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Annual Report 2003 Research Institute Leiden Observatory (Onderzoekinstituut Sterrewacht Leiden) Annual Report 2003 Sterrewacht Leiden Sterrewacht Leiden Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences University of Leiden Niels Bohrweg 2 Postbus 9513 2333 CA Leiden 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl Front cover: True-colour JHKs image of Centaurus A, obtained with SOFI on the ESO NTT by Van der Werf and Menende´ z-Delmestre (see section 2.6.4). An electronic version of this annual report is available on the web at http://www.strw.LeidenUniv.nl/research/annrep.php Production Annual Report 2003: F. P. Israel, J. Lub, L. Snijders, D. Schnitzeler, L. van der Veld Sterrewacht Leiden Executive (Directie) Director of Research P. T. de Zeeuw Wetenschappelijk Directeur Director of Education M. Franx Onderwijs Directeur Executive Secretary J. Lub Secretaris Instituut Supervisory Council (Raad van Toezicht) Prof. Dr. H. van der Laan (Chair) Prof. Dr. A. J. Berkhout P. Morley, M. Sc. Prof. Dr. C. J. Oort Drs. P. H. Schoute Sterrewacht Leiden Contents Part I 1 Chapter 1 1 Review of major events 3 2 Research 9 2.1 Solar System . 9 2.2 Stars . 11 2.3 Protostars and Circumstellar Disks . 13 2.4 Interstellar Medium . 20 2.5 Galactic Structure . 22 2.6 Gas and Dust in Nearby Galaxies . 23 2.7 Structure and Kinematics of Elliptical Galaxies . 30 2.8 Active Galaxies and Quasars . 34 2.9 Clusters and Cluster Galaxies . 34 2.10 Distant Objects and Large-Scale Structure . 37 2.11 Models and Theory . 43 2.12 Raymond & Beverly Sackler Lab. for Astrophysics . 47 2.13 Astrobiology . 52 2.14 Instrumentation . 53 3 Education, popularization and social events 61 3.1 Educational matters . 61 3.2 Degrees awarded in 2003 . 62 ii CONTENTS 3.3 Courses and teaching activities . 63 3.4 Popularization and media contacts . 64 3.5 The “Leidsch Astronomisch Dispuut `F. Kaiser' ” . 66 Part II 67 Appendix 67 I Observatory staff December 31, 2003 69 II Committee membership 75 II.1 Observatory Commitees . 75 II.2 University Committees . 77 III Science policy functions 81 IV Visiting scientists 89 V Workshops, colloquia and lectures 93 V.1 Workshops and Meetings . 93 V.2 Scientific colloquia . 96 V.3 Student colloquia . 98 V.4 Endowed lectures . 98 VI Participation in scientific meetings 101 VII Observing sessions abroad 115 VIII Working visits abroad 119 IX Colloquia given outside Leiden 127 X Scientific publications 133 X.1 Ph.D. theses and books . 133 X.2 Papers in refereed journals . 133 X.3 Review articles, conference papers, etc. 142 X.4 Catalogues . 149 X.5 Popular articles . 150 Chapter 1 Review of Sterrewachtmajor events Leiden Review of major events Chapter 1 The year 2003 saw an important change: four new staff members arrived. Bernhard Brandl from Cornell joined the optical/infrared instrumentation effort, Michiel Hoger- heijde from Steward Observatory brought much expertise in millimeter wave as- tronomy and starformation, and Stephan Schlemmer from Chemnitz succeeded Willem Schutte in leading the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Laboratory for Astro- physics. Furthermore, Thijs de Graauw from SRON Groningen was appointed as Extraordinary Adjunct Professor of Space Astrophysics. This significant strength- ening of the Observatory was, however, also accompanied by a loss: Pascale Ehren- freund accepted a full professorship at the University of Amsterdam and left to start a group in Astrobiology. After an extended period in which Jeanne Drost and Kirsten Kol provided nearly all of the support, the secretariat was expanded with Mirjam Driessen and Liesbeth van der Veld. The research carried out in Leiden remains diverse, and includes observating pro- grams with a large arsenal of telescopes on the ground and in orbit, laboratory astrophysics, data analysis and interpretation, as well as purely theoretical work. Scientific highlights can be found elsewhere in this Annual Report, and on the Ster- rewacht webpages. Particularly noteworthy was the first detection of extragalactic fringes with MIDI attached to the VLT Interferometer. This allowed the team led by Walter Jaffe to resolve the dusty torus that was long postulated to exist in the nucleus of the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068. This marvellous step forward was selected as one of the annual highlights of the entire Faculty of Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Leiden astronomers are involved in the development of instrumentation for the ESO-VLT and the associated VLTI effort. This includes SINFONI and second gen- eration instruments MUSE, CHEOPS, and PRIMA. They also play a leading role in the development of OmegaCAM for the VST. There is also major involvement in the HIFI instrument for ESA's Herschel Observatory, in the construction of CHAMP+ 4 and the ALMA Band 9 receivers, and in the preparation for LOFAR. The latter re- ceived the green light for construction in late 2003, accompanied by a large grant from the government, so that there will be a state-of-the-art long-wavelength ra- dio observatory in the Netherlands in the near future. Several Leiden astronomers, notably Bernhard Brandl and Ewine van Dishoeck, are also deeply involved in the Spitzer Space Telescope, the last in NASA's series of `Great Observatories'. The award of funding for the second phase of NOVA, together with strong sup- port from NWO, made it possible to continue a strong PhD and postdoctoral pro- gram, and to continue the build-up of instrumentation expertise at the Observa- tory. More than half of the Observatory activities are now funded externally by NOVA, NWO or the EU. Our education program entered a new phase with the introduction of the three- plus-two-year Bachelor/Master structure, which has the main effect of exposing the students to research earlier in their university stay. Four PhD theses were com- pleted. The annual Oort Lecture was presented by Professor Alexander Dalgarno from Har- vard University, entitled Molecular Synthesis in the Universe. He also led a fascinat- ing workshop on X-rays in the Solar system. Professor Roland Bacon from Obser- vatoire de Lyon visited for a week in November, and presented the 2003 Sackler lec- ture, entitled Integral-field spectroscopy of stars and galaxies. Nearly a dozen other astronomical workshops were held in Leiden, many in the Lorentz Center. On `national science day', the old Sterrewacht was crewed by students, profession- als, and amateurs. It attracted record public interest, as did the special day cele- brating the closest approach by the planet Mars in recorded history. Observatory staff continues to carry out high-level international science advisory functions for ESO, ESA, ALMA, AURA, and the Hubble Space Telescope. A notewor- thy event was the scientific symposium on AGB stars to celebrate the official retire- ment of Harm Habing, which was followed by his farewell lecture. At this occasion, Harm also received a royal distinction. It was a special privilege for me to receive a doctorate honoris causa from the Universite´ Claude Bernard in Lyon. George Mi- ley was awarded a most prestigious Royal Academy professorhip, which frees him from all managerial duties, and allows him to concentrate fully on his research us- ing the Hubble Space Telescope and ESO's Very Large Telescope, and to prepare for LOFAR. This allowed him to step down as Director in late October. George led the Observatory for seven years, which constituted a particularly exciting period, with many new staff appointments, and much activity in research and instrumentation. Thank you George! Finally, I must end on a sad note. March we received the sad news that Jan Core- mans had died. Trained as a physicist, Jan had been executive manager for astron- omy (as well as for physics and later also for mathematics and computer science) for a quarter of a century. Although it took the Sterrewacht and Jan Coremans some 5 time to get used to one another, through the years he became a staunch supporter of the Observatory and provided invaluable support in the world of university bu- reaucracy. He was a competent manager with a strong character and a passionate view of science. We owe him much. Tim de Zeeuw Director Chapter 2 Research Sterrewacht Leiden Research Chapter 2 2.1 Solar System 2.1.1 Minor Planets Many new asteroids were discovered, numbered or named by I. van Houten, con- tinuing the work by herself and her late husband C. J. van Houten (see Annual Re- port 2002). In 2003, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge (USA) gave definitive numbers to 414 asteroids found by the van Houtens in their four surveys of 1960, 1971, 1973, and 1977. They included 406 regular asteroids and 8 Trojans, 4 in L4 and 4 in L5 . Definitively numbered asteroids found by the van Houtens year of observation 1960 1971 1973 1977 survey P-L T-1 T-2 T-3 region L4 L5 L4 L5 regular asteroids found 149 30 114 113 Trojans found 2 0 2 4 As of 2003 November 6, the top ten discoverers of numbered minor planets, ar- ranged in decreasing order of number of discoveries, were: 10 2.1. SOLAR SYSTEM Rank Discoveries Co- Between Name(s) 1 33866 1997-2003 LINEAR 2 3341 1985-2003 Spacewatch 3 3254 1998-2003 LONEOS 4 3042 1960-1977 C.J. van Houten I. van Houten-Groeneveld T. Gehrels 5 2801 68 1986-1999 E. W. Elst 6 2226 1995-2003 NEAT 7 2020 2 1991-2002 T. Kobayashi 8 1262 1998-2003 CSS 9 1097 279 1975-1989 S.J. Bus 10 833 1992-1993 UESAC Note the fourth place held by Leiden emeriti Van Houten and Van Houten-Groeneveld together with Arizona astronomer Gehrels. This is, in fact the first place held by individual astronomers because the ranks 1 through 3 are occupied by automatic surveys! The `Small Bodies Names Committee' of the IAU named 38 regular minor plan- ets and 24 Trojans (10 in L4 and 14 in L5) following proposals by the van Houtens.
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