Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Students Discover Millisecond Pulsar, Help in the Search for Gravitational Waves

Using an array of millisecond pulsars, astronomers can detect tiny changes in the pulse arrival times in order to detect the influence of gravitational waves. Credit: NRAO

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A special project to search for pulsars has bagged the first student discovery of a millisecond pulsar – a super-fast spinning star, and this one rotates about 324 times per second. The Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC) has students analyzing real data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to find pulsars. Astronomers involved with the project said the discovery could help detect elusive ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves.

“Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime predicted by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity,” said Dr. Maura McLaughlin, from West Virginia University. “We have very good proof for their existence but, despite Einstein’s prediction back in the early 1900s, they have never been detected.”

Four other pulsars have been discovered by high school students participating in this project.

Pulsar hunters Sydney Dydiw of Trinity High School, Emily Phan of George C. Marshall High School, Anne Agee of Roanoke Valley Governor's School, and Jessica Pal of Rowan County High School. Not pictured: Max Sterling of Langley High School. Credit: NRAO

“When you discover a pulsar, you feel like you’re walking on air! It is the best experience you can ever have,” said student co-discoverer Jessica Pal of Rowan County High School in Kentucky. “You get to meet astronomers and talk to them about your experience. I still can’t believe I found a pulsar. It is wonderful to know that there is something out there in space that you discovered.”

The other student involved in the discovery was Emily Phan of George C. Marshall High School in Virginia, who along with Pal found the millisecond pulsar on January 17, 2012. It was later confirmed by Max Sterling of Langley High School, Sydney Dydiw of Trinity High School, and Anne Agee of Roanoke Valley Governor’s School, all in Virginia.

“I am considering pursuing astronomy as a career choice,” said Agee. “The Pulsar Search Collaboratory has opened my eyes to how fun astronomy can be!”

Once the pulsar candidate was reported to NRAO, a followup observing session was scheduled on the giant, 17-million-pound telescope. On January 24, 2012, observations confirmed that the pulsar was real.

Pulsars are spinning neutron stars that sling “lighthouse beams” of radio waves around as they rotate. A neutron star is what is left after a massive star explodes at the end of its “normal” life. With no nuclear fuel left to produce energy to offset the stellar remnant’s weight, its material is compressed to extreme densities. The pressure squeezes together most of its protons and electrons to form neutrons; hence, the name “neutron star.” One tablespoon of material from a pulsar would weigh 10 million tons.

On January 24, 2012, observations with the Green Bank Telescope at 800 MHz confirmed that the signal was astronomical and zeroed in on its position. Pulsars are brighter at lower frequencies (like 350 MHz, above) than at higher frequencies, and so the confirmation plot is noisier than the original data. Since this pulsar spins so fast, it may be used as part of the pulsar timing array used to detect gravitational waves. Courtesy NRAO.

The object that the students discovered is a special class of pulsars called millisecond pulsars, which are the fastest-spinning neutron stars. They are highly stable and keep time more accurately than atomic clocks.

Astronomers don’t know much about them, however. But because of their stability, these pulsars may someday allow astronomers to detect gravitational waves.

Millisecond pulsars, however, could hold the key to that discovery. Like buoys bobbing on the ocean, pulsars can be perturbed by gravitational waves.

“Gravitational waves are invisible,” said McLaughlin. “But by timing pulsars distributed across the sky, we may be able to detect very small changes in pulse arrival times due to the influence of these waves.”

Millisecond pulsars are generally older pulsars that have been “spun up” by stealing mass from companion stars, but much is left to discover about their formation.

“This latest discovery will help us understand the genesis of millisecond pulsars,” said Dr. Duncan Lorimer, who is also part of the project. “It’s a very exciting time to be finding pulsars!”

Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope CREDIT: NRAO/AUI/NSF

The PSC is a joint project of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and West Virginia University, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The PSC includes training for teachers and student leaders, and provides parcels of data from the GBT to student teams. The project involves teachers and students in helping astronomers analyze data from the GBT.

Approximately 300 hours of the observing data were reserved for analysis by student teams. These students have been working with about 500 other students across the country. The responsibility for the work, and for the discoveries, is theirs. They are trained by astronomers and by their teachers to distinguish between pulsars and noise.

The PSC will continue through the 2012-2013 school year. Teachers interested in participating in the program can learn more at this link. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Posted on by Ray Sanders

Does Starburst Activity Starve Galaxies of Gas?

The Southern Cross, the Milky Way, and the Large Magellanic Cloud shine above the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) as it observes on a clear night sky during its Early Science phase. Image credit: C. Padilla, NRAO/AUI/NSF

[/caption]Using the partially constructed ALMA observatory, a group of astronomers have found new evidence that helps explain how young, star-forming galaxies end up as ‘red and dead’ elliptical galaxies.

According to current galactic evolution theories, mergers of spiral galaxies are thought to explain why nearby elliptical galaxies have few young stars. Merging galaxies direct gas and dust into starburts, which are regions of rapid star formation, as well as into the central supermassive black hole at the core of the merging galaxies. As matter is piled onto a black hole, powerful jets erupt, and the region becomes a brightly shining quasar. Eventually the powerful jets emanating from the central black hole push away any potentially star-forming gas, which causes the starbursts to cease.


Astronomers have, until recently, been unable to detect enough mergers at the “jet” stage to make a definite link between the outflows and the end of starburst activity. During early science observations in 2011, ALMA became the first telescope to confirm almost two dozen galaxies at the critical, yet brief stage of galaxy evolution.

“Despite ALMA’s great sensitiviy to detecting starbursts, we saw nothing, or next to nothing – which is exactly what we hoped it would see,” said Dr. Carol Lonsdale (NRAO). Lonsdale presented the findings at the American Astronomical Society’s meeting in Austin, Texas on behalf of an international team of astronomers.

ALMA was set to look for the signature of dust warmed by star-forming regions. Half of Lonsdale’s two dozen galaxies were not visible in ALMA’s observations, and the other half very dim.

“ALMA’s results reveal to us that there is little-to-no starbursting going on in these young, active galaxies. The galaxy evolution model says this is thanks to their central black holes whose jets are starving them of star-forming gas,” Lonsdale said. “On its first run out of the gate, ALMA confirmed a critical phase in the timeline of galaxy evolution.”

Infographic showing the sequence of events that model a typical galaxy becoming a so-called "red and dead" elliptical. Lonsdale and her team found a large population of galaxies, right in the middle of this sequence, between steps d and e. Image Credit: Hopkins, et al., NOAO/AURA/NSF.

After the star-forming gas is blown away, merging galaxies no longer form new stars. Once the massive, bright, blue, and short-lived stars die out, the redder, longer-lived, lower mass stars begin to dominate the population, leading to a gas-starved galaxy taking on a redder hue. To support the gas-starvation theory, astronomers needed to observe the process at work, specifically in merging galaxies with high power jets where quasars can be found.

Lonsdale added, “The missing phase had to be among quasars that could be seen brightly in infrared and radio wavelengths — mergers young enough to have their cores still swaddled in infrared-bright dust, but old enough that their black holes were well fed and producing jets observable in the radio.”

The team’s hunt for the specific type of quasars began with NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. The WISE data consists of millions of objects in its all-sky survey of the Universe. Lonsdale led WISE’s quasar survey team that picked out the brightest, reddest objects this infrared telescope had mapped.

Selected images from among the twenty-three quasars observed with ALMA so far in its hunt for candidate starving galaxies. Image Credit: C. Lonsdale, NRAO/AUI/NSF; ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ)

Lonsdale and her team compared the WISE data against the NRAO’s VLA Sky Survey of 1.8 million radio objects. The team then used results common to both sets of data to determine the best targets for their starburst search with ALMA. Since ALMA uses longer infrared wavelengths than WISE, Lonsdale’s team was able to make the distinction between dust warmed by starburst activity and dust heated by material falling onto the central black hole.

There are 26 more WISE quasars for ALMA to survey before Lonsdale and her team publish their results. In the meantime, Lonsdale and her team will observe these galaxies with the newly re-named Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA).

“ALMA revealed to us this rare stage of galaxy starvation, and now we want to use the VLA to focus on delineating the outflows that robbed these galaxies of their fuel,” Lonsdale said. “Together, the two most sensitive radio telescope arrays in the world will help us truly understand the fate of spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way.”

If you’d like to learn more about the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), visit: https://almascience.nrao.edu/about-alma/alma-site

Source: NRAO Press Release

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Dodging Black Hole Bullets

This 327-MHz radio view of the center of our galaxy highlights the position of the black hole system H1743-322, as well as other features. (Credit: J. Miller-Jones, ICRAR-Curtin Univ.; C. Brogan, NRAO)

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In mid-2009 a binary star system cataloged as H H1743–322 shot off something very unusual. Poised about 28,000 light years distant in the direction of the constellation of Scorpius, this rather ordinary system made up of a normal star and unknown mass black hole was busy exchanging mass. The pair orbits in mere days with a stream of material flowing continuously between them. This gas causes a flat accretion disk measuring millions of miles across to form and it is centered on the black hole. As the matter twirls toward the center, it becomes compressed and heats to tens of millions of degrees, spitting out X-rays… and bullets.

Utilizing data from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope, an international team of astronomers were able to confirm the moment a black hole located within our galaxy fired a super speedy clump of gas into surrounding space. Blasting forth at about one-quarter the speed of light, these “bullets” of ionized gas are hypothesized to have originated from an area just outside the black hole’s event horizon.

“Like a referee at a sports game, we essentially rewound the footage on the bullets’ progress, pinpointing when they were launched,” said Gregory Sivakoff of the University of Alberta in Canada. He presented the findings today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. “With the unique capabilities of RXTE and the VLBA, we can associate their ejection with changes that likely signaled the start of the process.”

As we have learned, some of the matter headed toward the center of a black hole can be ejected from the accretion disk as opposing twin jets. For the most part, these jets are a constant stream of particles, but can sometimes form into strong “outflows” which get spit out – rapid fire – as gaseous blobs. In early June 2009, H1743–322 did just that… and astronomers were on hand observing with RXTE, the VLBA, the Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M., and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) near Narrabri in New South Wales. During this time they were able to confirm the happenings through X-ray and radio data. From May 28 to June 2, things were nominal “though RXTE data show that cyclic X-ray variations, known as quasi-periodic oscillations or QPOs, gradually increased in frequency over the same period” and by June 4th, ATCA verified that activity had pretty much sloughed off. By June 5th, even the QPOs were gone.

Then it happened…

On the same day that everything went totally quiet, H1743–322 fired off a bullet! Radio emissions jumped and a highly accurate and detailed VLBA image disclosed a energetic missile of gas blasting forth along a jet trajectory. The very next day a second bullet took out in the opposite direction. But this wasn’t the curious part of the event… It was the timing. Up to this point, researchers speculated that a radio outburst accompanied the firing of the gas bullet, but VLBA information showed they were launched around 48 hours in advance of the major radio flare. This information will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Radio imaging by the Very Long Baseline Array (top row), combined with simultaneous X-ray observations by NASA's RXTE (middle), captured the transient ejection of massive gas "bullets" by the black hole binary H1743-322 during its 2009 outburst. By tracking the motion of these bullets with the VLBA, astronomers were able to link the ejection event to the disappearance of X-ray signals seen in RXTE data. These signals, called quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs), vanished two days earlier than the onset of the radio flare that astronomers previously had assumed signaled the ejection. (Credit: NRAO and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

“This research provides new clues about the conditions needed to initiate a jet and can guide our thinking about how it happens,” said Chris Done, an astrophysicist at the University of Durham, England, who was not involved in the study.

These are just mini-ammo compared to what happens in the center of an active galaxy. They don’t just fire bullets – they blast off cannons. A massive black hole weighing in a millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun can shoot off its load across millions of light years!

“Black hole jets in binary star systems act as fast-forwarded versions of their galactic-scale cousins, giving us insights into how they work and how their enormous energy output can influence the growth of galaxies and clusters of galaxies,” said lead researcher James Miller-Jones at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.

Original Story Source: NASA News Feature.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Iconic Telescope Array Gets a New Name

VLA at twilight. Image by Dave Finley, courtesy of NRAO/AUI

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The pop culture-rich Very Large Array has been updated with state-of-the-art technology and to befit the VLA’s new capabilities, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has given it a new name. Recall, back in October 2011, the NRAO asked for the public’s help in choosing a new name, and 17,023 people from 65 different countries responded by sending 23,331 suggestions.

The new name for the world’s most famous radio telescope is the “Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array” to honor the founder of radio astronomy. Radio astronomy enables the study of the Universe via radio waves naturally emitted by objects in space.

The VLA has been part of movie plots, is on album covers, in comic books and video games. It has now been transformed from its original 1970s-vintage technology with the latest equipment, and the NRAO says that the upgrades will greatly increase the VLA’s technical capabilities and scientific impact.

The new name was announced at the American Astronomical Society’s meeting in Austin, Texas. The new name will become official at a re-dedication ceremony at the VLA site in New Mexico on March 31, 2012.

Karl G. Jansky. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF

Karl Guthe Jansky (1905-1950) joined Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1928, and was assigned the task of studying radio waves that interfered with the recently-opened transatlantic radiotelephone service.

He designed and built advanced, specialized equipment, and made observations over the entire year of 1932 that allowed him to identify thunderstorms as major sources of radio interference, along with a much weaker, unidentified radio source. Careful study of this “strange hiss-type static” led to the conclusion that the radio waves originated from beyond our Solar System, and indeed came from the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.

His discovery was reported on the front page of the New York Times on May 5, 1933, and published in professional journals. Janksy thus opened an entirely new “window” on the Universe. Astronomers previously had been confined to observing those wavelengths of light that our eyes can see.

NRAO officials say the new name recognizes the VLA’s dramatic new capabilities and its promise for important scientific discoveries in the future.

“When Karl Jansky discovered radio waves coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy in 1932, he blazed a scientific trail that fundamentally changed our perception of the Universe. Now, the upgraded VLA will continue that tradition by equipping scientists to address outstanding questions confronting 21st-Century astronomy,” said NRAO Director Fred K.Y. Lo.

“It is particularly appropriate that the upgraded Very Large Array honor the memory and accomplishments of Karl Jansky,” Lo explained, adding that “the new Jansky VLA is by far the most sensitive such radio telescope in the world, as was the receiver and antenna combination that Jansky himself painstakingly developed 80 years ago.”

Lo said they deeply appreciate all the suggestions for a new name, as well as the strong public interest in the VLA and in astronomy. “There was a tremendous amount of thought and creativity that went into the numerous submissions,” he said. “In the end, we decided it was most appropriate to name the telescope after a genuine pioneer who took the first step on the road that led to this powerful scientific facility,” he said.

The Jansky VLA is more than ten times more sensitive to faint radio emission than the original VLA, and covers more than three times more radio frequency range. It will provide astronomers the capability to address key outstanding scientific questions, ranging from the formation of stars and planets in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, to mapping magnetic fields in galaxies and clusters, and imaging the gas that forms the earliest galaxies.

Posted on by Amy Shira Teitel

New Submillimetre Camera Sheds Light on the Dark Regions of the Universe

A composite image of the Whirlpool Galaxy (also known as M51). The green image is from the Hubble Space Telescope and shows the optical wavelength. The submillimetre light detected by SCUBA-2 is shown in red (850 microns) and blue (450 microns). The Whirlpool Galaxy lies at an estimated distance of 31 million light years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici Credit: JAC / UBC / Nasa

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The stars and faint galaxies you see when you look up at the night sky are all emitting light within the visible light spectrum — the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum we can see with our unaided eyes or through optical telescopes. But our galaxy, and many others, contain huge amounts of cold dust that absorbs visible light. This accounts for the dark regions.

A new camera recently unveiled at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii promises to figuratively shed light on this dark part of the universe. The SCUBA-2 submillimetre camera (SCUBA in this case is an acronym for Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array) can detect light at lower energy levels, allowing astronomers to gather data on these dark areas and ultimately learn more about our universe and its formation. 

Light is measurable; its intensity or brightness is measured by photons while colour is measured by the energy of the photons. Red photons have the least energy and violet photons have the most energy. This can also be thought of in terms of wavelengths. Light at longer wavelengths have less energy and light at shorter wavelengths have more energy. This continues beyond the visible light spectrum. As electromagnetic waves get shorter, we get ultraviolet light, x-rays, and gamma rays. As wavelengths get longer, we get infrared light, submillimetre light, and finally radio waves.

Panoramic view of the entire near-infrared sky reveals the distribution of galaxies beyond the Milky Way. Image credit: Thomas Jarrett, IPAC/Caltech.

On the longer end of the electromagnetic spectrum, infrared and radio telescopes have been around for decades helping astronomers understand more about the universe. But this is only part of the picture. The cold dust that absorbs the visible light to create the dark regions seen through optical telescopes is actually absorbing the light’s energy and reemitting it at longer wavelengths in the submillimetre region.

The first submillimetre camera, SCUBA, was designed and constructed at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh in collaboration with the University of London. In 1997, it was up and running at the JCMT. Observations of submillimetre wavelengths are typically harder to gather — it takes a long time to image a small portion of the sky in this region. Nevertheless, submillimetre observations have already revealed a previously unknown population of distant, dusty galaxies as well as images of cold debris discs around nearby stars. This latter finding could be an indication of the presence of planetary systems.

A team of astronomers has recently developed the camera SCUBA-2 that can probe the submillimetre region with increased speed and much greater detail. But it’s a touchy instrument. Director of the JCMT Professor Gary Davis explains that for SCUBA-2 to detect extremely low energy radiation in the submillimetre region, “the instrument itself needs to be [extremely cold]. The detectors… have to be cooled to only 0.1 degree above absolute zero [–273.05°C], making the interior of SCUBA-2 colder than anything in the Universe that we know of!”

The infant Universe as imaged in the radio wavelength spectrum. Image Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team.

The camera is a huge step in observational astronomy. Director of the United Kingdom Astronomy Teaching Centre Professor Ian Robson likened the technological leap between early sub-millimetre cameras and SCUBA-2 to the difference between wind-on film cameras and modern digital technology. “It is thanks to the ingenuity and abilities of our scientists and engineers that this immense leap in progress has been achieved,” he said.

Dr Antonio Chrysostomou, Associate Director of the JCMT, explains that SCUBA-2’s first task will be to carry out a series of surveys throughout the sky, mapping sites of star formation within our Galaxy, as well as planet formation around nearby stars. It will also survey our galactic neighbours and look into deep space to sample the youngest galaxies in the Universe. This latter task will be critical in helping astronomers understand how galaxies have evolved since the Big Bang.

The SCUBA-2 camera is housed on the 15 metre (about 50 foot) diameter JCMT situated close to the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, at an altitude of 4092 metres (about 13,425 feet). It is typically used to study our Solar System, interstellar dust and gas, and distant galaxies.

Source: Revolutionary New Camera Reveals Dark Side of the Universe

 

The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Image credit: www.jach.hawaii.edu

 

 

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Mapping The Milky Way’s Magnetic Fields – The Faraday Sky

Fig. 3: In this map of the sky, a correction for the effect of the galactic disk has been made in order to emphasize weaker magnetic field structures. The magnetic field directions above and below the disk seem to be diametrically opposed, as indicated by the positive (red) and negative (blue) values. An analogous change of direction takes place accross the vertical center line, which runs through the center of the Milky Way.

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Kudos to the scientists at the Max Planck Institut and an international team of radio astronomers for an incredibly detailed new map of our galaxy’s magnetic fields! This unique all-sky map has surpassed its predecessors and is giving us insight into the magnetic field structure of the Milky Way beyond anything so far seen. What’s so special about this one? It’s showing us a quality known as Faraday depth – a concept which works along a specific line of sight. To construct the map, data was melded from 41,000 measurements collected from a new image reconstruction technique. We can now see not only the major structure of galactic fields, but less obvious features like turbulence in galactic gas.

So, exactly what does a new map of this kind mean? All galaxies possess magnetic fields, but their source is a mystery. As of now, we can only guess they occur due to dynamo processes… where mechanical energy is transformed into magnetic energy. This type of creation is perfectly normal and happens here on Earth, the Sun, and even on a smaller scale like a hand-crank powered radio – or a Faraday flashlight! By showing us where magnetic field structures occur in the Milky Way, we can get a better understanding of galactic dynamos.

Fig. 1: The sky map of the Faraday effect caused by the magnetic fields of the Milky Way. Red and blue colors indicate regions of the sky where the magnetic field points toward and away from the observer, respectively. The band of the Milky Way (the plane of the galactic disk) extends horizontally in this panoramic view. The center of the Milky Way lies in the middle of the image. The North celestial pole is at the top left and the South Pole is at the bottom right.
For the last century and a half, we’ve known about Faraday rotation and scientists use it to measure cosmic magnetic fields. This action happens when polarized light goes through a magnetized medium and the plane of polarization revolves. The amount of turn is dependent on the strength and direction of the magnetic field. By observation of the rotation we can further understand the properties of the intervening magnetic fields. Radio astronomers gather and examine the polarized light from distant radio sources passing through our galaxy on its way to us. The Faraday effect can then be judged by measuring the source polarization at various frequencies. However, these measurements can only tell us about the one path through the Milky Way. To see things as a whole, one needs to know how many sources are scattered over the visible sky. This is where the international group of radio astronomers played an important role. They proved data from 26 different projects which gave a grand total of 41,300 pinpoint sources – at an average of about one radio source per square degree of sky.

Although that sounds like a wealth of information, it’s still not really enough. There are huge areas, particularly in the southern sky, where only a few measurements exist. Because of this lack of data, we have to interpolate between existing data points and that creates its own problems. First, the accuracy varies and more precise measurements should help. Also, astronomers are not exactly sure of how reliable a single measurement can be – they just have to take their best guess based on what information they have. Still, other problems exist. There are measurement uncertainties due to the complex nature of the process. A small error can increase by tenfold and this could convolute the map if not corrected. To help fix these problems, scientists at MPA developed a new algorithm for image capture, named the “extended critical filter”. In its creation, the team utilizes tools provided by the new discipline known as information field theory – a powerful tool that blends logical and statistical methods to applied fields and stacks it up against inaccurate information. This new work is exciting because it can also be applied to other imaging and signal-processing venues in alternate scientific fields.

Fig. 2: The uncertainty in the Faraday map. Note that the range of values is significantly smaller than in the Faraday map (Fig. 1). In the area of the celestial south pole, the measurement uncertainties are particularly high because of the low density of data points.
“In addition to the detailed Faraday depth map (Fig. 1), the algorithm provides a map of the uncertainties (Fig. 2). Especially in the galactic disk and in the less well-observed region around the south celestial pole (bottom right quadrant), the uncertainties are significantly larger.” says the team. “To better emphasize the structures in the galactic magnetic field, in Figure 3 (above) the effect of the galactic disk has been removed so that weaker features above and below the galactic disk are more visible. This reveals not only the conspicuous horizontal band of the gas disk of our Milky Way in the middle of the picture, but also that the magnetic field directions seem to be opposite above and below the disk. An analogous change of direction also takes place between the left and right sides of the image, from one side of the center of the Milky Way to the other.”

The good news is the galactic dynamo theory seems to be spot on. It has predicted symmetrical structures and the new map reflects it. In this projection, the magnetic fields are lined up parallel to the plane of the galactic disc in a spiral. This direction is opposite above and below the disc and the observed symmetries in the Faraday map arise from our location within the galactic disc. Here we see both large and small structures tied in with the turbulent, dynamic Milky Way gas structures. This new map algorithm has a great side-line, too… it characterizes the size distribution of these structures. Larger ones are more definitive than smaller ones, which is normal for turbulent systems. This spectrum can then be stacked against computer models of dynamics – allowing for intricate testing of the galactic dynamo models.

This incredible new map is more than just another pretty face in astronomy. By providing information of extragalactic magnetic fields, we’re enabling radio telescope projects such as LOFAR, eVLA, ASKAP, Meerkat and the SKA to rise to new heights. With this will come even more updates to the Faraday Sky and reveal the mystery of the origin of galactic magnetic fields.

Original Story Source: Max Planck Institut for Astrophysics News Release. For Further Reading: An improved map of the galactic Faraday sky”. Download the map HERE.

Posted on by Ray Sanders

SETI to Resume Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence; Will Target Kepler Data

The Allen Telescope Array. Image Credit: SETI Institute

After being shut down for over six months due to financial problems, The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is once again searching other planetary systems for radio signals, looking for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Some of the first targets in SETI’s renewed search will be a selection of recently discovered exoplanet candidates by NASA’s Kepler mission.

“This is a superb opportunity for SETI observations,” said Dr. Jill Tarter, the Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute. “For the first time, we can point our telescopes at stars, and know that those stars actually host planetary systems – including at least one that begins to approximate an Earth analog in the habitable zone around its host star. That’s the type of world that might be home to a civilization capable of building radio transmitters.”

What other studies will SETI be performing with the array, and how were they able to restart the Allen Telescope Array?

This past April, SETI was forced to place the ATA into hibernation mode, due to budget cuts of SETI’s former partner, U.C Berkeley. Since Berkeley operated Hat Creek Observatory where the ATA is located, their withdrawal from the program left SETI without a way to operate the ATA.

SETI has since acquired new funding to operate the ATA and can now resume observations where they left off – examining planetary candidates detected by the Kepler mission. The planetary candidates SETI will examine first will be those that are thought to be in their star’s habitable zone (the range of orbital distance from a planet’s host star which may allow for surface water). Many astrobiologists theorize that liquid water is essential for life to exist on a planet.

“In SETI, as with all research, preconceived notions such as habitable zones could be barriers to discovery.” Tarter added. “So, with sufficient future funding from our donors, it’s our intention to examine all of the planetary systems found by Kepler.”

SETI will spend the next two years observing the planetary systems detected by Kepler in the naturally-quiet 1 to 10 GHz terrestrial microwave window. Part of what makes this comprehensive study possible is that the ATA can provide ready access to tens of millions of channels at any one time.

Resuming ATA operations was made possible due to tremendous public support via SETI’s www.SETIStars.org web site. In addition to the funds raised by the public, the United States Air Force has also provided funding to SETI in order to assess the ATA’s capabilities for space situational awareness.

Tarter notes, “Kepler’s success has created an amazing opportunity to focus SETI research. While discovery of new exoplanets via Kepler is backed with government monies, the search for evidence that some of these worlds might be home to intelligence falls to SETI alone. And our SETI exploration depends entirely on private donations, for which we are deeply grateful to our donors.”

“The year-in and year-out fundraising challenge we tackle in order to conduct SETI research is an absolute human and organizational struggle,” said Tom Pierson, CEO of the SETI Institute, “yet it is well worth the hard work to help Jill’s team address what is one of humanity’s most profound research questions.”

Dr. Tarter will be presenting during the first Kepler Science Conference (at NASA Ames Research Center) from December 5 to 9, 2011. You can view the agenda for the meeting, along with the abstract for her talk on Earth analogs at: http://kepler.nasa.gov/Science/ForScientists/keplerconference/sessions/.

If you’d like to learn more about SETI, or would like to make a donation to help fund their efforts, visit: https://setistars.org/donations/new

Read more about SETI’s partnership with the United States Air Force at: http://www.seti.org/afspc

Source: SETI Institute press release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Astronomers Find the Justin Bieber of Millisecond Pulsars

This cluster is 27,000 light-years away and lies farther than the center of our galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius. Credit: NASA/ESA/I. King, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley/Wikisky.org

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Astronomers using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found a surprisingly young, powerful and luminous millisecond pulsar. Over the past three years, Fermi has detected more than 100 gamma-ray pulsars and typically the ages of these objects are at least a billion year old. But this new object is just a youngster, born only about 25 million years ago.

“It is a bit like finding Justin Bieber when you thought you were at a Rolling Stones concert,” said Victoria Kaspi, physics professor, McGill University in Montreal, during a teleconference about two new discoveries made with the Fermi telescope. “Fermi has represented a huge leap forward in finding things that couldn’t have been imagined 25 years ago.”

In addition to the very young and bright pulsar, researchers announced they have also discovered a set of nine previously unknown gamma-ray pulsars, a new type that have extremely low luminosity. These were uncovered with a new technique to more efficiently sift through Fermi data.

The young millisecond pulsar, named PSR J1823?3021A was found within the globular cluster NGC 6624, not far from the center of our galaxy. Fermi has detected pulsars in globular clusters before, but usually what it finds are the combined gamma rays from many ancient pulsars within the clusters. But this time, surprisingly, the gamma rays originated from just one very powerful millisecond pulsar.

“At first we thought it was perhaps one hundred millisecond pulsars, but now we see it is just one,” said Paulo Freire, from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, also speaking to reporters during the teleconference. Freire is the lead author on a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. “It must have formed recently based on how rapidly it’s emitting energy. It’s a bit like finding a screaming baby in a quiet retirement home. This was a rather surprising discovery for everyone involved.”

A pulsar is a type of neutron star that emits electromagnetic energy at periodic intervals, sending out signals almost like a lighthouse. Pulsars that combine incredible density with extreme rotation are called millisecond pulsars. These millisecond pulsars are especially fascinating, as they are city-sized spheres about half millions times Earth’s mass, spinning at up to 43,000 revolutions per minute.

Millisecond pulsars are thought to achieve such speeds because they are gravitationally bound in binary systems with normal stars. During part of their stellar lives, gas flows from the normal star to the pulsar. Over time, the impact of this falling gas gradually spins up the pulsar’s rotation.

This plot shows the positions of nine new pulsars (magenta) discovered by Fermi and of an unusual millisecond pulsar (green) that Fermi data reveal to be the youngest such object known. With this new batch of discoveries, Fermi has detected more than 100 pulsars in gamma rays. Credit: AEI and NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

The nine new low luminosity pulsars found with Fermi emit less gamma radiation than those previously known and rotate only between three and twelve times per second. Only one of these pulsars was later also found to emit radio waves. Without the new technique, astronomers wouldn’t have found this faint pulsars.

““We used a new kind of hierarchical algorithm which we had originally developed for the search for gravitational waves, and we were quickly rewarded,” said Bruce Allen, director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, a co-author on the recent discoveries.

Using what is called a blind search, computers check many different combinations of position and rotational behavior, to see if they match the arrival times of photons hitting the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) coming from the same direction. The search used the 8,000 photons deemed most probable to come from a pulsar at the recognized position, which Fermi’s LAT had collected during its three years in orbit. When the photon arrival times match up with the putative pulsar position and rotation model, a regular pattern of peaks appears in the gamma-ray photon counts, as a function of the rotational position of the pulsar, and a new gamma-ray pulsar has been discovered.

“It is a little like sifting through a pile of sand looking for diamonds,” Allen said, adding that the search is ongoing and they hope to find more.

Additionally, Allen said, users of the Einstein@Home project can now be part of this search, to help specifically to search for the first pure gamma-ray millisecond-pulsar. Allen is the director of this project and said this discovery would be a significant contribution to our understanding of pulsars.

NASA has a new interactive web feature about Fermi and the 100 pulsars it has now found.

Sources: Max Planck Institute, NASA, More info, images and vidoes at this NASA page

Posted on by Jason Major

NASA Prepares for Asteroid’s Close Pass by Earth

Radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55, acquired in April 2010. Credit: NASA/Cornell/Arecibo.

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On Tuesday, November 8, at 6:28 p.m. EST, an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will soar past our planet at a distance closer than the Moon… and NASA scientists will be watching!

2005 YU55, a 400-meter (1,300-foot) -wide C-type asteroid, was discovered in December 2005 by Robert McMillan of the Spacewatch Program at the University of Arizona, Tucson. It’s pretty much spherical in shape and dark – darker than charcoal, in fact! Scientists with NASA’s Near-Earth Objects Observation Program will begin tracking it on November 4 using the 70-meter radar telescope at the Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California , as well as with the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico beginning November 8. They will continue tracking 2005 YU55 through November 10.

Animation of 2005 YU55's trajectory on Nov. 8. (NASA/JPL) Click to play.

YU55’s orbit is well understood by scientists. It has come this way before, and although this is the closest it’s come to Earth in at least two centuries it will still be at least 324,600 kilometers (201,700 miles) away at nearest approach. That’s about 85% of the distance to the Moon.

It will approach from the sunward side, making viewing in visible light difficult until after it’s made its closest pass.

Other than the excitement it will most likely cause amongst radar astronomers, 2005 YU55 will have no physical effect on our planet. (There have been some rumors circulating online about this particular asteroid’s upcoming pass, in regards to earthquakes and tidal fluctuations and atmospheric disturbances and other such nonsense… the bottom line is that, like the ill-fated comet Elenin, 2005 YU55 has never been known to pose any threat to Earth.)

“YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over, at the very least, the next 100 years,” said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. “During its closest approach, its gravitational effect on the Earth will be so miniscule as to be immeasurable. It will not affect the tides or anything else.”

The 70m telescope at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California's Mojave Desert. (NASA/JPL)

Scientists are very eager though to have a prime opportunity to study this quarter-mile-wide world as it makes its closest pass. The giant telescopes at Goldstone and Arecibo will bounce radar waves off the asteroid, mapping its size and shape, and hopefully obtain some very high-resolution images.

“Using the Goldstone radar operating with the software and hardware upgrades, the resulting images of YU55 could come in with resolution as fine as 4 meters per pixel. We’re talking about getting down to the kind of surface detail you dream of when you have a spacecraft fly by one of these targets.”

– Lance Benner, JPL radio astronomer

Even though YU55 will remain at a safe distance the event is still quite notable. The last time an object this large came so close to Earth was in 1976… and scientists weren’t even aware of it at the time. Luckily we now have programs like the Near-Earth Objects Observations Program – a.k.a. “Spaceguard” –  to identify asteroids like this, hopefully in time to know if they could become a danger to our planet in either the near or distant future.

As of now, no large space rock with Earth’s name on it has been positively identified… but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing out there either. We need to keep diligent, keep looking and, above all, keep funding programs like this. If anything, this pass should serve as a reminder – however harmless – that we certainly are not alone in the solar system!

Read more on the NASA/JPL press release here.

UPDATE: NASA will be holding a live Q&A on 2005 YU55 and other near-Earth objects on November 1 at 2:30 p.m. PDT (5:30 p.m. EDT)… watch live here.

 

 

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Black Hole Secrets… Water Vapor Gives Clues To Star Formation

Artist's Concept of Water Vapor in Black Hole Disk - Credit: Leiden University

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A eye-opening discovery has been made by an international team of scientists led by astronomer Paul van der Werf (Leiden University, The Netherlands). They have discovered a black hole in the early Universe located about 12 billion light years away that’s surrounded by a nearly impenetrable disk of gas and dust. The halo isn’t the surprise, however… but the presence of star formation in dense water vapor is.

Using the sensitive radio telescopes of IRAM (Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique) at the Plateau de Bure in the French Alps, the team was searching for the signs of water vapor around a quasar – a distant galaxy which gathers its luminosity from the growth of a black hole which weighs in at hundreds of millions times more mass than Sol.

“Water in cosmic clouds is normally frozen to ice, but the ice can be evaporated by the strong radiation of the quasar or of young stars. Therefore we decided to search for water vapor in this object.” says van der Werf. “It is located so far away that we are looking back in time, to an era where the Universe was only 10% of its present age. This is one of the first searches ever conducted to find water in the early Universe.”

A shocking revelation? Not really. Water vapor has been discovered before. In this instance, however, the water amounted to about 1,000 trillion times the volume found on Earth. What’s more… it’s forming stars. It’s a dense disk, so thick that light barely escapes, and star propagation is rapid.

“Water molecules are sensitive to infrared radiation, so we could use the water vapor detected as a cosmic infrared light meter. With this method we found that essentially all radiation is locked up in the gas disk surrounding the black hole.” team member Marco Spaans (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) explains. “This trapped radiation is so intense that it will build up enormous pressure and eventually blow away the gas and dust clouds surrounding the black hole.”

These findings add a new complexity to our understanding of black holes and the galaxies which hold them. Team member Alicia Berciano Alba (ASTRON, The Netherlands) says: “There is a mysterious relation between the masses of black holes in the centers of galaxies and the masses of the galaxies themselves, as if the formation of both is regulated by the same process. Our results show that these opaque gas disks, which will be ultimately blown away by the intense pressure of the trapped radiation, probably play a key role in this process.” IRAM director Pierre Cox, co-author of the paper, adds: “This discovery opens new possibilities for studying galaxies in the early Universe, using water molecules that probe regions closest to the central black hole, that are otherwise difficult to explore.”

Keep on going, because the IRAM team is up to the task and continuing to look for other sources of water vapor in the early Universe!

Original Story Source: Leiden University New Release. For Further Reading: Water vapor emission reveals a highly obscured, star forming nuclear region in the QSO host galaxy APM 08279+5255 at z=3.9.