53 posts · 34,899 views
We are all in the gutter is a blog by astrophysics researchers about whatever things in astronomy we find interesting. A mix of astronomy news, articles on the latest research and any other fun astro stuff we come across.
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- August 4, 2009
- 07:28 PM
- 1,199 views
Was there a comet impact in AD 536? Maybe.
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
In the year AD 536 something catastrophic happened which caused a drop in the global temperature lasting several years and led to widespread famine, and possibly plague outbreaks too. This is right in the middle of the Dark Ages – a time about which by definition we know very little – so how can we [...]... Read more »
Larsen, L., Vinther, B., Briffa, K., Melvin, T., Clausen, H., Jones, P., Siggaard-Andersen, M., Hammer, C., Eronen, M., Grudd, H.... (2008) New ice core evidence for a volcanic cause of the A.D. 536 dust veil. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(4). DOI: 10.1029/2007GL032450
- December 14, 2011
- 04:37 PM
- 1,142 views
A Christmas burst
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Last Christmas something exploded in the constellation of Andromeda. Well, that’s not quite true. This gamma-ray burst (named GRB 101225A) went off a long, long time ago, but the resulting flash finally arrived last year and were picked up by the SWIFT satellite (which then probably interrupted several festive lunches with its Burst Alert alarm). [...]... Read more »
Thöne CC, de Ugarte Postigo A, Fryer CL, Page KL, Gorosabel J, Aloy MA, Perley DA, Kouveliotou C, Janka HT, Mimica P.... (2011) The unusual γ-ray burst GRB 101225A from a helium star/neutron star merger at redshift 0.33. Nature, 480(7375), 72-4. PMID: 22129726
Campana S, Lodato G, D'Avanzo P, Panagia N, Rossi EM, Della Valle M, Tagliaferri G, Antonelli LA, Covino S, Ghirlanda G.... (2011) The unusual gamma-ray burst GRB 101225A explained as a minor body falling onto a neutron star. Nature, 480(7375), 69-71. PMID: 22129725
- March 4, 2010
- 06:43 PM
- 1,081 views
Will the Moon mess up a moon-base?
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
If we want to build a permanent base on the Moon – and the question of whether we ever will (or even should) remains very open – we need to have some idea of the effect the lunar environmental conditions will have on our equipment. There’s no point going to all [...]... Read more »
T. W. Murphy, Jr., E. G. Adelberger, J. B. R. Battat, C. D. Hoyle, R. J. McMillan, E. L. Michelsen, R. Samad, C. W. Stubbs, & H. E. Swanson. (2010) Long-term degradation of optical devices on the moon. Icarus. arXiv: 1003.0713v1
- August 31, 2009
- 09:00 PM
- 1,002 views
Quasar light switches
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Right, it’s about time this blog went extragalactic again. As Douglas Adams wrote, “Space…is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space”. With all that Universe available [...]... Read more »
Schoenmakers, A., de Bruyn, A., Rottgering, H., van der Laan, H., & Kaiser, C. (2000) Radio galaxies with a 'double-double morphology' - I. Analysis of the radio properties and evidence for interrupted activity in active galactic nuclei. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 315(2), 371-380. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03430.x
M. Jamrozy, D. J. Saikia, & C. Konar. (2009) 4C02.27: a quasar with episodic activity?. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. arXiv: 0908.1508v1
- September 17, 2009
- 05:56 PM
- 918 views
What motivates the Zooites?
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Would you let the general public do your work for you? How about just the bits that are fundamentally important but would take you months of repetitive effort to get through on your own? In 2007, the GalaxyZoo team did exactly that and its been a massive success. They had images of a million galaxies [...]... Read more »
M. Jordan Raddick, Georgia Bracey, Pamela L. Gay, Chris J. Lintott, Phil Murray, Kevin Schawinski, Alexander S. Szalay, & Jan Vandenberg. (2009) Galaxy Zoo: Exploring the Motivations of Citizen Science Volunteers. to be published in Astronomy Education Review. arXiv: 0909.2925v1
- March 3, 2011
- 05:38 PM
- 909 views
Periodic impact
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Engaging the public in science is something lots of us are passionate about but how do you measure its impact? This might seem like an unimportant question, but it’s something that funding agencies are increasingly interested in, as they understandably want to check their money isn’t being wasted. It’s also a question addressed by the [...]... Read more »
Haran B, & Poliakoff M. (2011) How to measure the impact of chemistry on the small screen. Nature chemistry, 3(3), 180-2. PMID: 21336314
- May 20, 2011
- 04:40 AM
- 891 views
Finding Fred & friends
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
“What’s your name?” Kit said. “I mean we can’t just call you ‘hey you’ all the time.” True, the white hole said. My name is Khairelikoblepharehglukumeilichephreidosd’enagouni – and at the same time he went flickering through a pattern of colours that was evidently the visual translation. “Ky-elik-” Nita began. “Fred”, Kit said quickly. “Well”, he [...]... Read more »
Alon Retter, & Shlomo Heller. (2011) The Revival of White Holes as Small Bangs. Submitted to ApJ. arXiv: 1105.2776v1
- October 30, 2009
- 05:43 PM
- 877 views
Lasers, telescopes & aeroplanes
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
So this post was supposed to be about the discovery of the most distant galaxy ever found, at a redshift of about 8.2 (13.1 billion light years from us, or, to put it another way, only about 630 million light years after the Big Bang), but I didn’t get round to it yesterday and I’ve [...]... Read more »
W. A. Coles, T. W. Murphy Jr., J. F. Melser, J. K. Tu, G. A. White, K. H. Kassabian, K. Bales, & B. B. Baumgartner. (2009) A Radio System for Avoiding Illuminating Aircraft with a Laser Beam. submitted to PASP. arXiv: 0910.5685v1
- September 28, 2009
- 06:20 PM
- 863 views
That’s for Jan Brueghel the Elder…….
by Niall in we are all in the gutter
OK so yet again I’m blogging on a topic I don’t know terribly much about but that I found interesting. A month ago this paper by Paolo Molaro and Pierluigi Selvelli from Trieste Observatory appeared outlining the interesting case of early telescopes in paintings.... Read more »
Paolo Molaro, & Pierluigi Selvelli. (2009) The mystery of the telescopes in Jan Brueghel the Elder's paintings. Memorie della Società Astronomica Italiana. arXiv: 0908.2696v1
- April 18, 2011
- 08:29 AM
- 849 views
Pluto gets hot(ter)
by Niall in we are all in the gutter
Pluto's getting hotter and the ices that made up its surface are now becoming the gases that make up its atmosphere... Read more »
J. S. Greaves, Ch. Helling, & P. Friberg. (2011) Discovery of carbon monoxide in the upper atmosphere of Pluto. MNRAS. arXiv: 1104.3014v1
Young, E., French, R., Young, L., Ruhland, C., Buie, M., Olkin, C., Regester, J., Shoemaker, K., Blow, G., Broughton, J.... (2008) VERTICAL STRUCTURE IN PLUTO'S ATMOSPHERE FROM THE 2006 JUNE 12 STELLAR OCCULTATION. The Astronomical Journal, 136(5), 1757-1769. DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/136/5/1757
- July 1, 2009
- 11:52 AM
- 840 views
Cosmic Cluedo
by Niall in we are all in the gutter
It was Omega Centauri in the galactic disk with the gravitationally induced star formation. That’s the conclusion of a new paper by some Brazilian astronomers.... Read more »
Salerno, G., Bica, E., Bonatto, C., & Rodrigues, I. (2009) On the possible generation of the young massive open clusters Stephenson 2 and BDSB 122 by ω Centauri. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 498(2), 419-423. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200911737
- January 25, 2010
- 04:20 AM
- 800 views
…..And the rocks melt wi’ the sun
by Niall in we are all in the gutter
Happy Burns Day everybody. While I contemplate my failure to acquire a haggis and some Irn Bru in Honolulu, I thought I may as well find a tenuous link between Burns and astronomy.... Read more »
Schröder, K., & Connon Smith, R. (2008) Distant future of the Sun and Earth revisited. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 386(1), 155-163. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13022.x
- February 14, 2011
- 07:54 AM
- 785 views
(un)Happy Valentines day in space
by Stuart Lynn in we are all in the gutter
Its the 14th of February, or at least thats what the calendar on the wall says, you have been out in deep space heading towards that new colony for so long each day pretty much blurs in to the next. Despite how cold it is outside (and believe me its cold), today is a day [...]... Read more »
Tore Straume, Steve Blattnig, & Cary Zeitlin. (210) Radiation Hazards and the Colonization of Mars: Brain, Body, Pregnancy, In-Utero Development, Cardio, Cancer, Degeneration. Journal of Cosmology, 3992-4033. info:/
- July 16, 2010
- 07:39 PM
- 781 views
Acro-tastic! (with additional GADZOOKS!)
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
I’m in need of some cheering up today, as the fun observations I wanted to make with the Herschel Space Telescope have turned out to be impossible. Luckily, this observation planning also involved a lot of procrastination, which led me to this: the Dumb Or Overly Forced Astronomical Acronyms Site (DOOFAAS). On this site astronomer [...]... Read more »
John F. Beacom, & Mark R. Vagins. (2003) GADZOOKS! Antineutrino Spectroscopy with Large Water Cerenkov Detectors. Phys.Rev.Lett. 93 (2004) 171101. arXiv: hep-ph/0309300v1
- September 15, 2010
- 07:07 AM
- 760 views
How do we know…? Where we are in the Galaxy
by Niall in we are all in the gutter
Well it’s easy isn’t it, we just go outside the Galaxy, take a picture looking back and see where the Sun sits and what the Galaxy looks like. If only it were that simple. The problem with figuring out our place in the Galaxy is that we are sitting inside it. This means we have to work harder to determine the fine details of the structure of the Galaxy. ... Read more »
Ghez, A., Salim, S., Weinberg, N., Lu, J., Do, T., Dunn, J., Matthews, K., Morris, M., Yelda, S., Becklin, E.... (2008) Measuring Distance and Properties of the Milky Way’s Central Supermassive Black Hole with Stellar Orbits. The Astrophysical Journal, 689(2), 1044-1062. DOI: 10.1086/592738
- July 16, 2009
- 06:02 PM
- 752 views
In search of moons of Venus
by Niall in we are all in the gutter
Venus still has no moons, not the most interesting start to an article, but I thought I may as well start this post by giving the ending away. Why? Partly because I get a strange kick out of spoiling your enjoyment of my own blog post (by the way, Murder on the Orient Express, turns out Poirot did it) and partly because I don't want to leave you under the misapprehension that this article is about the greatest discovery in modern Solar System astronomy, it's not. What it is about is this interesting paper which set out to find moons around Venus and (you may know this already) found none.... Read more »
Sheppard, S., & Trujillo, C. (2009) A survey for satellites of Venus. Icarus, 202(1), 12-16. DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2009.02.008
- January 20, 2010
- 09:50 AM
- 752 views
What the hell are these things?
by Niall in we are all in the gutter
You know the drill, I find a paper detailing some wonderful discovery, waffle a bit of background and then give a glib summary of the conclusions. This is a bit different, this is the scientific process snow leopard caught outside it's den, looking for a kill. Because the answer here is, "We don't know".... Read more »
Jason F. Rowe, William J. Borucki, David Koch, Steve B. Howell, Gibor Basri, Natalie Batalha, Timothy M. Brown, Douglas Caldwell, William D. Cochran, Edward Dunham.... (2010) Observations of Transiting Hot Compact Objects. Submitted to ApJL. arXiv: 1001.3420v1
- October 2, 2009
- 06:46 PM
- 748 views
Laugh. Then think.
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
This has turned out to be a busy day for posting on this blog! There’s one more thing that needs to be remarked on though – this years Ig Nobel prize winners were announced today by the Annals of Improbable Research. These awards, for those that don’t know, are counterparts to the official Nobel prizes; [...]... Read more »
Whitcome, K., Shapiro, L., & Lieberman, D. (2007) Fetal load and the evolution of lumbar lordosis in bipedal hominins. Nature, 450(7172), 1075-1078. DOI: 10.1038/nature06342
Javier Morales, Miguel Apátiga, & Victor M. Castaño. (2008) Growth of Diamond Films from Tequila. arXiv preprint. arXiv: 0806.1485v1
- September 2, 2010
- 06:20 PM
- 731 views
Probing the atmospheres of extrasolar planets
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Ok, so you’re young, you’re surprisingly dusty, and you don’t match the models. No, not a picture of my geeky childhood, but the extrasolar planet HR 8799b. It orbits the star HR 8799 and, along with its two companions, is one of the two extrasolar planetary systems to be directly imaged, as shown above. Unsurprisingly [...]... Read more »
Brendan P. Bowler, Michael C. Liu, Trent J. Dupuy, Michael C. Cushing. (2010) Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Extrasolar Planet HR 8799 b. accepted by ApJ. info:/1008.4582
Knicole D. Colon, Eric B. Ford, Seth Redfield, Jonathan J. Fortney, Megan Shabram, Hans J. Deeg, & Suvrath Mahadevan. (2010) Probing potassium in the atmosphere of HD 80606b with tunable filter transit spectrophotometry from the Gran Telescopio Canarias. submitted to MNRAS. arXiv: 1008.4800v1
D. K. Sing, J.-M. Desert, J. J. Fortney, A. Lecavelier des Etangs, G. E. Ballester, J. Cepa, D. Ehrenreich, M. Lopez-Morales, F. Pont, M. Shabram, A. Vidal-Madjar. (2010) GTC OSIRIS Transiting Exoplanet Atmospheric Survey: Detection of potassium in XO-2b from spectrophotometry. submitted to A. info:/1008.4795
- August 19, 2010
- 06:46 PM
- 726 views
Nemesis meets its, uh, nemesis
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Interesting fact of the day: examining the fossil record suggests that mass extinctions on Earth occur approximately once every 26 million years (Myr). One possible explanation for this is a companion dwarf star to the Sun on a 26 Myr orbit. Every time is passes by, the theory goes, it messes up the Oort cloud [...]... Read more »
Adrian L. Melott, & Richard K. Bambach. (2010) Nemesis Reconsidered. MNRAS. arXiv: 1007.0437v1
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