MINERVA: MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array
MINERVA: Detecting Super-Earths from the ground in a modular, cost-effective manner.
The Curious Case of the Star Cluster NGC 1651
First, we’re told that all stars in a star cluster have the same age. Then, various observations tell us that they don’t. Now, we’re being told that despite those observations, star clusters might actually be single-aged after all.
A Supernova Silhouette
Title: The 2D Distribution of Iron Rich Ejecta in the Remnant of SN 1885 in M31 Authors: Robert A. Fesen, Peter Hoeflich, Andrew J.S. Hamilton First Author’s Institution: Dartmouth College Paper Status: Submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Supernova 1885 In August of 1885, a powerful supernova erupted in our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. Astronomers name supernovae by the year and order in which they exploded, and since no other supernovae went off in 1885 which were bright enough for us to observe, this event became known simply as SN 1885. No recorded spectra of the supernova exist, but the original observers — viewing the light through spectral filters — reported that no hydrogen lines were observed. Combined with records of its reddish hue, this has allowed the supernova to be retroactively categorized as Type Ia. As a supernova explodes, much of the star’s original mass is rapidly fused into heavy elements. This debris is ejected rapidly into the interstellar medium (ISM). The supernova’s material will be hotter, denser, and contain more heavy elements than the surrounding matter — thus, it forms a distinct structure known as a supernova remnant. Eventually, the blastwave will expand and sweep up so much of the surrounding gas that it slows itself down, like a projectile under air resistance. Yet the ISM is of such low density that it can take decades to centuries before this deceleration begins. The initial structure of the explosion should therefore be imprinted on the remnant throughout this first phase — known as free expansion — before the ISM mass begins to decelerate the expansion. SN 1885 is though to still...
More Bang for your Buck: Getting the Most out of Your Transit Light Curves
The Kepler Mission has measured planet radii and orbital periods for 3,000+ light curves. So what is next? Either we convince the continental USA to become amateur astronomers… Or we figure out ways to retrieve more planetary parameters from the Kepler data set. I’ll stick with the later. And so will the authors or this paper.
Characterizing Cepheid Light Curves
Distance is a tricky thing to measure in astronomy. We can’t use tape measures or rulers, and even more sophisticated methods like laser ranging are only good for the very nearest of neighbors, like the moon. That’s where distance indicators like Cepheids come in.
Flying Free: A Supermassive Black Hole Kicked Out Of Its Galaxy
The space between galaxies, long thought to be a near empty void, is now rapidly being revealed to be home to a host of astronomical phenomena. Now astronomers may have added a new type of intergalactic resident to the list: a super-massive black hole, a million times the mass of the Sun, kicked out from its home galaxy.