Editor’s Note: Last week we were at the 228th AAS Meeting in San Diego, CA. Here is a final post about selected events on the last day of the meeting, written by authors from astrobites.com, a grad-student collaborative project with which we recently announced a new partnership! Starting in July, keep an eye out for astrobites posts at AAS Nova in between Highlights (i.e., on Tuesdays and Thursdays). We’re excited to be working together to bring you more recent astronomy research from AAS journals!
Extrasolar Planets: Detection (by Leonardo dos Santos)
Thursday’s first session on exoplanets was about detecting these distant worlds, and the opening talk was given by Robert Siverd (Las Cumbres Observatory). He describes the NRES, a network of spectrographs that will look for exoplanets using the radial velocity method. One of the coolest aspects of this instrument is that it will feature an “on the fly” scheduling system that will perform observations as efficiently as possible. The spectrograph is still being tested, but a unit will be deployed at CTIO later this year.
@lcogt contracted by @NASA_TESS for follow up of their candidates. #aas228
— Jessie Christiansen (@aussiastronomer) June 16, 2016
Measuring the depths of transits and eclipses in Spitzer has been problematic in the past, since the Spitzer instrument IRAC (InfraRed Array Camera) has a non-uniform response in its detector’s pixels. But, as reported by James Ingalls (Spitzer Science Center, Caltech), observers are circumventing this issue by using what they call the staring mode (avoiding large pointing jumps) and an algorithm to pick “sweet spot” pixels. Moreover, the results from the IRAC Data Challenge are helping to better understand its behavior. Giuseppe Morello (University College London), on the other hand, explained how his research group gets rid of instrumental effects from IRAC using machine learning. This method removes systematics from exoplanet transit data no matter if the noise source is from an instrument or a star. Speaking of transits, Kepler was one of the shining stars of this meeting. The original mission observed 150,000 stars continually for months during its first run, as it was designed to be a statistical mission. But can its findings be considered fully complete in planet radii and orbital periods? Joseph Catanzarite (SETI Institute) aims to answer this question by performing numerous simulations (“injections”) in order to validate our estimations of planet occurrence rates from transit data.
Mullally: If you think you’ve found an exoplanet transit in K2 please get in touch with the @NASAKepler team and they will help you! #aas228 — Meredith Rawls (@merrdiff) June 16, 2016
Another tool being developed for K2 data analysis is Robovetter, which was introduced by Susan Thompson (SETI Institute, NASA Ames). This new software will allow astronomers to fully and uniformly automate the creation of the final KOI (Kepler Object of Interest) catalog. And what about the science being done by K2? Jessie Christiansen (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Caltech) explains that it will not look for Earth-like exoplanets, but will instead be more flexible in the types of targets and their positions on the sky, allowing us to build a census of planets in the galactic plane.
Black Holes and Supernovae (by Ashley Villar)
There are still many open questions about supernovae and their progeny, black holes. Some of these questions will hopefully be answered by LIGO, though many will be solved using the electromagnetic radiation we detect from these sources.
Anthony Piro began the session by explaining his new models which trace the diffusive cooling of an initial supernova shock. His team has created an open source code, the SuperNova Explosion Code or SNEC, to allow others to explore a variety of explosion properties. Janie De La Rosa then spoke about her work on observing Type IIn supernovae (those with narrow emission lines in their spectra) at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths. These wavelengths are sensitive to progenitor models and the geometry of the surrounding material.

Composite image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, using data from the Chandra X-ray telescope, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, and ground-based facilities. [NASA/CXC/SAO]
1 Comment
Pingback: Fundstücke von der 228. AAS-Tagung in San Diego | Skyweek Zwei Punkt Null