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.
Washington state’s NASA Space Grant program at the UW invites you, as a faculty member conducting research in a STEM area, to participate our 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP). The application period for students closes on Friday, April 8, 2022.
SURP is an excellent way to extend your summer funding through WA Space Grant’s contribution of half of the selected student’s award payment. Faculty contribution per student is $2,750 full-time and $1,375 part-time.
If you already have a student working with you, we encourage you to apply for the program along with that student. If you are looking for new students, you can apply and we will help to match you with a qualified undergraduate.
Through SURP, WA Space Grant seeks to increase research opportunities for undergraduates on NASA-related STEM projects, and we particularly welcome applications from students with traditionally marginalized genders and from underrepresented minoritized communities. UW undergraduate students in good academic standing who are interested in research in science, technology, engineering or mathematics fields are eligible to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens.
DiRAC members Joachim Moeyens and Zeljko Ivezić, aided by a DiRAC guest researcher Vedrana Ivezić, led a multi-institutional team of scientists who produced and analyzed simulated SPHEREx spectra of asteroids.
SPHEREx is a 2-year NASA space mission scheduled for launch in less than 3 years. SPHEREx will deliver the first all-sky spectral survey at about 100 spectral channels in the infrared wavelength range 0.8-5.0 micron. The team estimated that SPHEREx dataset will be transformative: high-quality spectra will be obtained for close to 10,000 asteroids, representing an increase over our current sample size by more than an order of magnitude.
With its additional LSST expertise, DiRAC will be well positioned to lead cutting-edge studies of asteroid taxonomy and photometric variability, and thus contribute to our understanding of the formation and evolution of our SolarSystem.
