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spacetimewithstuartgary · 5 months

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NASA’s NEOWISE Celebrates 10 Years, Plans End of Mission

The asteroid and comet-hunting infrared space telescope has gathered an impressive haul of observations, but it’s now at the mercy of the Sun, which is accelerating its demise.

NASA’s NEOWISE has had a busy decade. Since its reactivated mission began on Dec. 13, 2013, the space telescope has discovered a once-in-a-lifetime comet, observed more than 3,000 near-Earth objects, bolstered international planetary defense strategies, and supported another NASA mission’s rendezvous with a distant asteroid. And that’s just a partial list of accomplishments.

But all good things must come to an end: Solar activity is causing NEOWISE – short for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer – to fall out of orbit. By early 2025, the spacecraft is expected to drop low enough into Earth’s atmosphere that it will become unusable. Eventually, it will reenter our atmosphere, entirely burning up.

About every 11 years, the Sun experiences a cycle of increased activity that peaks during a period called solar maximum. Explosive events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, become more frequent and heat up our planet’s atmosphere, causing it to expand. Atmospheric gases increase drag on satellites orbiting Earth, slowing them down. With the Sun currently approaching its next maximum, NEOWISE will no longer be able to maintain its orbit above our atmosphere.

“The mission has planned for this day a long time. After several years of calm, the Sun is waking back up,” said Joseph Masiero, NEOWISE’s deputy principal investigator and a scientist at IPAC, a research organization at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “We are at the mercy of solar activity, and with no means to keep us in orbit, NEOWISE is now slowly spiraling back to Earth.”

WISE Beginnings

The past 10 years represent a second life for the spacecraft. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, NEOWISE repurposed a different mission that launched in 2009: the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Data from WISE and NEOWISE has been used to study distant galaxies, cool stars, exploding white dwarf stars, outgassing comets, near-Earth asteroids, and more.

In 2010, WISE achieved its scientific goal of conducting an all-sky infrared survey with far greater sensitivity than previous surveys. The WISE mission also found tens of millions of actively feeding supermassive black holes across the sky. Through the Disk Detective project, citizen scientists have used WISE data to find circumstellar disks, which are spinning clouds of gas, dust, and rubble around stars.

Invisible to the naked eye, infrared wavelengths are emitted by warm objects. To keep the heat generated by WISE itself from interfering with its observations of infrared wavelengths, the spacecraft relied on cryogenic coolant. After the coolant ran out and WISE had mapped the sky twice, NASA put the spacecraft into hibernation in February 2011.

Without coolant, the space telescope could no longer observe the universe’s coldest objects, but it could still see near-Earth asteroids and comets, which are heated by the Sun. So NASA reactivated the spacecraft in 2013 with a more specialized role in mind: aiding planetary defense efforts by surveying and studying those objects, which can stray into our planet’s orbital neighborhood and create a potential impact hazard.

Astronomers could not only rely on the mission to seek out these objects, but also use its data to figure out their size and albedo – how much sunlight their surfaces reflect – and to gather clues about the minerals and rocks they’re composed of.

“NEOWISE has showcased the importance of having an infrared space survey telescope as part of NASA’s planetary defense strategy while also keeping tabs on other objects in the solar system and beyond,” said Amy Mainzer, the mission’s principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Mainzer is also leading NASA’s upcoming NEO Surveyor, which will build on NEOWISE’s legacy. The next-generation infrared space telescope will seek out some of the hardest-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that don’t reflect much visible light, as well as objects that approach Earth from the direction of the Sun. Scheduled for launch in 2027, the JPL-managed mission will also search for objects known as Earth Trojans – asteroids that lead or trail our planet’s orbit – the first of which WISE discovered in 2011.

Comet NEOWISE and Beyond

Since becoming NEOWISE, the mission has scanned the entire sky over 20 times and made 1.45 million infrared measurements of over 44,000 solar system objects. That includes more than 3,000 near-Earth objects, 215 of which NEOWISE discovered. Data from the mission has contributed to refining the orbits of these objects while gauging their size as well.

Its forte is characterizing near-Earth asteroids. In 2021, NEOWISE became a key component of an international planetary defense exercise that focused on the hazardous asteroid Apophis.

The mission has also discovered 25 comets, including the long-period comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE). The comet became a dazzling celestial object visible in the Northern Hemisphere for several weeks in 2020 and the first comet that could be seen by the naked eye since 2007, when Comet McNaught was primarily visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

Future researchers will continue to rely on the vast archive of NEOWISE observations to make new discoveries, similar to the way researchers used WISE data from 2010 long after the observations were made to characterize asteroid Dinkinesh in support of NASA’s Lucy mission before its October 2023 encounter.

“This is a bittersweet moment. It’s sad to see this trailblazing mission come to an end, but we know there’s more treasure hiding in the survey data,” said Masiero. “NEOWISE has a vast archive, covering a very long period of time, that will inevitably advance the science of the infrared universe long after the spacecraft is gone.”

More About the Mission

NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor support the objectives of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directed NASA to discover and characterize at least 90% of the near-Earth objects more than 140 meters (460 feet) across that come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of our planet’s orbit. Objects of this size can cause significant regional damage, or worse, should they impact the Earth.

JPL manages and operates the NEOWISE mission for PDCO within the Science Mission Directorate. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science data processing takes place at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

TOP IMAGE....NEOWISE is depicted in an artist’s concept in front of an image of the infrared sky that the mission captured. The string of red dots moving across the sky near the center of the image is Holda, the first asteroid the space telescope detected shortly after being reactivated in 2013. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

LOWER IMAGE.... Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE appears as a trio of fuzzy red dots in this composite of several infrared images captured by the NEOWISE mission on March 27, 2020. These observations helped astronomers determine the comet’s path shortly after its discovery. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #astrophysics

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momental · 22 days

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The infrared space telescope of NASA's NEOWISE mission has released its 10th year of data, revealing changes in celestial objects over time. This information plays a key role in studying variable stars' brightness changes and black hole flares but is particularly focused on exploring asteroids and comets in our local cosmic neighborhood.

NEOWISE, an integral part of NASA's planetary defense strategy, refines asteroid and comet orbits and estimates their size. For instance, it has been crucial in studying the asteroid Apophis that will closely approach Earth in 2029.

From its position in low-Earth orbit, NEOWISE has recorded 1.45 million infrared measurements of over 44,000 solar system objects, including more than 3,000 Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). It has discovered 215 of these NEOs, 25 of which are comets, such as the famous comet NEOWISE.

“The space telescope has been a workhorse for characterizing NEOs that may pose a hazard to Earth in the future,” said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE’s principal investigator. “The data that NEOWISE has generated for free use by the scientific community will pay dividends for generations.”

The mission, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, sends data thrice a day to the U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) network, which then delivers it to IPAC.

The Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at Caltech in Pasadena, California, processes raw data from the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), creating fully calibrated images that are available online. The center also identifies Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and sends the data to the Minor Planet Center, the internationally recognized authority for position measurements of solar system bodies. Scientists can observe the movements of individual asteroids and comets by examining multiple images of the same area of sky taken at different times. 'The science products we generate identify specific infrared sources in the sky with precisely determined positions and brightnesses that enable discoveries to be made,' said Roc Cutri, lead scientist for the NEOWISE Science Data System at IPAC. IPAC also plans to produce data products for NASA’s NEO Surveyor, a next-generation space survey telescope slated for launch no earlier than 2027. This telescope will seek out hard-to-detect NEOs, such as dark asteroids and comets that are more visible in infrared light. NEOWISE was initially launched as the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in 2009 to survey the entire sky. It was reactivated in 2014 and renamed NEOWISE, despite initially being designed for less than a year of operation. This extended its lifespan and allowed it to continue observing the infrared glow of comets and asteroids heated by the Sun.

Joseph Masiero, NEOWISE’s deputy principal investigator at IPAC, humorously notes, 'We are 14 years into a seven-month mission,' referring to the spacecraft he started working on at JPL just two months before its launch on Dec. 14, 2009. Masiero's career has revolved around this mission which has been constantly making new discoveries and enhancing our understanding of the universe. Unfortunately, due to the inevitable 'tyranny of orbital dynamics,' NEOWISE is predicted to cease operation in the coming years.

NEOWISE is anticipated to fall out of orbit due to solar activity, eventually dropping low enough into Earth’s atmosphere to render it unusable. Joseph Hunt, NEOWISE project manager at JPL, explains, 'NEOWISE has lasted way past its original spacecraft design lifetime. As it lacks a method to reach higher orbits, it will naturally descend so low in the atmosphere that it will become entirely unusable and burn up in the months following decommissioning.'

NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor serve the objectives of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). Their mission, per the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, is to discover and characterize at least 90% of the near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters that come within 30 million miles of our planet’s orbit. These objects pose a significant threat, potentially causing substantial regional damage or worse upon impact with the Earth.

JPL, managed by Caltech, operates the NEOWISE mission for PDCO. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument while Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, constructed the spacecraft. The science data processing occurs at IPAC at Caltech.

More about NEOWISE can be found at:

https://www.nasa.gov/neowise

and

http://neowise.ipac.caltech.edu/

For additional information, please contact:

Ian J. O’Neill of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. at [email protected] or Karen Fox / Charles Blue at NASA Headquarters, Washington at [email protected] / [email protected].

Source Link: NASA’s NEOWISE Extends Legacy With Decade of Near-Earth Object Data

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spacenutspod · 4 months

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X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and B.A. Wolpa (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA); Infrared: NASA/NSF/IPAC/CalTech/Univ. of Massachusetts; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J.Major This new image of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights. NGC 2264 is, in fact, a cluster of young stars — with ages between about one and five million years old — in our Milky Way about 2,500 light-years away from Earth. The stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the Sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth the mass of the Sun to others containing about seven solar masses. This new composite image enhances the resemblance to a Christmas tree through choices of color and rotation. The blue and white lights (which blink in the animated version of this image) are young stars that give off X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Optical data from the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak shows gas in the nebula in green, corresponding to the “pine needles” of the tree, and infrared data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey shows foreground and background stars in white. This image has been rotated clockwise by about 160 degrees from the astronomer’s standard of North pointing upward, so that it appears like the top of the tree is toward the top of the image. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video This composite image shows the Christmas Tree Cluster. The blue and white lights (which blink in the animated version of this image) are young stars that give off X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Optical data from the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak shows gas in the nebula in green, corresponding to the “pine needles” of the tree, and infrared data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey shows foreground and background stars in white. This image has been rotated clockwise by about 160 degrees from the astronomer’s standard of North pointing upward, so that it appears like the top of the tree is toward the top of the image. Young stars, like those in NGC 2264, are volatile and undergo strong flares in X-rays and other types of variations seen in different types of light. The coordinated, blinking variations shown in this animation, however, are artificial, to emphasize the locations of the stars seen in X-rays and highlight the similarity of this object to a Christmas tree. In reality the variations of the stars are not synchronized. The variations observed by Chandra and other telescopes are caused by several different processes. Some of these are related to activity involving magnetic fields, including flares like those undergone by the Sun — but much more powerful — and hot spots and dark regions on the surfaces of the stars that go in and out of view as the stars rotate. There can also be changes in the thickness of gas obscuring the stars, and changes in the amount of material still falling onto the stars from disks of surrounding gas. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/ Visual Description: This release features a composite image of a cluster of young stars looking decidedly like a cosmic Christmas tree! The cluster, known as NGC 2264, is in our Milky Way Galaxy, about 2,500 light-years from Earth. Some of the stars in the cluster are relatively small, and some are relatively large, ranging from one tenth to seven times the mass of our Sun. In this composite image, the cluster’s resemblance to a Christmas tree has been enhanced through image rotation and color choices. Optical data is represented by wispy green lines and shapes, which creates the boughs and needles of the tree shape. X-rays detected by Chandra are presented as blue and white lights, and resemble glowing dots of light on the tree. Infrared data show foreground and background stars as gleaming specks of white against the blackness of space. The image has been rotated by about 150 degrees from the astronomer’s standard of North pointing upwards. This puts the peak of the roughly conical tree shape near the top of the image, though it doesn’t address the slight bare patch in the tree’s branches, at our lower right, which should probably be turned to the corner. In this release, the festive cluster is presented as both a static image, and as a short animation. In the animation, blue and white X-ray dots from Chandra flicker and twinkle on the tree, like the lights on a Christmas tree. News Media Contact Megan WatzkeChandra X-ray CenterCambridge, Mass.617-496-7998 Jonathan DealMarshall Space Flight CenterHuntsville, Ala.256-544-0034

#space #astronomy #news #science

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andhrawatch · 10 months

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YSRCP Chief Jagan Mohan Reddy had a field day with a series of meetings with his political strategy partner iPAC company’s teams. Since the elections are approaching, the CM of AP wants to do everything in his hand to win yet again in 2024. Jagan has hired the happening Political Strategist Prashanth Kishore as his official partner in guiding the elections and PK with his iPAC team helped Jagan win the 2019 elections. Continuing the partnership, Jagan is hoping to win again with the help of iPAC and hence he met with the teams from the company and discussed various issues. Jagan discussed the latest surveys on his party and his MLAs along with their work graph. In this regard, the Chief had a look at those MLAs who are performing badly and asked the iPAC team for better alternatives. Not stopping there, the son of late YSR wanted iPAC to do the latest surveys since the opposition parties are aggressively campaigning against YSRCP. The head of the ruling party asked for suggestions in order to increase the name and fame of the party among the voters and wished to get new unique schemes to penetrate the minds of the commoners. Seems Jagan is desperate to win the 2024 elections at any cost and he is counting on his Navaratnas.

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that-fema-corps-blog · 10 months

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Day 178

January 27, 2023

Learned who our round 3-4 teammates would be last night. We received a bunch of emails about project transition and end-of-round surveys, so I worked through them at the office. Driver evaluations, team leader evaluations, round 2 accomplishments… It’s pretty similar to the stuff we had to fill out during the round 1-2 transition.

We had the 15-minute “morning huddle” and then the more extended environmental historic preservation (EHP) Friday team meeting. Today’s meet was about a few streamlined approval tools/policies, project work, and general work policies. The information is as follows…

Streamlining Projects:

Programmatic agreements allow FEMA to bypass the National Historic Preservation Act section 106 process. This process normally requires federal agencies to take their impacts on historic properties into account and let the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation comment on the proposed actions.

Programmatic agreements are tiered. Tier I is for less complex projects and only requires EHP staff to review it. Tier II requires feedback from Secretary of the Interior qualified staff. A subject matter expert should be contacted if there is any doubt as to which tier a project would fall under. A few words could make the difference in which tier applies.

Endangered Species Act blanket coverage letters can be used to streamline the determination process. A Tier I project that meets the criteria in the Endangered Species Act blanket letter can be determined to have no adverse effect on endangered species. After making the No Effect determination, the standard comment should be added, attached along with the letter and endangered species/critical habitat map from the US Fish and Wildlife Service Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC). If it is unclear whether the letter applies, the Subject Matter Expert should be sent a form with a justification on why the letter may apply. If the Subject Matter Expert tells you that the blanket letter does not apply, the Endangered Species determination matrix should be used instead. This is a spreadsheet that lists the different kinds of project work and the potential impact it would have on each endangered species.

A statuary exclusion cannot be used if hazard mitigation is requested. Statuary exclusions streamline the approval process and are used for when the scope of work is restoring the facility to pre-disaster state. Any changes to the footprint or scope of work may still be eligible for categorical exclusions.

Inspections and Consultations:

In the first phase of inspections, staff specializing in historic preservation and staff specializing in environmental protection were typically sent to separate inspections. This was largely for training, allowing more people of each specialty to go to a relevant site and collaborate. In the second phase (the current one), environmental and historic preservation staff will be sent together, as staff from different specialties will need to communicate more to work on (more complex) projects. In the final stage, most EHP staff will go alone to deal with the higher caseload. By then, everyone should have a general idea of what to ask the applicant.

EHP staff should contact the the inspector the previous day to confirm meeting times and locations. If the inspector does not respond after a couple calls, someone else… should be contacted? (I think I heard “TFO,” but I can’t figure out the acronym.) If there still is not an answer, the meeting may need to be rescheduled; it is not worth potentially driving hours to a site for no one to show up. The applicant has to be present for inspections, so looking without them is not an option.

Upon returning from a site inspection, staff should know whether any natural resources will be disturbed and whether any action will be taken outside of the pre-disaster footprint. This includes everything from hazard mitigation or temporary roads to trimming trees or storing equipment.

Inspectors usually stay late after the site inspections to go over paperwork and other information with the applicant. EHP staff are free to provide necessary EHP information, ask if there are any further questions, and leave after the inspections are complete. There is little reason to stick around for the full post-inspection meeting.

Environmental consultations cannot be conditioned. From my understanding, this means that the proposed project is determined to be either in compliance or not in compliance based on the current plan/scope of work. (I need to get clarification.) If the scope of work changes, another consultation may be needed. For example, repairing a low-water crossing may have been determined to have no adverse impact on endangered species after a consultation. However, if the applicant decides to pursue hazard mitigation and increase the culvert size and expand the footprint of the low-water crossing to accommodate this larger culvert (thus expanding the environmental disturbance), a new consultation may be necessary.

Project Work Reviews and Rework:

These reviews are highly interdisciplinary, and likely to involve staff from EHP, hazard mitigation, and public assistance. More teamwork will be necessary.

An A&E (Architect & Engineer?) proposal is ideally obtained before making a project. Changes in the plan will likely lead to rework anyway.

When reviewing a project, do an informal request for information (RFI) before submitting a formal request. This allows for quick clarification without sending the project back up the line to the Consolidated Resource Center for rework. (Example: a project already has a map of a plan associated with it, but it is uploaded in the wrong place.) Minor issues can be easily amended without needing to go through the entire formal process. If rework is needed, an informal request gives the Program Delivery Manager more time to prepare the applicant and gather the information for the formal RFI. If the applicant does not respond to an informal request for information in a timely manner, the formal RFI and rework process should begin, if it has not already been started.

The entire scope of work should be copied/pasted when changes to the project are made. This reduces confusion from having to sift through a bunch of past comments to figure out what is going on. Make rework/ “disregard previous comment” statements clearly visible in Grants Manager: “******DISREGARD PREVIOUS COMMENT******”

Overtime and Pay Policies:

Overtime applies to weekends and any work over 8 hours per weekday. It is paid at a 1.5x rate, and applies regardless of how many hours have been worked that week. (Example: a person who worked 10 hours on a Monday will still get 2 hours of overtime; the overtime will not “overflow” and count as normal-paid work toward the overall 40-hour workweek.)

Requests for overtime should be overestimated. Staff should request two hours of overtime per inspection day. If less overtime is used, the actual number of hours should be entered on the timesheet. No need to contact a supervisor and un-request overtime. If inspection days go above two hours of overtime, the additional time that was required should be requested afterward. (It will be approved.)

Hotel rates typically increase for holidays, so the per diem rate will typically rise accordingly (may be 1.5x normal during holiday, depending on government policies). If one books a hotel that costs more than the per diem rate, they will have to pay the difference in cost with their own money.

#fema corps #ehp #round 2 #information

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myfeeds · 1 year

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Webb reveals early-universe prequel to huge galaxy cluster

“This is a very special, unique site of accelerated galaxy evolution, and Webb gave us the unprecedented ability to measure the velocities of these seven galaxies and confidently confirm that they are bound together in a protocluster,” said Takahiro Morishita of IPAC-California Institute of Technology, the lead author of the study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The precise measurements captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) were key to confirming the galaxies’ collective distance and the high velocities at which they are moving within a halo of dark matter — more than two million miles per hour (about one thousand kilometers per second). The spectral data allowed astronomers to model and map the future development of the gathering group, all the way to our time in the modern universe. The prediction that the protocluster will eventually resemble the Coma Cluster means that it could eventually be among the densest known galaxy collections, with thousands of members. “We can see these distant galaxies like small drops of water in different rivers, and we can see that eventually they will all become part of one big, mighty river,” said Benedetta Vulcani of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy, another member of the research team. Galaxy clusters are the greatest concentrations of mass in the known universe, which can dramatically warp the fabric of spacetime itself. This warping, called gravitational lensing, can have a magnifying effect for objects beyond the cluster, allowing astronomers to look through the cluster like a giant magnifying glass. The research team was able to utilize this effect, looking through Pandora’s Cluster to view the protocluster; even Webb’s powerful instruments need an assist from nature to see so far. Exploring how large clusters like Pandora and Coma first came together has been difficult, due to the expansion of the universe stretching light beyond visible wavelengths into the infrared, where astronomers lacked high-resolution data before Webb. Webb’s infrared instruments were developed specifically to fill in these gaps at the beginning of the universe’s story. The seven galaxies confirmed by Webb were first established as candidates for observation using data from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Frontier Fields program. The program dedicated Hubble time to observations using gravitational lensing, to observe very distant galaxies in detail. However, because Hubble cannot detect light beyond near-infrared, there is only so much detail it can see. Webb picked up the investigation, focusing on the galaxies scouted by Hubble and gathering detailed spectroscopic data in addition to imagery. The research team anticipates that future collaboration between Webb and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a high-resolution, wide-field survey mission, will yield even more results on early galaxy clusters. With 200 times Hubble’s infrared field of view in a single shot, Roman will be able to identify more protocluster galaxy candidates, which Webb can follow up to confirm with its spectroscopic instruments. The Roman mission is currently targeted for launch by May 2027. “It is amazing the science we can now dream of doing, now that we have Webb,” said Tommaso Treu of the University of California, Los Angeles, a member of the protocluster research team. “With this small protocluster of seven galaxies, at this great distance, we had a one hundred percent spectroscopic confirmation rate, demonstrating the future potential for mapping dark matter and filling in the timeline of the universe’s early development.”

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pinerventure · 2 years

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Ipack survey program

#IPACK SURVEY PROGRAM SERIES#

R-release (arm64): survey_4.1-1.tgz, r-oldrel (arm64): survey_4.1-1.tgz, r-release (x86_64): survey_4.1-1.tgz, r-oldrel (x86_64): survey_4.1-1.tgzĬalibrateSSB, cjoint, csurvey, eatRep, ggsurvey, glm.predict, hopit, lavaan.survey, MedSurvey, pedgene, relaimpo, samplingbook, spsurvey, sptm, StatMatch, svydiags, svyVGAMĪnthro, apc, APCI, calidad, capm, casen, ccdf, convey, COVIDIBGE, cregg, DAMisc, dearseq, DHS.rates, dvmisc, ech, EffectLiteR, effects, ergm.ego, FamAgg, GB2, GJRM, GreedyExperimentalDesign, httk, ICS, ICtest, iNZightPlots, iNZightTools, IRexamples, jskm, jsmodule, jstable, lboxcox, LLM, mase, MatchThem, MCM, microsynth, mixcure, MixedIndTests, OmnibusFisher, OVtool, PNADcIBGE, PNSIBGE, poliscidata, pricesensitivitymeter, RCPA3, RNHANES, robsurvey, SAMBA, SBdecomp, SightabilityModel, srvyr, ssfit, StroupGLMM, SUMMER, surf, surve圜V, svrep, SvyNom, svyweight, tab, tableone, twang, twangContinuous, twangMediationĪnthroplus, apyramid, BIFIEsurvey, broom, broom. Stats, graphics, splines, lattice, minqa, numDeriv, mitools (≥ 2.4)įoreign, MASS, KernSmooth, hexbin, RSQLite, quantreg, parallel, CompQuadForm, DBI, AERĮstimates in subpopulations Two-phase designs in epidemiology Analysing PPS designs Quantile rules A survey analysis example R (≥ 3.5.0), grid, methods, Matrix, survival Post-stratification, calibration, and raking.

#IPACK SURVEY PROGRAM SERIES#

Variances by Taylor series linearisation or replicate weights. Market research companies with existing teams of trained enumerators can charge premium prices. Summary statistics, two-sample tests, rank tests, generalised linear models, cumulative link models, Cox models, loglinear models, and general maximum pseudolikelihood estimation for multistage stratified, cluster-sampled, unequally weighted survey samples. Findings from Farmer Mini-Grants in partnership with the Vermont Grass Farmers Association.Survey: Analysis of Complex Survey Samples This Implementation Package (iPack) is a self-contained package aimed to assist and guide States in certain aspects of their preparation for Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA) activities, particularly in providing pre-audit information to ICAO using USOAP CMA Online Framework (OLF).How we can improve grazing practices in order to support water quality.What impact we can have on the whole region's farm and food system, economy and ecosystem by a networked regional approach to good grazing. As the ICP lead, which of the following IPAC program components do you feel you could use some support in.Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship program to help keep new and young livestock farmers learning what they need to be successful graziers.Understanding the potential for wood-chip pads to relieve pressure on recovering pastures and as out-wintering areas.Tools for grass farmers to monitor grazing behavior and forage utilization in real time.How we can affect water quality in the entire Connecticut River watershed by bringing a team problem-solving approach to work with individual farms.The potential for alternative management practices to provide ecosystem services while increasing farm resiliency to climate change.Investigating Vermont wool for non-traditional uses, including pellets for farms and gardens.How small adjustments in management practices can affect milk production, in trials examining the timing of supplementation for organic dairy cows.Soil quality impacts of farming methods, through trials of forage species, agroforestry projects, and research into compaction.Demonstrating effects of biological and mechanical compaction best management practices on soil properties and water movement.Increasing Ecosystem Services and Climate Change Resilience In Dominant Agroecosystems of the Northeast.Enhancing Research and Education for Grass Farmers (Philo Ridge Project).Connecticut River Watershed Assistance (Long Island Sound RCPP).Timing of Supplementation for Dairy Cows.This study compared iPACK + ACB (adductor canal block) with PAI (periarticular infiltration) + ACB and ACB alone in terms of postoperative analgesia and functional improvement. Implementing and Evaluating Woodchip Heavy-use Areas for Livestock in the Northeast Purpose The infiltration between the popliteal artery and the capsule of the posterior knee (iPACK) has been described to provide analgesia without loss of muscle strength and is effective in functional recovery.Please visit our sharedįor more information. UVM Extension Grazing Programming work across three teams throughout Vermont to be the go-to resource for all your grazing needs. Our purpose is to understand what is and what isn't working in grass-based farming systems now, and to explore, understand, and share promising practices for a resilient future.

#Ipack survey program

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greyscities · 2 years

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Ipack survey program

A dedicated expert will work remotely with the CAA, coaching and guiding their implementation efforts to achieve the objectives of the iPack. Click “Submit form and start course” when you have completed all of the appropriate fields to be taken to the course content. Description This Implementation Package (iPack) is a self-contained package aiming to facilitate and guide Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs) in the implementation of the relevant ICAO provisions. Third, academic programs and courses not only influence future public. Please choose the most appropriate answers from the drop-down menu for each question. Even here, though, the cases and the IPAC survey suggest that public servants. Thank you for taking part in this online learning opportunity and for your work to stop the spread of COVID-19.īelow you will find a form with a few questions to guide you to the right content. The College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario regulates the practice of dental hygiene in the interest of the overall health and safety of the public of Ontario. 2005 survey showed that IPAC resources and programming fell far short of the suggestions of Canadian. You will be taken to a short survey about your experience at the end of each course, which will help us to make enhancements. IPAC CANADA: IPAC Program Standard and Audit. the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Herschel, Planck. PHO is interested in evaluating the use and effectiveness of this material. IPAC also specializes in developing educational plans and programs for international. The time to complete a module will vary, depending on which stream you choose and your prior experience with IPAC concepts. Please choose the module that is most appropriate for you. A public health expert by training, who worked with the United Nations for eight years. He has worked on several safety management implementation initiatives to date, and is part of the team who designed and developed the Aviation Safety Risk Management iPack, as well as the recently published Handbook, Doc 10144. Prashant Kishor is an Indian political strategist and tactician. Families of residents in long-term care and other congregate living settings Devan Panchal joined ICAO in 2019 as part of the Safety Management Programme.Inspectors, investigators and assessors that support long-term care and other congregate living settings.Only a survey like Packs will show this, and there could be no. Congregate living settings (e.g., group homes) Packs book essentially documents the survival value of urban models and, in doing so.These IPAC resources will help you prepare for your role as you respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Welcome to PHO’s COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) Fundamentals training. Methods, Measures and Data Source Reviews including Fix and colleagues mailed pack survey, which asked members of a. Survey of nurses perceived acceptability of key components of the 6-PACK program. Ontario Universal Typing of Tuberculosis (OUT-TB) Web Data collectors were trained in a previously tested littered pack data. Health Care-Associated Infection (HAI) Query Locally Driven Collaborative Projects (LDCP) Routine Practices and Additional Precautions Started as Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) in 2013, I-PAC has. Var getUrlParameter = function getUrlParameter(sParam) else if(fieldReqd & fieldVal.Antimicrobial Stewardship in Long Term CareĪntimicrobial Stewardship in Primary CareĪntimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) & Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Comparison ToolĬonstruction, Renovation, Maintenance and Design Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) is the platform of choice for students and young professionals to participate in and make meaningful contribution to political affairs and governance of the country, without necessarily being part of a political party. Anterior Cruciate Ligament - Return to Sport after Injury survey Time Frame: 4 and 8 postoperative months International Knee Documentation Committee. Policy and Links| Non-Discrimination Statement | Information Quality | USA.gov | NRCS Home | | Site Map | Civil Rights | FOIA | Plain Writing | Accessibility Statement Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) > Map | Reports Administered by the National Water & Climate Center, the Program collects and distributes timely, quality-controlled snowpack, water supply, and soil climate data to users worldwide. To predict this annual runoff, the Snow Survey & Water Supply Forecasting Program manages and maintains a comprehensive network of manually-measured snow courses and automated Snow Telemetry ( SNOTEL) monitoring sites throughout the West. As snowpack accumulates each year, NRCS hydrologists measure the snow and estimate the runoff that will occur when it melts. Most of the annual streamflow in the western United States originates as snowfall that has accumulated in the mountains during the winter and early spring.

#Ipack survey program

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the-telescope-times · 3 years

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Planetary Sleuthing Finds Triple-Star World

Above: This illustration shows the planet KOI-5Ab transiting across the face of a Sun-like star, which is part of a triple-star system located 1,800 light-years away in the Cygnus constellation. Credits: Caltech/R. Hurt (Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, or IPAC)

Shortly after NASA's Kepler mission began operations back in 2009, the space telescope spotted what was thought to be a planet about half the size of Saturn in a multiple-star system. KOI-5Ab was only the second planet candidate to be found by the mission, and exciting as it was at the time, it was ultimately set aside as Kepler racked up more and more planet discoveries.

By the end of the spacecraft’s operations in 2018, Kepler had discovered a whopping 2,394 exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars beyond our sun, and an additional 2,366 exoplanet candidates that would still need confirmation.

“KOI-5Ab got abandoned because it was complicated, and we had thousands of candidates,” said David Ciardi, chief scientist of NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute. “There were easier pickings than KOI-5Ab, and we were learning something new from Kepler every day, so that KOI-5 was mostly forgotten.”

Now, after a lengthy hunt that spanned many years and many telescopes, Ciardi said he has "resurrected KOI-5Ab from the dead." Thanks to new observations from NASA’s second planet-hunting mission, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, and a number of ground-based telescopes, Ciardi was finally able to untangle all the evidence surrounding KOI-5Ab and prove its existence. There are some intriguing details about it to mull over.

Most likely a gas giant planet like Jupiter or Saturn in our solar system given its size, KOI-5Ab is unusual in that it orbits a star in a system with two other companion stars, circling on a plane that’s out of alignment with at least one of the stars. The arrangement calls into question how each member in this system formed out of the same swirling clouds of gas and dust. Ciardi, who is located at Caltech in Pasadena, California presented the findings at a virtual meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

“We don’t know of many planets that exist in triple-star systems, and this one is extra special because its orbit is skewed,” said Ciardi. “We still have a lot of questions about how and when planets can form in multiple-star systems and how their properties compare to planets in single-star systems. By studying this system in greater detail, perhaps we can gain insight into how the universe makes planets."

The KOI-5 star system consists of three stars, labeled A, B, and C, in this diagram. Stars A and B orbit each other every 30 years. Star C orbits stars A and B every 400 years. The system hosts one known planet, called KOI-5Ab, which was discovered and characterized using data from NASA's Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite missions, as well as ground-based telescopes. KOI-5Ab is about half the mass of Saturn and orbits Star A roughly every five days. Its orbit is titled 50 degrees relative to the plane of stars A and B. Astronomers suspect that this misaligned orbit was caused by Star B, which gravitationally kicked the planet during its development, skewing its orbit and causing it to migrate inward. Credits: Caltech/R. Hurt (Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, or IPAC)

Read more ~ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/planetary-sleuthing-finds-triple-star-world

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andromeda1023 · 3 years

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Top pic: Although the two galaxies in NGC 3256 appear merged when viewed in visible light, a second, bright nucleus is found hiding among the tangle of dust lanes in the central region. By using a range of telescopes on the ground and in space, the GOALS (Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey) research team has been analyzing galaxies like NGC 3256 from X-ray through radio wavelengths. NGC 3256 has a buried active nucleus, large-scale shocks from two powerful outflows, and a huge number of compact, bright star clusters. Upcoming research with the James Webb Space Telescope will help researchers learn more about the outflows, which will allow them to better model the hot and cold gas, and determine what implications that has for how and where stars form in rapidly evolving galaxies. Credits: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

2nd pic: Since the galaxies that make up NGC 7469 are both almost face-on when viewed from Earth, it's easier to identify the areas where a black hole may exist. A powerful accreting supermassive black hole, surrounded by a ring of young stars, lives at the heart of the galaxy in the upper right. High-resolution infrared imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope is required to determine if the stars form differently around a central supermassive black hole compared to star formation farther out in the galaxy's arms. Webb will also help researchers trace the gas outflows, which will help pinpoint where and how the interstellar medium is affected, which subsequently drives or quenches star formation. Credits: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

3rd pic: These merging galaxies, known as II Zw 096, are the site of a spectacular burst of star formation that is hinted at in the red speckles near the middle of the image. This dust-shrouded area conceals a brilliant burst of star formation that becomes more apparent at longer wavelengths of infrared light. The image above combines near-infrared, visible, and far-ultraviolet observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. Researchers using infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope estimated the starburst, which lives in a small red region at the center of this image, is cranking out stars at the breakneck pace of around 100 solar masses per year. The upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will allow researchers to penetrate the dust and search for a buried, rapidly growing supermassive black hole. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/H. Inami (SSC/Caltech)

NASA's Webb Will Explore the Cores of Merging Galaxies

When galaxies collide, it's as if all the players in a symphony have begun a furious crescendo: As their stars and gas fall toward the center, star formation escalates. At the same time, the galaxies' black holes engorge themselves and light up, releasing energy and material into the surrounding gas. These "overtures," which continue for hundreds of millions of years, are brightest where the centers of galaxies – called nuclei – merge, and those areas are also filled with dust. Until now, high-resolution infrared observations from space that can pierce through the dust weren't possible. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's observations will return both infrared imagery and spectra that will allow researchers to add incredible detail to our understanding of the precise mechanics at work.

A research team led by Lee Armus of the California Institute of Technology/IPAC in Pasadena and Aaron Evans of the University of Virginia and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville will study the centers of a class of interacting galaxies known as merging luminous infrared galaxies. "Webb's instruments will provide huge leaps in our abilities to resolve what is happening in these galaxies," explained Armus. "The images and spectra will not only be 50 to 100 times more sensitive than previous infrared data, but also significantly sharper."

These merging galaxies are often gas-rich spiral galaxies, which means they are still forming stars before colliding. As they approach one another and conduct a delicate "dance," gas in the galaxies loses angular momentum and funnels toward the center. This triggers additional star formation at an accelerated rate, up to hundreds of solar masses per year compared to one or two per year observed in normal star-forming galaxies like our own. While stars are forming, they heat the surrounding dust, generating enormous amounts of energy in infrared light.

Webb's high-resolution, infrared instruments will allow researchers to resolve the central star-forming regions for the first time. "We are aiming to observe areas as small as 150 to 300 light-years across," said Evans. "For context, these galaxies span hundreds of millions of light-years across. Webb will strip away all the dust and see the activity that’s at their cores."

Further reading and video: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasas-webb-will-explore-the-cores-of-merging-galaxies/?utm_source=FBPAGE&utm_medium=NASA%27s+James+Webb+Space+Telescope&utm_campaign=NASASocial&linkId=105640096&fbclid=IwAR03Q6RBchd22YP5KatSfSnaqxCiyOIU9YSpK1ulhUKCszwP1tuMgfR_nIs

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 2 months

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NASA's Roman team selects survey to map our galaxy's far side

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has announced plans for an unprecedented survey of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. It will peer deeper into this region than any other survey, mapping more of our galaxy's stars than all previous observations combined.

"There's a really broad range of science we can explore with this type of survey, from star formation and evolution to dust in between stars and the dynamics of the heart of the galaxy," said Catherine Zucker, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who co-authored a white paper describing some of the benefits of such an observing program.

A galactic plane survey was the top-ranked submission following a 2021 call for Roman survey ideas. Now, the scientific community will work together to design the observational program ahead of Roman's launch by May 2027.

"There will be lots of trade-offs since scientists will have to choose between, for example, how much area to cover and how completely to map it in all the different possible filters," said paper co-author Robert Benjamin, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

While the details of the survey remain to be determined, scientists say if it covered about 1,000 square degrees—a region of sky as large as 5,000 full moons—it could reveal well over 100 billion cosmic objects (mainly stars).

"That would be pretty close to a complete census of all the stars in our galaxy, and it would only take around a month," said Roberta Paladini, a senior research scientist at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California, and the white paper's lead author. "It would take decades to observe such a large patch of the sky with the Hubble or James Webb space telescopes. Roman will be a survey machine."

Milky Way anatomy

Observatories with smaller views of space have provided exquisite images of other galaxies, revealing complex structures. But studying our own galaxy's anatomy is surprisingly difficult. The plane of the Milky Way covers such a large area on the sky that studying it in detail can take a very long time. Astronomers also must peer through thick dust that obscures distant starlight.

While we've studied our solar system's neighborhood well, Zucker says, "We have a very incomplete view of what the other half of that Milky Way looks like beyond the galactic center."

Observatories like NASA's retired Spitzer Space Telescope have conducted large-area surveys of the galactic plane in longer wavelengths of light and revealed some star-forming regions on the far side of the galaxy. But it couldn't resolve fine details like Roman will do.

"Spitzer set up the questions that Roman will be able to solve," Benjamin said.

Roman's combination of a large field of view, crisp resolution, and the ability to peer through dust make it the ideal instrument to study the Milky Way. And seeing stars in different wavelengths of light—optical and infrared—will help astronomers learn things such as the stars' temperatures. That one piece of information unlocks much more data, from the star's evolutionary stage and composition to its luminosity and size.

"We can do very detailed studies of things like star formation and the structure of our own galaxy in a way that we can't do for any other galaxy," Paladini said.

Roman will offer new insights about the structure of the central region known as the bulge, the "bar" that stretches across it, and the spiral arms that extend from it.

"We'll basically rewrite the 3D picture of the far side of the galaxy," Zucker said.

Roman's sharp vision will help astronomers see individual stars even in stellar nurseries on the far side of the galaxy. That will help Roman generate a huge new catalog of stars since it will be able to map 10 times farther than previous precision mapping by ESA's (the European Space Agency's) Gaia space mission.

Gaia mapped over 1 billion stars in 3D, largely within about 10,000 light-years. Roman could map up to 100 billion stars 100,000 light-years away or more (stretching out to the most distant edge of our galaxy and beyond).

The Galactic Plane Survey is Roman's first announced general astrophysics survey—one of several observation programs Roman will do in addition to its three core community surveys and Coronagraph technology demonstration.

At least 25% of Roman's five-year primary mission will be allocated to general astrophysics surveys in order to pursue science that can't be done with only the mission's core community survey data. Astronomers from all over the world will have the opportunity to use Roman and propose cutting-edge research, enabling the astronomical community to utilize the full potential of Roman's capabilities to conduct extraordinary science.

The work is published on the arXiv preprint server.

TOP IMAGE....The plane of our Milky Way galaxy, as seen by ESA’s Gaia space mission. It contains more than a billion stars, along with darker, dusty regions Gaia couldn’t see through. With its greater sensitivity and longer wavelength coverage, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s galactic plane survey will peer through more of the dust and reveal far more stars. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

LOWER IMAGE....This image shows two views of the same spiral galaxy, called IC 5332, as seen by two NASA observatories – the James Webb Space Telescope’s observations appear at the top left and the Hubble Space Telescope’s at the bottom right. The views are mainly so different due to the wavelengths of light they each showcase. Hubble’s visible and ultraviolet observation features dark regions where dust absorbs those types of light. Webb sees longer wavelengths and detects that dust glowing in infrared. But neither could conduct an efficient survey of our Milky Way galaxy because it covers so much sky area; since IC 5332 is around 30 million light-years away, it appears as a small spot. It would take Hubble or Webb decades to survey the Milky Way, but NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could do it in less than a month. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), Rupali Chandar (UToledo), PHANGS Team

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #astrophysics #nasa

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spaceexp · 4 years

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Black Hole Collision May Have Exploded with Light

JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory logo. June 26, 2020 Possible light flare observed from small black holes within the disk of a massive black hole

Image above: Artist's concept of a supermassive black hole and its surrounding disk of gas. Embedded within this disk are two smaller black holes orbiting one another. Using data from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at Palomar Observatory, researchers have identified a flare of light suspected to have come from one such binary pair soon after they merged into a larger black hole. The merger of the black holes would have caused them to move in one direction within the disk, plowing through the gas in such a way to create a light flare. The finding, while not confirmed, could amount to the first time that light has been seen from a coalescing pair of black holes. These merging black holes were first spotted on May 21, 2019, by the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and the European Virgo detector, which picked up gravitational waves generated by the merger. Image Credits: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC). When two black holes spiral around each other and ultimately collide, they send out ripples in space and time called gravitational waves. Because black holes do not give off light, these events are not expected to shine with any light waves, or electromagnetic radiation. But some theorists have come up with ways in which a black hole merger might explode with light. Now, for the first time, astronomers have seen evidence for one of these light-producing scenarios. With the help of Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and located at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, the scientists have spotted what might be a flare of light from a pair of coalescing black holes. The black hole merger was first witnessed by the NSF's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and the European Virgo detector on May 21, 2019, in an event called S190521g. As the black holes merged, jiggling space and time, they sent out gravitational waves. While this was happening, ZTF was performing its robotic survey of the sky that captured all kinds of objects that flare, erupt, or otherwise vary in the night sky. One flare the survey caught, generated by a distant active supermassive black hole, or quasar, called J1249+3449, was pinpointed to the region of the gravitational-wave event S190521g. "This supermassive black hole was burbling along for years before this more abrupt flare," says Matthew Graham, a research professor of astronomy at Caltech and the project scientist for ZTF. "The flare occurred on the right timescale, and in the right location, to be coincident with the gravitational-wave event. In our study, we conclude that the flare is likely the result of a black hole merger, but we cannot completely rule out other possibilities." Graham is lead author of the new study, published today, June 25, in the journal Physical Review Letters. "ZTF was specifically designed to identify new, rare, and variable types of astronomical activity like this," says NSF Division of Astronomical Science Director Ralph Gaume. "NSF support of new technology continues to expand how we can track such events." How do two merging black holes erupt with light? In the scenario outlined by Graham and his colleagues, two partner black holes were nestled within a disk surrounding a much larger black hole. "At the center of most galaxies lurks a supermassive black hole. It's surrounded by a swarm of stars and dead stars, including black holes," says co-author K. E. Saavik Ford of the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). "These objects swarm like angry bees around the monstrous queen bee at the center. They can briefly find gravitational partners and pair up but usually lose their partners quickly to the mad dance. But in a supermassive black hole's disk, the flowing gas converts the mosh pit of the swarm to a classical minuet, organizing the black holes so they can pair up," she says. Once the black holes merge, the new, now-larger black hole experiences a kick that sends it off in a random direction, and it plows through the gas in the disk. "It is the reaction of the gas to this speeding bullet that creates a bright flare, visible with telescopes," says co-author Barry McKernan, also of the CUNY Graduate Center, BMCC, and AMNH. Such a flare is predicted to begin days to weeks after the initial splash of gravitational waves produced during the merger. In this case, ZTF did not catch the event right away, but when the scientists went back and looked through archival ZTF images months later, they found a signal that started days after the May 2019 gravitational-wave event. ZTF observed the flare slowly fade over the period of a month. The scientists attempted to get a more detailed look at the light of the supermassive black hole, called a spectrum, but by the time they looked, the flare had already faded. A spectrum would have offered more support for the idea that the flare came from merging black holes within the disk of the supermassive black hole. However, the researchers say they were able to largely rule out other possible causes for the observed flare, including a supernova or a tidal disruption event, which occurs when a black hole essentially eats a star. What is more, the team says it is not likely that the flare came from the usual rumblings of the supermassive black hole, which regularly feeds off its surrounding disk. Using the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey, led by Caltech, they were able to assess the behavior of the black hole over the past 15 years, and found that its activity was relatively normal until May of 2019, when it suddenly intensified. "Supermassive black holes like this one have flares all the time. They are not quiet objects, but the timing, size, and location of this flare was spectacular," says co-author Mansi Kasliwal (MS '07, PhD '11), an assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech. "The reason looking for flares like this is so important is that it helps enormously with astrophysics and cosmology questions. If we can do this again and detect light from the mergers of other black holes, then we can nail down the homes of these black holes and learn more about their origins." The newly formed black hole should cause another flare in the next few years. The process of merging gave the object a kick that should cause it to enter the supermassive black hole's disk again, producing another flash of light that ZTF should be able to see. The Physical Review Letters paper, titled, "A Candidate Electromagnetic Counterpart to the Binary Black Hole Merger Gravitational Wave Event GW190521g," was funded by the NSF, NASA, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the GROWTH (Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen) program. Other co-authors include: K. Burdge, S.G. Djorgovski, A.J. Drake, D. Duev, A.A. Mahabal, J. Belecki, R. Burruss, G. Helou, S.R. Kulkarni, F.J. Masci, T. Prince, D. Reiley, H. Rodriguez, B. Rusholme, R.M. Smith, all from Caltech; N.P. Ross of the University of Edinburgh; Daniel Stern of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech for NASA; M. Coughlin of the University of Minnesota; S. van Velzen of University of Maryland, College Park and New York University; E.C. Bellm of the University of Washington; S.B. Cenko of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; V. Cunningham of University of Maryland, College Park; and M.T. Soumagnac of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Weizmann Institute of Science. In addition to the NSF, ZTF is funded by an international collaboration of partners, with additional support from NASA, the Heising-Simons Foundation, members of the Space Innovation Council at Caltech, and Caltech itself. Related links: Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF): https://www.ztf.caltech.edu/ National Science Foundation (NSF): https://www.nsf.gov/ The Physical Review Letters paper: https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20200624-144534783 GROWTH: http://growth.caltech.edu/ Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/JPL/Written by Whitney Clavin. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

#space #science

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jcmarchi · 4 months

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Prepping for Data From the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/prepping-for-data-from-the-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope-technology-org/

Prepping for Data From the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - Technology Org

As part of a plan to prepare for the quantity and range of data that will be coming in from the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, currently scheduled to launch by May 2027, NASA has granted funding to five project infrastructure teams (PITs), which will write software, run simulations, and plot out optimal uses of the telescope’s data stream.

Diagram of Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s view into the distant universe (and deep past). Credit: Roman GRS mock (2021) visualized. Data provided by Z. Zhai, Y. Wang (Caltech/IPAC), and A. Benson (Carnegie); data visualization by J. DePasquale and D. Player (STScI).

Three of these PITs, each of which has received five-year, multimillion-dollar grants for their work, are based in Pasadena and affiliated with Caltech faculty and staff. Mansi Kasliwal (MS ’07, PhD ’11), Caltech professor of astronomy, heads up the RAPID (Roman Alerts Promptly from Image Differencing) team; Yun Wang, senior scientist with Caltech’s IPAC, is in charge of infrastructure for the galaxy redshift survey; and Olivier Doré, principal scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, leads the weak-lensing team with Dida Markovic, the deputy principal investigator, who also works at JPL.

The Roman Space Telescope project began in 2010 under the name Wide-Field InfraRed Space Telescope (WFIRST), promising to provide the same image precision obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope but with a field of vision at least 100 times larger, making it possible to survey the sky that much faster. The mission’s observations of galaxies and supernovas will tell us much about the history and expansion of the cosmos. With another technology demonstration instrument on board, the coronagraph, exoplanets in other star systems can be imaged. WFIRST was named the top priority for astrophysics in the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, a list of research goals undertaken every decade by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences since the 1960s.

In 2020, WFIRST was renamed in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, who served as NASA’s Chief of Astronomy and Solar Physics from 1961 to 1979 and lobbied relentlessly for the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope. “The Roman mission was conceived quite a while ago,” Kasliwal explains, “but so much has changed since then. “We now have actually seen light, or electromagnetic radiation, from powerful cosmic events associated with gravitational waves.”

These new findings have opened avenues for those who, like Kasliwal, Wang, and Doré, are intent on making the best possible use of Roman’s infrared observing run. “The Roman hardware is already built and being tested,” Wang says, “but the observing plan and software are still under development, so we can help to optimize it.”

Kasliwal’s PIT team is responsible for the creation of an alert system—RAPID—that tells astronomers where they might find interesting new phenomena to observe. RAPID achieves its goal through a process known as image differencing. “We take an image again and again of the same piece of the sky. Then we compare the images to see what has changed,” Kasliwal says. “We’re looking for fireworks, cosmic fireworks … anything that explodes, anything that is changing before our eyes. This is called time-domain astronomy. Time-domain astronomy is undergoing a revolution because we have so many very sensitive telescopes now that are capable of understanding the dynamic universe.”

Working with the Zwicky Transient Facility and Palomar Gattini IR, optical and near-infrared telescopes at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, which survey the entire night sky, has given Kasliwal the experience she needs to design the RAPID system for the Roman Telescope. “As the Roman data arrive, we will continuously be doing image differencing. When we see something that’s changed, we’ll issue an alert,’” Kasliwal explains. “We have a lot of practice in doing this at Palomar. We take an image, compare it to previous images, and then send out an alert seven minutes later, so astronomers all over the world know exactly where in the sky something interesting is happening.”

To get RAPID up to speed before the Roman Telescope’s launch, Kasliwal says she is expanding a team of scientists and software professionals to “deliver a data pipeline that will be reliable and robust, a service to the community.” At this point, RAPID has a core team of six staff scientists housed at IPAC and in the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics on the Caltech campus. Each member brings their own expertise in machine learning, alert pipelines, supernovae, stars, asteroids, and so on. “Right now, we are working with simulations,” Kasliwal says. “We inject scenarios into these simulations, such as the appearance of a tidal disruption flare—that’s when a star gets really close to massive black hole and gets ripped up—to learn what Roman’s data stream might look like.”

The Roman Telescope will also be able to share tasks with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, another infrared observatory that has been orbiting the sun since December 2021. “Roman will be the discovery engine,” Kasliwal says, “and then the James Webb Space Telescope can do spectroscopic follow up and detailed characterization. This will allow us to learn what elements a particular neutron star merger, for example, is composed of.”

One primary question the Roman mission is poised to answer is how quickly the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

To better understand the big bang that birthed our universe, imagine a fireworks show with an enormous explosion filling the sky, the sort that is known as a coconut shell. It begins with a dramatic explosion of sparks from a pinpoint center. These sparks flare out swiftly and evenly in all directions from the center before they gradually slow down and die out. This is not what is happening in our universe. Its expansion is getting faster rather than slowing down.

“This is contrary to our expectations,” Wang says, “because if matter is all there is in the universe, the expansion of the universe should be decelerating today. Its acceleration requires the existence of something other than matter: perhaps a form of energy. We call it dark energy because it’s not visible to us. We don’t know if this is truly an unknown component of energy, or if we need to modify our theory of gravity (i.e., Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity) to account for these observations. It’s a huge mystery, one of the most exciting and challenging problems in cosmology and physics today.”

There are three ways of measuring the acceleration of the universe’s expansion, and the Roman Telescope will utilize all of them. The first is by looking at Type Ia supernovas, as has been done before. Because these supernovas all have roughly the same level of luminosity, they have been described as “cosmological standard candles.” When closer to us, they shine brighter. When farther away—which is also back in time, since we are looking at light that travels to us from billions of years ago—they appear dimmer.

The second way is through a phenomenon called weak gravitational lensing, the slight bending of light from galaxies due to the gravity from matter lying between us and the galaxies. The measurement of the resultant subtle changes in the shapes of galaxies probes the distribution of cosmic matter as well as the activity of dark energy. Doré’s team will concentrate on this effort.

“Gravitational lensing allows us to conduct a complete census of matter. With the Roman Telescope, we will conduct such a census over a very large swath of the universe, which will teach us so much more about the universe,” Doré says. “By creating these teams, NASA recognizes it will take the richness and diversity of a very broad scientific community to make the most of this unprecedented observatory.”

Wang’s team will build the infrastructure for the third way of measuring the acceleration of the expanding universe, a galaxy redshift survey. This survey enables astronomers to visualize the three-dimensional distribution of galaxies in the universe, probing the cosmic expansion history as well as the growth history of large-scale structure in the universe, both of which are sensitive to dark energy. (The term redshift refers to the distance of galaxies; the farther a galaxy, the more it will shift, or stretch, light into redder wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe.) The Roman galaxy redshift survey PIT consists of 11 participating institutions led by Caltech. The team includes leaders from all the current and planned galaxy redshift surveys from ground-based facilities, as well as the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission.

“The Roman Telescope will observe galaxies that are very far away,” Wang explains. “These are ideal tracers of the large-scale structure of the universe. The Roman Telescope uses these galaxy tracers over a very wide redshift range—that is, closer and farther away—which translates into a very wide range in the history of the cosmos. With this information, we can almost read off the expansion rate of the universe at various distances from us. But by having additional data sets using Type Ia supernovas and weak gravitational lensing, we can cross-check our results. That’s why I’m confident that within 10 years we should be able to find some real answers to our questions about what causes the accelerated expansion of the universe.”

Wang says she was drawn to the excitement and romance of astronomy and continues to delight in it. “I was born a romantic,” Wang says. “When I was a baby, my dad would recite ancient Chinese poetry to calm me down. Then when I was growing up, I recited poetry to myself while looking at the night sky. I grew up in a rural area. It was very dark, so the sky was spectacular. Later, when I was attending Tsinghua University, I went to a colloquium on cosmology. I was astounded and thought, ‘Wow, you mean you can actually study the whole universe using science?’ After that, I was obsessed with becoming a cosmologist.”

Kasliwal learned about infrared astronomy when she was an undergraduate at Cornell University majoring in engineering physics. “I was always interested in astronomy, but I had no idea what it meant to be an astronomer,” Kasliwal says. “It just sounded like a crazy dream at that point. But then I got a job in the lab of Jim Houck, who built the infrared spectrometer on the Spitzer Space Telescope, a NASA infrared space telescope that operated for more than 15 years. I got to see Houck’s team collect data and be so excited learning something new every single day about the universe. That’s what really piqued my interest in astronomy. The universe keeps you on your toes. There’s never a dull moment.”

Meanwhile, Wang says she is “not afraid to think big.” She adds: “I just think about what matters, what’s important, what are the key questions that should be asked. The reward will hopefully be the discoveries. There will be discoveries one way or the other!”

Written by Cynthia Eller

Source: Caltech

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NEOWISE is depicted in an artist’s concept in front of an image of the infrared sky captured by the mission showing asteroid Holda (the string of red dots moving across the sky). Holda was the first near-Earth object the mission detected shortly after the space telescope was reactivated in 2013.NASA/JPL-Caltech The asteroid and comet-hunting infrared space telescope has gathered an impressive haul of observations, but it’s now at the mercy of the Sun, which is accelerating its demise. NASA’s NEOWISE has had a busy decade. Since its reactivated mission began on Dec. 13, 2013, the space telescope has discovered a once-in-a-lifetime comet, observed more than 3,000 near-Earth objects, bolstered international planetary defense strategies, and supported another NASA mission’s rendezvous with a distant asteroid. And that’s just a partial list of accomplishments. But all good things must come to an end: Solar activity is causing NEOWISE – short for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer – to fall out of orbit. By early 2025, the spacecraft is expected to drop low enough into Earth’s atmosphere that it will become unusable. Eventually, it will reenter our atmosphere, entirely burning up. About every 11 years, the Sun experiences a cycle of increased activity that peaks during a period called solar maximum. Explosive events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, become more frequent and heat up our planet’s atmosphere, causing it to expand. Atmospheric gases increase drag on satellites orbiting Earth, slowing them down. With the Sun currently approaching its next maximum, NEOWISE will no longer be able to maintain its orbit above our atmosphere. Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE appears as a trio of fuzzy red dots in this composite of several infrared images captured by the NEOWISE mission on March 27, 2020. These observations helped astronomers determine the comet’s path shortly after its discovery.NASA/JPL-Caltech “The mission has planned for this day a long time. After several years of calm, the Sun is waking back up,” said Joseph Masiero, NEOWISE’s deputy principal investigator and a scientist at IPAC, a research organization at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “We are at the mercy of solar activity, and with no means to keep us in orbit, NEOWISE is now slowly spiraling back to Earth.” WISE Beginnings The past 10 years represent a second life for the spacecraft. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, NEOWISE repurposed a different mission that launched in 2009: the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Data from WISE and NEOWISE has been used to study distant galaxies, cool stars, exploding white dwarf stars, outgassing comets, near-Earth asteroids, and more. In 2010, WISE achieved its scientific goal of conducting an all-sky infrared survey with far greater sensitivity than previous surveys. The WISE mission also found tens of millions of actively feeding supermassive black holes across the sky. Through the Disk Detective project, citizen scientists have used WISE data to find circumstellar disks, which are spinning clouds of gas, dust, and rubble around stars. Invisible to the naked eye, infrared wavelengths are emitted by warm objects. To keep the heat generated by WISE itself from interfering with its observations of infrared wavelengths, the spacecraft relied on cryogenic coolant. After the coolant ran out and WISE had mapped the sky twice, NASA put the spacecraft into hibernation in February 2011. Explore NASA's interactive Eyes on Asteroids Without coolant, the space telescope could no longer observe the universe’s coldest objects, but it could still see near-Earth asteroids and comets, which are heated by the Sun. So NASA reactivated the spacecraft in 2013 with a more specialized role in mind: aiding planetary defense efforts by surveying and studying those objects, which can stray into our planet’s orbital neighborhood and create a potential impact hazard. Astronomers could not only rely on the mission to seek out these objects, but also use its data to figure out their size and albedo – how much sunlight their surfaces reflect – and to gather clues about the minerals and rocks they’re composed of. “NEOWISE has showcased the importance of having an infrared space survey telescope as part of NASA’s planetary defense strategy while also keeping tabs on other objects in the solar system and beyond,” said Amy Mainzer, the mission’s principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Mainzer is also leading NASA’s upcoming NEO Surveyor, which will build on NEOWISE’s legacy. The next-generation infrared space telescope will seek out some of the hardest-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that don’t reflect much visible light, as well as objects that approach Earth from the direction of the Sun. Scheduled for launch in 2027, the JPL-managed mission will also search for objects known as Earth Trojans – asteroids that lead or trail our planet’s orbit – the first of which WISE discovered in 2011. Comet NEOWISE and Beyond Since becoming NEOWISE, the mission has scanned the entire sky over 20 times and made 1.45 million infrared measurements of over 44,000 solar system objects. That includes more than 3,000 near-Earth objects, 215 of which NEOWISE discovered. Data from the mission has contributed to refining the orbits of these objects while gauging their size as well. Its forte is characterizing near-Earth asteroids. In 2021, NEOWISE became a key component of an international planetary defense exercise that focused on the hazardous asteroid Apophis. The mission has also discovered 25 comets, including the long-period comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE). The comet became a dazzling celestial object visible in the Northern Hemisphere for several weeks in 2020 and the first comet that could be seen by the naked eye since 2007, when Comet McNaught was primarily visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Future researchers will continue to rely on the vast archive of NEOWISE observations to make new discoveries, similar to the way researchers used WISE data from 2010 long after the observations were made to characterize asteroid Dinkinesh in support of NASA’s Lucy mission before its October 2023 encounter. “This is a bittersweet moment. It’s sad to see this trailblazing mission come to an end, but we know there’s more treasure hiding in the survey data,” said Masiero. “NEOWISE has a vast archive, covering a very long period of time, that will inevitably advance the science of the infrared universe long after the spacecraft is gone.” More About the Mission NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor support the objectives of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directed NASA to discover and characterize at least 90% of the near-Earth objects more than 140 meters (460 feet) across that come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of our planet’s orbit. Objects of this size can cause significant regional damage, or worse, should they impact the Earth. JPL manages and operates the NEOWISE mission for PDCO within the Science Mission Directorate. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science data processing takes place at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about NEOWISE, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/neowise Share Details Last Updated Dec 13, 2023 Related TermsNEOWISECometsJet Propulsion LaboratoryNear-Earth Asteroid (NEA)NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor Space Telescope)Planetary DefensePlanetary Defense Coordination OfficeWISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) Explore More 6 min read NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deciphers Ancient History of Martian Lake Article 1 day ago 5 min read NASA Sensor Produces First Global Maps of Surface Minerals in Arid Regions Article 2 days ago 3 min read Students Create Elaborate Homemade Machines for JPL Competition Article 5 days ago

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