Announcements

25 February 2010: With Issue 101 we will begin producing only two issues a year, in March and September. Additionally, we are changing the section organization to make the Newsletter more useful and informative to our readers.

15 February 2010: The groundbreaking for the viewpoint Vista Sidney Wolff took place on February 1, 2010 on the road to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. The site features a beautiful view of the SOAR and Gemini telescopes and also of the site selected for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The construction of the vista point is a tribute to Dr. Sidney C. Wolff's leadership in enabling the construction of these world-class facilities on Cerro Pachon high in the Andes mountains. Dr. Wolff served as President of the SOAR Board and first Director of the Gemini Observatory.

26 January 2010: It has been assumed for some time that binary supermassive black holes (SMBH) should be common in the universe, given that galaxies regularly interact and merge and that most, if not all, galaxies contain a SMBH. Such a SMBH will only be detected as a quasar when it is accreting matter. And galaxy merging is a leading proposal to trigger such accretion. Now the first luminous, spatially resolved binary quasar that clearly inhabits an interacting/merging galaxy pair has been reported. ( SDSS J1254+0846: A Binary Quasar Caught in the Act of Merging, Green et. al., Ap. J accepted Jan. 2010 ). The unique properties of this system allow detailed numerical simulations to create plausible scenarios for the histories of both the host galaxies and the SMBH that inhabit them. The first spectrum confirming this binary QSO was taken by A. Myers at the KPNO Mayall 4-meter using R-C Spectrograph on …

15 January 2010: Two symposia will take place in Tucson during the month of March, 2010. From First Light to Newborn Stars happens from March 14-17, followed by The Eventful Universe March 17-20. On March 17th both symposia will meet together for talks by our distinguished invited speakers (including Vera Rubin, Nick Suntzeff, Heather Morrison, Charlie Lada, and Alan Dressler) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Observatory. Please go to the link above to register for either symposium.

11 January 2010: Looking into the distant universe, astronomers look into the past. Observations of distant galaxies directly reveal those galaxies as they once were. They also indicate indirectly the stages of development that result in the nearby galaxies that are typical of our own Milky Way and other older galaxies today. Christopher Conselice (University of Nottingham, UK) and collaborators used the Near Infrared Imager (NIRI) with the adaptive optics system Altair and laser guide stars on the Gemini North telescope to investigate galaxies at redshifts from z =1 to 2 (when the universe was only 25 to 40% of its current age). They show that the massive galaxies of their sample tended to be extremely compact. These instruments afford high angular resolution, which is essential to measure fine spatial scales in the distant galaxies. In a sense, the galaxies grow "inside-out," adding mass to the outer regions beyond an initial dense core. …

7 January 2010: Gemini Astronomer Percy Gomez presented the work of an international research team (Gemini, Chile and Canada) studying the dynamics of the super group of galaxies Abell 1882. His oral presentation on Wednesday, January 6th was part of the Galaxy Cluster I session at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The Abell 1882 super group of galaxies is located at redshift z=0.138, and it is anticipated to eventually form a massive galaxy cluster like Coma. The adjacent figure from this work presents an overlay of the extended X-ray emission originating from at least three distinct groups of galaxies. It also shows the position of the galaxies in the cluster. The team identified over 300 galaxy member candidates (open circles) in the cluster from the SDSS photometric survey and used the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini South (GMOS-S) to measure new redshifts for over 90 galaxy members. In this way …

7 January 2010: Gemini’s Bernadette Rodgers, Inger Jorgensen, Michelle Edwards, and Gelys Trancho shared details about Gemini’s success in gender equality in their poster: “Women Astronomers at Gemini: A Success Story,” which they presented on Tuesday, January 5th at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The poster compares the percentage of Gemini Ph.D. scientists to that of the US average between 2006-2008 and finds that Gemini recruited 31% female astronomers compared with only 13.9% for the United States overall. Even more impressive is the gender equity in Gemini’s science management team which is 75% female with a 50% gender balance (currently) in directorate-level positions. The authors also find that the positive gender balance attracts a high level of female applicants for science staff positions and has resulted in significantly higher retention for female vs. male science staff with 88% retention for females compared with 64% for males over the same period. …

6 January 2010: Most searches for planets around other stars, also known as exoplanets, focus on Sun-like stars. Those searches have proven successful, turning up more than 400 alien worlds. However, Sun-like stars aren’t the only potential homes for planets. New research by astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) confirms that planet formation is a natural by-product of star formation, even around stars much heftier than the Sun.

6 January 2010: Although the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) comes to a formal close this weekend with a ceremony in Padua, Italy, numerous core programs conducted during the year will carry on in 2010 and beyond, many led by educators and outreach professionals in the United States, including NOAO’s Dr. Stephen Pompea (Galileoscope) and Dr. Connie Walker (Dark Skies Awareness).

6 January 2010: Hundreds of thousands of school children around the country will be a ble to explore the Moon, planets, and our galaxy thanks to a $250,000 donation by Ric and Jean Edelman. The Edelmans, founders of Edelman Financial Services, one of the country’s leading independent financial advisory firms, have donated $250,000 to the American Astronomical Society to fund the acquisition and distribution of more than 15,000 Galileoscopes to schoolteachers nationwide and train them on adding the telescope kits to their curriculum. The program is operated in partnership with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

5 January 2010: Revealing the Explosive Heart of Eta Carinae Astronomers Say Alien Dust Is Nothing To Sneeze At Dynamical Analysis of the Abell 1882 Super Group of Galaxies Women Astronomers Succeed at Gemini Distant Galaxies Grow “Inside-out” and Through Minor Mergers

5 January 2010: For almost two centuries, humans have looked up at a bright star called Epsilon Aurigae and watched with their own eyes as it seemed to disappear into the night sky, slowly fading before coming back to life again. Today, as another dimming of the system is underway, mysteries about the star persist. Though astronomers know that Epsilon Aurigae is eclipsed by a dark companion object every 27 years, the nature of both the star and object has remained unclear.Now, new observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope — in combination with archived ultraviolet, visible and other infrared data — point to one of two competing theories, and a likely solution to this age-old puzzle. One theory holds that the bright star is a massive supergiant, periodically eclipsed by two tight-knit stars inside a swirling, dusty disk. The second theory holds that the bright star is in fact a dying star with …

4 January 2010: University of Notre Dame astronomer Peter Garnavich and a team of collaborators used the NSF’s 4-m Blanco telescope in Cerro Tololo, Chile to discover a distant star that exploded when its center became so hot that matter and anti-matter particle pairs were created. The star, dubbed Y-155, began its life around 200 times the mass of the sun but probably became “pair-unstable” and triggered a runaway thermonuclear reaction that made it visible nearly halfway across the universe.Garnavich and his collaborators discovered the exploding star during the ESSENCE supernova search, a six-year NOAO Survey Program, that identified more than 200 weaker stellar explosions.

18 December 2009: This special celebratory issue marks the establishment of the National Observatory 50 years ago with the dedication of Kitt Peak National Observatory, providing open access based on peer review to forefront scientific capabilities. It also marks the 100th issue of the NOAO/NSO Newsletter.

1 December 2009: The December 2009 issue of GeminiFocus is now available electronically (downloadable as a PDF). Gemini encourages readers to access the publication electronically as part of Gemini's initiative to find new ways to operate "Greener." GeminiFocus still remains available in a printed version, distributed to Gemini's users through the National Gemini Offices, and is available upon request. This issue features a wide range of science articles that emphasize the variety of observing and instrument modes Gemini provides as well as innovative techniques of our users. In addition to the cover story on adaptive optics imaging of weather on Saturn’s moon Titan, readers will also find: Director’s Message – Exploring Astronomy’s Time Domain Imaging the Most Distant Known Object in the Universe Studying a Z~5 Star-forming Galaxy with NIFS/IFU The Integral Field Spectroscopy User’s Wiki Modeling Nuclear Infrared Emission of Seyfert Galaxies on Parsec Scales Unveiling Remote Globular Clusters in Andromeda The …

30 November 2009: Galaxy-scale outflows of gas (“superwinds”) are a ubiquitous phenomenon in both starburst galaxies and those containing an active galactic nucleus but the contribution from dust and molecular gas is largely unknown. (Left) “Pure”, continuum-subtracted, H2 emission on a false-color scale. (Right) Two-color image of the H2 filaments (in red) extending more than 3 kpc above and below the plane of the galaxy (shown in blue).

6 November 2009: New results from Gemini observations show the early life of a distant galaxy, building its first generation of stars. An international team led by Mark Swinbank at the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University in the UK and Tracy Webb at McGill University, Canada used the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS) on the Gemini North telescope to make the measurements. See the Durham University press release on this result here. The galaxy's redshift is z=4.92, so the light comes directly from the time when the universe was just over 1 billion years old. While such distant galaxies are normally extremely faint, this one is fortuitously located behind a massive cluster of galaxies, whose gravity acts as a lens to enhance the view. The team finds that the distant galaxy's apparent brightness is increased 12.5 times, and the lensing magnification assists in probing fine spatial detail which would otherwise be …

3 November 2009: Image of H2 (red, from NEWFIRM, Kitt Peak National Observatory), and Hα (green, from the Hubble Space Telescope archive) of the Herbig Haro object HH 110. In a study to appear in Nov 10 2009 ApJ, Pat Hartigan and collaborators show how, under the right conditions, collimated supersonic jets in laboratory experiments provide a means to study their astrophysical counterparts.

27 October 2009: Supermassive black holes, with masses millions and billions of times that of the Sun, reside in the centers of most normal galaxies. However, measuring their masses accurately requires precision observations on very small spatial scales, where the gravitational pull of the black hole dominates over the collective effect of the galaxy's stars. An international team led by Davor Krajnović of Oxford University has used the adaptive optics facility ALTAIR with the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) on the Gemini North Telescope to measure black hole masses in two normal galaxies. These data allow the team to determine the motions of stars in the very centers of the observed galaxies (geminiann09021a). Comparisons with model predictions yield mass estimates of the central black holes of 8 x 108 Msun in NGC 524 and 1 x 107 Msun in NGC 2549. A novel aspect of this work is to use the laser guide …

12 October 2009: Two NOAO astronomers, Dr. Dara Norman and Dr. Stephen Pompea, at the White House Star Party on Wednesday, Oct 7. The event, attended by local middle school students, was designed to promote science literacy. Telescopes on the White House lawn were focused on Jupiter, the Moon and select stars; interactive dome presentations; and hands-on activities. Dara and Steve had the honor of meeting President Obama and his family, and showing them objects through their telescopes. Dara also shared SPECTRUM, the newsletter of the Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy. Steve demonstrated the Galileoscope, created for the International Year of Astronomy. This new, high-quality telescope kit for students enables kids to learn how to do science, making the same observations that Galileo made 400 years ago.