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Astrophysics in 2005 Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 118: 947–1047, 2006 July ᭧ 2006. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. Astrophysics in 2005 Virginia Trimble Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-4575; and Las Cumbres Observatory, Santa Barbara, CA; [email protected] Markus J. Aschwanden Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, Organization ADBS, Building 252, 3251 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94304; [email protected] and Carl J. Hansen JILA, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309; [email protected] Received 2006 May 3; accepted 2006 May 23; published 2006 July 14 ABSTRACT. We bring you, as usual, the Sun and Moon and stars, plus some galaxies and a new section on astrobiology. Some highlights are short (the newly identified class of gamma-ray bursts, and the Deep Impact on Comet 9P/Tempel 1), some long (the age of the universe, which will be found to have the Earth at its center), and a few metonymic, for instance the term “down-sizing” to describe the evolution of star formation rates with redshift. 1. INTRODUCTION A few papers are mentioned as deserving of gold stars, green The ApXX series celebrates its quincean˜era by adding a new, dots, and other colorful recognition. This is as nice as we get. astrobiology, section and co-opting an additional author to write Among the people who appear in the following pages are Jack it and to cope with many other problems.1 Used in compiling Benny, the Keen Amateur Dentist, the Faustian Acquaintance, §§ 3–6 and 8–13 were the issues that arrived as paper between and the Medical Musician. All are pseudonyms, for Benjamin 1 October 2004 and 30 September 2005 of Nature, Physical Kubelsky and three colleagues, left as an exercise for readers, Review Letters,theAstrophysical Journal (plus Letters and not intended to include the also-pseudonymous Mr. H., who is Supplement Series), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical supposed to be completing a thesis in X-ray astronomy. Society (including Letters up to December 2004 only), As- tronomy and Astrophysics (plus Reviews), Astronomical Jour- 1.1. Terminations nal, Acta Astronomica, Revista Mexicana Astronomia y As- trofisica, Astrophysics and Space Science, Astronomy Reports, We record here a number of things that came to an end, Astronomy Letters, Astrofizica, Astronomische Nachrichten, surely or probably, in the index year. Beginnings appear in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, Journal of § 1.2 and more complicated relationships in 1.3. (1) The last Astrophysics and Astronomy, Bulletin of the Astronomical So- launch of a Skylark sounding rocket happened on 30 April ciety of India, Contributions of the Astronomical Observatory 2005; the first was from Woomera during International Geo- Skalnate Pleso, New Astronomy (plus Reviews), IAU Circulars, physical Year 1957. (2) Both the Letters section of MNRAS and, of course, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the and the newsletter of the European Space Agency went e-only Pacific. Journals read less systematically and cited irregularly during the year (January and July 2005, respectively) and so include Observatory, Journal of the American Association of are no longer accessible to the least electronic author. (3) SLAC, Variable Star Observers, ESO Messenger, Astronomy and Geo- like Brookhaven and Los Alamos before it, was shut down by physics, Mercury, New Scientist, Science News, American Sci- an accident on 1 October (Science 306, 809). (4) The percentage entist, Scientometrics, Sky & Telescope, Monthly Notes of the of women in computer sciences has actually declined over the Astronomical Society of South Africa,andJournal of the Royal past 20 years (Science 306, 809), while that in physical sciences Astronomical Society of Canada. Additional journals provided and engineering has crept slowly up. (5) NASA’s KC-135 jet, material for §§ 2 and 7 and are mentioned there. the “vomit comet,” used to produce brief experiences of weight- lessness, free-fell for the last time on 29 October. (6) Kodak produced its last carousel projector in November 2004 but will 1 Astrophysics in 1991 to 2004 appeared in volumes 104–117 of PASP. support existing ones (light bulbs and things) until 2007. They are cited here as Ap91, etc. (7) The Yerkes Observatory (where the modern sequence of 947 948 TRIMBLE, ASCHWANDEN, & HANSEN spectral types was established by Morgan and Keenan) is to 465). (11) The US is once again planning to develop a major be turned into, but turned into what is not entirely clear (Sky underground laboratory facility for high energy physics and & Telescope 108, No. 3, p. 19). (8) The Mohorovicˇic´ discon- other purposes, perhaps back at Homestake (Ray Davis’s old tinuity was not reached again at 1.4 km, where the mid-Atlantic site) or at Henderson, an active molybdenum mine (Science ridge was expected to be only 0.7 km thick (Science 307, 1707); 309, 682). (12) France has removed an assortment of popular of course every child who attempted to dig to China with a topical antibiotics from over-the-counter sale (Science 309, tablespoon (from California, or to California from China with 872). Not astronomy perhaps, but anything that slows down chopsticks) can claim a similar result (Scientific American 293, the development of resistant organisms has to be good for us 94). (9) Ball Aerospace provided (at least) its second out-of- all! (13) SALT, the South African Large Telescope (near relative focus telescope, this one on Deep Impact (Nature 434, 685). of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope) has collected some photons (10) Another try at Cosmos-1, a solar sail vehicle, was lost on and a dedication (Nature 437, 182). (14) The Pierre Auger launch 21 June, probably due to a pump failure. (11) Gravity facility, which looks for very high energy things, released its Probe B gathered its last data on 1 October, with, up to mid first data on 6 July. (15) The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, January, no results announced and no triumphant renaming of APEX, at Chajnator (a 12-meter telescope for millimeter radio the craft as, for instance, Lens-Thirring to indicate success. astronomy and submillimeter submillimeter astronomy in the Atacama desert) carried out its first scientific observations in 1.2. Inceptions July 2005. (16) The Las Cumbres Observatory has acquired its first 2-meter telescopes (in Hawaii and Australia) and its Most of these beginnings are, we think, good news or at first GRB afterglow (in a galaxy long ago and far away, least progress toward good news. (1) Smart-1 on its way to 051111). Six telescopes and observations of many more af- the Moon was probably the most fuel-efficient vehicle in his- terglows and other transient phenomena are planned. tory, achieving the equivalent of2 # 10 6 km per liter of gas- oline (ESA Space Science News No. 7, p. 2); the only com- petition would seem to be something that simply rides along 1.3. More Complicated Stories with tectonic plate spreading. It arrived on 15 November after Astro-E, a Japanese X-ray satellite, was successfully an October 2003 launch, and was so also only marginally faster launched on 10 July 2005 and named Suzaku (red bird of the than tectonic plates. (2) Some of the antennas for LOFAR are south). But its coolant was lost some time before 8 August in place (10 near the beginning of the reference year; Sky & and, although its CCD X-ray detectors will still work, the spec- Telescope December 2005, p. 24). (3) The Spitzer Space Tele- trometer that was one of its main goals will not. This was, scope released its first large package of papers on the cusp of sadly, the second try at Astro-E.Thefirst, also unsuccessful, the year (September 2004 issue of Astrophysical Journal Sup- attempt was roughly contemporaneous with the launches of the plement Series). (4) Swift caught its first gamma ray burst on Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray satellites, and the projects 17 December, after a 20 November launch. (5) In January 2005 were meant to be complementary. the first hole was dug for Ice Cube, an advanced muon and Muses-C, which became Hayabusa afterlaunchon9May neutrino detector in Antarctica (and a confusing notebook entry, 2003, was supposed to examine asteroid Itokawa, break off a because we generally use upward pointing arrows for good bit, and bring it back in the summer of 2007. The bad news/ news items, while the hole probably went down). (6) The Ar- good news items have been coming out more or less monthly iane heavy lifter had its first successful launch from French on beyond the end of the reference year. It got to the asteroid. Guiana on 12–13 February. It will be needed for the James Two gyros failed. It managed to touch down, or not? It picked Webb Space Telescope, unless very considerable additional de- up some stuff, or not? And it may or may not be able to turn scoping occurs. (7) A million dollar Kavli astrophysics prize around and come home. will be given starting in 2008 (Nature 435, 37) along with ones The American Physical Society, worried about folks saying, in neuroscience and nano-technology. (8) The street lighting “Gee, you don’t look very strong,” like a Canadian border in the Canary Islands has been considerably dimmed (Nature guard many years ago, attempted to change its name to Amer- 435, 41), partly in anticipation of first light at the GTC (out ican Physics Society (Science 309, 378). Loud and long blew of period). (9) The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is being extended, the arguments through the summer and fall, both rational and primarily to examine stars for their own sake and for galactic irrational.
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