Never forget you

Tune this week is Never Forget You by the Noisettes.

Very, extremely large, giant and also big telescopes

With the escalating size of projects, we might soon run out of adjectives to describe future optical telescopes. At least 3 projects are on the drawing boards, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), the 25-meter Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), and the 42-meter? European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The first two are driven by US collaborations while the latter is the European project. Not sure how many will be built once the dust settles. It seems that the TMT is aiming for a Hawaii site and GMT for Chile which would cover both hemispheres. The site for the E-ELT is to be decided. Will this be the final frontier in ground-based optical telescopes?. In any case, with so many telescopes coming online those tiny 10-meter telescopes will be rendered useless.

Amateur discoveries

A few days ago,Antony Wesley an amateur astronomer from Australia discovered a dark spot in Jupiter showing a presumed impact of a comet or asteroid on the planet. A couple of months ago, I saw a press release discussing the discovery of a supernova by a 14-year-old student from upstate New York. Numerous other references exist in the literature about discoveries made by amateurs. Unlike other sciences, the sky is open to everyone who chooses to explore it. And it's so vast that by staring long enough you may spot something new and interesting. The feeling of being the first one to notice something odd in the sky makes your heart beat a little faster. So, keep exploring the sky, you never know when the next big event may come around.

MAGIC and M87

Science magazine reports results from Magic , Veritas, HESS, and the VLBA radio array that teamed up to observe a flare from the radio galaxy M87. With the high angular resolution of the VLBA, it was possible to see an increase of activity very close to the black hole that lies at the center of M87. The unique contribution of such detection is that it traces the origin of particle acceleration to the vicinity of the black hole. The beautiful jet that you see in the picture results from particles being accelerated to very large velocities. We just do not know how/where are the particles accelerated. We suspect that it all has to do with a black hole at the center of the galaxy. Now these results show that the the initial acceleration must indeed occur at the base of the jet rather than far away. You can read the Magic press release here.

The station's toilet

News today indicate that the main toilet on the ISS has been fixed after breaking down earlier last week. I suppose such episodes bring you back to Earth, literally. It also reminds us of the controversy regarding the station’s scientific output. It’s hard to find numbers, but NASA and ESA spend approximately $3 billion a year on the space station and related shuttle flights. This is about half the budget destined to science by these agencies. Is the ISS worth investment?.

Moonwalk

Moonwalk has become one of the most commonly used words this month. Still 6 percent of Americans think the whole moon business was faked. Is it possible that we still have little faith in what humans can accomplish?. Have you ever flown on a plane?. Have you seen the pyramids?. Have you stood on the Golden Gate Bridge?.

Barcelona, Spain

I had to travel to Barcelona for work this week. Second time in the city and it’s still worth a visit. Yes, you will find a higher tourist concentration than in many other places. Yes, Casa Battló and La Pedrera are really overpriced. And yes, the rambla is packed with tourist traps. But you should see what Gaudí did for the city. Sometimes his works give Barcelona the feel of a walking museum. If short on money, head for Park Güell which is free, or just stand outside the Sagrada Familia. Stroll around the Barrio Gotic and head for the port that gives Barcelona a nice escape. Just don’t forget to visit Madrid.

Human achievement

July 16th marked the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Apollo 11 mission. Four days later (July 20, 1969), Neil Armstrong would become the first man to walk on the moon. I have talked to a few people that cite the moon landing as the event that provided the inspiration to become scientists. Others say that the moon landing had no impact on their career decision. Outside the science community, it is clear that events such as the moon landing successfully capture people’s imagination. On the days of lunar missions, shuttle launches and Mars landings, astrophysical websites usually overload. The release of scientific news even when on TV are only a blips compared to the interest generated by big events. My theory is that events such as the moon landing cross to the realm of human achievement which people grade higher than pure scientific achievement. It is absolutely astounding that we are able to study the cosmic microwave background, but to many that pales in comparison with a walk in the moon. That could be you.

Funny, How?

Is humor useful in scientific talks?. Depending on the audience, a scientific talk can go like a scene taken out of Goodfellas. You either get a very interested group or you can meet a sea of blank stares that will make you feel like no one has any idea of what you are talking about. Some useful tips: try find out as much about your audience as you can and craft the talk carefully. If that’s impossible, prepare a funny story or two that helps relax the group. I have found that if you start preaching, you’ll lose people quickly (unless you are in a room full of experts and even then). With a good anecdote you may catch interest. But it better be good. Otherwise, you’ll end up staring at weirder faces for the rest of the time. Some of the most memorable talks I can recall mixed humor and science cleverly. This is more art than science. See what works and keep it. Throw out lines that fall flat. Change it from time to time or everyone will know your repertoire.

Lou and Laurie

Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson played Madrid recently. Naturally for this week’s tune we must take a walk on the wild side.

GRB GTC

A couple of weeks ago, I participated on a very deep optical observation at the position of the gamma-ray burst GRB 090709A with the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). This observation is important on two fronts. One, this is the first astrophysical circular based on images obtained with the newly-minted telescope. And two, GRB 090709A is quite an interesting event that has revealed quasi-periodic oscillations in its gamma-ray light curve. The detection of oscillations implies that we have either detected the compact object (in this case a neutron star) responsible for gamma-ray explosions. Or alternatively, given the non-detection of a host galaxy on the GRB 090709A GTC image, that we caught a galactic transient well above the plane of our own Galaxy. Exciting results either way.

Casa de Calexico

By special request, the music pick of the week is Joey Burns’ Calexico.

Radio quiet

Pulsars are the astrophysical equivalent of lighthouses. Rapidly spinning balls of neutrons emitting a beam of radiation. Their initial discovery was made through the detection of radio pulses. So, naively it was thought that all pulsars would be detected with radio telescopes. However, the Fermi satellite has recently reported the discovery of a number of pulsars that are seen in gamma rays but display no sign of radio pulsations. Our contribution to this research came nine years ago, when we found that the pulsar in the upper left corner J1836+5925 was indeed radio quiet. This discovery supported the notion that a larger group of radio quiet pulsars would eventually be found by Fermi. Through further studies of these objects we hope to discover why certain pulsars remain radio quiet. Stay tuned.

Ice cube

Ice Cube is an experiment under construction at the South Pole. Hence the name. Their main aim is to search for neutrinos, subatomic particles that are expected to be created during nuclear fusion (like that powering the sun), as well as in stellar explosions (supernovae and the like). Problem is that neutrinos are very hard to catch because they interact very weakly with human-made detectors. Ice Cube hopes to capture a neutrinos through their interactions with atoms in the ice sheets, which might eventually produce photons that instruments can actually detect. Debanjan Bose, one of the postdocs in our group, has received an offer to move to Belgium and join the neutrino search. We wish him well.

Most useless paperwork

Somehow I had missed this bit (in Spanish only). Thanks to Apuntes Científicos desde el MIT. Mexico held a contest to let its citizens nominate the most useless paperwork at the national, state and municipal levels. Usually bureaucracy tries to guard against such criticisms because it may be seen as a sign of weakness. (That’s my take on it). Otherwise, I see no reason for the lack of complaint boxes in every public office. The “box” could be visited routinely to identify serious problems. Now, will they eliminate the most useless paperwork or simply replace it with a new useless idea. We shall see.

God Help the Girl

Stuart Murdoch's latest pet project is worth a listen.

Money-vation

nature.com is offering a number of cash rewards for readers who solve specific problems posted in this website. The basic argument is that money will provide extra motivation for people who seek a quick economic reward. The money prize isn’t new. But two questions come to mind: Will future research be economically driven?. Will be see ads plastered on the side of the Large Hadron Collider or the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope?.

AGNs on the Plane

On the Galactic plane that is. Part of my ongoing research focuses on the identification of gamma-ray sources discovered by the Fermi telescope. The sources are first observed at energies a million times greater than medical X-rays. The next step involves finding the actual source of the energy release with optical, radio, and X-ray telescopes. Of the 205 sources spotted by Fermi so far, 37 have no obvious counterpart at other wavelengths. As part of our work, we have recently found that at least 4 of these sources correspond to massive black holes or AGNs that lie behind the Galactic plane. You can read the article here.

A new eye for Spain

Today is the official opening of the Gran Telescopio Canarias or GTC as it has become known. This is a massive 10.4-m optical telescope with 36 segments at La Palma that should provide excellent optical/infrared imaging for years to come. Great achievement.