Astronomical Society Research Articles

A Journey Through the History and Statistics of ArASNews

A review of ArAS Electronic Newsletter ArASNews (e-newsletter of the Armenian Astronomical Society – ArAS) is given. ArASNews has been published since 2002 and during these years it has largely contributed to the circulation of information among the Armenian astronomical community, as well as other astronomical societies and organizations. It is being distributed monthly to all ArAS members. ArASNews publishes informative materials on ArAS, Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO), and Armenian astronomy in general, reports on ArAS Annual Meetings and other astronomy-related events in Armenia, participation of the Armenian astronomers in important international meetings. Additionally, it features articles commemorating notable Armenian astronomers, announcements of new ArAS members, and discussions on various astronomical topics including archaeoastronomy and public outreach initiatives, acceptance of new ArAS members, achievements of the Armenian astronomers, ArAS Annual Prizes for Young Astronomers and other international and local prizes, Astronomical Education and Public Outreach in Armenia, Armenian Archaeoastronomy, as well as scientific articles (reviews) on important studies. We will give some statistics on the number of published articles and pages, the distribution of articles by topics, and more. ArASNews’ numerous useful articles may be accessed through its Reference List.

Armenian Astronomical Society: report of 25-years activities

The history of the Armenian Astronomical Society (ArAS) foundation and its goals and a summary of ArAS activities during 1999-2024 is presented. The following have been among the most important activities: ArAS formation, increase of ArAS membership, consolidation of foreign Armenian astronomers, ArAS webpage with full of useful information, creating a Database of Armenian Astronomers, ArAS Electronic Newsletters (ArASNews), ArAS Annual Meetings, Byurakan International Summer Schools (BISS) and other events for young astronomers and students, ArAS School Lectures series, Byurakan Science Camps (BSC) and other events for school pupils, ArAS Annual Prize for Young Astronomers (Yervant Terzian Prize), award of Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) International Certificates and other teacher training programs, Armenian Archaeoastronomy webpage, initiation and development of Scientific (Astro) Journalism and its Annual Awards, initiation and development of Scientific (Astro) Tourism, as well as UNESCO/IAU International Year of Astronomy (IYA-2009) activities and others.

Measuring the Chemodynamics and Ages of the M32 and M110 Dwarf Galaxies with APOGEE

We present a full-spectrum-fitting analysis of the central kinematics and chemistry of the Andromeda dwarf satellite galaxies M32 and M110. We use an Markov Chain Monte Carlo routine to fit high-resolution, near-infrared, integrated-light spectra from APOGEE with empirical simple stellar population templates constructed from individual APOGEE stellar spectra. This yields the best-fitting mean radial velocity, velocity dispersion, metallicity, α abundance, and age for each spectrum. In general, our results are consistent with literature values where available, and we explore possible reasons where offsets are measured. This study was presented in a poster at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in 2024 January.

Lopsided Galaxy Distributions in Massive TNG300 Clusters

Studies of isolated central galaxies and their satellites have shown that the spatial distributions of the satellites are distinctly “lopsided” with respect to the locations of the central galaxies. Here we extend this type of analysis to larger systems by analyzing the lopsidedness of 280 massive galaxy clusters in the IllustrisTNG300 Λ Cold Dark Matter simulation. Using a pairwise clustering statistic, we compute the probability that pairs of cluster galaxies are separated by a given polar angle difference, Δϕ, in the plane of the sky. Relative to the location of the central cluster galaxy, we find a statistically significant excess of galaxy pairs that are located on the same side of the cluster. The lopsidedness of the galaxy distribution is most pronounced for large clusters and for pairs of intrinsically red galaxies. The results summarized here were presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

The error of John Horgan: the author of the prediction of 3 K temperature of the Universe was McKellar and not McCullough

This short communication was written to the interest of the Astronomy teaching or the dissemination of the Astronomy Science to correct an information present in the popular book wrote by John Horgan (originally in 1996), The end of science: facing the limits of knowledge in the twilight of the science age, respect to the prevision of the CBR temperature prior to Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. Horgan quoted Andrew McCullough. The correct name is Andrew Mckellar. Another error is the year of the publication of the McKellar’s paper: 1940 (in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific journal) and not 1941 as he quoted in his book. It is also discussed the good predictions of the CBR temperature made prior to Penzias & Wilson using a not Big Bang’s model of the Universe.

Spreading across the continent: the Astronomical Society of Australia 1966–2023

Spreading across the continent: the Astronomical Society of Australia 1966–2023

A Walk in Time and Space: My Journey as a Strategic Scientist

This article depicts my life and career over the past decades, beginning with my birth in 1927 and ending in my two dreams yet to be realized. This article focuses on my school years during wartime and my work with Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) from 1951 on—serving as Director of SHAO during 1981–1993 and a Member of CAS since 1980—and shares some social activities I've been involved in for the benefits of women and children. Special focus is given to the endeavors of building one of the world's most precise Universal Time systems in the 1960s, a very long baseline interferometry network, a satellite laser ranging research station during the 1970s–1990s, and the 65-m Radio Telescope in the early twenty-first century; developing astro-geodynamics in China and advancing the Asia-Pacific Space Geodynamics Program in the late twentieth century; and leading SHAO in international cooperation while serving as Chair of the International Astronomical Union Finance Committee during 1985–1988, the IAU Vice-President during 1988–1994, and a foreign fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of Britain in 1985. This autobiographical account should, hopefully, serve its purpose of offering a glimpse of me and my lifelong interaction with time and space.

A hybrid soft material robotic end-effector for reversible in-space assembly of strut components.

Based on the NASA in-Space Assembled Telescope (iSAT) study (Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 2019, 51, 50) which details the design and requirements for a 20-m parabolic in-space telescope, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has been developing structural and robotic solutions to address the needs of building larger in-space assets. One of the structural methods studied involves stackable and collapsible modular solutions to address launch vehicle volume constraints. This solution uses a packing method that stacks struts in a dixie-cup like manner and a chemical composite bonding technique that reduces weight of the structure, adds strength, and offers the ability to de-bond the components for structural modifications. We present in this paper work towards a soft material robot end-effector, capable of suppling the manipulability, pressure, and temperature requirements for the bonding/de-bonding of these conical structural components. This work is done to investigate the feasibility of a hybrid soft robotic end-effector actuated by Twisted and Coiled Artificial Muscles (TCAMs) for in-space assembly tasks. TCAMs are a class of actuator which have garnered significant recent research interest due to their allowance for high force to weight ratio when compared to other popular methods of actuation within the field of soft robotics, and a muscle-tendon actuation design using TCAMs leads to a compact and lightweight system with controllable and tunable behavior. In addition to the muscle-tendon design, this paper also details the early investigation of an induction system for adhesive bonding/de-bonding and the sensors used for benchtop design and testing. Additionally, we discuss the viability of Robotic Operating System 2 (ROS2) and Gazebo modeling environments for soft robotics as they pertain to larger simulation efforts at LaRC. We show real world test results against simulation results for a method which divides the soft, continuous material of the end-effector into discrete links connected by spring-like joints.

News in Astronomy & Geophysics – June 2023

... The first UK winner of the new Caroline Herschel Medal received the award in a ceremony held at the residence of the German Ambassador, Miguel Berger, on 13 April 2023. Prof. Gillian Wright, Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, received the award for her outstanding work in developing instrumentation, notably in infrared astronomy, and most recently leading the international consortium that built the Mid-Infrared Instrument, MIRI, for the James Webb Space Telescope. At the ceremony, Prof. Wright received the medal and award from Professor Stefanie Walch-Gassner, incoming President of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, then gave a very well-received address on the power of technology to reveal the hidden infrared universe. She shared with the audience her first-hand account of the design and development of the Webb telescope, stressing the unique contribution that MIRI is already making to our understanding of the universe. The Caroline Herschel Medal is a new award funded by the UK government to recognise outstanding women astrophysicists in the UK and Germany. It is administered jointly by the Royal Astronomical Society and the Astronomische Gesellschaft, with the medal awarded in the UK and Germany in alternate years. bit.ly/3oPo7Xn

Assessing the Demographics of Participants in Press Conferences at Meetings of the American Astronomical Society (2010-2022)

The Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) undertook a study to assess the participation of community members in AAS press conferences at meetings between 2010 and 2022. 130 respondents answered both free-response and multiple-choice questions. In general, selection of AAS press conference presenters broadly represents AAS membership but subtleties in who is selected to participate shows inequities among women and gender minorities, people of color, institution type and career stage. By implementing several recommendations, including continuing dual-anonymous peer review of meeting abstracts for inclusion in press conferences, the AAS can diversify participation, better serve its broad membership, and work toward achieving goals set forth in its Strategic Plan.

News in Astronomy & Geophysics – April 2023

... The first UK winner of the new Caroline Herschel Medal is astronomer Professor Gillian Wright CDE FRSE, longstanding European Principal Investigator of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the JWST. Prof. Wright is director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh. “Gillian is a global scientific leader in astronomy. She worked tirelessly to bring MIRI to fruition, and it is now delivering unparalleled advances in our scientific understanding of the universe,” said RAS President Mike Edmunds. “On behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society, I would like to offer her my warmest congratulations as the first UK winner of the Caroline Herschel Medal.” The medal was launched in 2021 by the UK Government in honour of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It commemorates astronomer Caroline Herschel (1750–1828), who with her brother William revised and greatly improved catalogues of stars, clusters and nebulae, and herself discovered eight comets. The medal recognises both her legacy and the deep and enduring scientific links between Germany and the UK.

Translation into Italianof the Original Paper - Title: The Capture Cross-Section of Earth for Errant Asteroids - Authors: Tatum, J. B.- Copyright - Provided by NASA Astrophysics Data System Journal: Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 91, p.276 - Bibliographic Code: 1997JRASC..91..276 - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1997JRASC..91..276T

Translation into Italianof the Original Paper - Title: The Capture Cross-Section of Earth for Errant Asteroids - Authors: Tatum, J. B.- Copyright - Provided by NASA Astrophysics Data System Journal: Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 91, p.276 - Bibliographic Code: 1997JRASC..91..276 - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1997JRASC..91..276T

Yunnan–Hong Kong wide field photometric survey

AbstractWe are running a wide field photometric survey under the collaboration between Yunnan Observatories and Hong Kong Astronomical Society with a Centurion 18‐inch telescope at the Lijiang station of Yunnan Observatories, China. Its scientific goals are discovering new transiting exoplanetary systems and other types of variable stars, and studying asteroids of the solar system. The survey was designed to monitor several fixed sky areas through time series photometry with short cadences. Since 2016, numerous observing data have been accumulated and reduced by means of dedicated pipelines to deliver the light curves for tens of thousands objects, which are cross‐matched through the Carlsberg Meridian Catalog 15 or USNO‐B1.0 catalog. Systematic errors and trends that existed in the raw photometric results are simulated through selected reference stars and then removed to improve signal‐to‐noise ratios of the light curves, which is crucial to detect weak signals like exoplanet transits and other variable stars of low amplitudes in brightness variations. The final data products own the photometric precision better than 0.01 magnitude for stars brighter than 13.8 magnitude in the V band. By means of generalized Lomb–Scargle, phase dispersion minimization, and box‐fitting least squares techniques, we have already identified about a thousand of variable stars from the survey, including transiting exoplanet candidates, spotted stars, eclipsing binaries, pulsating stars, and so on. In addition, we have also captured around a thousand of asteroids of the solar system in the survey fields and produced their light curves due to spins.

Evidence of Long-term Period Variations in the Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD)

We analyze a large number of citizen science data and identify eight hot Jupiter systems that show evidence for deviations from a constant orbital period: HAT-P-19 b, HAT-P-32 b, TrES-1 b, TrES-2 b, TrES-5 b, WASP-4 b, WASP-10 b, and WASP-12 b. The latter system is already well known to exhibit strong evidence for tidal orbital decay and serves as an important control for this study. Several other systems we identify have disputed period drifts in the literature, allowing the results here to serve as an independent analysis. The citizen science data are from the Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD), which is a global project established in 2008 by the Variable Star and Exoplanet Section of the Czech Astronomical Society. With over 400 planets and 12,000 contributed observations spanning 15 yr, the ETD is brimming with potential for studying the long-term orbital evolution of close-in hot Jupiters. We use our results to discuss prioritization of targets for follow-up investigations, which will be necessary to confirm the period drifts and their causes.

Julie Haynes Lutz (1944–2022)

Lutz was a well-known expert on planetary nebulae and variable stars. She served as director of the Division of Astronomical Sciences for the National Science Foundation and as president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

JOHN BEEBE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ASTRONOMY IN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

John Beebe was an established architect and amateur astronomer when he relocated from Bendigo (Victoria) to Brisbane in 1916. After briefly discussing his years in Victoria, we examine his architectural and astronomical backgrounds and the contributions he made to astronomy during the two decades he lived in Queensland. Initially employed by the Queensland Government, he drew plans for the proposed State Observatory and was later tasked to conduct site testing for the possible relocation of the southern station of the Harvard College Observatory to Queensland, and also for the 1922 total solar eclipse. He also drew the plans and supervised construction of the short-lived St Leo's College Observatory. Returning to private architectural practice in 1924, he later became friends with Manuel Hornibrook and designed the substantial portals of the Hornibrook Highway. These portals remain a lasting legacy. Closely associated with the fledgling Astronomical Society of Queensland from its inception in 1927, Beebe was twice President and Vice-President before his death in 1936 at the age of 70. Had events unfolded differently, he may well have been able to pursue a professional astronomical career in Queensland.

LIGHTSOUND: ACCESSIBILITY AND AWARENESS FOR UPCOMING SOLAR ECLIPSES

People from all over the United States (and abroad) flocked to the path of totality to witness the Great American Solar Eclipse in 2017. The sentiment was the same for the 2019 and 2020 South American eclipses that passed through Chile and Argentina. While a total solar eclipse is typically thought of as a striking visual phenomenon, it is not the only way to observe one, and for blind or low vision individuals, having an alternate medium to observe an eclipse is a necessity. LightSound is a low-cost, hand-held device that was originally developed for the 2017 North American eclipse. It has a very high-dynamic range sensor that converts light to sound in a process called sonification. The sound can be output to headphones or to a speaker during an event to make the entire event more accessible while capturing the dimming of the Sun in the form of sound. All documentation and software needed to build and use the LightSound are open source and free for download and modification. As the 2023 and 2024 North American solar eclipses approach, we aim to increase the number of LightSounds across the paths of totality so that the experiences can be more inclusive and accessible. In the astronomy community, we are holding a series of workshops through the American Astronomical Society to train new users to build and use the devices, but we hope to expand to a more general audience by connecting with organizations such as libraries, museums, national parks, girl/boy scouts, and others groups who we can help to build the necessary devices for communities and events in need. In addition to eclipses, the LightSound has exciting potential for use as a teaching tool at both K-12 levels and undergraduate levels and for raising awareness about sonification as a powerful and important analysis method in science.

John David Barrow. 29 November 1952—26 September 2020

John Barrow wrote dozens of books and hundreds of papers, including more than 10 papers and one book during his final illness, addressing a grand problem: why is the universe the way it is? What is the fundamental nature of physics, and what are its cosmological outcomes? His most famous book was on the Anthropic Principle with Frank Tipler, and his most significant physics research was on the possibility of a variation of the fundamental constants of physics—which, if true, requires a rejigging of our foundational physics theories. He was an outstanding communicator of science to the public, being asked to lecturer at as varied places as Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. His most important public service was as director of the Millennium Mathematics Project, for which he was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Educational Achievement by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. He was awarded many other prizes, including the Templeton Prize, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, both the Kelvin Medal and the Dirac Gold Medal of the Institute of Physics and the Faraday Medal of the Royal Society.

Asclepias: Software Citations Enter the Scholarly Literature World

In September of 2016, the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) started to work on the implementation of first-class support of software. This work was started as a result of the Asclepias project, funded through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to the American Astronomical Society. The main goal of the Asclepias project is to promote scientific software into an identifiable, citable, and preservable object. It highlighted the fact that no single stakeholder can solve the software citation problem. It requires close collaboration between a publisher (the American Astronomical Society), a repository (Zenodo) and an indexing service (ADS). This paper focuses on the contribution the ADS has made to this project. Five years later, the ADS has indexed just over 10k Zenodo software records, representing almost 19k citations. How did we get here? We describe the underlying infrastructure developed at ADS which implements a software citation detection, metadata capture and ingest, and event-driven notification system to a broker used by ADS collaborators. We include a discussion of the challenges that we have encountered in the implementation and operation of the system.

Open Science Data without Curation. Is It Useful? An American Astronomical Society Publishing Perspective

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) publishes approximately 5000 scholarly astronomical articles each year in our six Journals. For the last 20 years we have accepted and solicited data from authors to be integrated into the published article. Data includes machine readable tables, data behind figures, interactive figures, and external links to data repositories.