Center For Astrophysics Research Articles

Rotation of an erupting filament observed by STEREO EUVI and COR1 instruments(Corrigendum)

1 INAF – Turin Astronomical Observatory, Pino Torinese (TO), Italy e-mail: bemporad@oato.inaf.it 2 Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium Institute of Geodynamics of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania Research Center for Atomic Physics and Astrophysics, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania e-mail: marilena@oma.be 3 Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK e-mail: durgesh@iucaa.ernet.in

Astronomy with Cutting-Edge ICT: From Transients in the Sky to Data over the Continents (India-US)

Astronomy has always been at the forefront of information technology, moving from the era of photographic plates, to digital snapshots and now to digital movies of the sky. This has brought about a data explosion with multi-terabyte surveys already happening and upcoming petabyte scale surveys. By scanning the sky repeatedly and automatically, astronomers find rapidly changing phenomena – transients - of a great variety. Surveys like the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) publish details on the transients right away since many of these fade in a matter of minutes and it is important to get additional observations in order to determine their nature. This involves being able to combine a variety of datasets, small and large, in real-time. With networks like the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) and India’s National Knowledge Network (NKN) we are in the realm where such a data transfer is possible in real time across continents. Here we describe the live demonstration we were able to carry out at data transfer speeds of several hundred megabits per second (Mbps) between California Institute of Technology (Caltech, USA) and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA, India). This project illustrates how machines can make rapid decisions in response to complex, heterogeneous data, using sophisticated software and networking. While the broader impact covers all aspects of society (disaster response, power grids, earthquakes, and many more), we have used astronomy to show how the APAN and NKN make this possible.

Changes and challenges: Physics in India

To go from having islands of excellence to being a major world player in science, India must solve such problems as a dearth of teachers and a divide between research and teaching.

Design and development of an optical-fibre-based Integral Field Unit (IFU) on the IUCAA 2-m telescope

An optical-fibre-based Integral Field Unit (IFU) has been developed for the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) Faint Object Spectrometer and Camera (IFOSC), the main back-end instrument on the IUCAA 2-m telescope at Girawali, Pune, India. This IFU enables IFOSC to perform two-dimensional spectroscopy of extended astronomical objects and is being used as one of the modes of IFOSC. Based on the concept of coupling the telescope focal plane with the spectrograph slit using a fibre bundle, the IFU (named the Fibre-based Integral Field Unit for IFOSC, hereafter FIFUI) uses 100 optical fibres, each associated with a tiny lenslet on its tip, to sample the incoming field of view spatially. In addition, FIFUI uses some coupling optics to realize this two-dimensional interface. FIFUI offers three different spatial sampling scales of 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2 arcsec fibre−1. It is optimized for the visible spectrum and for a field of view of ∼13 × 6 arcsec2 on the sky for the nominal 1-arcsec sampling mode. FIFUI was commissioned on the IUCAA 2-m telescope during 2010 February–March after a series of sky tests and science-verification observations and a data-analysis pipeline was developed to extract the spectra and reconstruct the sky maps. Here we report on the development of FIFUI, including its opto-mechanical design and commissioning observations.

Confronting 2D delayed-detonation models with light curves and spectra of Type Ia supernovae

We compare models for Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) light curves and spectra with an extensive set of observations. The models come from a recent survey of 44 two-dimensional delayed-detonation models computed by Kasen, Roepke & Woosley (2009), each viewed from multiple directions. The data include optical light curves of 251 SNe Ia and 2231 low-dispersion spectra from the Center for Astrophysics, plus data from the literature. The analysis uses standard techniques employed by observers, including MLCS2k2, SALT2, and SNooPy for light-curve analysis, and the Supernova Identification (SNID) code of Blondin & Tonry for spectroscopic comparisons to assess how well the models match the data. We show that the models that match observed spectra best lie systematically on the observed width-luminosity relation. Conversely, we reject six models with highly asymmetric ignition conditions and a large amount (>1 M_sun) of synthesized 56Ni that yield poor matches to observed SN Ia spectra. More subtle features of the comparison include the general difficulty of the models to match the U-band flux at early times, caused by a hot ionized ejecta that affect the subsequent redistribution of flux at longer wavelengths. We examine ways in which the asymptotic kinetic energy of the explosion affects both the predicted velocity and velocity gradient in the Si II and Ca II lines. Models with an asymmetric distribution of 56Ni are found to result in a larger variation of photometric and spectroscopic properties with viewing angle, regardless of the initial ignition setup. We discuss more generally whether highly anisotropic ignition conditions are ruled out by observations, and how detailed comparisons between models and observations involving both light curves and spectra can lead to a better understanding of SN Ia explosion mechanisms.

Time-resolved hydrino continuum transitions with cutoffs at 22.8 nm and 10.1 nm

Spectra of low energy, high current pinch discharges in pure hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and helium were recorded in the EUV region, and continuum radiation was only observed from hydrogen [www.blacklightpower.com/pdf/GEN3_Harvard.pdf; Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 35, 8446 (2010); Cent. Eur. J. Phys. 8, 318 (2010)]. The continuum radiation bands at 10.1 and 22.8 nm and going to longer wavelengths for theoretically predicted transitions of hydrogen to lower-energy, so called “hydrino” states, was observed first at blacklight power, Inc. (BLP) and reproduced at the Harvard center for astrophysics (CfA). Considering the low energy of 5.2 J per pulse, the observed radiation in the energy range of about 120 eV to 40 eV and reference experiments, no conventional explanation was found to be plausible, including electrode metal emission, Bremsstrahlung radiation, ion recombination, molecular or molecular ion band radiation, and instrument artifacts involving radicals and energetic ions reacting at the CCD and H2 re-radiation at the detector chamber. To further study these continuum bands assigned to hydrinos, time resolved spectra were performed that showed a unique delay of the continuum radiation of about 0.1 μs and a duration of < 2 μs following the high-voltage pulse consistent with the mechanism of recombination to form the optimal high-density atomic hydrogen in the pinch that permits the H–H interactions to cause the hydrino transitions and corresponding emission.

Decay of helical and nonhelical magnetic knots

We present calculations of the relaxation of magnetic field structures that have the shape of particular knots and links. A set of helical magnetic flux configurations is considered, which we call n-foil knots of which the trefoil knot is the most primitive member. We also consider two nonhelical knots; namely, the Borromean rings as well as a single interlocked flux rope that also serves as the logo of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India. The field decay characteristics of both configurations is investigated and compared with previous calculations of helical and nonhelical triple-ring configurations. Unlike earlier nonhelical configurations, the present ones cannot trivially be reduced via flux annihilation to a single ring. For the n-foil knots the decay is described by power laws that range form t(-2/3) to t(-1/3), which can be as slow as the t(-1/3) behavior for helical triple-ring structures that were seen in earlier work. The two nonhelical configurations decay like t(-1), which is somewhat slower than the previously obtained t(-3/2) behavior in the decay of interlocked rings with zero magnetic helicity. We attribute the difference to the creation of local structures that contain magnetic helicity which inhibits the field decay due to the existence of a lower bound imposed by the realizability condition. We show that net magnetic helicity can be produced resistively as a result of a slight imbalance between mutually canceling helical pieces as they are being driven apart. We speculate that higher order topological invariants beyond magnetic helicity may also be responsible for slowing down the decay of the two more complicated nonhelical structures mentioned above.

Ageless. No Plastic Surgery Required

The article looks at a theory by Soren Meibom of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics which suggests that the spin rate of a star can be used to measure its age.

Astronomy Education for Physics Students

Astronomy is a very interesting subject for undergraduate students studying physics. In this paper, we report astronomy education for undergraduate students in the Physics Department of Guangzhou University, and how we are teaching astronomy to the students. Astrophysics has been rapidly developing since 1994, when the center for astrophysics was founded. Now, astrophysics has become a key subject in Guangdong Province, and the Astronomy Science and Technology Research Laboratory one of the key laboratories of the Department of Education of the Guangdong Province. Many undergraduate students, working under the tutorship of faculty members completed their thesis at the Center for Astrophysics in Guangzhou.

Introduction for the discipline of astrophysics at Tsinghua University

The present paper introduces briefly the historical development of astronomy at Tsinghua University and the present status of the Tsinghua Center for Astrophysics (THCA), its main research areas and related achievements. Besides training of excellent students, research areas include: hard X-ray modulation telescope (HXMT) based on satellite, high energy astrophysics, astronomical observation and study at optical wavelength, cosmology, data analysis of gravitational wave measuring experiment and theoretical astrophysics study.

Bridging the Two Cultures: A Conversation between Alan Lightman and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

COVER FEATURE Editorialnote;To read the full textofthisexchange online, visitthe WLTwebsite. DearAlan, I wanttothank you,first ofall,for allowing thisconversation totakeplaceelectronically, a form ofcommunication thatI knowyouhave someseriousqualmsabout.You'reas averse toitas I am tothetelephone. (I hatethetelephonebecauseitdoesn 't allowfor longperiods ofsilence. Ifoneis quietfortoolong,theother person invariably asks,"Areyoustill there?") I thought I'd start offby askingthefairly obviousquestioncentered on a similarity between us.We'vebothhadwhatsomemight consider "irregular" writing careers, as weboth startedas academicsin somewhattechnical areas - you in physicsand cosmology, me in analytic philosophy, witha concentration in philosophy of science - and onlyswitched to writing after we'd earnedour credentials in those other fields. Wasthis alwaysyour plan,or haveyoufound yourself surprised bytheturn your career hastaken? I havetoconfess that, inmyowncase,the literary turn took mesomewhat bysurprise. I've alwayslovedliterature - it'salmosta physical needfor metogorge myself regularly onfiction andpoetry - butInever planned onthis passion shaping mycareer until I found myself . . .well, writing a novel,almostin a trance. Looking back,I seehowI might havebeenpreparing to bea novelist with allthat gorging, butI certainly wasn'tconscious ofanyliterary intentions until thevoiceofa character announced herself tome inthefirst sentence ofmyfirst book:"I'moften askedwhatit'sliketobe married toa genius." Itwas whatHenry James calleda donnée, and I acceptedit as thatand just sat down and wrote thenovel,TheMind-Body Problem. I have so say,noneofmyother books,neither fiction nornonfiction, everarrived in quitethesame peremptory way. Tell me aboutyourexperience in broadeningoutintofiction . Have you alwaysbeen aware thatbothscienceand literature were pathsyouwouldfollow? Wereyousurprised tofindyourself writing theextraordinary Einstein 'sDreams? With eageranticipation, Rebecca DearRebecca, Itwillbe a delight for metotalkaboutour careers together, although I wishthattheconversation wereinperson. I understand that you aretraveling a lotnow,and thise-form is the onlywaypossible. I was bothsurprised and not surprised abouttheblooming ofmyliterary career. Since a youngage,I didhavea passionfor boththe sciences andthearts. I built rockets andgadgets and lookedat things undermymicroscope. I createda smalllaboratory in a storageroom nextto my bedroom,whereI keptvarious chemicals, Bunsen burners, test tubes, batteries, andelectrical wire, resistors andcapacitors, etc. I alsolovedtoread,andI wrote poetry. Poetry 30 iWorldLiterature Today was myfirst writing form. Almost noneofthe poetry I wroteat thatage (8-16)was worth anything, butitwasa vehicle for expressing my emotions and mythoughts. I was philosophical from a youngage (as I am sureyouwere) and wrotepoemsaboutdeathand thepuzzle ofexistence as wellas odestothirteen-year-old girlsI was ininfatuated with.I also lovedthe meter andsoundofpoetry. I lovedthesoundof interesting words. My friendsseparatedclearlyinto two groups:the "artists" (intuitive, spontaneous, etc.) and the "scientists" (logical,deliberate, etc.). Ipassedbetween thetwogroups offriends (whodid notmixwitheachother) easilyand found myself behaving likean "artist" whenI waswith myartist friends andlikea "scientist" whenI waswith myscientist friends. So,I knew very wellthat I hadthesetwodifferent capacitiesand interests, and thatthecombination of thetwowas unusual.Myfriends, parents, and teachers did notexactly discourage mydual capacities, butthey madeitclearthat life would beeasierfor meifI wentinonedirection orthe other, notboth. I hadnorolemodelsfor people whowereboth scientists andartists, although in high school I became awareofC. P.Snow,andI readsomeofRachel Carson's bookSilent Spring andrealized, "Hey,hereis a scientist whocan write ina literary form." I am notsurethatI had a clearidea of exactly whatcareerI wantedto pursue, butI didnotwanttogiveup my"dualcapacities." Atsomepoint, itbecamea practical matter. I hadtochoosea major. I knewofa fewscientists who laterbecamewriters (Snow,Carson)but noartists wholater inlifebecamescientists, so without understanding the basisfor this fact but justaccepting it,I majored inphysics (atPrinceton ).However, I tooklotsofcoursesin literature , philosophy, etc., andevena studio classin sculpture with theprominent Princeton sculptor JoeBrown. Again,as a practical matter, I went to graduateschoolin physics(Caltech), but eventhere I tooksomecoursesinphilosophy. Atthispoint, I was publishing poetry insmall literary magazines. I didnotstart spending a lot oftime writing until around 1980, sixyears after myPhD andafter I hada secure jobinscience (attheHarvard-Smithsonian Center forAstrophysics ). Atthispoint, I beganwriting essays aboutscience fora magazine calledScience 80, publishedby the AmericanAssociationfor Alan Lightmanisa physicist novelist, and essayist. He was educated at Princeton University and at the California Institute ofTechnology, wherehe received a PhD intheoretical physics. He has servedon thefaculties of Harvard University and MITand was thefirst personto receive dualfaculty appointments at MITinscienceand inthehumanities. Lightman istheauthoroffivenovels, twocollections ofessays, a book-length narrative poem, andseveralbookson science.HisnovelEinstein's Dreams was an international best-seller and has beentranslated intothirty languages.HisnovelTheDiagnosis wasa finalistfor theNational BookAward infiction. theAdvancement ofScience.(Myfirst couple ofessaysaboutscience had beenpublished in Smithsonian magazine.) I found theessaya wonderful form ofwriting inwhich I couldbeinformative , personal, philosophical, andpoetic. I am still proudofsomeofthose early essays. After a coupleofyearsofthis...

The National Research Council on Hazards from Near‐Earth Objects

Near‐Earth objects (NEOs) are bodies that orbit the Sun and approach or cross the orbit of the Earth, thus having the potential to collide with it. The possible scale of NEO impacts was brought home to many by the discovery of the Chicxulub Crater lying under Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the adjacent sea, believed to have been formed by the impact of a 10‐km‐diameter NEO some 65 million years ago and linked to the mass extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Large numbers of NEOs of significant size have now been identified, allowing quantitative assessment of the impact hazard. In 2008 the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences, was asked by the US government to “address issues in the detection of potentially hazardous NEOs and approaches to mitigating identified hazards.” An ad hoc committee was set up for this task, chaired by Irwin I. Shapiro, Harvard‐Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The committee issued an interim report in 2009 and a final report, Defending Planet Earth: Near‐Earth‐Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies, this year. Some passages from this final report, discussing current assessments of impact risks, likely warning times before impact in which to attempt to deflect the NEO trajectory, and the relative magnitude of mortality risks from NEOs in comparison to more familiar causes of death, are reprinted below. On this last, the annual risk of death from NEO impact is found to be an order of magnitude greater than that from shark attack but three orders less than from earthquakes. The reprinted sections are taken from Chapter 2: Risk Analysis, pp. 13–14, 19–20, and 25–27. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. A PDF of the full report can be downloaded from «http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12842.html».

Aesthetics and Astronomy: Studying the Public’s Perception and Understanding of Imagery From Space

This study examined the scientific understanding of astronomical pictures by experts and nonexperts. It explored how both groups perceive astronomical images and their understanding of both what they are seeing and the science that underlies the images. Data comprised n = 8,866 responses from a survey linked to the NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day website and four focus groups held at the Harvard—Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Results indicated that variations in presentation of color, explanation, and scale affect comprehension of astronomical imagery. With those who are more expert, shorter, more technical explanations are effective; however, scales are still necessary for complete comprehension. Experts tend to look at the images from a more scientific, data-oriented perspective while nonexperts are more likely to focus, especially initially, on the aesthetic or emotional values of the images. Results provide suggestions for educational outreach to the public.

CfA3: 185 TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA LIGHT CURVES FROM THE CfA

We present multiband photometry of 185 type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), with over 11,500 observations. These were acquired between 2001 and 2008 at the F. L. Whipple Observatory of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). This sample contains the largest number of homogeneously observed and reduced nearby SNe Ia (z 0.08) published to date. It more than doubles the nearby sample, bringing SN Ia cosmology to the point where systematic uncertainties dominate. Our natural system photometry has a precision of 0.02 mag in BVRIr'i' and 0.04 mag in U for points brighter than 17.5 mag. We also estimate a systematic uncertainty of 0.03 mag in our SN Ia standard system BVRIr'i' photometry and 0.07 mag for U. Comparisons of our standard system photometry with published SN Ia light curves and comparison stars, where available for the same SN, reveal agreement at the level of a few hundredths mag in most cases. We find that 1991bg-like SNe Ia are sufficiently distinct from other SNe Ia in their color and light-curve-shape/luminosity relation that they should be treated separately in light-curve/distance fitter training samples. The CfA3 sample will contribute to the development of better light-curve/distance fitters, particularly in the few dozen cases where near-infrared photometry has been obtained and, together, can help disentangle host-galaxy reddening from intrinsic supernova color, reducing the systematic uncertainty in SN Ia distances due to dust.

A LARGE-AREA SURVEY FOR RADIO PULSARS AT HIGH GALACTIC LATITUDES

We have completed a survey for pulsars at high Galactic latitudes with the 64 m Parkes radio telescope. Observing with the 13 beam multibeam receiver at a frequency of 1374 MHz, we covered ~4150 square degrees in the region –100° ≤ l ≤ 50°, 15° ≤ |b| ≤ 30° with 7232 pointings of 265 s each, thus extending the Swinburne Intermediate Latitude Pulsar Survey a further 15° on either side of the Galactic plane. The signal from each beam was processed by a 96 channel × 3 MHz × 2 polarization filterbank, with the detected power in the two polarizations of each frequency channel summed and digitized with 1 bit sampling every 125 μs, giving good sensitivity to millisecond pulsars with low or moderate dispersion measure. The resulting 2.4 TB data set was processed using standard pulsar search techniques with the workstation cluster at the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. This survey resulted in the discovery of 26 new pulsars including seven binary and/or millisecond pulsars, and redetected 36 previously known pulsars. We describe the survey methodology and results, and present timing solutions for the 19 newly discovered slow pulsars, as well as for nine slow pulsars discovered the Swinburne Intermediate Latitude Pulsar Survey that had no previous timing solutions. Even with a small sampling interval, 1374 MHz center frequency, and a large mid-latitude survey volume we failed to detect any very rapidly spinning pulsars. Evidently, such submillisecond pulsars are rare.

Mesoscopic Rydberg ensembles: Beyond the pairwise-interaction approximation

K. C. Younge,* A. Reinhard, T. Pohl, P. R. Berman, and G. Raithel Department of Physics, FOCUS Center and Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nothnitzer Strase 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany Received 28 August 2008; published 27 April 2009

Middle School Students' Conceptual Learning from the Implementation of a New NSF Supported Curriculum: Interactions in Physical Science™

A new National Science Foundation supported curriculum, Interactions in Physical Science™, was evaluated on students’ conceptual change in the twelve concept areas of the national physical science content standard (B) for grades 5–8. Eighth grade students (N=66) were evaluated pre and post on a 31‐item multiple‐choice test of conceptual understanding developed by the Harvard ‐Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Significant student gains (p&lt;. 05, t‐test, two‐tailed) occurred in all concept areas in the category of properties and changes in properties of matter; for the force concept areas in the category motions and forces; and for the heat transfer and light interactions areas in the category of transfer of energy. Two of the six concept areas in the category of transfer of energy, chemical and nuclear reactions and the sun as a major source of energy, were not addressed in this study. Significant learning gains as item percent correct were typically close to 20%, though effect sizes were small to medium in magnitude (d = 0.3–0.6). Implications of the study for conceptual change curriculum and teaching are discussed.

David Baltimore

Interview in three sessions, October-November 2009, with David Baltimore, Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology and president emeritus of Caltech (1997-2006). He recalls his childhood and early education in Great Neck, NY, his aptitude for science, and a summer at the Jackson Laboratory in Maine (1955), which confirmed his vocation. He discusses interest in molecular biology at Swarthmore (B.A. 1960); 1959 summer at Cold Spring Harbor with G. Streisinger; meeting S. Luria and C. Levinthal; graduate work at MIT and Rockefeller (PhD 1964); 1961 summer at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; postdoc at MIT with J. Darnell and Einstein with J. Hurwitz. Recalls his discovery of polio polymerase and demonstration that RNA chains initiate with a triphosphate. In 1965 he is invited to join Salk Institute by R. Dulbecco; returns to MIT as associate professor in 1968. Recalls his 1970 discovery of reverse transcriptase and copublication with H. Temin; 1975 Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA; 1975 Nobel Prize with Temin and Dulbecco; founding of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research; National Academy of Sciences committee on national strategy for AIDS. Comments briefly on investigation of T. Imanishi-Kari for fraud and his return to MIT from Rockefeller University in 1994. He discusses vetting process for Caltech presidency, his 1998 inauguration, and highlights of his presidency, including purchase of St. Luke's Medical Center, $1.4 billion capital campaign, and building Broad Center for the Biological Sciences. Comments on Caltech architecture, including Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics; receiving National Medal of Science in 2000; L. Van Parijs dismissal from MIT and prior work in Baltimore's lab; and the prospects for human enhancement and understanding of consciousness.

WORDS FROM MR. CHEE-CHUN LEUNG

I was enchanted with astrophysics and high-energy physics while I was a college student majoring in physics at NTU. But eventually I took the electronics industry as my career due to the twists and turns of life. Recently my dear friend, Professor Pisin Chen, was invited to join the National Taiwan University faculty. In the meantime, Professor Chen was also appointed as the Director of NTU’s Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics. I therefore decide to make a sizable donation to my alma mater to support my old classmate, so that he can create an excellent environment for cosmology research and run it with sufficient resource. Through this, the unfinished dream of my youth would hopefully be fulfilled.

HAT-South: A Global Network of Southern Hemisphere Automated Telescopes to Detect Transiting Exoplanets

AbstractHAT-South is a network of six identical, fully automated wide field telescopes, to be located at three sites (Chile: Las Campanas, Australia: Siding Springs, and Namibia: HESS site) in the Southern hemisphere. The primary purpose of the network is to detect and characterize a large number of extra-solar planets transiting nearby bright stars, and to explore their diversity. Operation of HAT-South is a collaboration among the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) and the Australian National University (ANU). The network is expected to be ready for initial science operations in 2009. The three sites will permit near round-the-clock monitoring of selected fields, and the continuous data-stream will greatly enhance recovery of transits. HAT-South will be sensitive to planetary transits down to R≈14 across a 128 square-degrees combined field of view, thereby targeting a large number of dwarfs with feasible confirmation-mode follow-up. We anticipate a yearly detection rate of approximately 25 planets transiting bright stars.