JAAVSO 2009 the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers
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Executive Summary
The Boston University Astronomy Department Annual Report 2010 Chair: James Jackson Administrator: Laura Wipf 1 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 5 Faculty and Staff 5 Teaching 6 Undergraduate Programs 6 Observatory and Facilities 8 Graduate Program 9 Colloquium Series 10 Alumni Affairs/Public Outreach 10 Research 11 Funding 12 Future Plans/Departmental Needs 13 APPENDIX A: Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students 16 APPENDIX B: 2009/2010 Astronomy Graduates 18 APPENDIX C: Seminar Series 19 APPENDIX D: Sponsored Project Funding 21 APPENDIX E: Accounts Income Expenditures 25 APPENDIX F: Publications 27 Cover photo: An ultraviolet image of Saturn taken by Prof. John Clarke and his group using the Hubble Space Telescope. The oval ribbons toward the top and bottom of the image shows the location of auroral activity near Saturn’s poles. This activity is analogous to Earth’s aurora borealis and aurora australis, the so-called “northern” and “southern lights,” and is caused by energetic particles from the sun trapped in Saturn’s magnetic field. 3 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY associates authored or co-authored a total of 204 refereed, scholarly papers in the disciplines’ most The Department of Astronomy teaches science to prestigious journals. hundreds of non-science majors from throughout the university, and runs one of the largest astronomy degree The funding of the Astronomy Department, the Center programs in the country. Research within the for Space Physics, and the Institute for Astrophysical Astronomy Department is thriving, and we retain our Research was changed this past year. In previous years, strong commitment to teaching and service. only the research centers received research funding, but last year the Department received a portion of this The Department graduated a class of twelve research funding based on grant activity by its faculty. -
Pos(HTRA-IV)023 , 1 , 9 , B.T
ULTRACAM observations of SDS 0926+3624: the first known eclipsing AM CVn star PoS(HTRA-IV)023 C.M. Copperwheat∗ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK E-mail: [email protected] T.R. Marsh1, S.P. Littlefair2, V.S. Dhillon2, G. Ramsay3, A.J. Drake4, B.T. Gänsicke1, P.J. Groot5, P. Hakala6, D. Koester7, G. Nelemans5, G. Roelofs8, J. Southworth9, D. Steeghs1 and S. Tulloch2 1 Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK 2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, S3 7RH, UK 3 Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh, BT61 9DG, UK 4 California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., CA 91225, USA 5 Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, NL-6500 GL Nijmegen, the Netherlands 6 Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO, Tuorla Observatory, Väisäläntie 20, FIN-21500 Piikkiö, University of Turku, Finland 7 Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, Universität Kiel, 24098 Kiel, Germany 8 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 9 Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Newcastle-under-Lyme, ST5 5BG, UK The AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) stars are ultracompact binaries with the lowest periods of any binary subclass, and consist of a white dwarf accreting material from a donor star that is it- self fully or partially degenerate. These objects offer new insight into the formation and evolution of binary systems, and are predicted to be among the strongest gravitational wave sources in the sky. To date, the only known eclipsing source of this type is the 28 min binary SDSS 0926+3624. -
Rapid Oscillations in Cataclysmic Variables
I RAPID OSCILLATIONS IN CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES Sue Allen . ' Thesis submitted for the degree of l Master of Science at the University of Cape Town July 1986 'I.-~~,,,.,------.. The Unlvers{ty bf qape Town tias been given the right to reproduce t~!s thesis in whole or in part. Copytlght Is hehl ~y the author. The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to my supervisor, Professor B. Warner, for his guidance and patience and for securing me financial support for this work. I am·· grateful to the Director of the south African Astronomical Observatory, Dr M. Feast, for the allocation of observing time and for' allowing me to use the Observatory Library over an extended period .. Thanks also to Mrs E:. Lastovica and Dr L. Balona, and especially to Drs o. Kilkenny and I. Coulson for constant encouragement and for putting up with a "squatter" in their office. Dr o. O'Donoghue wrote all the computer programs used in the data analysis, and gave me great moral support and much of his time. My thanks go to Mrs P. Debbie and Mrs c. Barends for help with the worst of the typing, and to Dr I. Coulson for proofreading the manuscript. -
A Review of the Disc Instability Model for Dwarf Novae, Soft X-Ray Transients and Related Objects a J.M
A review of the disc instability model for dwarf novae, soft X-ray transients and related objects a J.M. Hameury aObservatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg ARTICLEINFO ABSTRACT Keywords: I review the basics of the disc instability model (DIM) for dwarf novae and soft-X-ray transients Cataclysmic variable and its most recent developments, as well as the current limitations of the model, focusing on the Accretion discs dwarf nova case. Although the DIM uses the Shakura-Sunyaev prescription for angular momentum X-ray binaries transport, which we know now to be at best inaccurate, it is surprisingly efficient in reproducing the outbursts of dwarf novae and soft X-ray transients, provided that some ingredients, such as irradiation of the accretion disc and of the donor star, mass transfer variations, truncation of the inner disc, etc., are added to the basic model. As recently realized, taking into account the existence of winds and outflows and of the torque they exert on the accretion disc may significantly impact the model. I also discuss the origin of the superoutbursts that are probably due to a combination of variations of the mass transfer rate and of a tidal instability. I finally mention a number of unsolved problems and caveats, among which the most embarrassing one is the modelling of the low state. Despite significant progresses in the past few years both on our understanding of angular momentum transport, the DIM is still needed for understanding transient systems. 1. Introduction tems using Doppler tomography techniques (Steeghs et al. 1997; Marsh and Horne 1988; see also Marsh and Schwope Dwarf novae (DNe) are cataclysmic variables (CV) that 2016 for a recent review). -
Arxiv:2006.10868V2 [Astro-Ph.SR] 9 Apr 2021 Spain and Institut D’Estudis Espacials De Catalunya (IEEC), C/Gran Capit`A2-4, E-08034 2 Serenelli, Weiss, Aerts Et Al
Noname manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Weighing stars from birth to death: mass determination methods across the HRD Aldo Serenelli · Achim Weiss · Conny Aerts · George C. Angelou · David Baroch · Nate Bastian · Paul G. Beck · Maria Bergemann · Joachim M. Bestenlehner · Ian Czekala · Nancy Elias-Rosa · Ana Escorza · Vincent Van Eylen · Diane K. Feuillet · Davide Gandolfi · Mark Gieles · L´eoGirardi · Yveline Lebreton · Nicolas Lodieu · Marie Martig · Marcelo M. Miller Bertolami · Joey S.G. Mombarg · Juan Carlos Morales · Andr´esMoya · Benard Nsamba · KreˇsimirPavlovski · May G. Pedersen · Ignasi Ribas · Fabian R.N. Schneider · Victor Silva Aguirre · Keivan G. Stassun · Eline Tolstoy · Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay · Konstanze Zwintz Received: date / Accepted: date A. Serenelli Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), Carrer de Can Magrans S/N, Bellaterra, E- 08193, Spain and Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Carrer Gran Capita 2, Barcelona, E-08034, Spain E-mail: [email protected] A. Weiss Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Karl Schwarzschild Str. 1, Garching bei M¨unchen, D-85741, Germany C. Aerts Institute of Astronomy, Department of Physics & Astronomy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium and Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands G.C. Angelou Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Karl Schwarzschild Str. 1, Garching bei M¨unchen, D-85741, Germany D. Baroch J. C. Morales I. Ribas Institute of· Space Sciences· (ICE, CSIC), Carrer de Can Magrans S/N, Bellaterra, E-08193, arXiv:2006.10868v2 [astro-ph.SR] 9 Apr 2021 Spain and Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), C/Gran Capit`a2-4, E-08034 2 Serenelli, Weiss, Aerts et al. -
Cataclysmic Variables
Cataclysmic variables Article (Accepted Version) Smith, Robert Connon (2006) Cataclysmic variables. Contemporary Physics, 47 (6). pp. 363-386. ISSN 0010-7514 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/2256/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Cataclysmic variables Robert Connon Smith Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. Cataclysmic variables are binary stars in which a relatively normal star is transferring mass to its compact companion. -
Two Ten-Billion-Solar-Mass Black Holes at the Centres of Giant Elliptical Galaxies
LETTER doi:10.1038/nature10636 Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies Nicholas J. McConnell1, Chung-Pei Ma1, Karl Gebhardt2, Shelley A. Wright1, Jeremy D. Murphy2, Tod R. Lauer3, James R. Graham1,4 & Douglas O. Richstone5 Observational work conducted over the past few decades indicates (Figs 1 and 2). We determined the mass of the central black hole by that all massive galaxies have supermassive black holes at their constructing a series of orbit superposition models12. Each model centres. Although the luminosities and brightness fluctuations of assumes a black-hole mass, stellar mass-to-light ratio and dark-matter quasars in the early Universe suggest that some were powered by profile, and generates a library of time-averaged stellar orbits in the black holes with masses greater than 10 billion solar masses1,2, the resulting gravitational potential. The model then fits a weighted com- remnants of these objects have not been found in the nearby bination of orbital line-of-sight velocities to the set of measured stellar Universe. The giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 hosts the hitherto velocity distributions. The goodness-of-fit statistic x2 is computed as a most massive known black hole, which has a mass of 6.3 billion function of the assumed values of MBH and the stellar mass-to-light solar masses3,4. Here we report that NGC 3842, the brightest galaxy ratio. Using our best-fitting model dark-matter halo, we measure a 9 in a cluster at a distance from Earth of 98 megaparsecs, has a central black-hole mass of 9.7 3 10 solar masses (M8), with a 68% con- 9 black hole with a mass of 9.7 billion solar masses, and that a black fidence interval of (7.2–12.7) 3 10 M8. -
The Accretion Shock and the Inner Disk
EMISSION FROM HOT GAS IN PRE-MAIN SEQUENCE OBJECTS: THE ACCRETION SHOCK AND THE INNER DISK by Laura D. Ingleby A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Astronomy and Astrophysics) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor Nuria Calvet, Chair Professor Fred Adams Professor Edwin Bergin Professor Lee Hartmann Associate Professor Jon Miller Laura D. Ingleby Copyright c 2012 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis was made possible by invaluable contributions from collaborators, most significantly from my thesis advisor, Nuria Calvet. Under her guidance I learned the practices of a professional astronomer and how to be successful in tasks from publish- ing my research to making important contacts in the community. I am thankful for her support during my graduate career and her positive influence over the last few years. I would also like to thank my committee members, Ted Bergin, Jon Miller, Lee Hartmann and Fred Adams for their feedback and help in shaping my thesis. Among my collaborators, I would like to thank Cesar Briceno, Gregory Herczeg, Catherine Espaillat, Jesus Hernandez, Melissa McClure and Lucia Adame in par- ticular, for supplementing my education on observing and data analysis techniques. In addition, I would also like to acknowledge my co-authors for providing valuable comments and suggestions to help improve published papers; including, Herve Ab- grall, Richard Alexander, David Ardila, Thomas Bethell, Alexander Brown, Joanna Brown, John Carpenter, Nathan Crockett, Suzan Edwards, Kevin France, Jeffrey Fogel, Scott Gregory, Lynne Hillenbrand, Gaitee Hussain, Christopher Johns-Krull, Jeffrey Linsky, Michael Meyer, Ilaria Pascucci, Evelyne Roueff, Jeff Valenti, Frederick Walter, Hao Yang and Ashwin Yerasi. -
Newsletter 2010/4 2010 November INDEX from the Director V1243 Aql
Newsletter 2010/4 2010 November From the Director V1243 Aql and more Tom Richards [email protected] Most of this year has been an observing desert for me. It began in March with a brief power cut, which re- started the RA drive (I had it suspended), driving the telescope into the pier and wrecking the RA drive motor. When I got that fixed, my camera's shutter gave out. Mind you, the weather was solid cloud for all those months, so I got a perverse satisfaction from that. Lyn and I are building a new home further out of Melbourne, at Pretty Hill, Kangaroo Ground; so I decided I may as well dismantle the observatory and shift it to Pretty Hill. That I did, with the help of family and good astro- nomical friends includ- ing Bernard Heathcote. The dome is now sitting in bits on the grass in front of the new obser- vatory, which is integral with the house. I aim to get it reassembled and craned into place by Christmas. Dismantling the old ob- servatory. Plenty of will- ing helpers with the su- pervisor in the fore- ground. INDEX 1 From the Director 3 Thoughts from the Editor 5 Stars of the Quarter Rod Stubbings & Others 8 Astronomy in the Desert Margaret Streamer 13 Eclipsing Binary Modelling Col Bembrick 15 BSM South at Ellinbank Peter Nelson 17 A New UG WZ Candidate in Pisces Stephen Hovell 18 The SPM4 Catalogue—Applicability to VSS Work Mati Morel 20 Some Summer Mira & SR Targets Stan Walker 22 CCD Column—How do Photometry Tools Compare? Tom Richard 25 Z Chamaeleontis—an Identification Problem Stan Walker 26 High Precision UBVRI Transformations Stan Walker 36 Call for Research Grant Applications 37 About Variable Stars South And some important parts of the new observatory. -
Annual Report / Rapport Annuel / Jahresbericht 1982
COVER PICTURE PHOTOGRAPHIE OE UMSCHLAGSPHOTO COUVERTURE The southern barred galaxy NGC 1365 La galaxie bamie australe NGC 1365 Die südliche Balkengalaxie NGC 1365 as photographed with the Schmidt tele prise avec le tetescope de Schmidt. Cette auJgenommen mit dem Schmidt-Tele scope. This galaxy at a distance oJ about galaxie, distante d'environ 100.000.000 skop. Die etwa 100.000.000 Lichtjahre 100,000,000 light years is also an X-ray annees-lumiere, est aussi une saurce X; entJernte Galaxie ist auch eine Röntgen• saurce; it has been investigated exten elle a ete etudiee intensivement avec le quelle; sie ist mit dem 3,6-m-Teleskop sively with the 3.6 m telescope. The blue telescope de 3,6 m. Les parties bleues sont eingehend untersucht worden. Die blau parts are populated by young massive peuplees d'etoiles jeunes de grande masse, en Regionen sind von jungen, massereI stars and gas, while the yellow light et de gas, tandis que la lumiere jaune chen Sternen und Gas bevölkert, wäh• comes Jrom older stars oJ lower mass. provient d'Ctoiles plus vieilles et de masses rend das gelbe Licht von älteren und (Schmidt photographs by H-E. Schuster; plus Jaibles. masseärmeren Sternen kommt. colour composite by C. Madsen.) (Cliches Schmidt pris par H-E. Schuster; (Schmidt-AuJnahmen: H-E. Schuster; tirage couleur: C. Madsen.) Farbmontage: C. Madsen.) Annual Report / Rapport annuel / Jahresbericht 1982 presented to the Council by the Director General presente au Conseil par le Directeur general dem Rat vorgelegt vom Generaldirektor Prof. Dr. L. Woltjer EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY Organisation Europeenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l'Hemisphere Austral Europäische Organisation für astronomische Forschung in der südlichen Hemisphäre Table Table des Inhalts of Contents matleres" verzeichnis INTRODUCTION ,. -
JAAVSO 2009 the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers
Volume 37 Number 2 JAAVSO 2009 The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers The Superoutburst Period of KV Dra Observations of KV Dra. Superoutbursts are indicated by a bar. Also in this issue... • Evidence for Cyclic Activity in an Orion Irregular • CX Lyrae 2008 Observing Campaign • Quantifying Irregularity in Pulsating Red Giants 49 Bay State Road Cambridge, MA 02138 Complete table of contents inside... U. S. A. The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers Editor Associate Editor John R. Percy Elizabeth O. Waagen University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada Assistant Editor Matthew Templeton Production Editor Michael Saladyga Editorial Board Priscilla J. Benson David B. Williams Wellesley College Indianapolis, Indiana Wellesley, Massachusetts Douglas S. Hall Thomas R. Williams Vanderbilt University Houston, Texas Nashville, Tennessee The Council of the American Association of Variable Star Observers 2008–2009 Director Arne A. Henden President Paula Szkody Past President David B. Williams 1st Vice President Jaime Ruben Garcia 2nd Vice President Michael A. Simonsen Secretary Gary Walker Treasurer Gary W. Billings Clerk Arne A. Henden Councilors Barry B. Beaman Katherine Hutton James Bedient Michael Koppelman Pamela Gay Arlo U. Landolt Edward F. Guinan Christopher Watson ISSN 0271-9053 JAAVSO The Journal of The American Association of Variable Star Observers Volume 37 Number 2 2009 49 Bay State Road Cambridge, MA 02138 ISSN 0271-9053 U. S. A. The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers is a refereed scientific journal published by the American Association of Variable Star Observers, 49 Bay State Road, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. -
Astronomie Pentru Şcolari
NICU GOGA CARTE DE ASTRONOMIE Editura REVERS CRAIOVA, 2010 Referent ştiinţific: Prof. univ.dr. Radu Constantinescu Editura Revers ISBN: 978-606-92381-6-5 2 În contextul actual al restructurării învăţământului obligatoriu, precum şi al unei manifeste lipse de interes din partea tinerei generaţii pentru studiul disciplinelor din aria curiculară Ştiinţe, se impune o intensificare a activităţilor de promovare a diferitelor discipline ştiinţifice. Dintre aceste discipline Astronomia ocupă un rol prioritar, având în vedere că ea intermediază tinerilor posibilitatea de a învăţa despre lumea în care trăiesc, de a afla tainele şi legile care guvernează Universul. În plus, anul 2009 a căpătat o co-notaţie specială prin declararea lui de către UNESCO drept „Anul Internaţional al Astronomiei”. În acest context, domnul profesor Nicu Goga ne propune acum o a doua carte cu tematică de Astronomie. După apariţia lucrării Geneza, evoluţia şi sfârşitul Universului, un volum care s+a bucurat de un real succes, apariţia lucrării „Carte de Astronomie” reprezintă un adevărat eveniment editorial, cu atât mai mult cu cât ea constitue în acelaşi timp un material monografic şi un material cu caracter didactic. Cartea este structurată în 13 capitole, trecând în revistă problematica generală a Astronomiei cu puţine elemente de Cosmologie. Cartea îşi propune şi reuşeşte pe deplin să ofere răspunsuri la câteva întrebări fundamentale şi tulburătoare legate de existenţa fiinţei umane şi a dimensiunii cosmice a acestei existenţe, incită la dialog şi la dorinţa de cunoaştere. Consider că, în ansamblul său, cartea poate contribui la îmbunătăţirea educaţiei ştiinţifice a tinerilor elevi şi este deosebit de utilă pentru toţi „actorii” implicaţi în procesul de predare-învăţare: elevi, părinţi, profesori.