Category Archives: News and Announcements

From/de Denis Laurin, Senior Program Scientist, Space astronomy, Space Exploration development, CSA,
with contributions from/avec des contributions de Jean Dupuis, Senior mission scientist
(Cassiopeia – Summer/été 2016)

La version française suit

Congratulations to John Hutchings

Figure 1 – Left to right: Sylvain Laporte (CSA President); John Hutchings (NRC); David St-Jacques (CSA astronaut).

In recognition of his exceptional contribution to the Canadian Space Program, Dr. John B. Hutchings was presented with the John H. Chapman Award of Excellence during a ceremony at the 17th Conference on Astronautics of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI ASTRO 2016) in Ottawa, Ontario.

The Chapman Award is a tribute to the distinguished career and achievements of an extraordinary individual, whose vision and contributions have shaped Canada’s space program.

JAXA Hitomi

Despite the unfortunate premature end of the Hitomi X-ray observatory on March 26, JAXA did collect valuable scientific data (during the commissioning phase). A report published on the JAXA website describes the event (Hitomi report). The science team is analysing the available data (mainly SXS instrument) and significant science results will soon be published. Furthermore, the Canadian contribution of the laser metrology system (CAMS) built by Neptec demonstrated excellent performance.

ISRO ASTROSAT

Contributed by Jean Dupuis, Senior Mission Scientist, CSA

Figure 2 – UVIT FUV image of the central region (~3 arcmin) of the globular cluster NGC 1851 (FUV CaF2 filter, exposure time of 10 minutes, provided by John Hutchings, NRC-Herzberg)

The first call for proposals for the ASTROSAT Canadian open time (5%) has been issued with a deadline of July 29th (see recent e-mail by John Hutchings to CASCA mailing list). Support to Canadian proposers is to be provided by Joe Postma of the University of Calgary (jpostma@ucalgary.ca). UVIT is reportedly performing well and commissioning activities are mostly completed and the observatory has initiated its science programme. The Figure below shows one such science verification image obtained with UVIT’s Far-UV channel of the globular cluster NGC 1851. This work is done in collaboration with the UVIT team at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA).

CSA MOST Archive

Described in more detail in the spring issue of e-Cass, the MOST mission data archive is essentially completed, thanks to the effort of Dr Vinothini Sangaralingam, Visiting Fellow (CSA / NSERC) in close collaboration with CADC (David Bohlender, for implementation and maintenance) and MOST science team members. For further information on the MOST mission and data availability, please contact the MOST Mission Scientist, Jaymie Matthews: matthews@astro.ubc.ca.

CSA JWST Science Support

Contributed by Jean Dupuis, Senior Mission Scientist, CSA

CSA is working on a plan to provide science support for data analysis during the JWST mission where 5% of the open observation time will be available to Canadian astronomers. We encourage the community to contact us and the Joint Committee on Space Astronomy (JCSA) with their ideas on how CSA could optimally support science activities during the JWST operations.

NASA WFIRST

CSA continues to define potential Canadian contributions to the WFIRST mission, a dark energy and exoplanet mission ranked high priority in the CASCA LRP for space astronomy. A Phase 0 contract was awarded in May to Honeywell Space (COMDEV) for a duration of 12 months. The result will provide information needed by CSA (technology assessment, feasibility, costs, and schedule for development phases) for decision towards the next phase.

CSA Topical Teams in Space Astronomy

CSA Topical Teams in Space Astronomy
The purpose, membership and support for Topical Teams were described in the spring issue of e-Cass. The teams held a lunch time session at CASCA in Winnipeg that was well attended. The teams’ goal is a set of draft reports to be discussed at the next CSA Space Exploration Workshop which is planned for mid-November 2016 in Montreal. (An announcement of the workshop will be sent to the communities once it is confirmed.)

Wishing everyone a great summer!
Denis Laurin

Félicitations à John Hutchings

Figure 1 – Gauche à droite: Sylvain Laporte (Président ASC); John Hutchings (CNRC); David St-Jacques (astronaute ASC).

En reconnaissance de sa contribution exceptionnelle au Programme spatial canadien, John B. Hutchings s’est vu remettre le prix d’excellence John H. Chapman au cours d’une cérémonie qui s’est déroulée à l’occasion de la 17e Conférence de l’Institut aéronautique et spatial du Canada sur l’astronautique à Ottawa, en Ontario.

Le prix Chapman souligne la carrière distinguée et les réalisations d’un individu extraordinaire dont la vision et le dévouement hors pair ont contribué à l’avancement du Programme spatial canadien.

JAXA Hitomi

Malgré la fin prématurée malheureuse de l’observatoire en rayons-X Hitomi le 26 mars, la JAXA a quand même recueilli des données scientifiques importantes (lors de la phase de mise en service). Un rapport publié sur le site de JAXA décrit la série d’évènements . L’équipe scientifique analyse les données disponibles (principalement de l’instrument SXS) et des résultats scientifiques significatifs seront bientôt publiés. En outre, la contribution canadienne du système de métrologie laser (CAMS) construite par Neptec, a démontré d’excellentes performances.

ISRO ASTROSAT

Contribué par Jean Dupuis, Scientifique principal de missions, ASC.

Figure 2 – Image UVIT FUV de la région centrale (environ 3 minutes d’arc) de l’amas globulaire NGC 1851 (filtre FUV CaF2, temps d’exposition de 10 minutes;, fourni par John Hutchings, Herzberg-CNRC)

La première demande propositions pour le temps ouvert canadien sur ASTROSAT (5%) a été émise avec une date limite du 29 juillet (voir le récent envoi de message par John Hutchings à la liste de diffusion de CASCA). Un soutien aux proposants canadiens sera fournis par Joe Postma à l’Université de Calgary (jpostma@ucalgary.ca). L’instrument UVIT démontre de bons résultats et les activités de mise en service sont pour la plupart terminées et l’observatoire a lancé son programme scientifique. L’image ci-dessous montre un exemple d’une telle image de vérification scientifique dans l’UV lointain par UVIT de l’amas globulaire NGC 1851. Ce travail est fait en collaboration avec l’équipe UVIT à l’Institut Indien d’Astrophysique.

ASC archive des données MOST

Décrit plus en détail dans le numéro du printemps de l’e-Cass, l’archive de données de la mission MOST est essentiellement complétée, grâce à l’effort du Dr Vinothini Sangaralingam, boursière postdoc (CSA / CRSNG) en étroite collaboration avec le CADC (David Bohlender, pour la mise en œuvre et la maintenance des pages web) et plusieurs membres de l’équipe scientifique. Pour de plus amples informations sur la mission MOST et la disponibilité des données, s’il vous plait contacter le scientifique de la mission MOST, Jaymie Matthews: matthews@astro.ubc.ca.

ASC JWST support scientifique

Contribué par Jean Dupuis, Scientifique principal de missions, ASC.

CSA prépare un plan de soutien scientifique pour les analyses de données au cours de la mission JWST où 5% du temps d’observation ouverte sera disponible aux astronomes canadiens. Nous encourageons la communauté à communiquer à l’ASC ou à notre Comité consultatif (JCSA) leurs idées sur la façon optimale de soutenir les activités scientifiques au cours des opérations JWST.

NASA WFIRST

L’ASC continue de déterminer les contributions potentielles du Canada à la mission WFIRST, une mission pour explorer l’énergie sombre et les exoplanètes; la mission demeure haute priorité dans le plan à long terme de la CASCA pour l’astronomie spatiale. Un contrat de phase 0 a été attribué en mai à Honeywell Space (COMDEV) pour une durée de 12 mois. Le résultat servira à fournir les informations nécessaires par l’ASC (tel que l’évaluation de la technologie, la faisabilité, les couts et le calendrier pour les phases de développement) pour la prise de décision vers la phase ultérieure.

En vous souhaitant à tous et à toutes un été agréable!
Denis Laurin

By/par Ray Carlberg
(Cassiopeia – Summer/été 2016)

Some of the background of the loss of the site permit in Hawaii was discussed in the Vernal Equinox edition of Cassiopeia. TMT has announced that it plans to resume construction in April 2018 or sooner, but of course it needs a site on which to build. Since the project was scientifically, technically and financially built around Hawaii we would all like to build there, and, it is not that easy to simply transport an entire multi-national project someplace else. Doubly so when significant decisions need to be made over the short time left this calendar year.

Hawaii continues to provide an impressive flow of news stories about TMT. There is a laudable local effort to create a more positive environment, but that is a long term effort that seems very unlikely to overcome a deeply entrenched opposition in a short time. The legal process required to grant a permit is itself clouded. It took about 5 months to appoint a hearing officer to oversee the process. The opponents pointed out at least one significant appearance of bias. Their case is strong enough that all parties, pro and con, have petitioned for a new hearing officer. In TMT’s case we do not want to go through a long permit process knowing that there is already a substantial basis for a court to rule the entire effort to be invalid. Somewhat astonishingly, Hawaii has recently reaffirmed the hearing officer’s appointment.

So, TMT is looking for an alternate site. the list of really good sites is not all that long. The physics of an astronomical site is interesting in itself and reasonably simple. The air needs to have as little turbulence as possible and be as dry as possible. Turbulence in the air has three components. Mountains are always windy and the aerodynamics of wind over the surface gives rise to a ground shear layer that becomes turbulent. Getting above the local ground layer is the reason that CFHT has a 44m high dome for a 3.57m telescope. TMT has a 60m high dome so gets a little further into good air. Ground heating of the air on the way to the mountain generates thermal convection between the ground and the cloud layer at around 3000m. The development of turbulent convection is minimized for steep mountains near coastlines, high enough to get above cumulus clouds. Good seeing needs to start with higher altitude airflow that is as laminar as possible, which occurs in the trade winds. These originate in the Hadley cell airflow in which the thermal energy of air near the equator causes it to rise high in the atmosphere, descending at +/- 20 degrees as extremely dry air with remarkably steady wind. It also generally means relatively cloud free skies (and often deserts on the ground). The outcome is that at a good site there is mainly a ground layer, which good design can minimize, and, a shear layer near the tropopause around 10km altitude, which airplane passengers frequently experience. The beauty of having a single dominant turbulent layer distorting light is that it means that relatively simple adaptive optics systems can focus (conjugate) on and provide remarkable correction, although better correction and wider fields of view does require 3D correction.

The other major factor in a good site is simply height. A higher mountain increases UV transparency and reduces the water in the atmosphere which has such a dense spectrum of lines that both reduce transparency and emit radiation. Chile has the advantage of a very cold current from Antarctica off the coast rather than the tropical water of Hawaii which leads to more water column at the same height. For some observations, water is simply a nuisance, but for those interested in exoplanets, water is an important molecule to detect. And of course physics of molecular lines means that lots of interesting molecules have their lines in the infrared and mid-infrared. A non-scientific issue is that costs tend to go up with height as well, but ALMA and other telescopes (including the ACT built by Empire Dynamic Structures) have greatly developed high altitude construction techniques. Another non-scientific factor is that people have been climbing mountains for a long time and nobody in TMT wants to go to another mountain with cultural artefacts and native population connections.

All that doesn’t leave a long list of viable mountains. The best are Mauna Kea in the north and in the south the mountains of the northern Atacama Desert of Chile. Polar sites are also very good, but have additional technical challenges and high costs. To help make a comparative scientific assessment manageable, TMT developed the “Nelson-Cohen” site merit function, with an estimate of the speed of acquiring a given scientific goal in the optical in natural seeing, near-infrared with AO and mid-infrared with AO. These are representative science uses, and specific ones will give somewhat different outcomes. The sites currently under consideration are Mauna Kea (13N at 4050m), Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) in the Canaries (2250m), San Pedro Martir (SPM) in Baja Mexico (2830m), Vicuna Mackenna (3100m) near Paranal and Honar (5400m) south of the ALMA site. For optical band natural seeing observations Mackenna is best with Honar, Mauna Kea and ORM being about 15-18% less desirable although transparency is a larger issue at ORM. SPM is about 28% less effective than Mackenna. In the NIR Honar is best with MK 13N and Mackenna down 14-18% and SPM, ORM down 34-42%. In the mid-IR Honar truly stands out, with MK13N and Mackenna down 40-43% and SPM and ORM down 53-56%. In the south, the choice between Honar and Mackenna depends on how important mid-IR is for your science. By any assessment AO assisted observations and NIR and mid-IR are becoming more important uses as both science interests move to redder bands and as IR technology improves. If only a small fraction of the time was required for mid-IR, a poor site does give that from time to time, which a queue system (not in the TMT baseline) could give. However, for time critical observations (such as planet transits and all sorts of LSST followup) a small queue fraction is not likely to be satisfactory.

The E-ELT is being built on a site essentially identical to Mackenna although Mackenna does have room for more telescopes in the future. Clearly TMT on Hawaii would give us a competitive telescope with complementary sky access. Other sites in the North would give us a smaller telescope on a worse site, which would be hard to justify. A high site in Chile would give us an advantage over E-ELT for a range of interesting science. Canadians are of course familiar with the advantages of dealing with the difficulties and long term payoff of pioneering a high, remote site, which Hawaii once was.

The TMT fund is not money that astronomers can move around at will which is true for all members of TMT, which is where the complications begin. The Canadian SAC members have so far mainly pointed out the increased scientific return of the Chilean sites, particular relevant to scientific observations (exoplanets) which are likely to become a major use of ELTs. It would be sad to leave the North but we may have no choice. We in Canada have built our case on the century of tradition of “second to none” which has important implications for the TMT site choice for Canadian astronomers.

By/par Michael Balogh, on behalf of Pat Hall, chair of the MSE Advisory Group
(Cassiopeia – Summer/été 2016)

Conceptual design work continues for the MSE! The call for bids for the telescope structure conceptual design has been issued, with a closing date of 5 July. Scientists and engineers from five Canadian universities, along with industry partners, are preparing a CFI application for construction of a prototype high-resolution spectrograph and design and development of integrated observational and operational databases and software.

Detailed Science Case on arXiv

The 210-page MSE Detailed Science Case has been finalized and published online here. A ten-page concise overview is also available here. Detailed Science Case white papers and other background science and technical documents are now posted here.
The Detailed Science Case illustrates the breadth of scientific areas in which MSE will have a transformative impact. To name just a few: the in-situ chemical tagging of the distant Galaxy using high-resolution (R~40,000) stellar spectra, measuring the dark matter density profiles of Milky Way dwarf galaxies using repeat spectra of thousands of stars in those galaxies, and reverberation mapping of supermassive black holes in quasars.

Engineering and Science Collaboration Meeting

More than 40 members of the MSE international science, and engineering, teams met for the first integrated Engineering and Science collaboration meeting, in Madrid on 27-29 April. The Univesidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) hosted a delightful event; one that provided a venue for a wholesome exchange over the science ambition versus the engineering realities of complex systems such as MSE. Spanish and Australian teams demonstrated unique fiber positioning robotic technology (the third team from NAIOT in China was unable to attend). MSE’s Project Manager comments: “It was a thoroughly successful meeting, fully achieving its objectives, and was very enjoyable as well!”

From/de Gerald Schieven
(Cassiopeia – Summer/été 2016)

ALMA Band 1 Goes into Production

Figure 1 – the prototype Band 1 (35-52 GHz (8.5-5.7 mm)) cartridge

Band 1 is the lowest frequency band for ALMA and covers the 35 to 52 GHz region of the millimetre-wave spectrum. Science drivers for this band include dust continuum studies of protoplanetary disks, red-shifted molecular lines from galaxies at high redshift, the Sunyaev-Zel’ovich effect, and much more (Di Francesco et al. 2013).

Band 1 development for ALMA is being led by ASIAA in Taiwan in collaboration with NAOJ, the University of Chile, NRAO, and NRC Herzberg. A successful Critical Design Review was held in Taipei in January 2016, and the ALMA Board has now approved the Band 1 project team to go into production of the 73 Band receiver cartridges needed to equip all ALMA antennas in Chile. The production schedule proposed by ASIAA would see all Band 1 cartridges delivered to the JAO by the end of 2019.

Figure 2 – the prototype orthomode transducer (OMT), designed and produced by NRC Herzberg

The NRC Herzberg technical contribution to Band 1 is the design, production, and testing of the orthomode transducers (OMTs), precision passive millimetre-wave devices which separate the incoming radiation into its two orthogonal linearly polarized components. This permits ALMA to make observations of the polarization of continuum and spectral line sources in Band 1. NRC Herzberg will be producing the production OMTs (one per receiver cartridge) in-house using the precision machining facilities provided by NRC’s Design and Fabrications Services workshop in Victoria, and will verify the performance of each unit through cryogenic testing in its millimetre-wave instrumentation laboratory.

Face-to-face Visits

If you wish to travel to Victoria for face-to-face assistance with ALMA data reduction and analysis, please contact Brenda Matthews.

From/de Gregg Wade
(Cassiopeia – Summer/été 2016)

Overview

BRITE-Constellation (where BRITE stands for BRIght Target Explorer) is a network of five nanosatellites operating in low Earth orbit, designed to explore the properties of the brightest stars in the night sky.

Figure 1 – The mission patch of the BRITE-Constellation mission.

The BRITE mission is supported by three countries — Canada, Austria and Poland — where Canadian funding comes mainly from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the prime contractor is the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies – Spaceflight Laboratory (UTIAS-SFL). The mission was planned to have 6 BRITE nanosats, a pair from each partner country, but one of the Canadian nanosats did not detach from the third stage of its launch vehicle. Each BRITE nanosat (mass = 7 kg; dimensions 20 × 20 × 20 cm) has a 3-cm optical telescope feeding a CCD detector. The Constellation was designed to monitor photometrically through blue and red filters the brightness and temperature variations of stars generally brighter than V ~ 4 with precision, cadence and time coverage not possible from the ground. Each BRITE instrument has an enormous field-of-view: 24° square, large enough to encompass the entire constellation of Orion (but at a resolution of only about half an arcminute per pixel). That means BRITE-Constellation can collect data on several dozens of stars simultaneously.

Figure 2 – Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of the stars of brightest apparent magnitude, V<4.5. These ∼ 600 stars are the primary BRITE targets.[/caption] The sample of the apparently brightest stars in the night sky is a sample dominated by the most intrinsically luminous stars in the Galaxy: hot massive stars at all evolutionary stages, and evolved intermediate-mass stars at the very end of their nuclear-burning phases. The main goals of BRITE-Constellation are to (1) measure the frequencies of pulsations (both acoustic and gravity modes) to probe the interiors and ages of stars through asteroseismology; (2) measure the rotational modulation of stars due to star spots carried across their disks; (3) search for exoplanets through transits; and (4) obtain light curves of massive eclipsing binaries. While goal (2) is often associated with cool solar-type stars, spots in the photospheres of luminous stars could be the sources of co-rotating interaction regions in the winds, possibly arising from magnetic subsurface convection in hot, massive stars. A detailed overview of the scientific motivation of the mission, and technical aspects of the system, are provided by Weiss et al. (2015, PASP 126, 573).

Mission Status and Data Releases

Five of the planned six BRITE nanosats are currently operating nominally in low-altitude (600-800 km) orbits. (One satellite currently remains unusable in a higher elliptical orbit due to a malfunction in the release mechanism of the Russian rocket third stage.)

[caption id="attachment_6337" align="alignright" width="300"] Figure 3 – The two Canadian BRITE nanosatellites (named “BRITE-Montreal”, blue filter and “BRITE-Toronto”, red filter), at UTIAS-SFL prior to shipment in 2014.

Eleven fields have been observed so far, and ten data releases to BRITE Target PIs have occurred. The first was a set of science commissioning data, including about 5 months of quasi-continuous observation of 15 stars in Orion. Subsequent releases were 6-month campaigns of fields in Centaurus and Lupus (30 stars), Sagittarius (18 stars), Cygnus (37 stars), and Perseus (31 stars). Orion was observed again, as were fields in Vela and Puppis (20 stars), Scorpius (26 stars), Cygnus-II (34 stars) and Cassiopeia/Cepheus (25 stars). The distribution of the third Orion field and the second Vela and Puppis field data will begin shortly. Reduction of the recently-observed Canis Majoris and Puppis field images is ongoing and shall be completed by the end of June. Currently, the Crucis and Carina field is being observed (and will remain visible until July), as are the second Sagittarius and the Cygnus and Lyra fields (which will continue to be visible until September/October 2016).

The first BRITE science results have been accepted in refereed journals: Three science papers by Weiss et al. on the pulsating magnetic star α Cir, by Baade et al. on the short-term variability and mass loss of the Be stars μ and η Cen, and by Pigulski et al. on the triple system β Cen (a complex system containing at least one β Cep pulsator) have been published together in issue 588 of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

A new paper describing the characteristics of the BRITE hardware and technical problem-solving on the ground and after launch led by Dr. Bert Pablo (Université de Montréal) has been submitted to PASP.

The first BRITE science conference, “Science with BRITE Constellation: Initial Results” took place during 14 – 18 September 2015 in Gdansk Sobieszewo, Poland. The next BRITE science workshop is planned from 22-26 August in Innsbruck, Austria. Registration is now available at this link.

Figure 4 – Light curves of the eclipsing binary V Pup, observed as part of the BRITE Vela/Puppis field. Shown here is a 5-day interval of the BRITE-Austria (blue) and BRITE-Toronto (red) observations.

Mission Management and Contact

Executive decisions about the mission are made by the BEST (BRITE Executive Science Team), consisting of representatives from all three partner nations. The Canadian BEST members are Jaymie Matthews (UBC), Tony Moffat (Université de Montréal), Slavek Rucinski (University of Toronto), and Gregg Wade (BEST Vice-Chair and Canadian PI, Royal Military College), with Jason Rowe (Université de Montréal) and Stefan Mochnacki (University of Toronto) serving as non-voting BEST members.

Setting priorities on BRITE targets and science goals was overseen by BEST, with input from the BRITE International Science Advisory Team (BIAST), consisting of 130 astronomers around the globe. Interested in joining BIAST, to participate in data analysis, and receive monthly mission updates? Please contact BEST through Gregg Wade (wade-g@rmc.ca).

Baade, D.; Rivinius, Th.; Pigulski, A.; Carciofi, A. C.; Martayan, Ch.; Moffat, A. F. J.; Wade, G. A.; Weiss, W. W.; Grunhut, J.; Handler, G.; Kuschnig, R.; Mehner, A.; Pablo, H.; Popowicz, A.; Rucinski, S.; Whittaker, G., 2016, “Short-term variability and mass loss in Be stars. I. BRITE satellite photometry of η and μ Centauri”, A&A, 588, 56

“The BRITE Constellation cubesat mission: Testing, commissioning and operations”, B. Pablo and 28 co-authors, under review for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Pigulski, A.; Cugier, H.; Popowicz, A.; Kuschnig, R.; Moffat, A. F. J.; Rucinski, S. M.; Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A.; Weiss, W. W.; Handler, G.; Wade, G. A.; Koudelka, O.; Matthews, J. M.; Mochnacki, St.; Orleański, P.; Pablo, H.; Ramiaramanantsoa, T.; Whittaker, G.; Zocłońska, E.; Zwintz, K.; 2016, “Massive pulsating stars observed by BRITE-Constellation. I. The triple system beta Centauri (Agena)”, A&A, 588, 55

Weiss, W.W.; Rucinski, S.M.; Moffat, A.F.J.; Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A.; Koudelka, O.F.; Grant, C.C.; Zee, R.E.; Kuschnig, R.; Mochnacki, St.; Matthews, J.M.; Orleanski, P.; Pamyatnykh, A.; Pigulski, A.; Alves, J.; Guedel, M.; Handler, G.; Wade, G.A.; Zwintz, K., 2014, “BRITE-Constellation: Nanosatellites for Precision Photometry of Bright Stars”, PASP 126, 573.

Weiss, W.W.; Frohlich, H.-E.; Pigulski, A.; Popowicz, A.; Huber, D.; Kuschnig, R.; Moffat, A.F.J.; Matthews, J.M.;, Saio, H.; Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A.; Grant, C; Koudelka, O.; Lueftinger, T.; Rucinski, S.; Wade, G.A.; Alves, J.; Guedel, M.; Handler, G.; Mochnacki, S.; Orleanski, P.;, Pablo, B.; Pamyatnykh, A.; Ramiaramanantsoa, T; Rowe, J.; Whittaker, G.; Zawistowski, T.; Zoconska, E.; Zwintz, K., 2016, “The roAp star alpha Cir seen by BRITE-Constellation”, A&A, 588, 54

From/de John Percy
(Cassiopeia – Summer/été 2016)

Ivan Semeniuk

I’m pleased to report that astronomer Ivan Semeniuk is the 2016 recipient of the Sandford Fleming Medal and Citation, awarded since 1982 by the Royal Canadian Institute for Science (RCIS). RCIS is Canada’s oldest scientific society. For 167 years, it has worked towards the goal of an informed public that embraces science to build a stronger Canada. Ivan Semeniuk has contributed significantly to that goal in ways which are remarkable for their quality, quantity, and variety.

Ivan received his BSc in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Toronto, and his MS in Science Journalism from Boston University. He was an instructor/researcher at the Ontario Science Centre from 1986 to 1999 (and a go-to person for print and electronic media interviews), a columnist and summer host and producer at Discovery Channel Canada from 1995 to 2005, a bureau chief for New Scientist and subsequently a chief of correspondents for Nature. He created numerous TV, radio, and print works on a freelance basis including the 30-episode TV series Cosmic Vistas. In 2013, he joined the Globe and Mail (“Canada’s national newspaper”) as science reporter. In the words of Globe and Mail editor-in-chief David Walmsley, “In Ivan Semeniuk, the Globe and Mail has a world-class science correspondent who travels the world and outer space with his pen and his mind. His clarity of writing across a broad range of scientific topics from biology, to astronomy, to chemistry creates an accessable understanding of our planet and our galaxy”. His many fellowships and awards include a Gemini nomination, and two other film awards.

Ivan was Science Journalist-in-Residence at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics from 2008 to 2010. He continues to give short courses and workshops, for science graduate students, in science communication and journalism, and invited lectures to groups such as CASCA, as well as to the public. In this way, he is helping to produce the next generation of science communicators in Canada, as well as to promote science literacy himself.

The Sandford Fleming Medal and Citation is named for RCIS co-founder Sir Sandford Fleming, engineer, surveyor, and successful proponent of Standard Time. It will be presented at a special ceremony in November.

By Parshati Patel
Thesis defended on April 25, 2016
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western University
Thesis advisors: Dr. Aaron Sigut and Dr. John Landstreet
Thesis link: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3692/

Abstract

Herbig Ae/Be stars are intermediate mass (~2 to 20 M_sun) pre-main sequence stars that inherit a circumstellar disk of dust and gas from their formation phase. The region of this disk closest to the star is entirely gaseous because dust evaporates at the high temperatures there, and this gaseous region is currently poorly understood. Using non-LTE circumstellar disk codes to model the optical and near-infrared spectra of five, early-type (B0Ve to B2Ve) Herbig Be stars obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope ESPaDOnS instrument, the density structure of each inner gaseous disks was determined and estimates of the disk masses and sizes were obtained. In the modeling, the photoionizing radiation of the central B star was assumed to be disk’s sole source of energy input.

For the four Herbig B2e stars, BD+65 1637, HD 76534, HD 114981 and HD 21669, reasonable matches were found for all emission line profiles considered individually; however, for each star, no disk density model based on a single power law for the equatorial density was able to simultaneously fit all of the observed emission lines in the spectrum. For BD+65 1637, the equatorial disk density law was estimated to fall as 10^-10(R*/R)³ g cm^-3 in a 50 R* disk, and this model provided a reasonable match to the overall line shapes and strengths. The stars HD 76534, HD 114981 and HD 216629 required a similar density model to that of BD+65 1637, but in a smaller, 25 R* disk. The overall implied masses of these inner gaseous disks are in the range of ~5.7 x 10^-8 to 1.2 x 10^-9 M*.

For BD+65 1637, the metal lines, Fe II and especially the Ca II IR triplet lines, required higher disk densities than implied by the hydrogen Balmer lines, with the disk density falling more slowly as 10^-10(R*/R)² g cm^-3. In general, for all stars, the metal lines of Ca II and Fe II required higher disk densities than the Balmer lines to match the observed line profiles. A more complex disk density distribution is likely required to reconcile this difference and refine the match to the spectra of these stars.

The spectrum of the Herbig B0e star MWC 137 is dominated by very strong emission lines in comparison to the Herbig B2e stars. Preliminary results show that the models require extended disks to reproduce the observed Ca II and Fe II metal emission line profiles. For hydrogen Balmer lines, no disk models extending up to 200 R* were capable of reproducing the observed line strengths, indicating that even larger disks are required and/or the observed hydrogen lines are contaminated by hydrogen recombination emission from the surrounding H II region.

Taken as a whole, the analysis of these five, early-type HBe stars suggest that the optical and near-IR emission lines in their spectra can be adequately accounted for by an inner, entirely gaseous, disk in Keplerian rotation, heated solely by the photoionizing energy input of the central star, and requiring only a tiny fraction ~10^-7 of the central star’s mass.

By Hannah Broekhoven-Fiene
Thesis defended on April 14, 2016
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria
Thesis advisor: Dr. Brenda Matthews

Abstract

This thesis presents a multiwavelength analysis, from the infrared to the microwave, of the young, forming stars in the Auriga-California Molecular Cloud and a first look at the disks they host and their potential for forming planetary systems. At the beginning of this thesis, Auriga-Cal had only recently been identified as one contiguous cloud with its distance placing it within the Gould Belt of nearby star-forming regions (Lada et al., 2009). This thesis presents the largest body of work to date on Auriga-Cal’s star formation and disk population. Auriga-Cal is one of two nearby giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Gould Belt, the other being the Orion A molecular cloud. These two GMCs have similar mass (~105 solar masses), spatial scale (~80 pc), distance (~450 pc), and filamentary morphology, yet the two clouds present very different star formation qualities and quantities. Namely, Auriga-Cal is forming far fewer stars and does not exhibit the high-mass star formation seen in Orion A. In this thesis, I present a census of the star forming objects in the infrared with the Spitzer Space Telescope showing that Auriga-Cal contains at least 166 young stellar objects (YSOs), 15–20 times fewer stars than Orion A, the majority of which are located in the cluster around LkHalpha 101, NGC 1529, and the filament extending from it. I find the submillimetre census with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, sensitive to the youngest objects, arrives at a similar result showing the disparity between the two clouds observed in the infrared continues to the submillimetre. Therefore the relative star formation rate between the two clouds has remained constant in recent times. The final chapter introduces the first study targeted at the disk population to measure the formation potential of planetary systems around the young stars in Auriga-Cal. The dust thermal emission at cm wavelengths is observed to measure the relative amounts of cm-sized grains, indicative of the grain growth processes that take place in disks and are necessary for planet formation. For a subsample of our targets, we are able to measure the spectral slope in the cm to confirm the thermal nature of the observed emission that we detect and characterize the signature of grain growth. The sensitivity of our observations probes masses greater than the minimum mass solar nebula (MMSN), the disk mass required to form the Solar System. We detect 19 disks, representing almost a third of our sample, comparable to the numbers of disks in other nearby star-forming regions with disks masses exceeding the MMSN, suggesting that the disk population in Auriga-Cal possesses similar planet formation potential as populations in other clouds. Confirmation of this result requires future observations with mm interferometry, the wavelength regime where the majority of statistics of disks has been measured.

By/par Stéphanie Côté (NRC Herzberg)
(Cassiopeia – Summer/été 2016)

La version française suit

Some Stats About Semester 2016B

After a record crop of proposals last semester 2016A (the total number of hours requested was one of our largest demand in Canadian Gemini history), a more modest, although still healthy, request for Gemini time was received for semester 2016B. Gemini-South was slightly more oversubscribed at 1.65, than Gemini-North at 1.53 (using the ratio of requested time over the amount of time available in Band 1 and 2 to Canada; Band 1 + Band 2 hours correspond to the number of hours actually observed for Canadian programs each semester, while Band 3 is overfilling the queue).

As usual, up to close to 40% of the proposals were for MSc/PhD students’ theses this semester. Only a handful of ToO proposals were received (2 rapid and 2 standards). No Subaru Exchange proposals were received this semester, although this is not unusual.

Figure 1 – Oversubscription on Gemini-North (blue) and Gemini-South (red).

Figure 2 – Number of Joint, Thesis, ToO and Subaru Exchange proposals received in the last semesters.

For Semester 2016B, more proposals were received for GRACES (high-resolution spectroscopy) than for any other instruments including GMOS-N and GMOS-S. This is very rare and has only happened once before that an instrument is more popular than either GMOS (Flamingos2 managed this feat once, a few semesters ago). Note that the GRACES proposals are all for galactic work so far, even though its excellent throughput would allow to venture to extragalactic targets. On Gemini-South more proposals were received for GMOS-S and Flamingos2. On the pie chart (Figure 3) of % of time requested for each instrument Phoenix (near-IR high-resolution spectroscopy) is prominent, however this is due to a single large proposal that requested 30% of the G-South time.

Figure 3 – Pie charts of the percentages of time requested by each instrument, on Gemini-North (left) and Gemini-South (right).

News on Data Reduction Cookbooks!

GMOS users will be happy to know that the long-awaited “GMOS Data Reduction Cookbook” is now available! It is available here. It was written by Dick Shaw, from the US NGO, including input from the CGO. It covers everything from getting started in iraf/pyraf to processing all GMOS modes including Nod-&-Shuffle and IFU. It is easy to follow, with detailed iraf commands at each step. It also lists excellent on-line resources that could be helpful. Please make sure to check it out and send us your comments, or additions.

The next cookbook in the works will be for GSOAI/GeMs. In the meantime users can check out the excellent tutorials that were presented as a mini-AO workshop at the January AAS in Florida to help neophytes wishing to carry out AO programs. In particular check out the presentation from Tim Davidge on “AO 101: Setting up and characterizing observations of resolved stellar systems”, available here. There is also an excellent presentation covering the AO basics by Claire Max (University of California at Santa Cruz) on “Adaptive Optics for Astronomers: The Basics”, available here, and a more advanced tutorial by Franck Marchis (SETI Institute) on “Processing and Data Analysis With AO instruments: Challenges and Perspectives”, available here.

Recent Canadian Press Releases

• In March 2016 was announced the discovery of the highest velocity C IV broad absorption line seen to date, in the z = 2.47 quasar SDSS J023011.28+005913.6. This was led by Jesse Rogerson (York University) as part of his thesis with supervisor Patrick Hall (York University), and including co-Is Paola Hildago & Patrik Pirkola (York University). About a quarter of quasars exhibit blueshifted broad absorption troughs at ultraviolet wavelengths. These features are a result of material lifted off the accretion disc surrounding the central supermassive black hole and blown away by the quasar radiation, driving the winds to high velocities which are observed as blueshifted absorption. The team sifted through SDSS spectra to select the best 100 new outflows from quasars to follow with GMOS. They discovered this outflow clocking at ∼60 000 km/s, the fastest ever seen. These high velocities outflows will help constrain theoretical acceleration models. The full press release is available here and the full paper is here.


Figure 4 – Three GMOS spectra obtained at different times of the z =2.47 quasar J0230 show the variability of the absorption features, especially the CIV near rest-frame wavelength 1550Å. (Figure 4 of “Multi-epoch observations of extremely high-velocity emergent broad absorption”, Rogerson, Hall, Hidalgo et al, MNRAS, 457, 405).

• In April 2016 a team led by Jens Thomas (MPIE) including co-Is Nicholas McConnell and John Blakeslee (NRC Herzberg) announced the discovery of one of the most supermassive black holes ever detected (weighing 17 billion suns), residing in an unlikely place. The biggest SMBHs have been found at the cores of very large galaxies in the dense central regions of rich clusters. This black hole, however, lives in a rather isolated galaxy, NGC1600, lying in a cosmic backwater town (a small group of galaxies). The authors speculate that NGC1600’s black hole might have grown by cannibalizing its former neighboring galaxies and their central black holes in its youth. This research was published in Nature and the press release is available here.


Figure 5 – DSS Image of NGC1600 , a massive elliptical galaxy, residing in a small group of galaxies; with a close-up view of the galaxy shown in the inset image, which was taken with HST/NICMOS. At the heart of NGC 1600 lurks one of the most massive black holes ever detected, weighing 17 billion suns.(Credit: NASA, ESA, and C.-P. Ma (UC Berkeley).

• In April 2016 was also announced the discovery of an especially young, free-floating planet-like analogue to Jupiter in our neighborhood (92 light-years away). Kendra Kellogg and her supervisor Stanimir Metchev (Western University) used Flamingos2 to confirm that 2MASS J1119–1137 is a young object of only about 10 million years, with a mass estimate to be between 4.3 and 7.6 M_Jup. It is the lowest-mass and nearest isolated member of TW Hydrae at a kinematic distance of 28.9 +/- 3.6 pc, and the second-brightest isolated <10 M_Jup object discovered to date. The full press release can be found here. This is the first Canadian paper coming out of the Fast-Turnaround program.

Quelques stats du semestre 2016B

Après une récolte record de demandes reçues le semestre dernier en 2016A (le nombre total d’heures demandées a été un des plus impressionnant de toute l’histoire de Gemini au Canada), une récolte plus modeste, bien que toujours adéquate, de demandes Gemini a été reçu pour ce semestre 2016B. Gemini-Sud a été un peu plus sursouscrit à 1.65, comparé à Gemini-Nord à 1.53 (en utilisant le rapport entre le temps demandé sur la quantité de temps disponible dans les Bandes 1 et 2 au Canada; les heures disponibles dans les Bandes 1 + 2 correspondent au nombre d’heures effectivement observées pour les programmes canadiens chaque semestre, tandis que Bande 3 est un surremplissage de la queue).

Comme d’habitude, jusqu’à près de 40% des demandes ce semestre ont été pour des thèses d`étudiants MSc / PhD. Seule une poignée de demandes ToO ont été reçues (2 rapides et 2 standards). Aucune demande d’échange avec Subaru n`a été reçue ce semestre, ce qui arrive à l`occasion et n`est pas anormal.

Figure 1 – Sursouscription à Gemini-Nord (bleu) et Gemini-Sud (rouge).

Figure 2 – Nombre de demandes jointes, pour thèse, ToO et d`échange avec Subaru reçues dans les derniers semestres.

Pour le semestre 2016B, plus de demandes ont été reçues pour GRACES (spectroscopie à haute résolution) que pour tout autre instrument, y compris GMOS-N et GMOS-S. Ceci est très rare et ce n`est arrivé qu`une seule fois auparavant qu’un instrument soit plus populaire que GMOS (Flamingos2 a réussi cet exploit une fois, il y a quelques semestres). Notez que les demandes de GRACES sont toutes pour des études galactiques jusqu’à présent, même si son excellente transmission permettrait de s’aventurer vers des cibles extragalactiques. À Gemini-Sud ce sont GMOS-S et Flamingos2 qui ont reçus le plus grand nombre de demandes. Sur le graphique de la Figure 3 qui montre le temps demandé pour chaque instrument, Phoenix (spectroscopie à haute résolution dans le proche-IR) prend une grande place, mais cela est entièrement dû à une seule grande demande qui a demandé 30% du temps offert à G-Sud.

Figure 3 – Camemberts des pourcentages de temps demandés pour chaque instrument, à Gemini-Nord (à gauche) et Gemini-Sud (à droite).

Nouvelles sur les manuels de réduction de données!

Les utilisateurs GMOS seront heureux de savoir que le très attendu “GMOS Data Reduction Cookbook” est maintenant disponible! Il est disponible ici. Il a été écrit par Dick Shaw, de l’ONG américain, incluant des ajouts du CGO. Il couvre tout, de comment démarrer dans iraf / pyraf jusqu`au traitement de chacun des modes de GMOS, y compris Nod & Shuffle et l`Unité Intégral de Champ. Il est facile à suivre, avec des commandes IRAF détaillées à chaque étape. Il énumère également d’excellentes ressources en ligne qui pourraient être utiles. S’il vous plaît assurez-vous d`y jeter un coup d`oeil et de nous envoyer vos commentaires ou ajouts.

Le prochain manuel, encore en chantier, sera pour GSOAI / GeMs. En attendant les utilisateurs peuvent vérifier les excellents tutoriels qui ont été présentés lors d`un mini-atelier OA au AAS de janvier en Floride pour aider les néophytes qui souhaitent poursuivre des programmes OA. En particulier veuillez consulter la présentation de Tim Davidge sur “AO 101: Setting up and characterizing observations of resolved stellar systems”, ici. Il y a aussi une excellente présentation couvrant les bases de l`OA par Claire Max (Université de Californie à Santa Cruz) sur “Adaptive Optics for Astronomers: The Basics”, ici, et un tutoriel plus avancé par Franck Marchis (SETI Institute) sur ” Processing and Data Analysis With AO instruments: Challenges and Perspectives”, ici.

Récents Communiqués de presse canadiens

• En Mars 2016 a été annoncée la découverte de la raie d’absorption large de CIV de la plus haute vitesse vue à ce jour, dans le quasar SDSS J023011.28 + 005.913.6 à z=2.47. L`étude a été dirigée par Jesse Rogerson (Université York) dans le cadre de sa thèse avec son superviseur Patrick Hall (Université York), incluant les co-Is Paola Hildago & Patrik Pirkola (Université York). Environ un quart des quasars présentent de larges raies d`absorption décalées vers le bleu à des longueurs d’onde ultraviolettes. Ces caractéristiques sont le résultat de matériaux soulevés en-dehors du disque d’accrétion qui entoure le trou noir supermassif central et emportés au loin par le rayonnement du quasar, entraînant des vents à des vitesses élevées qui sont observées en absorption décalées vers le bleu. L’équipe a passé au crible des spectres SDSS pour sélectionner les 100 meilleurs nouveaux vents de quasars à inspecter avec GMOS. Ils ont découvert ce vent de 60 000 km/s, le plus rapide jamais vu. Ces vents de hautes vitesses aideront à contraindre les modèles théoriques d’accélération. Le communiqué de presse complet est disponible ici et l`article complet est ici.


Figure 4 – TTrois spectres GMOS obtenus à différentes époques du quasar J0230 à z = 2.47 montrent la variabilité des raies d’absorption, en particulier CIV près de la longueur d’onde de 1550A. (Figure 4 de “Multi-epoch observations of extremely high-velocity emergent broad absorption”, Rogerson, Hall, Hidalgo et al, MNRAS, 457, 405).

• En Avril 2016 une équipe dirigée par Jens Thomas (MPIE) incluant les co-Is Nicholas McConnell et John Blakeslee (CNRC Herzberg) a annoncé la découverte d’un des trous noirs les plus supermassifs jamais détectés (de la masse de 17 milliards de soleils), résidant dans un endroit inattendu. Les plus grands SMBHs ont été trouvés dans les noyaux de galaxies très massives dans les régions centrales denses d`amas riches. Ce trou noir, cependant, vit dans une galaxie assez isolé, NGC1600, cachée dans un recoin cosmique tranquile (un petit groupe de galaxies). Les auteurs supposent que le trou noir de NGC1600 aurait grossi en cannibalisant ses anciennes galaxies voisines et leurs trous noirs centraux dans sa jeunesse. Cette recherche a été publiée dans Nature et le communiqué de presse est disponible ici.


Figure 5 – Image DSS de NGC1600, une galaxie elliptique massive résidant dans un petit groupe de galaxies; avec une vue rapprochée de la galaxie figurant dans l’image en médaillon, qui a été prise avec HST / NICMOS. Au cœur de NGC 1600 se cache l’un des trous noirs les plus massifs jamais détectés, de la masses de 17 milliards de soleils (Crédit:. NASA, ESA, et C.-P. Ma (UC Berkeley).

• En Avril 2016 a été également annoncée la découverte d’un objet de type planétaire analogue à Jupiter et particulièrement jeune, flottant librement, et très proche (à 92 années-lumière). Kendra Kellogg et son superviseur Stanimir Metchev (Université Western) ont utilisé Flamingos2 pour confirmer que 2MASS J1119-1137 est un jeune objet de seulement environ 10 millions d’années, avec une estimation de masse se situant entre 4,3 et 7.6 M_Jup. Il est l`objet de plus faible masse et le plus proche membre isolé de TW Hydrae à une distance cinématique de 28,9 +/- 3,6 pc, et le deuxième plus brillant objet isolé de masse <10 M_Jup découvert à ce jour. Le communiqué de presse complet se trouve ici. Ceci est le premier article canadien issu du programme Fast Turnaround.