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    Category Astronomy/Space

    NASA poised to Topple a Planet-finding Barrier

    January 30, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Goddard optics experts Babak Saif (left) and Lee Feinberg (right), with help from engineer Eli Griff-McMahon an employee of Genesis, have created an Ultra-Stable Thermal Vacuum system that they will use to make picometer-level measurements. Credit: NASA/W. Hrybyk

    Goddard optics experts Babak Saif (left) and Lee Feinberg (right), with help from engineer Eli Griff-McMahon an employee of Genesis, have created an Ultra-Stable Thermal Vacuum system that they will use to make picometer-level measurements. Credit: NASA/W. Hrybyk

    Astronomers have shown for the first time that they can dynamically detect subatomic- or picometer-sized distortions – changes that are far smaller than an atom – across a 5-foot segmented telescope mirror and its support structure. NASA optics experts are well on the way to toppling a barrier that has thwarted scientists from achieving a long-held ambition: building an ultra-stable telescope that locates and images dozens of Earth-like planets beyond the solar system and then scrutinizes their atmospheres for signs of life.

    To fi...

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    Scientists pioneer use of Deep Learning for Real-Time Gravitational Wave discovery

    January 27, 2018, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Astronomy/Space, Physics

    Scientists pioneer use of deep learning for real-time gravitational wave discovery

    Blue Waters numerical relativity simulation of two colliding black holes with the open source, numerical relativity software, the Einstein Toolkit. Authors: R. Haas and E. Huerta (NCSA/University of Illinois); Visualization: R. Haas.

    Scientists at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have pioneered the use of GPU-accelerated deep learning for rapid detection and characterization of gravitational waves. This new approach will enable astronomers to study gravitational waves using minimal computational resources, reducing time to discovery and increasing the scientific reach of gravitational wave astrophysics. This innovative research was recently published in Physics Letters B.

    Combining deep learning algorithms, numer...

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    FUGIN Project: The most Detailed Radio Map of the Milky Way

    January 27, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Radio map of the Milky Way obtained by FUGIN project. Top: Three color (false color) radio map of the Milky Way (l=10-50 deg) obtained by the FUGIN Project. Red, green, and blue represent the radio intensities of 12CO, 13CO, and C18O, respectively. Second Line: Infrared image of the same region obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Red, green, and blue represent the intensities of 24μm, 8μm, and 5.8μm radio waves respectively. Top Zoom-In: Three color radio map of the Milky Way (l=12-22 deg) obtained by the FUGIN Project. The colors are the same as the top image. Lower-Left Zoom-In: Enlarged view of the W51 region. The colors are the same as the top image.Lower-Right Zoom-In: Enlarged view of the M17 region. The colors are the same as the top image.

    Radio map of the Milky Way obtained by FUGIN project. Top: Three color (false color) radio map of the Milky Way (l=10-50 deg) obtained by the FUGIN Project. Red, green, and blue represent the radio intensities of 12CO, 13CO, and C18O, respectively. Second Line: Infrared image of the same region obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Red, green, and blue represent the intensities of 24μm, 8μm, and 5.8μm radio waves respectively. Top Zoom-In: Three color radio map of the Milky Way (l=12-22 deg) obtained by the FUGIN Project. The colors are the same as the top image. Lower-Left Zoom-In: Enlarged view of the W51 region. The colors are the same as the top image.Lower-Right Zoom-In: Enlarged view of the M17 region. The colors are the same as the top image.

    Astronomers have conducted a large...

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    The Structure of an Active Galactic Nucleus

    January 26, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The structure of an active galactic nucleus

    A Hubble image of the superluminous merging galaxy Arp220. Astronomers have measured structures only a hundreds of light-years in size around the two supermassive black holes in the nuclear region, as well as evidece for an outflow. Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University

    The nuclei of most galaxies host supermassive black holes containing millions to billions of solar-masses of material. The immediate environments of these black holes typically include a tori of dust and gas and, as material falls toward the black hole, the gas radiates copiously at all wavelengths...

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