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We are happy to announce that undergraduate Asronomy Major Tintin Nguyen was awarded First Place ($250) in the UA's 2021 Data Visualization Challenge. "The Challenge highlights the power of communicating through graphical representations of data and provides students the opportunity to showcase their skills and network with the greater data visualization community."

Undergraduate and graduate students from different disciplines were invited to submit visual displays of data to tell stories. This is the second year that the Libraries’ Office of Digital Innovation & Stewardship (ODIS) has sponsored the event. View the winning entries and access the digital collection.

Abstract of Tintin's project: The Law of Large Numbers and the Central Limit Theorem are two of the most fundamental and elegant theorems in Probability Theory. However, these concepts are impractical to demonstrate because they require an immense number of trials to observe the long-term behaviors of random variables. Therefore, this case study runs computer simulations on coin tossing as an intuitive example to explain these statistical concepts. The visualizations provide insights into the theorems without mathematically rigorous proofs, making them accessible for introductory statistics learners.

Second place: Melanie Gin, Information Science & eSociety and Computer Science
Third place: Ashwin Raj, Mathematics
Honorable mention: Torin Hodge, Biosystems Engineering
 
 
(thanks to Don McCarthy for the text)
/ASTR-Major-Wins-Data-Visualization-Challenge

SODEI International Scholars Task Force Meeting

Date: 
Friday, May 28, 2021 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm
Room: 
Other

The International Scholars Task Force* in the Steward Observatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group (SODEI) has been working hard to create a more inclusive environment for international scholars over the past year, and we want to celebrate that!

In a similar spirit to the open meeting we had in January, we would like to invite you to a meeting with the International Scholars Task Force, to learn what we’ve been up to and how you can get involved.

Astrocharlas Presenta: Prof. Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, UC Santa Cruz

Date: 
Monday, April 26, 2021 - 7:30pm to 8:30pm
Room: 
Other

This recently announced talk, to be given in Spanish, is by Prof. Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, UC Santa Cruz, on April 26, at 7:30pm. The Youtube link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7gbDMx6MA.

4/12/21 Steward Public Lecture Series: Dr. Chris Impey

Date: 
Monday, April 12, 2021 - 7:30pm to 8:30pm
Room: 
Other

This public lecture, on April 12, at 7:30pm MST on Zoom (zoom address: https://arizona.zoom.us/my/astr.n305) is by Professor Chris Impey. It's the 60th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight: Chris's talk is entitled: "Our Future in Space."

Brown dwarfs are excellent and easier-to-study analogs of giant exoplanets. Hiding just two parsecs (6 or 7 light years, or 1.5 times the distance of the nearest star) from the Sun are two cool brown dwarfs that form the Luhman 16AB binary system (discovered by Kevin Luhman, a 1998 PhD of our Astronomy program). Studies of these systems can help understand how giant exoplanets look, unraveling their climates, wind patterns, and atmospheric dynamics. No telescope, however, is powerful enough to take detailed images of the disks of brown dwarfs to find out whether they are dominated by localized storms (vortices) or by a global jet stream system.

Steward Observatory and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Associate Professor Daniel Apai and his team used a novel approach to deduce the atmospheric properties of Luhman 16B. With the help of NASA’s TESS exoplanet hunter telescope, they observed how the brown dwarf’s brightness changes over a hundred rotations. These changes — and the analysis of their periodicity — revealed that Luhman 16B is home to powerful winds and an exciting and complex jet stream system.

This figure shows the main results of the story. This Youtube video also summarizes the data and results. The University of Arizona press release can be found HERE. The journal paper (may need a subscription) can be found HERE.

 

/Exoplanet-Hunter-Telescope
Observed Density of Stars in the Milky Way's Outer Regions (NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/Conroy et. al. 2021)

Newest Press Releases and Photos from Astronomy/Steward

Here is some of the latest news.

1) LMC-Milky Way Interaction Simulations and Data

A wake of stars, created by a small galaxy set to collide with the Milky Way, is the highlight of a new map of the Milky Way's outer reaches. The observations confirm predictions made by a group of UArizona astronomers whose computer simulations test theories explaining the mysterious nature of dark matter. This work includes Nicolás Garavito-Camargo, Gurtina Besla, and Dennis Zaritsky. You can see press releases HERE and HERE.

2) Event Horizon Telescope Results

The Event Horizon Telescope team has released papers studying the M87 black hole in polarized light. You can find the press release HERE. Chi-Kwan Chan and Dan Marrone are quoted in this article.

3) The Pandora Mission

Daniel Apai's group is involved in planning for the Pandora Mission, a low-cost NASA mission to study exo-planet atmospheres using transit spectroscopy. The press release is HERE. Stewardites quoted in the article are Daniel Apai and former Steward grad student Ben Rackham (PhD 2018).

4) Newest Adam Block Photos 

a) Photo 1, part of the Tauris Molecular Cloud, from the Pomenis Astrograph.

b) Photo 2, NGC 1300, from the Schulman Telescope.

c) Photo 3, NGC 3898 and 3888, taken at New Mexico Skies.

Here is a live-streaming link for the high-temperature portion of the casting of GMT Mirror #6 (Saturday March 6 from 1:30pm MST to 2:30pm MST).

We are virtually celebrating the creation of the sixth segment of the Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirror array during the High Fire phase. This casting of an 8.4-meter telescope mirror is a major milestone moment in the engineering process.  This one-of-a-kind instrument will allow astronomers to solve some of the mysteries of the Universe.

When completed the Giant Magellan Telescope will be the largest and most powerful telescope in the world. The casting process uses an oven 40 feet in diameter to heat up 20 tons of glass to 2129° F. This unique fabrication process results in a lightweight honeycomb glass structure.

Here at the University of Arizona we are celebrating the achievement of this milestone. The Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab is the only place in the world where mirrors of this size are produced

The process is fascinating and you will have access to learn more and ask questions on Saturday March 6, 2021 from 1:30 - 2:30 pm MST.

This virtual event is being hosted by the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, where we engage people of all ages in the process of scientific exploration as we foster a deeper understanding of our Earth within the Universe.

/GMT-Mirror-6-Casting

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