It's Not All Space Cats

Reflection time! This image above was one that I showed during my Senior Presentations to the class. I told them that one day I would understand everything that was on that board. I explained that its not all about the pretty pictures of space, minus the space cats of course, but about understanding the math. I have come to find that not only do I understand the math better but also

I NOW KNOW SOME OF THESE WORDS!

Women in Physics Conference at Stanford 2012

All 150 of us!

The group of us from UCR!

At the beginning of the quarter some of the women in physics gathered to talk about many topics that ranged from grad school to when to have children. They talked about many different and exciting fields in physics. Everything from high energy to astrophysics to bio-medical physics.

The part that caught my interest the most was the talk about outreach with videos of the universe that I have linked here. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Galaxies in Real and Simulated Universes

How typical are the satellites of the Milky Way?








If you get a chance check out her page!
Risa Wechsler

Particle Physics: Neutrino

Interesting sometimes how life works out. Just as we are about to study random topics in class with many things coming back to the neutrino, I run across an article in WIRED science about it:  Strange Effects: The Mystifying History of Neutrino Experiments. Again having only a slight knowledge of some of these words I dove into the article to see what I could learn and boy was I ignorant. 


A friend of mine once told me, after a rant that I wanted to be in the field of astronomy, that I would need to know some particle physics. Thinking I knew better (don't all freshmen!?!) I blew off the advice and never perused taking the class. Now I have come to find that it is impossible to take as no professor has taught it in the last 2 years at UCR. So I guess this article, with respect to the neutrino, is the best I am going to get. 

Here's what I learned:

1.          In terms of numbers, there are A LOT of neutrinos. For every 1 proton or electron there is at least one billion neutrinos. Or this analogy:  Look at the nail on your pinky finger: Every second, about 65 billion neutrinos pass through it. Almost all were produced inside the giant nuclear reactor in our sun's belly. You would think with numbers like that we would know just about everything about them. But this leads me to my second discovery... 

2.         We know almost jack shit about them and jack just left town. Why? Well they are the priss particles of the universe. They barley interact with matter and have nothing that turns them on aka no charge. No wonder Frederick Reines would win the Noble in 1995 for the discovery. They are involved in many different processes: Beta Decay, nuclear reactors, gamma radiation, our sun, other suns, and causing problems with other experiments such as looking for proton decay. 

         In 2001, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada detected all three types of neutrinos

         coming from the sun, helping solve the solar neutrino problem. (Roy Kaltschmidt/Lawrence Berkeley National Lab) 

3.         There are three types of neutrinos: the electron neutrino that is the one that is produced in the sun or from the nuclear reactors and muon or tau neutrinos that are involved in all other processes such as when they are inbound to Earth from the sun. The types of neutrino found is based on the distance it has traveled from the source. LSND has possibly found a fourth type of neutrino but that has not been confirmed.  

A physicist sits inside the LSND detector. (Los Alamos National Laboratory) 

And there are many future experiments that will hopefully shed more photons on the situation. It seems every time they get closer and closer to an answer more questions arise. But this is why we do science!

       

A Well Timed Final

         Oh dear it's almost time! Finals are so close I am starting to stress if I have a blue book or not. Then again in these upper div classes we rarely need one. Ok ramble done. So I don't know how many of you have noticed but the scheduling of our Astro final is the ......VERNAL EQUINOX! I think that this is an omen that we are all going to pass! 
         But what is the VERNAL EQUINOX? So if we think about to the very first weeks of class, and believe me I know how hard this can be, it is when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun. Therefore the center of the Sun is in the same plane as the Earth's equator. What does that look like:

This equinox was meant to mean equal day that night but this is not always the case for everyone on Earth. Today the convention means that there is roughly 12 hours between sunrise and sunset. But how did all this madness get started? Well back in the day the Conqueror and Popes had a lot of control of the worlds  calendar. The first time the date was assigned was 45 BC by Julius Caesar and the date he chose was March 25th. Later it was shifted to March 21st by Pope Gregory XIII to create his modern Gregorian calendar. This time he was not swayed by a Emperor but to restore the edicts about the date of Easter of the Council of Nicaea of AD 325. 


FUN FACT:
The date at which sunset and sunrise becomes exactly 12 hours apart is known as the equilux. Because sunset and sunrise times vary with an observer's geographic location (longitude and latitude), the equilux(I searched equilux and this came up) likewise depends on location and does not exist for locations sufficiently close to the Equator. The equinox, however, is a precise moment in time which is common to all observers on Earth. 


In pursuit of humor I looked for a cartoon for the spring equinox and this is the best that was out there:

Connected Just By Being Alive

          I found another video that I will show my students. It sums up for me what is the most important fact about our relationship with the Universe. Thanks to Matt Chiapa on Facebook who posted this. I recommend that you watch in HD. Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" This is his answer.

WE ARE THE EXPLORERS

This past year I came across a work study job offer to be a MESA Mentor. MESA stands for Math Engineering Science and Achievement and is a program at the college level that works with middle schools and high schools to gather interest in these fields. Most recently I had a student ask about NASA shutting down. He said his dad told him that it was a waste of time and energy for him to want to be an astronaut because NASA was no longer sending people into space. And now we have a dilemma: Do I flat out tell the kid that his father is wrong and make the parent look like a meany or keep the boys hopes down? 


Well I came across that answer and I thought that I would share this with all of you. If you don't get chills then you must not be an EXPLORER!

Why do we explore? Simply put, it is part of who we are, and it is something we have done throughout our history. In NASA’s new video, “We Are the Explorers,” we take a look at that tradition of reaching for things just beyond our grasp and how it is helping us lay the foundation for our greatest journeys ahead. Written and Produced by Josh Byerly and John Streeter. Voiced by Peter Cullen.

Credit: NASA

Pillars of Creation

No matter what you believe there is no denying that the pictures from this article are about the coolest since slice bread. I mean come on it's like baby photos of the universe.

Where is the Space Cat?

New View of Eagle Nebula’s ‘Pillars of Creation’

2021: International X-ray Observatory

An artist's conception of the International X-ray Observatory.  Credit: Chris Meaney, NASA.

Before I had done my research on this telescope I was super jazzed about possibly working on this during the summer. This was a joint effort between NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). But like most things these days, when it comes to the recession in America, we as a nation have pulled out of agreement. 


In my previous blog I had talk about this being one of the projects that I wanted to work on. So without fail I am still signed up to work on it. Maybe this could mean that they will send me out of the US for the first time??? One can hope.


Quick and Dirty facts on IXO:

IXO will explore X-ray Universe and address the following fundamental and timely questions in astrophysics:

• What happens close to a black hole?
• How did supermassive black holes grow?
• How do large scale structures form?
• What is the connection between these processes?

IXO has a single large X-ray mirror assembly and an extendible optical bench with a focal length of ~20 m, and a suite of focal plane instruments.

Performance Requirements

Parameter	Requirement	Science Drivers	Instruments
Mirror Effective  Area	3 m2 @1.25 keV  0.65 m2 @ 6 keV  0.015 m2 @ 30 keV	Black Hole Evolution Strong gravity Strong gravity
Spectral Resolution (FWHM), FOV, bandpass	ΔE = 2.5 eV,  2 arcmin,  0.3 – 7 keV ΔE = 10 eV,  5 arcmin,   0.3 – 7 keV ΔE =150 eV, 18 arcmin,  0.1– 15 keV E/ΔE = 3000, point src,  0.3 – 1 keV	Galaxy Cluster Evolution Cosmic Feedback Black Hole Evolution Cosmic Web	XMS XMS WFI/HXI XGS
Angular Resolution	5 arcsec HPD,   0.3 – 7 keV 5 arcsec HPD,   0.3 – 7 keV 30 arcsec HPD,  7.0 – 40 keV	Cosmic feedback, Black Hole Evolution Strong Gravity	XMS WFI/HXI WFI/HXI
Count Rate	106 cps with < 10% deadtime	Neutron Star  Equation of State	HTRS
Polarimetry	1% MDP, 100 ksec, 5×10-12  cgs (2–6 keV)	Strong Gravity	XPOL

Hey I can read these now!  Plot of the effective area of the IXO mirror and focal plane instruments compared to those of current X-ray observatories, showing the large improvement at all energies. Credit: NASA/GSFC 

Plot of the spectral resolution of the IXO calorimeter and grating (lower limit) compared to current X-ray observatories. The bottom panel shows the emission lines of the various elements in the energy range 0.1-3.0 keV (color) and their sum (black). Credit: NASA/GSFC.

To demonstrate the orbit NASA came up with a clever picture:

IXO's planned orbit and distance from Earth

As you can see there is a fundamental question that arises here: What if it breaks? We are way to far away from IXO to get there and back in any sort of reasonable amount of time. Or sadly more likely: What if I never works? Houston we are a dead stick! 

And there is the rub. Maybe this is why NASA pulled out when this X-Ray telescope was just starting to make some headway. Or maybe the financial strain was just too much for the economy. Whatever the reason there are more and more projects like these that are being swept under the rug and I believe that it is our job as scientist to make sure they have their day!

Hubble's Successor, the James Webb Space Telescope: Deployment Animation

Thought you all would enjoy this!

NASA Internships: Hardware vs. Data Crunching

The setting June 27th of 2011, hot outside and I hide inside during the afternoon killer heat. I open my email to confirm my travel plans with my friend on the East Coast. Feeling pretty low after all the rejection letters I got from NASA I almost did not open that email. But I clicked it and boy I am glad I did!

Part of Something Special

Blocked by the guy in red!

I got the NASA Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology (MUST) Scholar award that summer. I traveled to the other side of the US for the first time in my life. Part of that package is I receive an internship with NASA this summer at one of their ten centers. I have now come to my dilemma of this story: Hardware or Data Crunching. 


I know that I will be doing my internship at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland but there seem to be two flavors of Astro Internship. Right now I am in favor of working on the International X-Ray Observatory Mirror Technology Development. It is NASA's next major X-ray space telescope, will explore the universe to develop a better understanding of black holes, galaxy clusters, and the evolution of matter and energy. (Next blog post will have more details) This is something that I cannot already do in the lab at UCR. Then there is the Wide-field Imaging Interferometry Testbed (WIIT) that is an operating optical interferometer which is being used to develop and explore the practical limitations of techniques for imaging complex scenes at high angular and moderately high spectral resolution. 


Both would be great and add to my experience but what would you choose?

No Exceptions

                 I got in a conversation once about the difference between being a Geek and being a Nerd. We came to the consensus that a Geek was someone that really liked something and or enjoyed doing that activity. Where a Nerd was someone who also enjoyed something but took a more academic approach to it. I believe that anyone who has ever looked at the sky and really appreciated  it is a Geek Astronomer. Those persons that you have seen in movies with the back yard telescope. 

                

           But that is only where it starts. As the Geek Astronomer marvels at the colors of the Ring Nebula or the craters on the Moon, the Nerd Astronomer can't help but wonder how these phenomenon happened. They are the ones that will wonder why do some of the stars in the sky not twinkle and how come I can't see my favorite constellation all year round. Therefore the Nerd Astronomers are the ones that go out and find the answers to these questions. 

               

           Now this is not to say that the Geek Astronomers are any less than an Astronomer because we all started out as one. To quote one of the my favorite films "I was looking for an answer. It's the question. It's the question that drives us. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did." And that questions is what drives me. So I take this class in hope that I will better learn what an Astronomer does and hopefully by the end I will know some of these words. 

Uphill Battle

It's about this specific time in the quarter where everyone is feeling the same thing. Alas our brains have gone to mush this Winter break and in class words such as epicycle or arcseconds should make total sense but I was at a loss. So, in keeping with the title of this blog and the great ironic finding of this cartoon you can no longer worry because...           I know some of these words.