hole of this size would be on the order of months or even years. The observations also showed that while a portion of the gas is swallowed by the black hole, some gas is ejected in the form of extremely powerful winds, injecting large amounts of energy into the host galaxy.

Dr Kammoun, lead author of the paper, says “We were very surprised that no prior X-ray observatory has ever observed this source despite its extreme power.”

He adds, “Similar quasars are usually found at much larger distances, so they appear much fainter, and we see them as they were when the Universe was only 2-3 billion years old. J1144 is a very rare source as it is so luminous and much closer to Earth (although still at a huge distance!), giving us a unique glimpse of what such powerful quasars look like.”

“A new monitoring campaign of this source will start in June this year, which may reveal more surprises from this unique source”.

MNRAS
See the science paper for further instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “Galaxy changes classification as jet changes direction”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

3.17.23

Media Contacts
Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877 700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk

Makarena Estrella Pacheco
Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)
mestrellap@astrofisica.cl

Science Contacts
Dr Lorena Hernández-García
Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS) and University of Valparaiso
lorena.hernandez@uv.cl

Dr Francesca Panessa
Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology (INAF-IAPS)
francesca.panessa@inaf.it

Dr Gabriele Bruni
Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology (INAF-IAPS)
gabriele.bruni@inaf.it

This artist’s concept shows a “feeding,” or active, supermassive black hole with a jet streaming outward at nearly the speed of light. Not all black holes have jets, but when they do, the jets can be pointed in any direction. If a jet happens to shine at Earth, the object is called a blazar. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

A team of international astronomers have discovered a galaxy that has changed classification due to unique activity within its core. The galaxy, named PBC J2333.9-2343, was previously classified as a radio galaxy, but the new research has revealed otherwise. The work is published in MNRAS [below].

PBC J2333.9-2343 located 656 844 372 light years away has now been classified as a giant radio galaxy that is 4 million light years across and happens to have a blazar in its core; a blazar is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a relativistic jet (a jet travelling close to the speed of light) directed towards an observer. Blazars are very high energy objects and are considered to be one of the most powerful phenomena in the Universe. The research has revealed that in PBC J2333.9-2343, the jet changed its direction drastically by an angle of up to 90 degrees, going from being in the plane of the sky, perpendicular to our line of sight, to pointing directly towards us.

A blazar jet is made of elemental charged particles like electrons or protons that move at velocities close to the speed of light. These move in circles around a strong magnetic field, causing the emission of radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. In PBC J2333.9-2343, the jet is thought to originate from or close to the supermassive black hole in its centre.

With the jet pointing in our direction, the emission is strongly enhanced and can easily exceed that coming from the rest of the galaxy. This in turn drives high-intensity flares stronger than those coming from other radio galaxies, thus changing its categorization.

A coloured image using the z/i/g filters taken from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) PS1, a system for wide-field astronomical imaging developed and operated by the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. The galaxy PBC J2333.9-2343 is located at the centre of the image. The Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawai’i.

Pann-STARS 1 Telescope, U Hawai’i, situated at Haleakala Observatories near the summit of Haleakala in Hawaii, altitude 3,052 m (10,013 ft)

The orientation of the jets to us determines how a galaxy is classified. When two jets point towards the plane of the sky, they are classified as a radio galaxy, but if one of the jets points towards us, then the AGN of the galaxy is known as a blazar. With jets in the plane of the sky and one directed at us, PBC J2333.9-2343 has been reclassified as a radio galaxy with a blazar at its centre.

Changes in the direction of jets have been described in the past, for example with X-shaped radio galaxies. This is the first time that such a phenomenon has been observed where it does not suggest the presence of two different phases of jet activity from its morphology observed at radio frequencies – the direction change appears to have taken place in the same nuclear outburst originating from the AGN.

To find out more about this mysterious galaxy, astronomers had to observe it across a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum. PBC J2333.9-2343 was observed with radio, optical, infrared, x-ray, ultraviolet and gamma ray telescopes. Data was obtained from the German 100m-Radio Telescope Effelsberg at the MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy, the 1.3m-SMARTS optical telescope, and the Penn State Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

The MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy[MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE)Effelsberg Radio Telescope- a radio telescope in the Ahr Hills (part of the Eifel) in Bad Münstereifel(DE).

NOIRLab CTIO Yale University SMARTS 1.5 m reflector telescope at La Serena, Chile, Altitude 2,207 m (7,241 ft).

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Penn State Neil Gehrels Swift X-ray, and UV/Visible light Observatory.

The team then compared the properties of PBC J2333.9-2343 with large samples of blazars and non-blazar galaxies provided by the ALeRCE (Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events) project in Chile with data from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).

Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) instrument installed on the 1.2m diameter Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California. Credit: Caltech Optical Observatories.

Caltech Palomar Samuel Oschin 48 inch Telescope, located in San Diego County, California, altitude 1712 m (5617 ft). Credit: Caltech.

NASA supported ATLAS telescope, First Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert system (ATLAS) fully operational 8/15/15 University of Hawai’i, Haleakala, Hawaii, Altitude 4,205 m (13,796 ft).

Using the observational data, the team concluded that this galaxy has a bright blazar in the centre, with two lobes in the outer areas of the jet. The lobes that are observed are related to the old jets and are no longer being fed by the emission from the nucleus, so these lobes are relics of past radio activity. The AGN no longer drives the lobes as seen in typical radio galaxies.

The team do not yet know what caused the drastic change in direction of the jets. They speculate that it could have been a merging event with another galaxy or any other relatively large object, or a strong burst of activity in the galactic nucleus after a dormant period.

Dr Lorena Hernández-García, lead author of the paper and researcher at the Millenium Institute of Astrophysics, says “We started to study this galaxy as it showed peculiar properties. Our hypothesis was that the relativistic jet of its supermassive black hole had changed its direction, and to confirm that idea we had to carry out a lot of observations.”

She adds, “The fact that we see the nucleus is not feeding the lobes anymore means that they are very old. They are the relics of past activity, whereas the structures located closer to the nucleus represent younger and active jets.”

MNRAS

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “New discovery sheds light on very early supermassive black holes”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

2.22.23

Media Contacts

Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877 700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk

Science Contacts

Dr Ryan Endsley
McDonald Observatory, The University of Texas at Austin
ryan.endsley@austin.utexas.edu

Professor Dan Stark
University of Arizona
dpstark@arizona.edu

This system consists of a pair of galaxies, dubbed IC 694 and NGC 3690, which made a close pass some 700 million years ago. As a result of this interaction, the system underwent a fierce burst of star formation. In the last fifteen years or so six supernovae have popped off in the outer reaches of the galaxy, making this system a distinguished supernova factory. Credit: A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)/NASA/ESA/ the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Licence type Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

Astronomers from The University of Texas-Austin and The University of Arizona have discovered a rapidly growing black hole in one of the most extreme galaxies known in the very early Universe. The discovery of the galaxy and the black hole at its centre provides new clues on the formation of the very first supermassive black holes. The new work is published in MNRAS [below].

Using observations taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a radio observatory sited in Chile, the team have determined that the galaxy, named COS-87259, containing this new supermassive black hole is very extreme, forming stars at a rate 1000 times that of our own Milky Way and containing over a billion solar masses worth of interstellar dust.

The European Southern Observatory [La Observatorio Europeo Austral] [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Observatory (CL).

The galaxy shines bright from both this intense burst of star formation and the growing supermassive black hole at its centre.

The black hole is considered to be a new type of primordial black hole – one heavily enshrouded by cosmic “dust”, causing nearly all of its light to be emitted in the mid-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The researchers have also found that this growing supermassive black hole (frequently referred to as an active galactic nucleus) is generating a strong jet of material moving at near light speed through the host galaxy.

Today, black holes with masses millions to billions of times greater than that of our own Sun sit at the centre of nearly every galaxy. How these supermassive black holes first formed remains a mystery for scientists, particularly because several of these objects have been found when the Universe was very young. Because the light from these sources takes so long to reach us, we see them as they existed in the past; in this case, just 750 million years after the Big Bang, which is approximately 5% of the current age of the Universe.

What is particularly astonishing about this new object is that it was identified over a relatively small patch of the sky typically used to detect similar objects – less than 10 times the size of the full moon – suggesting there could be thousands of similar sources in the very early Universe. This was completely unexpected from previous data.

The only other class of supermassive black holes we knew about in the very early Universe are quasars, which are active black holes that are relatively unobscured by cosmic dust. These quasars are extremely rare at distances similar to COS-87259, with only a few tens located over the full sky. The surprising discovery of COS-87259 and its black hole raises several questions about the abundance of very early supermassive black holes, as well as the types of galaxies in which they typically form.

Ryan Endsley, the lead author of the paper and now a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas-Austin, says “These results suggest that very early supermassive black holes were often heavily obscured by dust, perhaps as a consequence of the intense star formation activity in their host galaxies. This is something others have been predicting for a few years now, and it’s really nice to see the first direct observational evidence supporting this scenario.”

Similar types of objects have been found in the more local, present-day Universe, such as Arp 299 [?] shown here.

In this system, two galaxies are crashing together generating an intense starburst as well as heavy obscuration of the growing supermassive black hole in one of the two galaxies.

Endsley adds, “While nobody expected to find this kind of object in the very early Universe, its discovery takes a step towards building a much better understanding of how billion solar mass black holes were able to form so early on in the lifetime of the Universe, as well how the most massive galaxies first evolved.”

MNRAS
See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “Distant galaxy mirrors the early Milky Way”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

1.31.23
Media Contacts

Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877 700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk

Science Contacts

Prof. Duncan Forbes
Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing
Swinburne University
dforbes@swin.edu.au

Prof. Aaron Romanowsky
Department of Physics & Astronomy
San Jose State University
Aaron.romanowsky@sjsu.edu

This image shows an artist impression of our Milky Way galaxy in its youth. Five small satellite galaxies, of various types and sizes, are in the process of being accreted into the Milky Way. These satellite galaxies also contribute globular star clusters to the larger galaxy. The Sparkler galaxy provides a snap-shot of an infant Milky Way as it accretes mass over cosmic time. Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne University. Licence type Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

A galaxy has been discovered that mirrors the very early version of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The galaxy, dubbed ‘The Sparkler’, is embedded in a system of globular clusters and satellite galaxies, and appears to be swallowing them as it grows. The research was published in MNRAS [below].

The discovery of The Sparkler was made using some of the first data from the James Webb Space Telescope. As indicated in the science paper, the JWST instrument used in this work is NIRCam.

National Aeronautics Space Agency/ UArizona Webb NIRCam.

National Aeronautics Space Agency/European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU)/ Canadian Space Agency [Agence Spatiale Canadienne](CA) James Webb Infrared Space Telescope annotated, finally launched December 25, 2021, ten years late.

The Sparkler is named for its two dozen orbiting globular clusters, and provides unique insight into the formation history of the Milky Way during its infancy. Globular clusters are dense collections of around a million stars. The Milky Way is currently host to around 200 globular clusters.

The Sparkler can be found in the constellation of Volans in the southern sky. The galaxy and its system of globular clusters have been detected at a redshift of 1.38, which implies that we are seeing the galaxy around 9 billion years ago, some 4 billion years after the Big Bang. The observations are made possible with the new JWST and the brightening effect of a gravitational lens, which is fortuitously aligned in front of the galaxy.

Gravitational Lensing-L. Calçada/Spitzer Space Telescope The National Aeronautics and Space Agency /The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU)

Gravitational Lensing National Aeronautics Space Agency and European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea][Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU).

The research was led by Professor Duncan Forbes of Swinburne University in Australia and Professor Aaron Romanowsky of San Jose State University. They examined the age and metallicity distribution of a dozen of the compact star clusters surrounding the Sparkler to determine that they resemble younger versions of the clusters now around the Milky Way. Several have old formation ages and are metal-rich similar to those seen in the bulge of the Milky Way and so are likely to be globular clusters.

A couple of star clusters had intermediate ages and were metal-poor – these clusters are associated with the satellite galaxy that is being accreted onto the Sparkler galaxy; it appears to be swallowing up this satellite galaxy and its system of globular clusters, just like the Milky Way has done in the past.

Although the Sparkler is currently only 3% the mass of the Milky Way, it is expected to grow over cosmic time to match the Milky Way’s mass in the present day universe. The team will need deeper imaging to detect more clusters and satellites around the Sparkler.

“We appear to be witnessing, first hand, the assembly of this galaxy as it builds up its mass – in the form of a dwarf galaxy and several globular clusters” says Prof. Forbes. He adds, “We are excited by this unique opportunity to study both the formation of globular clusters, and an infant Milky Way, at a time when the Universe was only 1/3 of its present age.”

Co-author Professor Aaron Romanowsky comments, “The origin of globular clusters is a long-standing mystery, and we are thrilled that JWST can look back in time to see them in their youth”.

MNRAS

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From Nagoya University [名古屋大学] (JP) And The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan [国立天文台] (JP) Via The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “Astronomers confirm age of most distant galaxy with oxygen”

From Nagoya University [名古屋大学] (JP)

And

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan [国立天文台] (JP)

Via

The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

1.24.23
Media contacts

Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk

Science contacts

Dr Tom Bakx
Nagoya University
tjlcbakx@gmail.com

Dr Jorge Zavala
NAOJ ALMA Division
jorge.zavala@nao.ac.jp

The radio telescope array ALMA has pin-pointed the exact cosmic age of a distant JWST-identified galaxy, GHZ2/GLASS-z12, at 367 million years after the Big Bang. ALMA’s deep spectroscopic observations revealed a spectral emission line associated with ionized Oxygen near the galaxy, which has been shifted in its observed frequency due to the expansion of the Universe since the line was emitted. This observation confirms that the JWST is able to look out to record distances, and heralds a leap in our ability to understand the formation of the earliest galaxies in the Universe.
Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / T. Treu, UCLA / NAOJ / T. Bakx, Nagoya U.
Licence type Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

The European Southern Observatory [La Observatorio Europeo Austral] [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Observatory (CL).

National Aeronautics Space Agency/European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU)/ Canadian Space Agency [Agence Spatiale Canadienne](CA) James Webb Infrared Space Telescope annotated, finally launched December 25, 2021, ten years late.

A new study led by a joint team at Nagoya University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has measured the cosmic age of a very distant galaxy. The team used the ALMA radio telescope array to detect a radio signal that has been travelling for approximately 97% of the age of the Universe. This discovery confirms the existence of galaxies in the very early Universe found by the James Webb Space Telescope. The research is published in MNRAS [below].

The galaxy, named GHZ2/GLASS-z12, was initially identified in the JWST GLASS survey, a survey that observes the distant Universe and behind massive clusters of galaxies. These observations consist of several images using different broad-band colour filters, similar to the separate RGB colours in a camera. For distant galaxies, the light takes such a long time to reach us that the expansion of the Universe has shifted the colour of this light towards the red end of the visible light spectrum in the so-called redshift. The red colour of GHZ2/GLASS-z12 consequently helped researchers identify it as one of the most convincing candidates for a distant galaxy they observed.

So many bright distant galaxies were identified in the first few weeks of JWST observations that it challenged our basic understanding of the formation of the earliest galaxies. However, these red colours are only indicative of a distant galaxy, and could instead be a very dust-rich galaxy masquerading as a more distant object. Only direct observations of spectral lines – lines present in a galaxy’s light spectrum used to identify the elements present – can robustly confirm the true distances of these galaxies.

Immediately after the discovery of these early galaxy candidates, two early-career researchers at Nagoya University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan used the forty radio telescopes of the ALMA array in Chile to hunt for a spectral line to confirm the true ages of the galaxies.

The image of galaxy GHZ2/GLASS-z12 with the associated ALMA spectrum. ALMA’s deep spectroscopic observations revealed a spectral emission line associated with ionized Oxygen near the galaxy, which has been shifted in its observed frequency due to the expansion of the Universe since the line was emitted. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / T. Treu, UCLA / NAOJ / T. Bakx, Nagoya U.

ALMA pointed at GHZ2/GLASS-z12 to hunt for an emission line associated with oxygen at the expected frequency suggested by the JWST observations. Oxygen is a typically abundant element in distant galaxies due to its relatively short formation timescale, therefore the team chose to search for an oxygen emission line to increase chances of detection.

By combining the signal of each of its 12 metre telescopes, ALMA was able to detect the emission line close to the position of the galaxy. The observed redshift of the line indicates we see the galaxy as it was just 367 million years after the Big Bang.

“The first images of the James Webb Space Telescope revealed so many early galaxies, that we felt we had to test its results using the best observatory on Earth”, said lead author Tom Bakx of Nagoya University. “It was a very exciting time to be an observational astronomer, and we could track the status of the observations that will test the JWST results in real time.”

“We were initially concerned about the slight variation in position between the detected oxygen emission line and the galaxy seen by Webb”, author Tom Bakx notes, “but we performed detailed tests on the observations to confirm that this really is a robust detection, and it is very difficult to explain through any other interpretation.”

Co-lead author Jorge Zavala of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan adds, “The bright line emission indicates that this galaxy has quickly enriched its gas reservoirs with elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This gives us some clues about the formation and evolution of the first generation of stars and their lifetime. The small separation we see between the oxygen gas and the stars’ emission might also suggest that these early galaxies suffered from violent explosions that blew the gas away from the galaxy centre into the region surrounding the galaxy and even beyond.”

“These deep ALMA observations provide robust evidence of the existence of galaxies within the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang, and confirms the surprising results from the Webb observations. The work of JWST has only just begun, but we are already adjusting our models of how galaxies form in the early Universe to match these observations. The combined power of Webb and the radio telescope array ALMA give us the confidence to push our cosmic horizons ever closer to the dawn of the Universe.”

MNRAS
See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Nagoya University [名古屋大学] (JP), is a Japanese national university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It is the last Imperial University in Japan, one of the Designated National University and selected as a Top Type university of Top Global University Project by the Japanese government. It is the 3rd highest ranked higher education institution in Japan (72nd worldwide).

The University is the birthplace of the Sakata School of physics and the Hirata School of chemistry. As of 2014, six Nobel Prize winners have been associated with Nagoya University, the third most in Japan and Asia behind Kyoto University [京都大学](JP) and The University of Tokyo [(東京大学](JP).

Nagoya University traces its roots back to 1871 when it was a temporary medical school. In 1939 it became Nagoya Imperial University [名古屋帝国大学]. In 1947 it was renamed Nagoya University [名古屋大学], and became a Japanese national university. In 2014, according to the reform measures of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, all Japanese national universities became National University Corporation [国立大学法人](JP). The university has a profound tradition of physics and chemistry. Many world-class scientific research achievements include Sakata model, PMNS matrix, Okazaki fragment, Noyori asymmetric hydrogenation, and Blue LED were born in Nagoya University.

In the 20th century, NU’s Kuno Yasu and Katsunuma Seizō were nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Yoshio Ohnuki was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. In the 21st century, NU peoples account for half of the total number of Japanese Nobel Prize winners (up to 2014). Among the six winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Physics, there are three professors and five alumni. The number of winners is the third among Japanese universities. In addition, the team under Professor Morishima Kunihiro participated in the Scanpyramids project by using special nuclear emulsion plates. This led to the discovery in 2017 of new chambers in the great pyramid.

In March 2012, Nagoya University played host to the International Symposium on Innovative Nanobiodevices. Three years later, NU was selected as one of the five champion universities for gender equality by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

In March 2018, Nagoya University was selected as one of top five Designated National University Corporation [指定国立大学法人]. In order to become the largest national higher education corporation in Japan, the Tokai National Higher Education and Research System [国立大学法人東海国立大学機構](JP) established by integrating with Gifu University [岐阜大学](JP) in April 2020, both are major universities in Central Japan.

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) [国立天文台] (JP) is an astronomical research organization comprising several facilities in Japan, as well as an observatory in Hawaii. It was established in 1988 as an amalgamation of three existing research organizations – the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory of The University of Tokyo [東京大学](JP), International Latitude Observatory of Mizusawa, and a part of Research Institute of Atmospherics of Nagoya University [名古屋大学](JP).

In the 2004 reform of national research organizations, NAOJ became a division of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences .

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

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Array in Chile in the Atacama at Chajnantor plateau, at 5,000 metres.

Solar Flare Telescope.

Nobeyama Millimeter Array Radioheliograph, located near Minamimaki, Nagano at an elevation of 1350m.

Mizusawa VERA Observatory.

Okayama Astrophysical Observatory.

NAOJ Kyoto U 3.8m SEMEI Telescope.

The
The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “Milky Way found to be more unique than previously thought”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

1.20.23
Media contacts

Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk

Science contacts

Professor Miguel Aragón
UNAM
maragon@astro.unam.mx

Dr Mark Neyrinck
Ikerbasque Foundation
mark.neyrinck@gmail.com

A lonely Milky Way Analogue galaxy, too massive for its wall. The background image shows the distribution of dark matter (green and blue) and galaxies (here seen as tiny yellow dots) in a thin slice of the cubic volume in which we expect to find one of such rare massive galaxies. Credit: Images-Miguel A. Aragon-Calvo. Simulation data-Illustris TNG project.
Licence type Attribution (CC BY 4.0).

Is the Milky Way special, or, at least, is it in a special place in the Universe? An international team of astronomers has found that the answer to that question is yes, in a way not previously appreciated. A new study shows that the Milky Way is too big for its “cosmological wall”, something yet to be seen in other galaxies. The new research is published in MNRAS [below].

A cosmological wall is a flattened arrangement of galaxies found surrounding other galaxies, characterized by particularly empty regions called ‘voids’ on either side of it. These voids seem to squash the galaxies together into a pancake-like shape to make the flattened arrangement. This wall environment, in this case called “The Local Sheet”, influences how The Milky Way and nearby galaxies rotate around their axes, in a more organized way than if we were in a random place in the Universe, without a wall.

14 giant galaxies of the local sheet 7 November 2020. Credit: Piquito veloz

Typically, galaxies tend to be significantly smaller than this so-called wall. The Milky Way is found to be surprisingly massive in comparison to its cosmological wall-a rare cosmic occurrence.

The new findings are based on a state-of-the-art computer simulation, part of The IllustrisTNG project .

(c) 2022 The TNG Collaboration.

The team simulated a volume of the Universe nearly a billion light-years across that contains millions of galaxies. Only a handful – about a millionth of all the galaxies in the simulation – were as “special” as the Milky Way, i.e. both embedded in a cosmological wall like the Local Sheet, and as massive as our home galaxy.

According to the team, it may be necessary to take into account the special environment around the Milky Way when running simulations, to avoid a so-called “Copernican bias” in making scientific inference from the galaxies around us. This bias, describing the successive removal of our special status in the nearly 500 years since Copernicus demoted the Earth from being at the centre of the cosmos, would come from assuming that we reside in a completely average place in the Universe. To simulate observations, astronomers sometimes assume that any point in a simulation such as IllustrisTNG is as good as any, but the team’s findings indicate that it may be important to use precise locations to make such measurements.

“So, the Milky Way is, in a way, special,” said research lead Miguel Aragón. “The Earth is very obviously special, the only home of life that we know. But it’s not the centre of the Universe, or even the Solar System. And the Sun is just an ordinary star among billions in the Milky Way. Even our galaxy seemed to be just another spiral galaxy among billions of others in the observable Universe.”

“The Milky Way doesn’t have a particularly special mass, or type. There are lots of spiral galaxies that look roughly like it,” Joe Silk, another of the researchers, said. “But it is rare if you take into account its surroundings. If you could see the nearest dozen or so large galaxies easily in the sky, you would see that they all nearly lie on a ring, embedded in the Local Sheet. That’s a little bit special in itself. What we newly found is that other walls of galaxies in the Universe like the Local Sheet very seldom seem to have a galaxy inside them that’s as massive as the Milky Way.”

“You might have to travel a half a billion light years from the Milky Way, past many, many galaxies, to find another cosmological wall with a galaxy like ours,” Aragón said. He adds, “That’s a couple of hundred times farther away than the nearest large galaxy around us, Andromeda.”

“You do have to be careful, though, choosing properties that qualify as ‘special,’” Dr Mark Neyrinck, another member of the team, said. “If we added a ridiculously restrictive condition on a galaxy, such as that it must contain the paper we wrote about this, we would certainly be the only galaxy in the observable Universe like that. But we think this ‘too big for its wall’ property is physically meaningful and observationally relevant enough to call out as really being special.”

MNRAS
See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The
The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “Astronomers create new microwave map of the Milky Way and beyond”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

1.11.23
Media contacts

Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk
 

Science contacts

Professor Jose Alberto Rubino-Martin
Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands
jalberto@iac.es

Dr Denis Tramonte
Purple Mountain Observatory
tramonte@pmo.ac.cn

Dr Federica Guidi
Paris Institute of Astrophysics
federica.guidi@iap.fr

Dr Frederick Poidevin
Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands
fpoidevin@iac.es

Elena de la Hoz
 The Institute of Physics of Cantabria/Unican
delahoz@ifca.unican.es

Dr Diego Herranz
 The Institute of Physics of Cantabria
herranz@ifca.unican.es

Colour shows the polarized microwave emission measured by QUIJOTE. The pattern of lines superposed shows the direction of the magnetic field lines. Credit: The QUIJOTE Collaboration.

An international team of scientists have successfully mapped the magnetic field of our galaxy, the Milky Way, using telescopes that observe the sky in the microwave range. The new research is published in MNRAS [below].

The team used the QUIJOTE (Q-U-I JOint TEnerife) Collaboration, sited at the Teide Observatory on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Teide Observatory, Teide National Park, Tenerife (ES), home of two 40 cm LCO telescopes, Altitude 2,390 m (7,840 ft).

Two 40 cm LCO telescopes at Teide Observatory,Teide National Park, Tenerife (ES) managed by Roque de los Muchachos Observatory | Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias • IAC(ES)

This comprises two 2.5 m diameter telescopes, which observe the sky in the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the mapping began in 2012. Almost a decade later, the Collaboration has presented a series of 6 scientific articles, giving the most accurate description to date of the polarization of the emission of the Milky Way at microwave wavelengths. Polarization is a property of transverse waves such as light waves that specifies the direction of the oscillations of the waves and signifies the presence of a magnetic field.

The studies complement earlier space missions dedicated to the study of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the fossil radiation left behind by the Big Bang, which gave a detailed insight into the early history of the cosmos.

CMB per European Space Agency(EU) Planck.

As well as mapping the magnetic structure of the Milky Way, the QUIJOTE data has also proved useful in other scenarios. The new data are also a unique tool for studying the anomalous microwave emission (AME), a type of emission first detected 25 years ago. AME is thought to be produced by the rotation of very small particles of dust in the interstellar medium, which tend to be oriented by the presence of the galactic magnetic field.

The new results allowed the team to obtain information about the structure of the magnetic field of the Milky Way, as well as helping to understand the energetic processes which took place close to the birth of the Universe. To measure signals from that time, scientists need to first eliminate the veil of emission associated with our own Galaxy. The new maps provided by QUIJOTE do just that, allowing us to better understand these elusive signals from the wider Universe.

The maps from QUIJOTE have also permitted the study of a recently detected excess of microwave emission from the centre of our Galaxy. The origin of this emission is currently unknown, but it could be connected to the decay processes of dark matter particles. With QUIJOTE, the team have confirmed the existence of this excess of radiation, and have found some evidence that it could be polarized.

Finally, the new maps from QUIJOTE have permitted the systematic study of over 700 sources of emission in radio and microwaves, of both Galactic and extragalactic origin, meaning that the data is helping scientists to decipher signals coming from beyond our galaxy, including the cosmic microwave background radiation.

“These new maps give a detailed description in a new frequency range, from 10 to 40 GHz, complementing those from space missions such as Planck and WMAP”, comments José Alberto Rubiño, lead scientist of the QUIJOTE Collaboration.

The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU) Planck microwave telescope 2009 to 2013.

NASA/Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 2001 to 2010 annotated.

“We have characterized the synchrotron emission from our Galaxy with unprecedented accuracy. This radiation is the result of the emission by charged particles moving at velocities close to that of light within the Galactic magnetic field. These maps, the result of almost 9,000 hours of observation, are a unique tool for studying magnetism in the universe” he adds.

 “One of the most interesting results we have found is that the polarized synchrotron emission from our Galaxy is much more variable than had been thought” comments Elena de la Hoz, a researcher at the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA). “The results we have obtained are a reference to help future experiments make reliable detections of the CMB signal” she adds.

“Scientific evidence suggests that the Universe went through a phase of rapid expansion, called inflation, a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

___________________________________________________________________
Inflation

In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation is a theory of exponential expansion of space in the early universe. The inflationary epoch lasted from 10^−36 seconds after the conjectured Big Bang singularity to some time between 10^−33 and 10^−32 seconds after the singularity. Following the inflationary period, the universe continued to expand, but at a slower rate. The acceleration of this expansion due to dark energy began after the universe was already over 7.7 billion years old (5.4 billion years ago).

Inflation theory was developed in the late 1970s and early 80s, with notable contributions by several theoretical physicists, including Alexei Starobinsky at Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Alan Guth at Cornell University, and Andrei Linde at Lebedev Physical Institute. Alexei Starobinsky, Alan Guth, and Andrei Linde won the 2014 Kavli Prize “for pioneering the theory of cosmic inflation.” It was developed further in the early 1980s. It explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. Quantum fluctuations in the microscopic inflationary region, magnified to cosmic size, become the seeds for the growth of structure in the Universe. Many physicists also believe that inflation explains why the universe appears to be the same in all directions (isotropic), why the cosmic microwave background radiation is distributed evenly, why the universe is flat, and why no magnetic monopoles have been observed.

The detailed particle physics mechanism responsible for inflation is unknown. The basic inflationary paradigm is accepted by most physicists, as a number of inflation model predictions have been confirmed by observation; however, a substantial minority of scientists dissent from this position. The hypothetical field thought to be responsible for inflation is called the inflaton.

In 2002 three of the original architects of the theory were recognized for their major contributions; physicists Alan Guth of M.I.T., Andrei Linde of Stanford, and Paul Steinhardt of Princeton shared the prestigious Dirac Prize “for development of the concept of inflation in cosmology”. In 2012 Guth and Linde were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their invention and development of inflationary cosmology.

Alan Guth, from M.I.T., who first proposed Cosmic Inflation.

Lambda Cold Dark Matter Expansion ΛCDM of the Universe. Credit Alex Mittelmann Coldcreation.

Alan Guth’s notes:
Alan Guth’s original notes on inflation.
___________________________________________________________________

If this is correct, we would expect to find some observable consequences when we study the polarization of the cosmic microwave background. Measuring those expected features is difficult, because they are small in amplitude, but also because they are less bright than the polarized emission from our own galaxy.” notes Rubiño, “However, if we finally measure them, we will have indirect information of the physical conditions in the very early stages of our Universe, when the energy scales were much higher than those that we can access or study from the ground. This has enormous implications for our understanding of fundamental physics.”

“The maps from QUIJOTE have also permitted the study of the microwave emission from the centre of our Galaxy. Recently an excess of microwave emission has been detected from this region, whose origin is unknown, but whose origin could be connected to the decay processes of dark matter particles. With QUIJOTE we have confirmed the existence of this excess of radiation, and have found some evidence that it could be polarized” comments Federica Guidi, a researcher at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP, Francia).

Science paper:
MNRAS

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “Astronomers discover eight new super-hot stars”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

1.6.23
Media contacts

Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk

Science contacts

Simon Jeffery
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium
Simon.Jeffery@armagh.ac.uk

Professor Klaus Werner
Kepler Centre for Astro and Particle Physics, University of Tuebingen
klaus.werner@uni-tuebingen.de

A sky survey image centred on the newly-discovered O(H) star SALT J203959.5-034117 (J2039).
Credit: Tom Watts (AOP), STScI/NASA/ The Dark Energy Survey
Licence type Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

An international team of astronomers has discovered eight of the hottest stars in the universe, all with surfaces hotter than 100,000 degrees Celsius. The work was published in MNRAS [below].

The paper is based on data gathered using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, with a 10m x 11m mirror.

South African Large Telescope, close to the town of Sutherland in the semi-desert region of the Karoo, South Africa, Altitude 1,798 m (5,899 ft).

The study describes how a survey of helium-rich subdwarf stars led to the discovery of several very hot white dwarf and pre-white dwarf stars, the hottest of which has a surface temperature of 180,000 degrees Celsius. For comparison, the Sun’s surface is a mere 5,800 degrees.

One of the stars identified is the central star of a newly discovered planetary nebula, which is one light year in diameter. Two of the others are pulsating, or ‘variable’ stars. All of these stars are at an advanced stage of their life cycle and are approaching the end of their lives as white dwarfs. Due to their extremely high temperatures, each of these new discoveries is more than one hundred times brighter than the Sun, which is considered unusual for white dwarf stars.

White dwarfs are roughly the same size as planet Earth, but a million times more massive, with masses closer to that of the Sun’s. They are the densest stars in existence that consist of normal matter. Pre-white dwarfs are a few times bigger and will shrink to become white dwarfs within a few thousand years.

Simon Jeffery, an astronomer at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, who led the research, says, “Stars with effective temperatures of 100,000 degrees Celsius or higher are incredibly rare. It was a real surprise to find so many of these stars in our survey. These discoveries will help to increase our understanding of the late stages of stellar evolution and they demonstrate that SALT is a fantastic telescope for our project.” He adds, “It has been exciting to work with an experienced team, who collectively enabled the discovery of the stars, the analysis of their atmospheres, and the discovery of pulsations and a nebula in a very short space of time.“

The University of Tuebingen’s Professor Klaus Werner, who co-authored the paper, comments, “I am proud to have helped develop this ground-breaking research. The discovery of eight very hot white dwarf and pre-white dwarf stars and a new planetary nebula is hugely significant, and we hope that these findings will help to shed new light on the formation of our galaxy.”

Dr Itumeleng Monageng, of the Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, and South African Astronomical Observatory, observes, “It is an honour to have played a part in this incredible discovery. The SALT survey of helium-rich hot subdwarfs was intended to explore evolutionary pathways amongst groups of highly evolved stars.

“It is fascinating to have discovered eight new extremely hot stars in the process, one of which is surrounded by a planetary nebula.”

Science paper:
MNRAS
See the science paper for instructive material with images and tables.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “Three quarters of major observatories affected by light pollution”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

12.19.22

Media contacts

Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk
 

Science contacts

Fabio Falchi
ISTIL – Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute
falchi@lightpollution.it

Dr Guillermo Damke
NOIRlab
guillermo.damke@noirlab.edu

An image taken of the night sky in Namibia. Credit: Dr Fabio Falchi. Licence type-Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

Researchers from Italy, Chile and Galicia have studied and compared the light pollution levels at major astronomical observatories across the world. The study shows that light is polluting the sky above most observatories and that immediate action is needed to decrease the amount of contamination coming from artificial light. The work was published in MNRAS [below].

The study presents the light pollution levels above almost 50 observatories across the globe, including the world’s largest professional observatories, as well as smaller observatories for amateurs. The study utilizes a model of propagation of light in the Earth’s atmosphere and applies it to night-time satellite data.

Using additional light pollution indicators, beyond examining the traditional brightness directly overhead (i.e. at the zenith), reveals that the night sky at major observatory sites is more polluted than one may assume. The zenith is generally the less polluted, therefore darker, zone of the night sky, and is one of the indicators used to classify the sites in the study. The additional indicators are the average brightness at a 30° altitude above the horizon, the average brightness in the first 10° above the horizon, the overall average brightness across the sky, and the illuminance of the ground given by the artificial light coming from the night sky. These indicators, along with the overhead brightness, help to decipher how artificial light affects the night sky.

The key measure is the comparison with the natural sky brightness caused by airglow in the high atmosphere, and light originating from stars and the Milky Way.

Light pollution at Mt Graham, an important location for astronomical observations. Sources of light pollution in 2008 seen from the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory, Arizona. Marco Pedani. Licence type-Attribution (CC BY 4.0).

LBT-U Arizona Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, or LBTI, is a ground-based instrument connecting two 8-meter class telescopes on Mount Graham, Arizona, Altitude 3221 m (10568 ft.) to form the largest single-mount telescope in the world. The interferometer is designed to detect and study stars and planets outside our solar system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The study results show that only 7 of the 28 major astronomical observatory sites (sites that host a telescope with a diameter of 3 metres or more) have a zenith sky brightness with light pollution below the expected threshold of 1% of natural sky brightness, and so could be considered almost uncontaminated in that direction. This leaves the remaining 21 other major sites – three quarters of all the major observatories – all above this level.

The lowest pointing direction of ground-based telescopes is around 30° above the horizon. Only one observatory of the 28 major sites has light pollution in that direction below the 1% level. A more relaxed 10% limit was set by the International Astronomical Union in the 1970s as the maximum allowable artificial brightness for major observatories. The new study shows that light pollution at two thirds of the ground based observatories in the study has now crossed this higher threshold.

Research lead Dr Fabio Falchi says “the least contaminated of all the sites in the study is a lodge in Namibia that hosts several telescopes that are rented to amateurs for visual, photography and research uses. I was recently there and I can confirm that it is the least light polluted site I’ve ever seen.” He adds, “We must try to decrease the light pollution levels at other sites in order to protect the future of ground-based astronomy”.

Science paper:
MNRAS
See the science paper for instructive material with illustrative tables.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The
The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK): “Red Alert – massive stars sound warning they are about to go supernova”

From The Royal Astronomical Society (UK)

10.10.22
Media Contacts
Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877 700
press@ras.ac.uk

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
press@ras.ac.uk

Science Contact
Benjamin Davies
Liverpool John Moores University
b.davies@ljmu.ac.uk

This artist’s impression shows the supergiant star Betelgeuse as it was revealed thanks to different state-of-the-art techniques on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), which allowed two independent teams of astronomers to obtain the sharpest ever views of the supergiant star Betelgeuse.

The European Southern Observatory [La Observatorio Europeo Austral][Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL), 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.

They show that the star has a vast plume of gas almost as large as our Solar System and a gigantic bubble boiling on its surface. These discoveries provide important clues to help explain how these mammoths shed material at such a tremendous rate. Credit: L. Calçada/The European Southern Observatory [La Observatorio Europeo Austral] [Observatoire européen austral][Europaiche Sûdsternwarte] (EU)(CL).

Astronomers from Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Montpellier have devised an ‘early warning’ system to sound the alert when a massive star is about to end its life in a supernova explosion. The work was published in MNRAS [below].

In this new study, researchers determined that massive stars (typically between 8 and 20 solar masses) in the last phase of their lives, the so-called ‘red supergiant’ phase, will suddenly become around a hundred times fainter in visible light in the last few months before they die. This dimming is caused by a sudden accumulation of material around the star, which obscures its light.

Until now, it was not known how long it took the star to accrete this material. Now, for the first time, researchers have simulated how red supergiants might look when they are embedded within these pre-explosion ‘cocoons’.

Old telescope archives show that images do exist of stars that went on to explode around a year after the image was taken. The stars appear as normal in these images, meaning they cannot yet have built up the theoretical circumstellar cocoon. This suggests that the cocoon is assembled in less than a year, which is considered to be extremely fast.

Benjamin Davies from Liverpool John Moores University, and lead author of the paper, says “The dense material almost completely obscures the star, making it 100 times fainter in the visible part of the spectrum. This means that, the day before the star explodes, you likely wouldn’t be able to see it was there.” He adds, “Until now, we’ve only been able to get detailed observations of supernovae hours after they’ve already happened. With this early-warning system we can get ready to observe them real-time, to point the world’s best telescopes at the precursor stars, and watch them getting literally ripped apart in front of our eyes.”

Science paper:
MNRAS
See the science paper for detailed material with images.

See the full article here .

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

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The
The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members (“Fellows”), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

The society holds monthly scientific meetings in London, and the annual National Astronomy Meeting at varying locations in the British Isles. The Royal Astronomical Society publishes the scientific journals MNRAS and Geophysical Journal International, along with the trade magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

The Royal Astronomical Society maintains an astronomy research library, engages in public outreach and advises the UK government on astronomy education. The society recognizes achievement in Astronomy and Geophysics by issuing annual awards and prizes, with its highest award being the Gold Medal of The Royal Astronomical Society. The Royal Astronomical Society is the UK adhering organization to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the UK Science Council.

The society was founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London to support astronomical research. At that time, most members were ‘gentleman astronomers’ rather than professionals. It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving a Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women.

One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It publishes two primary research journals, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [MNRAS] in astronomy and (in association with The German Geophysical Society [Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ](DE)]) the Geophysical Journal International in geophysics. It also publishes the magazine A&G which includes reviews and other articles of wide scientific interest in a ‘glossy’ format. The full list of journals published (both currently and historically) by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (MmRAS): 1822–1977[3]
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS): Since 1827
Geophysical Supplement to Monthly Notices (MNRAS): 1922–1957
Geophysical Journal (GeoJ): 1958–1988
Geophysical Journal International (GeoJI): Since 1989 (volume numbering continues from GeoJ)
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (QJRAS): 1960–1996
Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G): Since 1997 (volume numbering continues from QJRAS)

Associated groups

The RAS sponsors topical groups, many of them in interdisciplinary areas where the group is jointly sponsored by another learned society or professional body:

The Astrobiology Society of Britain (UK) (with The NASA Astrobiology Institute)
The Astroparticle Physics Group (with The Institute of Physics – London (UK))
The Astrophysical Chemistry Group (with The Royal Society of Chemistry)
The British Geophysical Association (with The Geological Society of London (UK).
The Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial group (UK)
The UK Planetary Forum
The UK Solar Physics group