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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Celeste: new Statistical Analysis Model designed to enhance astronomy’s most time-tested tools: Sky Surveys

    September 10, 2015, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Celeste

    The Celeste graphical model. Shaded vertices represent observed random variables. Empty vertices represent latent ran- dom variables. Black dots represent constants. Constants denoted by uppercase Greek characters are fixed and denote parameters of prior distributions. The remaining constants and all latent random variables are inferred.

    Berkeley Lab-based research collaboration of astrophysicists, statisticians and computer scientists is looking to shake things up with Celeste, a new statistical analysis model designed to enhance one of modern astronomy’s most time-tested tools: sky surveys...

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    Astronomers discover how lowly Dwarf Galaxy becomes Star-Forming Powerhouse

    September 10, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ALMA discovers an unexpected population of compact interstellar clouds inside the dwarf irregular galaxy WLM. These star-forming clouds provide the necessary nurturing environment to form star clusters. As seen in relation to an optical image of the galaxy taken with the Blanco 4-meter telescope, (box upper left) an overlaying blanket of hydrogen gas (red) imaged with NRAO's VLA telescope provides the pressure necessary to concentrate molecules of carbon monoxide (yellow) as seen with ALMA. These regions correspond to dense cores capable of forming clusters like those found in the Milky Way and other large galaxies. Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); M. Rubio et al., Universidad de Chile, ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ); D. Hunter and A. Schruba, VLA (NRAO/AUI/NSF); P. Massey/Lowell Observatory and K. Olsen (NOAO/AURA/NSF)

    ALMA discovers an unexpected population of compact interstellar clouds inside the dwarf irregular galaxy WLM. These star-forming clouds provide the necessary nurturing environment to form star clusters. As seen in relation to an optical image of the galaxy taken with the Blanco 4-meter telescope, (box upper left) an overlaying blanket of hydrogen gas (red) imaged with NRAO’s VLA telescope provides the pressure necessary to concentrate molecules of carbon monoxide (yellow) as seen with ALMA. These regions correspond to dense cores capable of forming clusters like those found in the Milky Way and other large galaxies. Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); M. Rubio et al., Universidad de Chile, ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ); D. Hunter and A. Schruba, VLA (NRAO/AUI/NSF); P. Massey/Lowell Observatory and K...

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    Most accurate Statistical Description of Faint Primordial Galaxies 500 M yrs after Big Bang generated

    September 9, 2015, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    The three panels show different components of near-infrared background light detected by the Hubble Space Telescope in deep-sky surveys. The one on the left is a mosaic of images taken over a 10-year period. When all the stars and galaxies are masked, the background signals can be isolated, as seen in the second and third panels. The middle one reveals “intrahalo light” from rogue stars torn from their host galaxies, and the panel on the right captures the signature of the first galaxies formed in the universe.Ketron Mitchell-Wynne / UCI

    Most accurate Statistical Description of Faint Primordial Galaxies 500 M yrs after Big Bang generated

    The University of California, Irvine and Baltimore’s Space Telescope Science Institute team describes its use of a new statistical method to analyze Hubble data of lengthy sky surveys. The method enabled the scientists to parse out signals from the noise in Hubble’s deep-sky images, providing the first estimate of the number of small, primordial galaxies in the early universe. There are close to 10X more of these galaxies than were previously detected in deep Hubble surveys.

    The period under investigation is called the “epoch of reionization”, post-Big Bang and a few hundred million years in which a dark universe was dominated by photon-absorbing neutral hydrogen, the epoch of reionization...

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    A Humanoid Robot to Liaise Between Space Station Crews

    September 9, 2015, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Peter Ford Dominey and the robot Nao, study of developmental robotic cognition. Instead of using pre-established plans, the robot can learn in real time through direct interaction with a human. Credit: ©Inserm/Patrice Latron

    Peter Ford Dominey and the robot Nao, study of developmental robotic cognition. Instead of using pre-established plans, the robot can learn in real time through direct interaction with a human. Credit: ©Inserm/Patrice Latron

    An “autobiographical memory” for robot Nao enables it to pass on knowledge learnt from humans to other, less knowledgable humans. This technological progress could notably be used for operations on the International Space Station, where the robot, which is the only permanent member, would liaise between the different crews that change every 6 months in order to pass on information.

    In order for a robot to understand cooperative behavior, which is necessary for the cultural transmission of knowledge, researchers developed a system whereby a human agent can teach the ...

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