NOAO/NSO Newsletter Issue 86 June 2006
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NOAO/NSO Newsletter Issue 86 June 2006 Science Highlights Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Using the ‘NOAO System’ of Small and Large Telescopes Conociendo al Pueblo Atacameño ............................................26 to Investigate Young Brown Dwarfs.......................................3 The El Peñón DIMM ...................................................................28 The First Complete Solar Cycle of GONG Observations SOAR Telescope Update .............................................................28 of Solar Convection Zone Dynamics .....................................5 Robert Blum Moves from NOAO South to North ................ 29 Discovery of the First Radio-Loud Quasar at z > 6 ..................6 Reversed Granulation and Gravity Waves Kitt Peak National Observatory in the Mid-Photosphere............................................................8 The Tohono O’odham Nation, the NSF, VERITAS, and The Volume-Averaged Properties Kitt Peak National Observatory ............................................30 of Luminous Galaxies at z < 3....................................................9 The WIYN One-Degree Imager and its Precursor QUOTA ..................................................................32 Director’s Office Thank You, Judy Prosser, for 18 Years of Service! ..................34 TMT Project Passes Conceptual Design Review ....................12 Taft Armandroff moves from NGSC Director National Solar Observatory/GONG to Keck Director ...................................................................... 14 From the Director’s Office ..........................................................35 ATST Update: Formal NHPA Consultation Meetings NOAO Gemini Science Center Held on Maui ...........................................................................37 The Gemini Planet Imager .........................................................15 SOLIS .............................................................................................38 Phoenix: Five Years of Commitment to Gemini South ........ 17 Virtual Camera Expands Flexibility at the Gemini HelpDesk: Helpful Hints for Users ........................... 18 Dunn Solar Telescope .............................................................39 NGSC Instrumentation Program Update ...............................20 GONG++ .........................................................................................41 New NGSC Staff ...........................................................................20 Public Affairs and Educational Outreach Observational Programs Astronomy From the Ground Up Launches from Tucson....44 2006B Proposal Process Update ................................................22 GLOBE at Night Reaches More Than 18,000 2006B Instrument Request Statistics by Telescope ................22 Participants on Six Continents .............................................45 2006B Time Allocation Committee Members ........................25 The CTIO REU & PIA PROGRAM – 2006 .............................46 Student Videoconference Has Far-Reaching Results Across the Equator ..................................................................48 SIGN-UP TO RECEIVE NEW TMT E-NEWS On the Cover An electronic newsletter for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will debut in late June. Topics will include the latest project developments, Site-testing equipment for the Thirty science case profiles, instrument updates, pending milestones, and audio Meter Telescope (TMT) installed interviews with project team members. and working on the summit of Cerro E-mail [email protected] to register and receive it from the start! Tolonchar in northern Chile. The small stone structure on the near horizon to Site in Northern Chile Selected for LSST the right is an “apacheta” (ceremonial May 17, 2006 - LSST Corporation Press Release-04 rock cairn, or marker) that likely dates back to the early 1900’s. It now Cerro Pachón, a 8,800-foot (2,650-meter) mountain peak in northern Chile, has been selected as the site for the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). serves as an important symbol of the indigenous presence on and around the Scheduled to see first light in 2012, the 8.4-meter LSST will be able to survey the entire visible sky every three nights with its three-billion pixel digital camera, probing the mountain, and marks the location of a mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and opening a movie-like window on objects special “ceremonia del pago” conducted that change or move on rapid timescales: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids as small as 100 meters, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects. at the time of installation of the TMT equipment on the mountain in honor The decision to place the LSST on Cerro Pachón follows a two-year campaign of in- depth testing and analysis of the atmospheric conditions and quality of astronomical of the Earth Mother or “pachamama.” seeing at four sites in Chile, Mexico, and the Canary Islands. The eleven members of (See page 26 for more details) the Site Selection Committee, chaired by Marc Sarazin from the European Southern Observatory, reviewed detailed proposals from two final sites, San Pedro Mártir in Credit: Juan Seguel and NOAO/AURA/NSF Baja California, Mexico, and Cerro Pachón, regarding their suitability for the project. The final selection was made by the LSST Corporation Board of Directors based on a recommendation from the Site Selection Committee. Important factors when considering a site for the LSST include the number of clear nights The NOAO-NSO Newsletter is published quarterly per year, seasonal weather patterns, and the quality of images as seen through the local by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory atmosphere. The chosen site also needed to have an existing observatory infrastructure P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726 and access to fiber optic links, to accommodate the anticipated 30 terabytes of data LSST will produce each night. [email protected] Universidad de Chile Director of Astronomy Leonardo Bronfman said Chilean astronomers are enthusiastic about having the LSST sited in Chile and participating in Douglas Isbell, Editor its development and operation. “We have unparalleled access to a wide suite of facilities in Chile, and are eager to utilize these resources to complement the strengths of LSST.” Section Editors “The LSST will be the World’s most powerful survey telescope and demands a Abhijit Saha Science Highlights superb site. We finally had a difficult decision between two wonderful sites at Cerro Dave Bell Observational Programs Pachón in Chile and San Pedro Mártir in Mexico. It’s too bad we can’t build two Observational Programs telescopes—one in each hemisphere.” said Donald Sweeney, LSST Project Manager. Mia Hartman “The final decision was influenced by the existing infrastructure at Cerro Pachón and Nicole S. van der Bliek CTIO the array of synergistic facilities in the south.” Buell T. Jannuzi KPNO Ken Hinkle NGSC Siting LSST in Chile leverages the significant multi-wavelength astronomy investments Sally Adams NGSC already there, said University of California, Davis, Professor and LSST Director John Leibacher NSO J. Anthony Tyson. Cerro Pachón is already home to the Gemini South 8-meter telescope NSO and the SOAR 4.1-meter telescope. LSST will be located on a peak on Cerro Pachón Priscilla Piano named El Peñón. (For a related story, see page 28) Douglas Isbell Public Affairs & Educational Outreach Production Staff Keith Ann Atkinson Managing Editor Pete Marenfeld Design & Layout Kathie Coil Production Support 2 June 2006 Science Highlights Using the ‘NOAO System’ of Small and Large Telescopes to Investigate Young Brown Dwarfs Keivan G. Stassun (Vanderbilt University) This article is excerpted in part from an article in the permitted observation only during excellent sky conditions, 16 March 2006 issue of Nature, with co-authors Robert thus yielding observations that nicely sample all phases of Mathieu and Jeff Valenti. the 9.8-day orbit. rown dwarfs are ‘failed stars’ that span the divide Physical Properties of 2M0535-05 between stars and planets, and thus serve as a critical We simultaneously fit the light-curve (figure 1) and radial- link between theories of star and planet formation. velocity measurements (figure 2) to obtain orbital and physical BYet even the most fundamental physical properties of parameters of the system. At M = 0.0541 ± 0.0046 M , 1 ◉ brown dwarfs—mass and radius—have so far eluded direct the more massive component—the ‘primary’—is four measurement. Prior to the work reported here, the mass of standard deviations below the 0.072 M◉ threshold for a star, only one brown dwarf had been measured with sufficient and at M2 = 0.0340 ± 0.0027 M◉, the lower-mass ‘secondary’ accuracy to make the brown-dwarf nature of the object is even further below this threshold. Both components are definitive (Zapatero Osorio et al. 2004), and in no case had thus proven to be brown dwarfs. a brown dwarf’s radius been measured directly. From the observed eclipse durations and orbital velocities, We have discovered the object 2M0535-05 to be a brown- we directly and accurately measure the radii of the brown dwarf eclipsing binary—the first of its kind—in the young dwarfs to be R1 = 0.669 ± 0.034R◉ and R2 = 0.511 ± 0.026R◉, (~1 Myr per Hillenbrand 1997) Orion Nebula Cluster. representing the first direct measurements of brown-dwarf This discovery was made as part of an long-term ongoing program using the NOAO 1-m class telescopes, to identify