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Astronomy/Physics 410: Astrophysics
Fall Semester 2007

Astrophysics Newsfeeds

BIG DISCLAIMER: This page of links is assembled automatically via software algorithm. These come from non peer-reviewed news source, typically aimed at the general public.

Universe Today (Top 5 items)

1. Ride a Maglev Rocket to Space Hotel in 2012 (Thu Aug 21 5:01 pm)
   The space tourism company Galactic Suite already has 38 reservations made by tourists who, the company says, in 2012 will travel on board a magnetically levitated spacecraft to an orbiting luxury hotel, complete with a floating spa, pictured...
2. Sunspot Pair Observed Today - Is Solar Cycle 24 Waking Up? (Thu Aug 21 4:52 pm)
   Amateur astronomers have observed the first sunspots to appear on the solar surface for weeks. This period of extreme magnetic calm has made some scientists believe that Solar Cycle 23 might be a quiet affair. This comes in stark contrast to...
3. Real Hitchhiker's Guide to the Solar System on the Way (Thu Aug 21 3:27 pm)
   Thinking about trekking across Titan or meandering around Mercury? Along with your backpack and towel, you'll also want to pack one of Robert Gaskell's maps. Gaskell, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, is working...
4. Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Changing How Scientists ?and the Public - Do Astronomy (Thu Aug 21 1:45 pm)
   Recently we've had articles on Universe Today that have discussed the outer Milky Way Galaxy, dark matter, and the discovery of a new minor planet. These articles have a common thread: The discoveries all come from the Sloan Digital...
5. Phoenix Lander: The Digging Continues (Thu Aug 21 11:12 am)
   Scientists and engineers from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander continue with digging operations around the lander with the spacecraft's robotic arm. They are looking for new materials to analyze and are examining the soil and ice subsurface...

EurekaAlert Space News (Top 5 items)

1. Forward planning release from the BA (Wed Aug 20 11:00 pm)
   (The BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science)) The BA Festival of Science will be in Liverpool Sept. 6-11, bringing over 350 of the UK's top scientists and engineers to discuss the latest developments in science with the public....
2. Hubble sees magnetic monster in erupting galaxy (Tue Aug 19 11:00 pm)
   (ESA/Hubble Information Centre) The Hubble Space Telescope has found the answer to a long-standing puzzle by resolving giant but delicate filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275. It is the most striking...
3. National Academies advisory: Technology development at NASA (Tue Aug 19 11:00 pm)
   (National Academy of Sciences) A new report from the National Research Council, "A constrained space exploration technology program: A review of NASA's exploration technology development program," looks at the quality of technological research...
4. Space age engineers to verify control software for future robotic interplanetary missions (Tue Aug 19 11:00 pm)
   (University of Leicester) An international team of engineers is to develop mission-critical control software for future European robotic space missions.
5. Drier, warmer springs in US Southwest stem from human-caused changes in winds (Mon Aug 18 11:00 pm)
   (University of Arizona) Human-driven changes in the westerly winds are bringing hotter and drier springs to the American Southwest, according to new research from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Since the 1970s the winter storm track in...

Bad Astronomy Blog (Top 5 items)

1. Volcanoes! (Thu Aug 21 4:52 pm)
   For some brilliant reason, The Boston Globe has started a new online feature called The Big Picture, which showcases incredible hi-res images of different topics. They just ran one on volcanoes, and it’s, well, incredible. Like I said....
2. Enceladus writ large (Thu Aug 21 2:30 pm)
   Cassini had the temerity to pass close to Saturn’s active moon Enceladus while I was in the Galapagos, so I couldn’t blog about it. Ever vigilant, however, Emily got the goods, including this incredible mosaic. Emily’s post...
3. Hubble’s impact (Thu Aug 21 12:13 pm)
   Over at Cosmic Variance, my fellow astronomy blogger Julianne Dalcanton is looking for opinions. She’s writing an article about the scientific impact of Hubble, and she’s looking to see what others come up with. Webrainstorming,...
4. The Presidential candidates on space policy (Thu Aug 21 9:50 am)
   The Planetary Society has posted both Obama’s and McCain’s statements on space policy. Both sound good, I’ll admit. Obama’s is a lot more thorough, with more specifics (which I had to chuckle over, given that many of...
5. Science Idol cartoon winner announced (Wed Aug 20 8:00 pm)
   Science Idol was a contest sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists to find the best political cartoon dealing with science. They just announced the winner: Justin Bilicki, for this cartoon: It’s a good cartoon: funny, pithy, and...

Science@NASA (Top 5 items)

1. Living with a Star (Tue Aug 19 1:00 am)
   What if you woke up one morning and found your whole planet had been swallowed by the atmosphere of a star? Don't laugh, it could happen to you, and NASA has a special program to deal with it. Please vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley!...
2. The Realm of Earthworms: NASA Gets Down to the Nitty-Gritty (Fri Aug 15 1:00 am)
   NASA scientists are preparing to launch a "flying tractor" with microwave sensors to explore the nitty-gritty realm beneath your feet. Please vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley! Get this podcast story.
3. A Flash of Insight: LCROSS Mission Update (Mon Aug 11 1:00 am)
   There are places on the Moon where the sun hasn't shined for millions of years, inky-dark places that may harbor a treasure of great value. NASA's is about to light one of them up. Please vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley! Get...
4. A Brief History of Solar Sails (Thu Jul 31 1:00 am)
   Have you ever stared up at the night sky, felt a gentle breeze, and wished you could set sail for the stars? Get in line. Many great thinkers from history have had the same idea. This long-held fancy could soon become reality with one solar...
5. Partial Eclipse, Total Fun (Tue Jul 29 1:00 am)
   This Friday, August 1st, millions of people in China will witness a well-publicized total eclipse of the sun. Less widely reported is the partial eclipse, which *billions* of people across a quarter of the globe can observe and enjoy. ...

RedOrbit Space News (Top 5 items)

1. Black Holes Don't Come in 'Medium' (Wed Aug 20 6:35 pm)
   Black holes are sometimes huge cosmic beasts, billions of times the mass of our sun, and sometimes petite with just a few times the sun's mass. But do black holes also come in size medium? A new study suggests that, for the most part, the answer...
2. Living Inside the Atmosphere of the Sun (Thu Aug 21 7:25 am)
   What if you woke up one morning and found your whole planet had been swallowed by the atmosphere of a star?Get out of bed, look out the window. Auroras are dancing along the horizon. Dark sunspots crackle overhead?each little 'pop' more powerful...
3. Hubble Captures Magnetic Monster (Wed Aug 20 1:45 pm)
   NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found an answer to a long-standing puzzle by resolving giant but delicate filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275.
4. The M2-F1: Forefather to the Space Shuttle (Tue Aug 19 5:50 pm)
   The planned retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2010 will bring to a close an era that opened in the Antelope Valley nearly a half century ago. The vehicle which began that era - the M2-F1 - was an unlikely forefather to the shuttle.
5. NASA Completes Engine Tests For Ares I (Mon Aug 18 4:00 pm)
   Image Caption: Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., completed a series of tests on a key component of the J-2X engine, which will propel the next-generation Ares I rocket on its journey to space. The test on...

Astronomer's Telegrams (Top 10 items)

1. ATel 1671: Swift detection of X-ray transients in M 31 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   The Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) and X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on board the Swift satellite mapped M 31 during a series of pre-planned observation with XRT integration times of up to 5 ks from 2008 May 25 to July 26 (PI Immler). ...
2. ATel 1670: OGLE-III counterpart to SMC X-2 reveals 18.62 day binary period (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   The OGLE-III optical data of the two possible counterparts to SMC X-2 (SXP2.37) have been extensively analysed. The first 5 years of OGLE-III data for both these stars is presented in Schmidtke el al 2006 (AJ,132,971). ...
3. ATel 1669: Swift-XRT identification of IGR J19267+1325 as an Intermediate Polar (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   We report Swift-XRT observations of IGR J19267+1325 (ATEL #1649,#1323), taken between 2008 August 19.43 and 2008 August 19.91. In ATEL #1653, Steeghs et al. ...
4. ATel 1668: UV Detection of Accreting Millisecond Pulsar IGR J00291+5934 with Swift/UVOT (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   For the millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J00291+5934 (ATEL #1660, #1664, #1665, #1666, #1667), we report on UVOT analysis of the Swift observation taken 2008-08-15 at 14:50 UT (Markwardt & Swank, ATEL #1664). ...
5. ATel 1667: A WSRT radio observation of IGR J00291+5934 in outburst (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   Following the recent reports of activity (ATels #1660, #1664, #1665, #1666) we observed the field of IGR J00291+5934 with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). ...
6. ATel 1666: Faulkes Telescope monitoring of the current outburst of IGR J00291+5934 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   As part of an optical monitoring project of low-mass X-ray binaries (Lewis et al. 2008), we report on recent observations just prior to, and during the current outburst of the millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J00291+5934 (ATel #1660, #1664, #1665)....
7. ATel 1665: Optical brightening of IGR J00291+5934 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   Following the recently reported X-ray outburst of the millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934 (ATel #1660,#1664), we acquired photometry of its optical counterpart using the Wide Field Camera mounted on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope at La Palma....
8. ATel 1664: Swift Observations Confirm the Activity of IGR J00291+5934 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   We obtained a Swift observation of the field containing IGR J00291+5934 on 2008-08-15 starting at 14:50 UT for approximately 2000 seconds of exposure. ...
9. ATel 1663: Discovery of Possible Bright Nova in NGC891 : P60-NGC891-080813 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
   On UT 2008 Aug 13.45, P60-FasTING (Palomar 60-inch Fast Transients In Nearby Galaxies) discovered an optical transient at RA(J2000)=02:22:32.70, DEC(J2000)=42:21:56.1 in the field of NGC891. ...
10. ATel 1662: SAX J1750.8-2900 is returning to quiescence (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
    The neutron star transient SAX J1750.8-2900 has been in outburst since March 15th, 2008 (ATel #1425). The X-ray flux started to decay around mid May and fell below the detection threshold of RXTE-ASM and Swift-BAT around August 2nd and 8th,...