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EXCLUSIVE Buzz Aldrin on America’s space future WIN May 2005 AN ORION Astronomy.com TELESCOPE! Explore and Discover Stellar archaeology Star clusters reveal secrets of galactic history – p. 34 Explore the Moon’s hidden seas Caught: fugitive moons p. 46 PROFILE Sir Patrick Moore, Britain’s Mr. Astronomy $5.95 l $6.95 CANADA 05 Vol. 33 • Small scopes + webcams = great photos 5 Issue A rich cluster’s blazing stars off er a key 0172246 46770 to the Milky Way’s past *OUSPEVDJOHUIF 'FBUVSFGPS'FBUVSF5IFSFJT 13&.*6..&"%&¥ -9% 015*$4 0QUJDBM 5VCF $POTUSVDUJPO 5EJOKFV0GYVQPKCP CPF 5EJOKFV 'BTUG3BUJPT /GCFG¶U5EJOKFV0GYVQPKCPUJCXGGZVTGOGN[HCUV %CUUGITCKP QRVKEU CTG OQWPVGF KP RTGEKUKQPOCEJKPGF CNWOKPWO YGNN EQTTGEVGF H4CVKQU HQT UJQTV RJQVQITCRJKE GZRQUWTG VKOGU CPF EGNNU CPF OQWPVGF KP UVWTF[ UVGGN VWDGU YJKEJ CTG DCMGF YKVJ JKIJ YKFGHKGNFUQHXKGY ITCFG VGZVWTGF GPCOGN RCKPV 6JG QRVKECN VWDG CUUGODN[ KU ENQUGF 'PDVTFS 4CEMCPFRKPKQPHQEWUGTCNNQYUVJGWUGTVQCEJKGXG TGFWEKPICKTEWTTGPVUKPUKFGVJGVWDG6JKURTGXGPVUFKUVQTVKQPQHCPQVJ CRTGEKUGHQEWU #EEGRVUDQVJ'[GRKGEGU GTYKUG UJCTR KOCIG 2NWU C ENQUGF 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,WRKVGTCPFOQTG7BMVF 4$).*%5 $"44&(3"*/ 1BUFOUT BOE 1BUFOUT1FOEJOH " QVCMJDMZUSBEFE FNQMPZFFPXOFEDPNQBOZ /"4%"2 TZNCPM.&"% .&"%&$0.-9% $PQZSJHIUª.FBEF*OTUSVNFOUT$PSQPSBUJPO"MMSJHIUTSFTFSWFE 1ZSFYJTBSFHJTUFSFEUSBEFNBSLPG$PSOJOH*ODPSQPSBUFE EXCLUSIVE Buzz Aldrin on America’s space future RION ON THE COVER WIN May 2005 AN O SCOPE! Astronomy.com TELE The Milky Way Galaxy we VOL. 33, NO. 5 see on a clear, dark night is Explore and Discover the outcome of processes Stellar that have been at work dur- archaeology Star clusters reveal secrets ing most of the universe’s of galactic history – p. 34 history. To dig into that past, Explore and Discover Explore the Moon’s astronomers are turning to hidden seas open and globular star clus- Caught: fugitive ters, using their stars as a way moons p. 46 to peel back history’s layers. PROFILE Sir Patrick Moore, Britain’s Mr. Astronomy In the end, they hope to find $5.95 l $7.95 CANADA 05 33 Vol. • Small scopes + webcams = great photos Issue 5 a portrait of an ancient time: A rich cluster’s blazing stars off er a key 0172246 46770 to the Milky Way’s past DON DIXON; INSET: NASA/JPL/SS DON DIXON; INSET: the Milky Way’s beginnings. may 2005 06 This month in Astronomy 40 Catching up with Buzz Aldrin 14 Beautiful universe Going deep in Leo 16 Letters A familiar friend 18 Bob Berman’s strange universe Good planets gone bad 20 Glenn Chaple’s observing basics Do the hop 22 Interview 46 Andrew Gould, Ohio State University ON-LINE EXTRA: Read more from OSU astronomer Andrew Gould. 24 News • Cosmic structure began with mini-halos • Tiny star has a planet-making disk • The astronomy of launching a shuttle • Fix Hubble — or replace it? • Smallest exoplanet found — and it orbits a pulsar 34 Stellar archaeology Star clusters within the Milky Way come in two forms — open and globular. Now, some astronomers suspect they are related. FRANCIS REDDY ON-LINE EXTRA: Can a globular make an open cluster? 62 40 Space Buzz Apollo 11 Moon-walker Buzz Aldrin talks about the future of space flight. ON-LINE EXTRA: Read more from Astronomy’s chat with the Apollo astronaut. 46 Vagabond moons Around each gas-giant planet orbit dozens of small moons born elsewhere. These far-ranging bodies are beginning to give scien- tists clues to the dark corners of the solar system. DAN DURDA AND DOUG HAMILTON MIKE PIERCE, JOHN JURCEVIC JOHN (INDIANA)/WIYN/NOAO/NSF PIERCE, MIKE ON-LINE EXTRA: DURDA DAN Discover faint, fugitive moons the way astronomers NASA do. 04 astronomy /// may 05 HOW TO REACH US: Astronomy magazine, Kalmbach Publishing Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, Wisconsin 53187 Find much more on-line at Astronomy.com, where you’ll get premium content t} 262.796.8776 f } 262.798.6468 e} [email protected] available only to Astronomy magazine readers: To start, simply log in. It’s easy, and you don’t pay anything more! Here’s how: HAVE YOU MOVED? Send change-of-address notices to the above 1. Go to www.astronomy.com mailing address or to [email protected]. 2. In the welcome box, click Gain access now. contact Howard Hoerl, 3. Subscribers: Type in the customer number on your subscription label. You’ll FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION, enjoy unlimited access to the web site for the life of your subscription. Advertising Sales Manager, 888.558.1544, x571. 4. Newsstand buyers: Type in the access code UD5R5A. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to the web site through the last day of the HAVE AN ASTRONOMY QUESTION? month listed on the cover. Send it to [email protected]. 52 The sky this month A month of shadows MARTIN RATCLIFFE and ALISTER LING 68 62 A spiral masterpiece Near the end of the Big Dipper’s handle lurks M101, a delightful celestial pinwheel. ALAN GOLDSTEIN 66 Ask Astro Earth’s future orbit, Sun and season, asteroid gulf 68 Sail a hidden sea Not all of the Moon’s “seas” are easily visible. Some lie beneath the lunar plains, covered by debris from later impacts. ROBERT BURNHAM 70 Small eyes on the sky You’ll be surprised by the great images you can create with a small telescope and a webcam. DAMIAN A. PEACH 74 The sky’s knight British amateur astronomer Sir Patrick Moore has inspired ANDLUNAR LABORATORY PLANETARY generations of people to look up. WILLIAM SHEEHAN ON-LINE EXTRA: Astronomy’s editors select their favorite books by Sir Patrick Moore. 78 The big easy 98 This large scope by StarStructure offers high-quality optics in a lightweight package. ANTHONY E. NELSON 84 New products
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  • CYANOGEN JETS and the ROTATION STATE of COMET MACHHOLZ (C/2004 Q2) Tony L

    CYANOGEN JETS and the ROTATION STATE of COMET MACHHOLZ (C/2004 Q2) Tony L

    The Astronomical Journal, 133:2001Y2007, 2007 May # 2007. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. CYANOGEN JETS AND THE ROTATION STATE OF COMET MACHHOLZ (C/2004 Q2) Tony L. Farnham1 Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; [email protected] Nalin H. Samarasinha2 National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA; and Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA Be´atrice E. A. Mueller1 Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA and Matthew M. Knight1 Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA Received 2006 June 16; accepted 2007 January 25 ABSTRACT Extensive observations of Comet Machholz (C/2004 Q2) from 2005 February, March, and April were used to derive a number of the properties of the comet’s nucleus. Images were obtained using narrowband comet filters to isolate the CN morphology. The images revealed two jets that pointed in roughly opposite directions relative to the nucleus and changed on hourly timescales. The morphology repeated itself in a periodic manner, and this fact was used to determine a rotation period for the nucleus of 17:60 Æ 0:05 hr. The morphology was also used to estimate a pole orientation of R:A: ¼ 50,decl: ¼þ35, and the jet source locations were found to be on opposite hemispheres at mid- latitudes. The longitudes are also about 180 apart, although this is not well constrained. The CN features were mea- sured to be moving at about 0.8 km sÀ1, which is close to the canonical value typically quoted for gas outflow.
  • Machine Learning for Star Cluster Identification∗ Submitted to Apj

    Machine Learning for Star Cluster Identification∗ Submitted to Apj

    Draft version December 1, 2020 Typeset using LATEX default style in AASTeX63 StarcNet: Machine Learning for Star Cluster Identification∗ Gustavo Perez´ ,1 Matteo Messa ,2 Daniela Calzetti ,2 Subhransu Maji ,1 Dooseok E. Jung ,2 Angela Adamo ,3 and Mattia Siressi3 1Department of Computer Science University of Massachusetts Amherst 40 Governors Drive Amherst, MA 01003, USA 2Department of Astronomy University of Massachusetts Amherst 710 North Pleasant Street Amherst, MA 01003, USA 3Department of Astronomy, Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Centre, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden (Received July 1, 2020; Revised; Accepted) Submitted to ApJ ABSTRACT We present a machine learning (ML) pipeline to identify star clusters in the multi{color images of nearby galaxies, from observations obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Treasury Project LEGUS (Legacy ExtraGalactic Ultraviolet Survey). StarcNet (STAR Cluster classification NETwork) is a multi{scale convolutional neural network (CNN) which achieves an accuracy of 68.6% (4 classes)/86.0% (2 classes: cluster/non{cluster) for star cluster classification in the images of the LEGUS galaxies, nearly matching human expert performance. We test the performance of StarcNet by applying pre{trained CNN model to galaxies not included in the training set, finding accuracies similar to the reference one. We test the effect of StarcNet predictions on the inferred cluster properties by comparing multi{color luminosity functions and mass{age plots from catalogs produced by StarcNet and by human{labeling; distributions in luminosity, color, and physical characteristics of star clusters are similar for the human and ML classified samples. There are two advantages to the ML approach: (1) reproducibility of the classifications: the ML algorithm's biases are fixed and can be measured for subsequent analysis; and (2) speed of classification: the algorithm requires minutes for tasks that humans require weeks to months to perform.
  • Synapses of Active Galactic Nuclei: Comparing X-Ray and Optical Classifications Using Artificial Neural Networks?

    Synapses of Active Galactic Nuclei: Comparing X-Ray and Optical Classifications Using Artificial Neural Networks?

    A&A 567, A92 (2014) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201322592 & c ESO 2014 Astrophysics Synapses of active galactic nuclei: Comparing X-ray and optical classifications using artificial neural networks? O. González-Martín1;2;??, D. Díaz-González3, J. A. Acosta-Pulido1;2, J. Masegosa4, I. E. Papadakis5;6, J. M. Rodríguez-Espinosa1;2, I. Márquez4, and L. Hernández-García4 1 Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), C/Vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Spain e-mail: [email protected] 2 Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38205 La Laguna, Spain 3 Shidix Technologies, 38320, La Laguna, Spain 4 Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, C/ Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18005 Granada, Spain 5 Physics Department, University of Crete, PO Box 2208, 710 03 Heraklion, Crete, Greece 6 IESL, Foundation for Research and Technology, 711 10 Heraklion, Crete, Greece Received 2 September 2013 / Accepted 3 April 2014 ABSTRACT Context. Many classes of active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been defined entirely through optical wavelengths, while the X-ray spectra have been very useful to investigate their inner regions. However, optical and X-ray results show many discrepancies that have not been fully understood yet. Aims. The main purpose of the present paper is to study the synapses (i.e., connections) between X-ray and optical AGN classifications. Methods. For the first time, the newly implemented efluxer task allowed us to analyse broad band X-ray spectra of a sample of emission-line nuclei without any prior spectral fitting. Our sample comprises 162 spectra observed with XMM-Newton/pn of 90 lo- cal emission line nuclei in the Palomar sample.
  • 2019 Astrophysics Senior Review Senior Review Subcommittee Report

    2019 Astrophysics Senior Review Senior Review Subcommittee Report

    2019 Astrophysics Senior Review Senior Review Subcommittee Report 2019 Astrophysics Senior Review - Senior Review Subcommittee Report June 4-5, 2019 SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS Dr. Alison Coil, University of California San Diego Dr. Megan Donahue, Michigan State University Dr. Jonathan Fortney, University of California Santa Cruz Ms. Maura Fujieh, NASA Ames Research Center Dr. Roberta Humphreys, University of Minnesota Dr. Mark McConnell, University of New Hampshire / Southwest Research Institute Dr. John O’Meara, Keck Observatory Dr. Rebecca Oppenheimer, American Museum of Natural History Dr. Alexandra Pope, University of Massachusetts Amherst Dr. Wilton Sanders, NASA/University of Wisconsin-Madison, retired Dr. David Weinberg, The Ohio State University - Chair ​ 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The eight missions evaluated by the 2019 Astrophysics Senior Review constitute a portfolio of extraordinary scientific power, on topics that range from the atmospheres of planets around nearby stars to the nature of the dark energy that drives the accelerating expansion of the cosmos. The missions themselves range from the venerable Great Observatories Hubble and Chandra to the newest Explorer missions NICER and TESS. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ All of these missions are operating at a high level technically and scientifically, and all have sought ways to make their operations cost-efficient and their data valuable to a broad community. The complementary nature of these missions makes the overall capability of the portfolio more than the sum of its parts, and many of the most exciting developments in contemporary astrophysics draw on observations from several of these observatories simultaneously. The Senior Review Subcommittee recommends that NASA continue to operate and support all eight of these missions.