An asteroid discovery algorithm — designed to uncover near-Earth asteroids for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s upcoming 10-year survey of the night sky — has identified its first “potentially hazardous” asteroid, a term for space rocks in Earth’s vicinity that scientists like to keep an eye on.
The roughly 600-foot-long asteroid, designated 2022 SF289, was discovered during a test drive of the algorithm with the ATLAS survey in Hawaii. Finding 2022 SF289, which poses no risk to Earth for the foreseeable future, confirms that the next-generation algorithm, known as HelioLinc3D, can identify near- Earth asteroids with fewer and more dispersed observations than required by today’s methods.
The Astronomy Department will be taking part in Husky Giving Day, an annual philanthropy event at the University of Washington! We are trying to raise funds to support research programs for our undergraduate and graduate students. Watch the video and learn why engaging early in the research in a students career can have a profound impact on their career.
Program for UW Undergraduate Students
Successfully piloted in 2022, the “Undergraduate Summer Research Prize” for UW undergrads will continue in 2023.
The program will award $3500 to UW undergraduate students working on summer research projects with faculty and staff at UW Astronomy. We are excited to continue this program – Thank you to our ongoing supporters!
Program for UW Graduate Students
Getting engaged with research early in graduate school can fundamentally change a graduate student’s career direction.
This year we are launching a new initiative called the “Jumpstart Research Fellowship”. This program will award $3500 to incoming UW graduate students to enable them to start their research the summer before they arrive at UW – allowing students to focus on research prior to taking classes in the fall.
Such programs have been shown to accelerate and deepen students’ engagement in research, particularly for students from non-traditional pathways.
UW doctoral student Anastasios “Andy” Tzanidakis announced the discovery of a rare type of binary star system. Tzanidakis and Dr. James Davenport, a UW research assistant professor of astronomy and associate director of the DiRAC Institute, were investigating why the star Gaia17bpp had gradually brightened over a 2 1/2-year period. In some investigative follow-up work, which involved examining decades of observations of Gaia17bpp, they determined that the star itself was not changing. Instead, according to the data, Gaia17bpp is likely part of a rare type of binary star system, and its apparent brightening was the end a years-long eclipse by a stellar companion that is — quite simply — dusty. Gaia17bpp’s likely companion is slow-moving and surrounded by a disk of unknown material.
Catching this eclipse was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and indicates that this type of system may be more common than previously known. If so, scientists will need to develop theories of how such an unusual stellar pairing arose – because right now, that’s not easy to do.
The discovery of 104 asteroids by the Asteroid Institute, using the THOR algorithm running on our Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) cloud-based astrodynamics platform!
Join DiRAC’s research team, Meredith Rawls and Jim Davenport, as Astronomy on Tap returns to its original location in the newly opened Bickersons Brewhouse in Ballard on May 25th at 8pm.
We are witnessing a new era as skies fill with thousands of low-Earth-orbit satellites that reflect sunlight. Observational astronomy at all wavelengths is increasingly affected, and so is the shared human experience of the night sky. For optical ground-based astronomy, the impacts of satellites are worst for large wide-field facilities. One urgent example is Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will begin a ten-year sky survey in 2024. I will discuss how satellite streaks can impede discovery, and share recent studies that aim to better quantify this. Finally, I will describe the work underway by a dedicated international team to understand, disseminate, and mitigate the impacts across the electromagnetic spectrum for increasingly broad groups of stakeholders.
Bio: Meredith Rawls is a research scientist in the Department of Astronomy and DiRAC Institute at UW. She writes software and data pipelines to handle terabytes of nightly images from Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will produce the highest resolution movie of the night sky ever made. Her background is in stellar astrophysics, and she earned her PhD from New Mexico State University. Lately she studies the plethora of newly-launched commercial satellites in the hopes observers worldwide don’t lose the sky. She has served on and chaired working groups and coauthored reports for numerous astronomy workshops on satellite constellations, and she is spearheading the SatHub initiative at the new International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference.
After a 2 year hiatus, we’re back, and will be resuming our monthly events through fall.
Next event is on May 11th at 8pm. Seattle Science Slam is a free event featuring three engaging and accessible presentations from scientists. The audience’s applause decides who wins. This month we have an astrophysics talk on the fate of our sun, a statistics talk about mosquitos and west nile virus, and a chemical engineering talk on drug delivery.
Kids friendly, dog friendly, arrive early to get seats. Outside food allowed, food truck on-site. Be sure to follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our email list http://eepurl.com/dw9MY9 to get updates on future events!
Astronomy on Tap returns to Bad Jimmy’s tonight at 8pm!
Come out and support Astronomy department members Azalee Bostroem and Megan Gialluca as they tell us about supernovas and aliens!
The event is outdoors and the patio is covered and heated, but if you can’t make it in person you can also participate from the comfort of your home via our livestream!
There are several food options nearby, and you’re welcome to bring food into the brewery. Hope to you can join us!
This program will award $3500 to UW undergrads working on summer projects w/ researchers in the DiRAC Institute (note: we especially welcome projects w/ collaborative mentors across the department!).
Thanks to the generous support from the community during Husky Giving Day, we expect to award 4 or 5 of these prizes this summer.
The application form is simple, and can be turned in via email to jrad@uw.edu. Selections will be made before the end of Spring Quarter. Prize winners will give a brief seminar at the end of the Summer or early Fall to showcase their projects, which the entire department will be invited to.
