Research_News_20_05_2022 Further links and discussion can be found at the groups/links below Astronomy in New Zealand - Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/5889909863/ Astronomy in New Zealand - Groups.io https://groups.io/g/AstronomyNZ Google Group https://groups.google.com/g/nzastrochat Astronomy in Wellington https://www.facebook.com/groups/11451597655/ Blogger Posts http://laintal.blogspot.com/ Reddit https://www.reddit.com/user/Edwin_Rod_NZ Quaroa https://www.quora.com/q/astronomyinnewzealand Twitter https://twitter.com/EdwinRodham ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Research papers Impact of Economic Constraints on the Projected Timeframe for Human-Crewed Deep Space Exploration https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.08061 A target list for searching for habitable exomoons https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.11614 Evaluating the Evidence for Water World Populations using Mixture Models https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.00006 Unveiling non-gray surface of cloudy exoplanets https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.13452 The Outer Edge of the Venus Zone Around Main-Sequence Stars https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.10919 On the pressure dependence of salty aqueous eutectics https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(22)00130-8 The mercurial Sun at the heart of our solar system https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.03498 Survival strategies of an anoxic microbial ecosystem in Lake Untersee, a potential analog for Enceladus https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10876-8 A global system of furrows on Ganymede indicative of their creation in a single impact event https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.05221 On the origin of molecular oxygen on the surface of Ganymede https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.01659 Particle deposition on the saturnian satellites from ephemeral cryovolcanism on Enceladus https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.11265 Ocean signatures in the total flux and polarization spectra of Earth-like exoplanets https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.05669 Infrared and Optical Detectability of Dyson Spheres at White Dwarf Stars https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.09627 Global Mapping of Surface Composition on an Exo-Earth Using Sparse Modeling https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.01996 a space-borne astrometric mission for the detection of habitable planets of the nearby solar-type stars https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.05645 Improved Sensitivity for Space Domain Awareness Observations with the Murchison Widefield Array https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.05868 The Effect of Ocean Salinity on Climate and Its Implications for Earth's Habitability https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.06785 The Origin and Evolution of Saturn https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.06914 The Futility of Exoplanet Biosignatures https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.07921 A Ubiquitous Unifying Degeneracy in Two-Body Microlensing Systems https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.13696 A Super-Earth Orbiting Near the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone around the M4.5-dwarf Ross 508 https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.11986 Exosphere-Mediated Migration of Volatile Species On Airless Bodies Across the Solar System https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.12805 The Detection of Transiting Exoplanets by Gaia https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.10197 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Interesting News items SwRI-led Team Finds Younger Exoplanets Better Candidates When Looking at Other Earths http://spaceref.com/astrobiology/swri-led-team-finds-younger-exoplanets-better-candidates-when-looking-dor-other-earths.html How to Image an Exoplanet with Just a Few Pixels https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/how-to-image-an-exoplanet-with-just-a-few-pixels Global Mapping of Surface Composition on an Exo-Earth Using Sparse Modeling https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.01996 A great update of the effects from the Tongan eruption Tonga Volcanic Eruption Effects Reached Space http://spaceref.com/earth/tonga-volcanic-eruption-effects-reached-space.html If only I had a time machine https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/27-01-2022/returning-to-a-green-antarctica --------------------------------------------------------------- Updates from Andrew B, Mars Perseverance Rover. Imaged: Sunday 1st May 2022. Sol 425. New images, with the MastCam Z (Zoom). Spectacular views of the Neretva Vallis Delta front. Remember what we are looking at here. A River Delta on Mars!!!!! Mars Perseverance Rover is now taking short drives across Cannery Passage, which covers the contact between the volcanic, basalt lava floor of Jezero Crater and the Neretva Vallis Delta sedimentary formation in front of the delta. The Delta Front Campaign has now commenced, with the 'Bacon Strip' area being examined now, with possibly a sample collection being made within the area. These images show cross bedding and the layering in great detail now in the Neretva Vallis Delta front from Perseverance and these observations are already contributing to how a martian delta formed and compare with deltas on Earth such as the Nile Delta in Egypt, Amazon Delta in Brazil, Mississippi Delta in the USA, etc, and how through weathering, extremely ancient sediments are being revealed. Formed from when Mars was warmer, wetter and more earth like than now with a far denser atmosphere. A few small rocks, that may have been part of the Neretva Vallis Delta, or fallen and rolled from it and some layering. I wonder if the greyer rocks are former mudstones? The brighter toned ones appear to be of carbonate origin? The mast would have been heated during these observations as the mornings on Mars are rather chilly to say the least!!!! Images taken between: 09:34 HRS to 09:45 HRS LMST. LMST = Local Mars Standard Time, in Jezero Crater. Jezero Crater, Syrtis Major Quadrangle. MastCam Z (Zoom) Camera. Text: Andrew R Brown. NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS / LANL / CNES / IRAP. Mars Perseverance Rover. Zhurong Rover. Image: Friday 1st April 2022. Image looking north in late afternoon. Zhurong was a Fire God in ancient China. Southwest Utopia Planitia. Amenthes Quadrangle. Landing Position confirmed as: 109.9 East, 25.1 North. Utopia Planitia (No Where Plain) is a huge lava flooded impact basin, one of the largest if not the largest known impact crater in the solar system. It is about 3,300 KM / 2,051 miles wide and parts of it are within the Casius, Amenthes, and Cebrenia quadrangles in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Very different to the views from Viking 2 which is 1,721 KM / 1,069 miles to the NE, also in Utopia Planitia, further north in Cebrenia Quadrangle. Much less rockier here than at Viking 2 as Zhurong landed well away from crater ejecta, unlike Viking 2 which landed within the ejecta from Mie Crater. As of: Thursday 5th May 2022, Zhurong had driven 1,921 metres. Text: Andrew R Brown. CNSA / China National Space Administration. Mars. Imaged: Thursday 5th May 2022. Sol 429. New images. MastCam Z (Zoom) Cameras and Navigation Cameras. Spectacular views of the Neretva Vallis Delta front. Remember what we are looking at here. A River Delta on Mars!!!!! Mars Perseverance Rover is now taking short drives across Cannery Passage, which covers the contact between the volcanic, basalt lava floor of Jezero Crater and the Neretva Vallis Delta sedimentary formation in front of the delta. The Delta Front Campaign has now commenced, with the 'Bacon Strip' area being examined now, with possibly a sample collection being made within the area. These images show cross bedding and the layering in great detail now in the Neretva Vallis Delta front from Perseverance and these observations are already contributing to how a martian delta formed and compare with deltas on Earth such as the Nile Delta in Egypt, Amazon Delta in Brazil, Mississippi Delta in the USA, etc, and how through weathering, extremely ancient sediments are being revealed. Formed from when Mars was warmer, wetter and more earth like than now with a far denser atmosphere. The Kodiak Mesa looks very alone now. the mast would have been heated during these photoshoots as the martian mornings are very cold to say the least. MastCam Z (Zoom) taken between 09:03 HRS to 09:05 HRS LMST. Navigation Cameras taken between 10:28 HRS to 10:31 HRS LMST. Local Mars Standard Time in Jezero Crater. Jezero Crater, Syrtis Major Quadrangle. Front & Rear Hazard Cameras and Navigation Cameras. Text: Andrew R Brown. NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS / LANL / CNES / IRAP. Mars Perseverance Rover. Mars. Imaged: Thursday 12th May 2022. Sol 436. New images. MastCam Z (Zoom) Cameras and SuperCam Cameras. Spectacular views of the Neretva Vallis Delta front. It is difficult to get a scale, but it appears as if the deepest part of the layered cap is about 6 metres deep. Beautiful cross bedding with layered blocks breaking off from the cap. Remember what we are looking at here. A River Delta on Mars!!!!! Mars Perseverance Rover is now taking short drives across Cannery Passage, which covers the contact between the volcanic, basalt lava floor of Jezero Crater and the Neretva Vallis Delta sedimentary formation in front of the delta. The Delta Front Campaign has now commenced, with the 'Bacon Strip' area being examined now, with possibly a sample collection being made within the area. These images show cross bedding and the layering in great detail now in the Neretva Vallis Delta front from Perseverance and these observations are already contributing to how a martian delta formed and compare with deltas on Earth such as the Nile Delta in Egypt, Amazon Delta in Brazil, Mississippi Delta in the USA, etc, and how through weathering, extremely ancient sediments are being revealed. Formed from when Mars was warmer, wetter and more earth like than now with a far denser atmosphere. Yaken between 12:05 HRS to 12:24 HRS LMST. Local Mars Standard Time in Jezero Crater. Jezero Crater, Syrtis Major Quadrangle. Front & Rear Hazard Cameras and Navigation Cameras. Text: Andrew R Brown. NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS / LANL / CNES / IRAP. Mars Perseverance Rover. --------------------------------------------------------------- RASNZ ================================================== . Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand . Email Newsletter Number 257, 20 May 2022 ================================================== Affiliated Societies are welcome to reproduce any item in this email newsletter or on the RASNZ website http://www.rasnz.org.nz/ in their own newsletters provided an acknowledgement of the source is also included. -------- 1. President's Notes 2. Shadow of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole Imaged 3. The Night Sky in June 4. New Zealand Astrophotography Competition 5. The Dark Skies Retreat - June 24-26 6. Aotearoa Astrotourism Academy - Martinborough, 8-10 July 2022 7. Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2022 - September 12-16 8. Variable Star News 9. Quadruple Stars Which May Become a Supernova 10. Tonga Eruption Affected the Ionosphere 11. How to Join the RASNZ 12. Quotes =========================================================== 1. President's Notes Newsletter Editor I take this opportunity to thank Alan Gilmore for his amazing work over 20 years as Newsletter editor. Along with all his other contributions to RASNZ Alan has kept us up to date with happenings around New Zealand and further afield. And always with a touch of humour or quotes to brighten our days. Thank you Alan. A few days a month are now yours to do as you wish. RASNZ now needs a new editor to carry on the important role. Please contact me at: president@rasnz.org.nz if you are able and willing to step into this position. Thank you. RASNZ Conference Registrations The 2022 RASNZ Conference and AGM are fast approaching. This year we will be in Whangarei 3rd June - 5th June. Conference information can be found at https://rasnzconference.org.nz/ Please register and support the Northland Astronomical Society who are hosting this year's conference. Whangarei is developing a very interesting city centre area with new and interesting attractions. These will be showcased with a walking tour during Friday afternoon. Two keynote speakers are on the program both talking about their leading space base astronomy projects. Dr. John C. Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. He is also the Senior Project Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope. Dr. Emily Kendall is a post-doctoral researcher at Auckland University and part of the New Zealand contribution to LISA an international project, lead by the European Space Agency, to develop a space-based gravitational wave interferometer. Dr Kendall will also give a public lecture on Sunday after the conference. RASNZ Membership system A reminder to ensure you have paid your subscriptions for the 2022 year. Payments can be made at https://www.rasnz.org.nz/rasnz/payments-anddonations RASNZ have started the migration to new membership system which will be implemented over the next two months. This system will improve our services to you as members. There will be a new website which will form a major part of this new system. You will be able to check and confirm your membership details and pay on line with automatic reminders, finances will be directly connected with our financial software, events such as our conference will be more easily managed, and communications with you our members will be much easier. You can expect to receive emails from RASNZ and the new system as we move our information across to it. These emails will let you know what is happening and give you the chance to confirm the information we have for you. If you have any questions please contact me at president@rasnz.org.nz Covid As the country re-opens please continue to do your bit to keep your selves and others safe. Wearing masks in indoor settings in crowds is highly recommended and will be required to be worn at the conference. President's Note This is my final newsletter note as President and I would like to express my thanks to all those who help make RASNZ an interesting and supportive Society. We are fortunate to have such a cross section of people as members including age and skills. As we enter the second hundred years of our Society I wonder what our understanding of the universe will be in another 100 years. We are fortunate to be able to share knowledge so easily and quickly. Please contribute to your Society whenever you can. Steve Butler RASNZ President 2020 - 2022 =========================================================== 2. Shadow of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole Imaged Astronomers today released the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy — or at least a picture of its shadow. Eight radio observatories around the globe and more than 300 scientists joined forces to image the object known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), a feat thought impossible until just a few years ago. “It’s a truly impressive accomplishment,” says black hole expert Roger Blandford of Stanford University, who is not part of the team. The team, known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), in 2019 produced the first ever image of a black hole, at the centre of the nearby giant galaxy M87. The M87 black hole is 1600 times more massive than Sgr A*. Yet the similarity of the two images — bright rings of gas trapped in death spirals around these ultimate sinkholes — shows how Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, general relativity, works the same at all scales. Once you get close to the black hole “gravity takes over,” EHT team member Sara Issaoun of the Harvard & Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics (CfA) told a press conference in Munich today. “We now know that in both cases, what we see is the heart of the black hole, the point of no return,” team member Feryal Özel of the University of Arizona told a parallel press conference in Washington, D.C. Compared with M87, which converts swirling gas into a powerful jet thousands of light-years long, Sgr A* is quiet. “M87 was exciting because it was extraordinary,” says CfA’s Michael Johnson. “Sgr A* is exciting because it’s common.” Initial analysis of the new image suggests it is even quieter than thought: Only a trickle of gas makes it to the black hole, and only one part in 1000 is being converted to light, Johnson says. “The black hole is ravenous but inefficient.” When the researchers compared the image with their vast library of simulations, it tended to match models with a spinning black hole. “It’s intriguing that we may be seeing the first hints” of a spinning black hole, Özel says. Although the black holes in the centres of galaxies have enormous masses — millions or billions of times that of the Sun — their intense gravity means their outer edge, the event horizon, is tiny in galactic terms. Sgr A*, which has a mass of 4 million Suns, has an event horizon that is just 15 times the size of the Earth-Moon distance. Imaging something so small from 27,000 light-years away presents a huge challenge for astronomers. The first challenge comes from clouds of dust around the galactic centre, which make observations with optical telescopes impossible. Radio telescopes can peer through the murk, but their long wavelengths don’t offer resolution sharp enough to spot a diminutive black hole. But the shortest radio wavelengths, of about 1 millimetre, offer better resolution and can still pierce the gloom. Telescopes that observe at those wavelengths are a relatively new breed. Unlike normal radio telescopes, they must be built at high-altitude sites to get above most of the moisture in Earth’s atmosphere. In astronomy, the bigger the telescope, the sharper the image. Astronomers calculated decades ago that it would take a telescope as big as Earth to see Sgr A*, even in millimetre waves. EHT does the next best thing: It observes the galactic centre simultaneously with telescope dishes spread across Earth’s face. The EHT team stores the data, and later processes it with powerful computers as if each dish was a small patch of an Earth-wide telescope — a technique known as very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). “Each pair [of telescopes] contributes a little bit of information to the entire image,” says EHT team member Katie Bouman of the California Institute of Technology. By 2017, after developing techniques for processing the data and enlisting radio telescopes worldwide, the team was ready to take a shot at Sgr A* and the nearby giant galaxy M87. Data came from eight observatories, from Hawaii to Spain and from Arizona to the South Pole. A key addition was the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array in Chile, a group of 64 dishes with the combined collecting area of an 84- meter-wide telescope. The result “was the best vetted image in radio astronomy ever,” says EHT team member Heino Falcke of Radboud University. In April 2019, the team released its now famous image of M87, a result chosen as Science’s 2019 Breakthrough of the Year. It shows the event horizon’s silhouette, magnified 2.5 times by gravitational effects. Some of the light in the surrounding ring was actually emitted behind the black hole, its path bent by the intense gravity so that it appears to come from the edge. Getting an image for Sgr A* proved to be much harder. One reason was that the telescopes were viewing it through the crowded central plane of the Milky Way, where electrons from ionized gases scatter the radio waves. Johnson describes it as peering through “frosted glass.” Another challenge was motion. Gas moves slowly around M87’s giant black hole, taking days to orbit the event horizon. But around the much smaller Sgr A*, an orbit takes anywhere from 4 minutes to 1 hour, meaning an observation lasting several hours is likely to be blurred. “If an object changes in a crazy way, you can’t image it with VLBI,” Falcke says. The team had to develop new techniques to separate blurring from interstellar electrons and rapid motion, and to emphasize the steady part of the signal. Falcke says that after 2 years scrutinizing the results, the team is confident the ring of light surrounding the black hole shadow represents reality. “On top of the chaotic structure you have a stable structure,” he says. The three “knots” visible in the image might be clumps of bright swirling gas, but Özel says they could also be artefacts of observation process. “We don’t trust the knots that much,” she says. “They tend to line up with parts of the [EHT] array where we have the most telescopes.” Unlike for M87, the mass of Sgr A* is known very precisely from studies of star orbits close to the black hole, so the EHT researchers had a firm idea of how big of a ring they should see. “It’s a very tight prediction, with no wiggle room,” Falcke says. The ring size they found was “bang on,” says EHT team member Dom Pesce of CfA, giving them more confidence in the result. The EHT team carried out further observing campaigns of M87 and Sgr A* in 2018, 2021, and 2022. “All data are in various stages of calibration and processing,” Pesce says. “Now that the tools are ready, we hope it will be faster,” Özel says. Further observations could help researchers understand how matter moves around a black hole and is sometimes funnelled into power jets. The team produced an image of M87 in 2021 showing how its light was polarized, hinting at the magnetic fields that play a key role in accretion and jet formation. The EHT array has also expanded since 2017, adding new dishes in Greenland, France, and the United States, with plans for another in Namibia. In the future, the researchers plan to observe at a shorter wavelength — 0.86 millimetres, compared with the 1.3 millimetres used so far — which will allow them to see even closer to the event horizon. Another aim is to make time-lapse movies of the gas swirling around the black holes. Observing M87 every 2 weeks is the first goal. Later, they will try for Sgr A* - The Movie. “We’re still in the infancy of this field,” Pesce says. “The first baby steps.” --------- See Daniel Clery's original article, with image, at https://www.science.org/content/article/shadow-milky-way-s-giant-blackhole-revealed-astronomers --------- Hear Kim Hill's interview with Roy Kerr at https://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20220514-1105- prof_roy_kerr_first_image_of_black_hole_at_milky_ways_centre-128.mp3 and David Wiltshire's interview with Catherine Ryan at https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018842739/bla ck-hole-image-incredibly-exciting-development =========================================================== 3. The Night Sky in June Sirius is the 'evening star'. At the beginning of the month. It appears due west at dusk and sets in the southwest before 10 pm. By the end of June it sets at 8 pm. Being bright and white, Sirius twinkles with all colours when low in the sky. Canopus, the second brightest star, is higher in the southwest sky, swinging lower in the south later. Like Sirius it twinkles colourfully. Crux, the Southern Cross, is south of the zenith. Beside it and brighter are Beta and Alpha Centauri, often called 'The Pointers' because they point at Crux. Arcturus is a lone bright orange star in the north sky. Lacking any blue light it twinkles red and green when low in the sky. It sets in the northwest in the morning hours. Antares is a medium-bright orange star midway up the eastern sky. It marks the scorpion's body. Below Scorpius is Sagittarius, its brighter stars making 'the teapot'. All the naked-eye planets are in the late evening to dawn half of the sky. Saturn is first up. It rises around 11 pm at the beginning of the month and 9 pm by the end. It looks like a cream-coloured star and doesn't twinkle much. It is the brightest object in an empty region of sky. The Moon will be near Saturn on the night of the 18th-19th. Jupiter rises around 2 a.m. at the beginning of the month and around midnight at the end. It is golden-coloured and the brightest 'star' in the morning sky till Venus appears. Jupiter doesn't twinkle at all. Mars appears just below Jupiter at the start of June. It looks like a mediumbright orange-red star. Jupiter continues moving up the sky, morning to morning, leaving Mars behind. The Moon will be near Jupiter on the morning of the 22nd and very close to Mars on the 23rd. Venus is the brilliant 'morning star'. It rises around 4:30 at the beginning of the month and around 5:30 at the end. It is leaving us behind and moving to the far side of the Sun. Mercury begins a morning sky appearance in the second week of June when it appears below and right of Venus. It keeps that position for a fortnight then slips down into the dawn twilight by the end of the month. Venus is directly above the Matariki/Pleiades star cluster on the morning of the 15th, about when Matariki can be first seen. The cluster is 12° below Venus, roughly half a hand-span at arm's length. Mercury is closer and at an angle of 2 o'clock from the cluster. By the 27th Venus is 7° to the right of Matariki. The thin crescent Moon will be just above Matariki on the 26th. Evening sky star charts and a morning sky chart for Matariki can be seen at https://www.rasnz.org.nz/ . ================================================================ 4. New Zealand Astrophotography Competition 2022 New Zealand Astrophotography Competition is now open for entries This year's competition will be judged by Alyn Wallace, arguably one of the world's top Astro, landscape, and time-lapse photographers. The competition has four main categories: 1. Deep-Sky 2. Nightscape 3. Solar system 4. Time-lapse Please read over the rules and conditions of entry at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xMg-rKYyB7afWdlWRgM1k8qrMlt1p818/view Like previous years, the competition is sponsored by the Australian Sky & Telescope magazine, with a free 12-month subscription. The nightscape and deep-sky category winners will have their images printed in the magazine. Here is the list of prizes provided by our amazing sponsors: Star Adventurer 2i Photo Kit Valued at $549 AUD to the competition's overall winner, provided by Skywatcher Australia. Nature DX 12x56 Binoculars - Valued at $490 AUD to the winner of the Deep Sky category, provided by Celestron Australia. A $300 AstroNZ gift voucher for the solar system category winner, sponsored by AstroNZ (https://astronz.nz/). They are easily New Zealand's best known and most trusted supplier of Astronomical instruments. Skylabs NZ (https://www.skylabs.co.nz) is sponsoring each category with some fantastic products: Deep-Sky and Solar System: Skylabs NZ Cheshire Eyepiece 2" and improved Sensitivity tri-Bahtinov Mask. Nightscape and Time-lapse: Enhanced Bahtinov Focusing Mask and polar Alignment Adapter The Auckland Astronomical Society will provide a cash prize for each category winner. The last date for submitting your entries is the 21st of September 2022. The competition awards will be announced at the Burbidge dinner, Auckland Astronomical Society's premier annual event. Keep an eye out on the society's website for details of the forthcoming Burbidge dinner. This year, the entries are to be submitted via Google Form: https://forms.gle/GdmNFiUCfaNeLjFj6 -- From the Auckland Astronomical Society's March Newsletter. =============================================================== 5. The Dark Skies Retreat - June 24-26 The Dark Skies Retreat, Supported by ASTRONZ, June 24th to June 26th. A weekend getaway of astronomical proportions! Astronomy, astrophotography, night sky education, outreach, with a big focus on dark skies. Held over the first Matariki Public Holiday in June, under the dark skies of Camp Iona, Herbert Forest, Herbert (20-minutes south of Oamaru). Registrations are essential, and forms can be obtained by contacting Damien McNamara at - solaur.science@gmail.com -- Damien McNamara =========================================================== 6. Aotearoa Astrotourism Academy - Martinborough, 8-10 July 2022 The Aotearoa Astrotourism Academy will host its next course in Martinborough, July 8-10, 2022. As a special promotion, AAA offers RASNZ members and affiliated society members a reduced enrolment for the Martinborough course of only $597 (which is $200 off). The Academy, AAA, was launched last year by Professor John Hearnshaw, Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Canterbury, with Nalayini Davies from the Auckland Astronomical Society to satisfy an unmet need in the astronomical community. The primary goal of AAA is to offer educational courses for current or aspiring astro-tourism night-sky guides, or for anyone interested in navigating the dark night sky and learning more about astronomy. AAA has assembled a small team of dedicated and expert instructors, and the courses offered cover all aspects of night-sky guiding, star-gazing, how to use a small telescope, astrophotography and the best objects to view in the night sky. AAA hopes to impart some of the basic skills and knowledge considered essential for those working in the fast growing astro-tourism industry. A talk on Matariki and Maori astronomy is also included. This intensive course comprises lectures, practical sessions (weather permitting for evening observing), workshops and plenty of interactions between instructors and participants. The venue for the Martinborough course will be the Wellington Room at the Martinborough Hotel. The Martinborough AAA school will include: • an immersive programme of lectures, talks, workshops and night-time observing (weather permitting), • a visit to the Star Field Observatory on the Friday afternoon (with thanks to Martinborough astronomer John Whitby) • an evening reception on Friday 25 March • morning and afternoon teas and lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. AAA has chosen the Wairarapa for their third AAA course in recognition of the strong local support for protecting dark skies from the Wairarapa Dark Sky Association and also to support the growing astrotourism industry in this region of Aotearoa. Full details are on the AAA website at https://aaanz.org and on-line registrations are now open. Places at the course are limited to 30. Contact emails: john.hearnshaw@canterbury.ac.nz and nbrito@vinstar.co.nz. =========================================================== 7. Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2022 - September 12-16 The world’s largest conference on astronomy communication: Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2022 (CAP 2022) will be hosted from September 12-16, 2022 at the Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia (with provisions to attend in-person and online). The Communicating Astronomy with the Public Conference (CAP2022) Scientific Organizing Committee is announcing a second and final extension of the deadline for abstracts and grants applications until May 31. Under the central theme of “Communicating Astronomy for a Better World”, the SOC invites proposals for oral presentations, posters, workshops and panel discussions to be submitted online. Students and young astronomers are particularly encouraged to participate and share their work. Submit your application at https://capconferences.org/2022/registrationabstracts/ The platform for registration payments is also now open at https://capconferences.org/2022/registration-payment-open/ The IAU CAPjournal, in collaboration with the CAP 2022 SOC, organised an Abstract Writing Workshop in support of the hybrid Communicating Astronomy to the Public (CAP) Conference. Resources are available at: https://capconferences.org/2022/resources-for-abstract-writing/ CAP2022 will be organised from September 12-16, 2022, at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Catering to all travel and mobility concerns and needs of our community, the conference will be organized as a hybrid event, both face-to-face and online. In-person participants will be able to book a post-conference tour to visit some of the world-class astronomy facilities in Australia, participate in Macquarie University's annual Astronomy Open Night, and enrol in a pre-conference training workshop. Contact: cap2022@oao.iau.org -- Thanks to Tim Banks for passing this along. =============================================================== 8. Variable Star News VSS Symposium 6 Variable Stars South (VSS) is organising a Symposium for late September/early October 2022, VSSS 6 will be held as a Zoom meeting. This has arisen because of the failure to hold two previous Workshops, associated with Conferences, which did not materialise due to Covid 19. For the symposium any presentations related to variable stars would be welcome. These include, but are not limited to: Visual/PEP/DSLR/CCD/CMOS/Spectroscopic observing programs, Data mining of professional survey databases, Analysis of pulsating star or eclipsing binary light curves, Exoplanet transit timings, cataclysmic variables, equipment reviews, etc. Talks will be 30 minutes including question time, however longer or shorter presentations could be accommodated if necessary. As at previous in-person, symposia we encourage poster presentations; for VSSS6 we will be able to accept PDF posters which would be viewable via links on the VSS website. Anyone interested in presenting at the event, either a paper or poster, should contact Mark Blackford through the Google Discussion Group or by the website. Be Stars Ari Siqueira has recently joined VSS; he is located in SE Brazil. What attracted him to variable star observing was the neglected Be stars visible from the Southern hemisphere, which he is beginning to observe using photometry, CCD, DSLR and CMOS. (For spectroscopy a Star’EX spectrograph and an SA-100 grating is in the making). “The stellar type Be is a subgroup of the B stars, subdivided into Classical Be, B[e], and Herbig Ae/Be; they are receiving growing attention from several ProAm initiatives, one of which is the BeSS database, already holding various kinds of data from 2330 Be stars and 258,355 Be star spectra (http://basebe.obspm.fr/basebe/). The astrophysics and behaviour of the Be stars still hold more mysteries than certainties. Those are some of the reasons that motivate me to invest my amateur efforts to exploring the Be zoo”. Ari was, until recently, a Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais/MG, Brazil, where he worked in the fields of molecular biology and theoretical chemistry. “Being retired I can now dedicate myself full-time to the informal study of astronomy”. Extracted from a posting on VSS Google Group by Ari, 02 May 2022. Note: Spectral B classification stars are luminous stars which have temperatures ranging from 10,000 to 20,000K. The Be stars are a subcategory that have emission lines that arise from an outward spiralling disc around the star. The brightness and spectra both show variation, which has generated considerable discussion on the physics of the system, -- Alan Baldwin =========================================================== 9. Quadruple Stars Which May Become a Supernova A quadruple star system discovered in 2017 and recently observed at the University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory could represent a new channel by which thermonuclear supernova explosions can occur in the Universe, according to results published in Nature Astronomy in May by an international team of astronomers. The rare double-binary star system HD 74438 was discovered in the Vela constellation in 2017 using the Gaia-ESO Survey which characterised over 100,000 stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. Follow-up observations of HD 74438 were obtained over several years to precisely track the orbits of the stars in the quadruple star system. Observations were taken with high-resolution spectrographs at the University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory in New Zealand, and the Southern African Large Telescope in South Africa. The astronomers were able to determine that this stellar quadruple is made up of four gravitationally bound stars: a short-period binary orbiting another short-period binary on a longer orbital period (2+2 configuration). The quadruple system is a member of the young open star cluster IC 2391, making it the youngest (only 43-million years old) spectroscopic quadruple discovered in the Milky Way Galaxy to date, and among the quadruple systems with the shortest outer orbital period (six years). In the Nature Astronomy paper published today, the authors have shown that the gravitational effects of the outer binary system is changing the orbits of the inner binary, causing it to become more eccentric. Stateof-the art simulations of this system’s future evolution show that such gravitational dynamics can lead to one or multiple collisions and merger events producing evolved dead stars (white dwarfs) with masses just below the Chandrasekhar limit. As a result of mass transfer or mergers, these white dwarf stars can produce a thermonuclear supernova explosion. Astronomers involved in this study include the Director of the University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory, Associate Professor Karen Pollard of the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of Canterbury; UC alumni Dr C. Clare Worley and Professor Gerry Gilmore (the first UC student to receive a doctorate in astronomy), both of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, UK. Associate Professor Pollard says high-precision and high-resolution spectroscopic observations were taken with the Hercules spectrograph on the 1.0m McLellan Telescope at the University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory in Tekapo. “A star like our Sun will end its life as a small dense dead star known as a white dwarf, and the mass of white dwarfs cannot go above the socalled Chandrasekhar limit (about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun),” she says. “If it does, because of mass transfer or merger events, it can collapse and produce a thermonuclear supernova. Interestingly, 70% to 85% of all thermonuclear supernovae are now suspected to result from the explosion of white dwarfs with sub-Chandrasekhar masses. As a result of mass transfer or mergers, these white dwarf stars can explode as a thermonuclear supernova explosion.” The evolution of stellar quadruples such as HD 74438 thus represents a new promising channel to form thermonuclear supernova explosions in the Universe, Associate Professor Pollard says. Binary stars are now recognised to play a major role in a large range of astrophysical events, and mergers of binaries are the cause of the recent gravitational wave emission detection. Binary stars also allow us to derive fundamental stellar parameters like masses, radii and luminosities with a better accuracy compared to single stars. They represent the gems on which various astrophysics topics rely. Stellar quadruples only represent a marginal fraction (a few percent) of all multiple systems. The complex evolution of such high-order multiples involves mass transfer and collisions, leading to mergers that are also possible progenitors of thermonuclear supernovae. These supernovae represent standard candles for fixing the Universe distance scale, even though the evolutionary channel(s) leading to the progenitors of such supernova explosions are still highly debated. The paper, ‘A spectroscopic quadruple as a possible progenitor of sub-Chandrasekhar type Ia supernovae’, was published in Nature Astronomy on 12 May 2022. DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01664-5. It is available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01664-5 - From UC Media =========================================================== 10. Tonga Eruption Affected the Ionosphere The powerful Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcanic eruption in January triggered stronger-than-hurricane winds in the highest layer of Earth's atmosphere, challenging scientists' understanding of the influence our planet has on outer space. The eruption, which sent devastating tsunamis across the Pacific Ocean on January 15, not only blasted hundreds of millions of tons of volcanic ash into the stratosphere but also generated shockwaves that reached as high as the ionosphere, the outermost layer of the atmosphere, at altitudes of up to 650 km. The shockwaves were so powerful that they triggered winds with speeds up to 720 kph that were measurable by satellites at altitudes of up to 190 km. That's way above the official edge of space, the so-called Karman line at the altitude of 100 km. For comparison, the strongest hurricanes on Earth can reach a maximum wind speed of around 320 kph. "I don't think any of us expected to see anything this large," Brian Harding, a physicist at University of California, Berkeley, and lead author of a new study describing the observations, told Space.com. "We expected the disturbances to be small, like little ripples that went into the ionosphere." Harding worked with data from a NASA mission called the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON), which studies how space weather interacts with Earth's ionosphere. Previously, scientists mostly thought that the ionosphere is quite isolated from the planet and only affected by the activity of the sun. But the disturbances detected after the Hunga TongaHunga Ha‘apai eruption were, in fact, the most significant ICON has measured in its more than two years in orbit. They were more powerful than any of those caused by the countless geomagnetic storms, which the planet has experienced in that period of time as a result of the sun's activity. These powerful winds were associated with the so-called equatorial electrojet, an electric current that circles through the ionosphere above Earth's equator. Measurements by ICON, as well as those by Europe's three-satellite Swarm mission, revealed that this electrojet went haywire in the days after the Hunga Tonga eruption. It flipped direction several times and surged to five times its usual strength, according to a NASA statement. "The equatorial electrojet is a very strong electrical current of hundreds of kilowatts that exists in a narrow band near the equator," said Harding. "It's a result of some complicated physics that go on in Earth's magnetic field. It typically flows eastwards and sometimes can be reversed by geomagnetic storms. But this was the first time we have seen it completely reverse and strengthen because of something that happened on the ground." The Hunga Tonga eruption was the most powerful volcanic explosion to have shaken Earth since that of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. The blast could be heard at a distance of over 10,000 km, and the pressure wave it generated circled the planet four times. Fortunately, only three people died in the tsunami triggered by the eruption, despite the damage the waves caused in the Kingdom of Tonga. The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on May 10. See Tereza Pultarova's original article at https://www.space.com/hungatonga-volcano-eruption-triggers-hurricanes-in-space ================================================================ 11. How to Join the RASNZ RASNZ membership is open to all individuals with an interest in astronomy in New Zealand. Information about the society and its objects can be found at http://rasnz.org.nz/rasnz/membership-benefits A membership form can be either obtained from treasurer@rasnz.co.nz or by completing the online application form found at http://rasnz.org.nz/rasnz/membership-application Basic membership for the 2022 year starts at $40 for an ordinary member, which includes an electronic subscription to our journal 'Southern Stars'. ================================================================ 12. Quotes "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." - H.L. Menken. "It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance." - Thomas Huxley. "It takes considerable knowledge just to realise the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell. “Wherever scientific insight is denied and conspiracy theories and hatred are spread, we need to resist.” - Democracy depends on maintaining our trust in facts, said quantum chemist Angela Merkel in her farewell address after 16 years as German Chancellor. ================================================================ Alan Gilmore Phone: 03 680 6817 P.O. Box 57 alan.gilmore@canterbury.ac.nz Lake Tekapo 7945 New Zealand ========================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- December Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Minor Planet Occultation Updates: --------------------------------------------------------------- Further links and discussion can be found at the groups/links below Astronomy in New Zealand - Groups.io https://groups.io/g/AstronomyNZ Astronomy in New Zealand - Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/5889909863/ Google Group https://groups.google.com/g/nzastrochat Astronomy in Wellington https://www.facebook.com/groups/11451597655/ Blogger Posts http://laintal.blogspot.com/ Twitter https://twitter.com/EdwinRodham Reddit https://www.reddit.com/user/Edwin_Rod_NZ Quaroa https://www.quora.com/q/astronomyinnewzealand Groups.io Astronomy in New Zealand https://groups.io/g/AstronomyNZ AstronomyNZ@groups.io Wellington Astronomers https://groups.io/g/WellingtonAstronomers WellingtonAstronomers@groups.io AucklandAstronomers https://groups.io/g/AucklandAstronomers AucklandAstronomers@groups.io North Island Astronomers https://groups.io/g/NorthIslandAstronomers NorthIslandAstronomers@groups.io South Island Astronomers https://groups.io/g/SouthIslandAstronomers SouthIslandAstronomers@groups.io NZAstrochat https://groups.io/g/NZAstrochat NZAstrochat@groups.io NZ Photographers And Observers https://groups.io/g/NZPhotographers NZPhotographers@groups.io --------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: My standard caveat that these are the views of a learned amateur, not a professional in the sector, applies as always. The above post/email/update represents my own words, views, research and opinions, unless stated otherwise the above work represents my own writing. I’ll give credit or thanks if I have used or represented other people’s words and/or opinions. The links and references listed below represent the work and research of the respective author’s. Questions and constructive criticism are always welcome, however I don’t believe anything written here by myself is any reason for impolite behaviour. Thanks for your time and I hope you have enjoyed reading. -----------------------------------------------------------------