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Home , Markarian 231, Telescope

INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC OPEN EVENING

— 1 9 FEBRUARY 2020 —

Surface of TONIGHT'S SPEAKER observed by ESO telescope T h e t a l k

Anastasia Fialkov s c h

The Unseen Universe e d u l e

Our weekly welcome f o r t

ELCOME to our weekly pub- h i Wlic open evenings for the s t e

201 9/20 season. Each night there r

Betelgeuse, as imaged by the SPHERE instrument on the VLT. m will be a half-hour talk which begins c

promptly at 7.1 5pm. Please note a n

Using the Very Large led by Miguel Montargès (at KU that the talk will be recorded and b Telescope (VLT), e Leuven in Belgium), has used archived for online streaming. v i have captured an image of the the SPHERE instrument on the The talk is followed by an oppor- e w surface of Betelgeuse, showing VLT to image the surface of the tunity to observe if (and only if!) the e that the dying giant star is dying star, showing that d weather is clear. The IoA’s historical a t changing shape as well as Betelgeuse is changing shape as :

Northumberland and Thorrowgood w getting dimmer. well as dimming. telescopes, along with our modern w

Betelgeuse is a massive red So what is causing the star to w 1 6-inch telescope, will be open for .

star approaching the end of its change so significantly? The two a life, and is expected to go scenarios we are working on are . In addition, the s t . supernova at some point within a cooling of the surface due to Cambridge Astronomical Associ- c ation will provide a floorshow out- a the next few hundred thousand exceptional stellar activity or dust m years. The star has hit headlines doors on the lawns, . ejection towards us,” said a around the world over the past Montargès in a press release. relaying live images from their tele- c . few months, as it has been “Of course, our knowledge of red scopes and providing a comment- u k / getting noticeably dimmer (at supergiants remains incomplete, ary. If we’re unlucky and it’s cloudy, p 36% of its normal brightness at and this is still a work in u we’ll offer you a conciliatory cup of b l the time of writing, it is no longer progress, so a surprise can still i

tea after the talk (with perhaps some c the brightest star in the happen.” more astro-information in the lecture !). As It's important to note that while theatre for those who want to stay astronomers do not yet fully this behaviour is exciting, on). understand the behaviour of Betelgeuse is known to be a stars approaching the end of , so this dimming If you have any questions, their lives, telescopes have been doesn't mean we should expect suggestions or comments about the eagerly trained on Betelgeuse so a supernova any time soon! IoA Open Evenings please contact scientists can learn more. Instead, it gives us a chance to Matt Bothwell at Now, a team of astronomers learn more about dying stars. [email protected].

@cambridge_astro facebook.com/InstituteOfAstronomy 2 — IOA PUBLIC OPEN EVENING 1 9 FEB 2020 Extragalactic molecular detected

Markarian 231, as seen by the Hubble . (NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage)

Molecules of Oxygen -- the picture of oxygen chemistry in This new detection of oxygen in same as we breathe here on different interstellar environments a known as Markarian 231 -- have been detected outside of is still missing'. Theories for the is interesting, as the oxygen our for the first time. missing oxygen include the idea seems to be far more abundant This is also only the third time that oxygen molecules can freeze than seen before, with the oxygen- molecular oxygen has been onto dust grains, and are only to-hydrogen ratio over 1 00 times spotted outside of our own Solar freed by intense environmental higher than in Orion. System. shocks. The current best theory is that Oxygen has ben curiously The two previous detections of molecules flowing outwards from difficult to detect in outer space. oxygen outside the solar system the centra supermassive black After search after search turned up are in the and the hole are interacting with gas in the nothing, a team of astronomers Rho Ophiuchi cloud, both star- disc, and producing oxygen. So (led by Junzhi Wang of the forming regions with hot young this new finding might be a way to Chinese Academy of ) stars which can blast the dust with learn more about how black holes concluded that 'a comprehensive radiation and free the oxygen. drive molecular outflows! An all-sky search for

National Astronomy Observatory. SETI scientists say that the search for life in the Universe has been bolstered in the last few years by the exciting discoveries in the field of exoplanets, which suggest that as many as 20% of stars might host a habitable . “Now that there might be more habitable real estate out there than For the first time, astronomers Search for Extraterrestrial we ever imagined early on … it plan to sweep the entire sky in a Intelligence). While the normal seems to make this next question search for extraterrestrial life. astronomy operations are being about intelligent life more realistic", The project will use the Very carried out, the data will be said SETI scientist Jill Tarter. Large Array (VLA) observatory in duplicated and searched for any New Mexico. Interestingly, this interesting signals. Joke of the Week new search for life is happening as "Determining whether we are a by-product of the VLA's normal alone in the universe... is among A photon goes to the airport to activity. "The VLA is being used for the most compelling questions in catch a flight. The desk clerk an all-sky survey and we kind of , and [our] telescopes can says "And do you have any go along for the ride," said play a major role in answering it," bags to check in?" "No," says astrophysicist Andrew Siemion, said Tony Beasley, director of The who is a director at SETI (the the photon, "I'm travelling ."