astroprof

UC Santa Cruz earns top ranking for scientific impact of astronomy research

2008-11-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

SANTA CRUZ, CA--UC Santa Cruz is the top-ranking university in the country for the quality of its research in astronomy and astrophysics, according to a new analysis of papers published in scientific journals and how often those papers are cited by other scientists.

The analysis, performed by a top NASA scientist, used a combination of approaches to look at the impact of published work on the science of astronomy and astrophysics. Anne Kinney, former director of NASA's Astrophysics Division and currently director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said she undertook the study to help prospective graduate students evaluate departments that offer graduate degrees in astronomy. Kinney reported her findings in a paper, "The Science Impact of Astronomy Ph.D. Granting Departments in the United States," which is posted on the Astro-ph web site).

"It's nice to get this kind of recognition, but this is more than just a trophy for the cabinet," said Bruce Margon, vice chancellor for research. "Competition for the best graduate students is fierce, and we compete against the very best institutions in the world. The graduate students we accept for admission to our astronomy program are typically also accepted at Harvard and Princeton, so it's important to be able to show that the quality and impact of our research is first-rate."

Sandra Faber, University Professor and chair of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said she was delighted but not surprised by the study's findings. "It's wonderful to have us validated in this way, but we know our program is one of the top few in the nation," she said. "The challenge for us is to bring the perception more in line with the reality. We're known to be good, but most people don't think of us as the top institution."

Kinney calculated an "impact index" for each university based on how often the astronomy publications of its faculty are cited by other researchers. When researchers publish a scientific paper, they cite previous papers by other authors that set the stage for their work. The average number of citations per paper is regarded by many as an objective measure of the scientific impact of individuals, departments, or institutions.

One approach Kinney used in the study included astronomy and astrophysics publications by all authors at a given institution, regardless of whether they are affiliated with the department that grants astronomy degrees. By this measure, UCSC ranks first, followed by Princeton, Johns Hopkins, and Pennsylvania State Universities. At UCSC, this approach would include work by astrophysicists and cosmologists in the Department of Physics, planetary scientists in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, solar physics researchers in the Department of Applied Math and Statistics, researchers developing new technology for astronomy in the Center for Adaptive Optics, and other researchers not affiliated with the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics (or who did not list that affiliation on their published papers).

Another approach focused only on the publications by faculty within the degree-granting department, which at UCSC is the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. By this measure, UCSC is second only to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with Princeton and Harvard Universities in third and fourth place.

Kinney also looked at the total number of articles published in the 10-year period covered in the analysis (1993 through 2002). UCSC was one of only three universities that had both an impact index in the top quartile and more than 1,000 publications in a decade. The others are Princeton and Johns Hopkins.

"These three universities stand out as hitting the trifecta of high department quality, high overall quality, and high volume of publications," said Stephen Thorsett, dean of physical and biological sciences and a professor of astronomy and astrophysics.

UCSC's astronomy program benefits from its close ties to the UC Observatories/Lick Observatory (UCO/Lick), which has its headquarters at UCSC. "This ranking reflects not only the excellence of our academic program, but also on the world-class laboratories for astronomical instrumentation we have here that have provided the tools for carrying out groundbreaking research," said Michael Bolte, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and director of UCO/Lick.

Kinney noted that the publications included in her analysis did not account for all of an institution's publications in the field of astronomy, because she only looked at a selected group of journals.

"The way that I collected the publications, by pre-selecting for astronomy/astrophysics journals, means that it is very much an apples to apples comparison," she said. "When you look at a uniform set of journals, you remove all differences related to the journals and really do look at the impact of the articles themselves."

But that also means the figures for the total number of publications from each institution do not represent a complete count of astronomy-related papers. For example, astronomy papers published in general science journals such as Science and Nature were not included because there is no easy way to extract them from the databases. Kinney said she suspects that including those papers would only accentuate the differences between the top-ranking and lower-ranking institutions.

Contact: Tim Stephens (831) 459-2495; stephens@ucsc.edu

The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Discovers the Pulsar in the Young Galactic Supernova Remnant CTA 1

2008-10-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

A. A. Abdo et al.
Energetic young pulsars and expanding blast waves (supernova remnants, SNRs) are the most visible remains after massive stars, ending their lives, explode in core-collapse supernovae. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has unveiled a radio quiet pulsar located near the center of the compact synchrotron nebula inside the supernova remnant CTA 1. The pulsar, discovered through its gamma-ray pulsations, has a period of 316.86 ms, a period derivative of 3.614 x 10-13 s s-1. Its characteristic age of 10^4 years is comparable to that estimated for the SNR. It is conjectured that most unidentified Galactic gamma ray sources associated with star-forming regions and SNRs are such young pulsars.
Published in Science on Oct 16, 2008. DOI: 10.1126/science.1165572.

Pulsar Timing for the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope

2008-10-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

D. A. Smith, L. Guillemot, F. Camilo, I. Cognard, D. Dumora, C. Espinoza, P. C. C. Freire, E. V. Gotthelf, A. K. Harding, G. B. Hobbs, S. Johnston, V. M. Kaspi, M. Kramer, M. A. Livingstone, A. G. Lyne, R. N. Manchester, F. E. Marshall, M. A. McLaughlin, A. Noutsos, S. M. Ransom, M. S. E. Roberts, R. W. Romani, B. W. Stappers, G. Theureau, D. J. Thompson, S. E. Thorsett, N. Wang, P. Weltevrede

We describe a comprehensive pulsar monitoring campaign for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST). The detection and study of pulsars in gamma rays give insights into the populations of neutron stars and supernova rates in the Galaxy, into particle acceleration mechanisms in neutron star magnetospheres, and into the "engines" driving pulsar wind nebulae. LAT's unprecedented sensitivity between 20 MeV and 300 GeV together with its 2.4 sr field-of-view makes detection of many gamma-ray pulsars likely, justifying the monitoring of over two hundred pulsars with large spin-down powers. To search for gamma-ray pulsations from most of these pulsars requires a set of phase-connected timing solutions spanning a year or more to properly align the sparse photon arrival times. We describe the choice of pulsars and the instruments involved in the campaign. Attention is paid to verifications of the LAT pulsar software, using for example giant radio pulses from the Crab and from PSR B1937+21 recorded at Nancay, and using X-ray data on PSR J0218+4232 from XMM-Newton. We demonstrate accuracy of the pulsar phase calculations at the microsecond level. Data Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via this http URL.

Comments: 13 pages, 6 figures
Subjects: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:0810.1637v1 [astro-ph]

Open letter to friends of the UCSC science division

2008-08-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend,

You may have seen the news last week of firebombings at the homes of two UC Santa Cruz science faculty members. These violent attacks came days after brochures were found in a downtown Santa Cruz coffee shop threatening 13 of our faculty, staff, and students who use fruit flies and mice in their research. The news media has reported that the Animal Liberation Front has claimed "credit" for this crime, which is being investigated as the attempted murder of two UC scientists and their young children.

Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, in part because one family had an emergency ladder available for escape from their second story window. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident, but follows an attempt last winter by masked intruders to enter the home of another UCSC biologist, and a number of other firebombings and acts of destructive vandalism by animal activists at other UC campuses.

UC Santa Cruz scientists are involved in biomedical research that focuses on the fundamental basis of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's. They have been active participants in the voter-approved California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, developing stem-cell therapies that may one day allow treatment of congenital diseases and devastating spinal cord injuries. They work on public health problems like cholera and malaria that remain major scourges in many parts of the world. They train students who become doctors, veterinarians, and other health professionals.

Whenever possible, our scientists do their work without animals. In addition to traditional methods with cell lines, we are proud of our faculty's contributions to advanced technologies such as high-throughput robotic drug screening facilities and biosensors on silicon chips. But we do not have the ability to work on such complex and important problems as neurodegenerative disease without animal models. Often, the animals used are nematodes or fruit flies. Sometimes they are mice. In such cases, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which includes both university and community members, evaluates the proposed research to ensure both the necessity of animal use and that a high standard of care is maintained.

Although we do not use higher animals in biomedical research, they are used at other universities where preclinical work is done. Medical breakthroughs that were dependent on the use of animals in research include blood transfusions, dialysis, the care of premature infants, and drugs for diseases such as HIV. Millions of people have lived longer, better lives because of both the fundamental science done with animals at places like UC Santa Cruz, and the clinical work done with animals at places like the UC medical centers.

I understand that people may disagree when weighing the value of modern biomedical research against the costs of research involving animals, and I fully support the right of all to express legitimate dissent and use political action to achieve their goals. However, I also believe that intimidation and terrorism are completely antithetical to a civil society and are a threat to the intellectual freedom that is essential to a great research university.

I encourage all alumni and friends of UC Santa Cruz to educate themselves about the outstanding biomedical research being done here by our faculty, staff, and students. I also ask that you be sensitive to media reports of violent actions against researchers, whether related to animal issues as at UCSC, UCLA, and elsewhere; environmental issues such as led to the burning of the horticulture building at the University of Washington; or political issues. I hope that those of us who benefited from and understand the value of an education at a major research university will be among the first to speak in support of the importance of free inquiry without intimidation, even if we don't always agree with the individuals who are speaking or doing the research.

The affected researchers and I appreciate all of the support we've received from colleagues across campus, from the community, and from our alumni and friends during what has been a very difficult period for many of our students, scientists, and their families.

Fiat slug,

Steve Thorsett
Dean, Physical and Biological Sciences

Fiddling with blogger and tumblr

2008-07-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

I've finally added back some of the links to other blogs that I had on my old site, updating the list for the first time in years. I've also been experimenting with other new web tools and sites. For no particular reason, I've set up a separate Tumblr site to experiment with; it is linked from my main menu bar above. I still need to think a little more about the right way to integrate all of these different blogging, microblogging, link sharing, and status update tools. Lots of different goals to get sorted out: collecting and archiving my professional writing, sharing things I've found interesting, letting family and friends know what I'm up to, keeping myself honest with my running workouts, etc. I've got a feeling I've still got some reorganizing to do this summer, after letting my old web site fall into neglect and disuse.

Swurl

2008-07-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

As an experiment, I've tried adding a swurl view of my blog entries and other web activity, at swurl.thorsett.org. I don't quite know what to think of it yet.

New websites

2008-07-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

After running a Wordpress server for the last six or so years and dealing (or not dealing) with security upgrades, not to mention the frequent power outages here on the Central Coast at the tail end of the PG&E power lines, I'm getting out of the server business. I've set up shop on Google's servers, and am learning to make Blogger do tricks. I've split my pages into a more "formal" website, at www.thorsett.org and a more "personal" page here at blog.thorsett.org. I've moved my tumblelog of notable items over to Google Reader's shared item system, and I've moved all of my current reading over to Goodreads. I've also set up an account at FriendFeed to consolidate all of the really transient stuff. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to try to make this move transparent. Most of the content of my old pages has been moved over, but links from outside will almost certainly break, and even internal links will be unreliable for a while as I continue to get things patched up. Anyone subscribing to the old RSS feed will need to resubscribe with the new address. And I obviously still have a lot of work to do on styling the new pages.

Good news for the Thirty Meter Telescope!

2007-12-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Commits $200 Million Support for Thirty-Meter Telescope

By Tim Stephens (831) 459-2495; stephens@ucsc.edu

The University of California and the California Institute of Technology have received a $200 million commitment over nine years from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation toward the further development and construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT). Funding under this commitment will be shared equally between the two universities, with matching gifts from the two institutions expected to bring the total to $300 million. When built, TMT will be the largest telescope in the world.

The telescope design is being developed by a U.S.-Canadian team that includes the University of California, the California Institute of Technology, and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA), with completion of the design development expected by March 2009.

"This is a tremendous investment by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in a path-breaking scientific tool with great potential for unlocking new insights about the nature of the universe," said UC President Robert C. Dynes. "UC and Caltech are pleased that the Foundation has recognized the tremendous research capacity of our institutions, and we look forward to the exciting findings that this telescope will deliver in the future."

With the TMT, astronomers will be able to locate and analyze the light from the first stellar systems born soon after the Big Bang, determine the physical processes governing the formation and evolution of galaxies like our own Milky Way, study planet formation around nearby stars, and make observations that test the fundamental laws of physics. However, it is the unexpected discoveries that TMT will make that will likely be the most exciting.

"The impressive scope of this project has now been matched by the extraordinary generosity from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Caltech and the UC System are thrilled with the foundation's confidence in the project, and we and our partners are eager to create a history-making tool that will allow us to see farther into the universe than ever before," said Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau.

TMT will consist of a primary mirror with 492 individual 1.45-meter segments that together measure 30 meters in diameter, providing more than eight times the collecting area of the current largest telescope. All segments will be under precision computer control so that they will work together as a single mirror. This revolutionary technology was developed for the 10-meter mirrors in the two Keck telescopes in Hawaii.

The TMT will not only be the largest optical-infrared telescope in the world, but it will also be at the forefront of technology in virtually every aspect of its design. Adaptive optics (AO) will allow the TMT to achieve a resolution superior to that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The TMT AO system will use six laser beams to create six luminous spots in a layer of sodium atoms high in Earth's upper atmosphere. These bright artificial stars serve as references for measuring the turbulence in the atmosphere, allowing the AO system to compensate for blurring of starlight by Earth's fluctuating atmosphere. This technology was pioneered at the Lick Observatory 3-meter telescope and has been developed further at the Palomar 5-meter and Keck 10-meter telescopes.

TMT is a collaboration between Caltech, UC, and ACURA, with significant work being done by industry and by university teams studying instrument designs. The project office is in Pasadena, California.

The Foundation has already granted $50 million in support of a $79 million design-development phase that has been under way since April 2004. ACURA and the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy also contributed to the design-development phase.

More information is available on the TMT project's web site.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, established in 2000, seeks to advance environmental conservation and cutting-edge scientific research around the world and to improve the quality of life in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit the foundation's web site.

The Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy is an organization of Canadian universities dedicated to the advancement of research and teaching in astronomy and astrophysics in Canada. It assists in coordinating large-scale national initiatives of its member institutions, advocates for the priorities in the Long Range Plan for Astronomy, and is a liaison between Canadian member universities and international partners in international and world observatories. For more news and information about ACURA, visit the association's web site.

Open letter to the Science Hill community

2007-11-21T16:33:00.000-08:00

Dear Science Hill Colleagues, For many of us, the last two weeks have been an unsettling and difficult period. Protests that began with frightening violence and with graffiti, vandalism, and false fire alarms have given way to a lower-level buzz, with the continued unsafe presence of thousands of pounds of people and materials up in trees near the core of Science Hill, the blockage of a parking lot including all of the handicapped and medical parking for the Physical Sciences Building, the environmentally destructive removal of deadfall wood from the ravines, the exposure of grounds staff to human waste, and the occasional threatening encounter with masked and unidentified squatters. As the recent message from EVC Kliger emphasized, the current situation is intolerable.

While the campus leadership continues their discussions with the protesters, and works towards what we all hope will be a peaceful resolution, I wanted to share some of my own thoughts. The goals of the protests are not sharply defined. Statements point to general campus growth, the lack of an ethnic studies department, concern over the future of the campus trailer park, unhappiness with the University’s role in the management of the weapons labs, and general discontent with the Regents. But I believe that at the core of the protests is a disagreement over the role of science at UC Santa Cruz.

The immediate flash point is the development of the Biomedical Sciences Building. It is important to put this building in context. First, the campus has recently completed several major construction projects, including a new humanities and social sciences complex, and significant new student housing capacity. Other projects now underway include an expansion of McHenry Library that is by some measures the biggest project ever undertaken on campus, a new building for Digital Arts, and new faculty housing. Of these recent projects, only Biomedical Sciences is focused on science.

Second, the building committee, which included student members, has designed a “green” lab building to be placed on an already-disturbed site, and sized and oriented to preserve as many existing trees as possible. The building plan includes replanting, to replace the second-growth redwoods that are currently the focus of the tree sitters.

Finally, the building will primarily house biology and chemistry faculty who we need to hire to meet the needs of the students who are already here. In this respect, the protesters have a valid point. We have far more biology majors than we did a decade ago, with a faculty size that is essentially unchanged, leading to many more students per faculty member. We must hire more life scientists, and we can only do that if we can provide them with office and laboratory space. Our only real option is to limit access to a UC science education to the next generation of students, meeting the needs of neither our students nor the State of California.

These facts are lost in the materials and press statements made by the anti-science protesters, who paint an unrecognizable picture of science as a shadowy world controlled by military and corporate puppetmasters. In truth, most of the funding for our division comes from the state, from peer-reviewed federal grants, and from private gifts by individuals and foundations. There is no significant corporate or military funding for the construction of Biomedical Sciences. I am particularly disturbed by the way that individual faculty are named and characterized in the literature and public statements of the protesters.

We must resist these attempts to dehumanize science and to alienate it from the rest of the university. Math and science have been at the core of the liberal arts since antiquity, and the profound importance of science as a way of understanding our world is something we hope that every UC Santa Cruz student will encounter and appreciate. Biology is the most popular grouping of majors on campus; these and other students in the sciences are as much Banana Slugs as those who are now claiming to represent the “dream of radical political transformation” of a mythical past.

I know a great many of the people on Science Hill, and I know how deeply you are engaged not just in your science and teaching, but also in the social and political challenges we face. I know many of you who volunteer your time and give your money towards environmental action and poverty reduction, not to mention in support of arts and culture such as Shakespeare Santa Cruz and educational programs such as the marine science outreach at Long Marine Lab. I know of colleagues here engaged at the national level in discussions on ethics in science, and I have myself spent considerable time and energy in Oakland successfully protecting UC’s principles of open access in research against federal pressures after the attacks of 9/11. I do not recognize the caricatures of the “corporatized” scientists described in the “Long Range Resistance” materials.

It is the responsibility of every one of us to speak out in the face of ignorance and fear, and to refuse to tolerate destructive or threatening behavior. I know that we have differing opinions within our community on some important questions, including whether UC Santa Cruz should continue to grow. But I also believe that we have shared values rooted in the ideals of the university and of our disciplines. These include the importance of open debate and discussion, the willingness to question both our data and our assumptions, and the protection of the academic freedom of our colleagues to pursue their research unthreatened.

I would like to encourage each of you to make a special effort to engage with your colleagues around campus — students, staff and faculty — and with your neighbors in the community, to talk about the tremendous work we are doing here on Science Hill. Let people know about our research into the fundamental building blocks of matter, and about the structure of the Universe. Let people know about our work on the causes and effects of global warming, and our more local efforts to understand and protect the environment of the Central Coast. Let people know about our programs like Cal Teach, training the next generation of high school math and science teachers, and Health Sciences, training students to meet the health care needs of a multicultural state. And most importantly, let people know about the important work being done by those who will be in the new Biomedical Sciences Building: studying cholera, heavy metal pollution, and other health scourges of the developing world; understanding Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative diseases; decoding the normal functioning of cells, and how those functions go awry in cancer; and advancing the genomic techniques that will one day allow both highly personalized, safer, and more effective medicines and a better understanding of the diversity of life on Earth.

At this time of Thanksgiving, I am grateful for your patience over the last few weeks, and particularly proud of our Science Hill community. Have a great long weekend!

Steve Thorsett Dean

A Nu Start for NuSTAR

2007-09-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

NASA Restarts Telescope Mission to Detect Black Holes

WASHINGTON -- NASA has made a decision to restart an astronomy mission that will have greater capability than any existing instrument for detecting black holes in the local universe. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, will expand our understanding of the origins and destinies of stars and galaxies. NASA had stopped the study effort on the NuSTAR mission in 2006 due to funding pressures within the Science Mission Directorate. "We are very excited to be able restart the NuSTAR mission, which we expect to be launched in 2011," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"NuSTAR has more than 500 times the sensitivity of previous instruments that detect black holes. It's a great opportunity for us to explore an important astronomical frontier. We are getting more and more from the science budget we have, and the restart of the highly-valued NuSTAR mission is an example of that."

NuSTAR will bridge a gap between the 2009 launch of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the 2013 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. The spacecraft will map areas of the sky in the light of high-energy X-rays and complement astrophysics missions that explore the cosmos in other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. "NuSTAR will perform deep observations in hard X-rays to detect black holes of all sizes and other exotic phenomena," said Jon Morse, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. "It will perform cutting-edge science using advanced technologies and help to provide a balance between small and large missions in the NASA astrophysics portfolio."

NuSTAR is a part of NASA's Explorer Program. The program provides frequent, low-cost access to space for missions with small- to mid-sized spacecraft. NuSTAR originally was selected from proposals submitted in response to an announcement of opportunity in 2003. Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, is the NuSTAR principal investigator. NASA expects to select three additional Small Explorer missions for flight in the first half of the next decade through a competitive selection within the astrophysics and heliophysics scientific communities. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. manages the NuSTAR mission. The Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages the Explorer Program for the Science Mission Directorate. Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., is the industry partner for the mission. For more information about the NuSTAR mission, visit: mission web page

Chancellor George Blumenthal

2007-09-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

George R. Blumenthal, a distinguished UC Santa Cruz professor of astronomy and astrophysics and former chair of the UC systemwide Academic Senate, was appointed chancellor of the University of California's Santa Cruz campus today. Full press release.

One thousand miles

2007-07-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

According to the log I've been keeping since I started running again fifteen months ago, I passed the 1000 mile mark today. Although I've plugged it before, let me again push Phidippidations as a great motivational podcast for all of us middle-aged, middle-of-the-pack runners. The 142554 calories burned is a nice side benefit.

Age constraints in the double pulsar system J0737-3039

2007-05-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

D.R. Lorimer, P.C.C. Freire, I.H. Stairs, M. Kramer, M.A. McLaughlin, M. Burgay, S.E. Thorsett, R.J. Dewey, A.G. Lyne, R.N. Manchester, N. D'Amico, A. Possenti, and B.C. Joshi We investigate the age constraints that can be placed on the double pulsar system using models for the spin-down of the first-born 22.7-ms pulsar A and the 2.77-s pulsar B with characteristic ages of 210 and 50 Myr respectively. Standard models assuming dipolar spin-down of both pulsars suggest that the time since the formation of B is ~50 Myr, i.e. close to B's characteristic age. However, adopting models which account for the impact of A's relativistic wind on B's spin-down we find that the formation of B took place either 80 or 180 Myr ago, depending the interaction mechanism. Formation 80 Myr ago, closer to B's characteristic age, would result in the contribution from J0737-3039 to the inferred coalescence rates for double neutron star binaries increasing by 40%. The 180 Myr age is closer to A's characteristic age and would be consistent with the most recent estimates of the coalescence rate. The new age constraints do not significantly impact recent estimates of the kick velocity, tilt angle between pre and post-supernova orbital planes or pre-supernova mass of B's progenitor. To appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society preprint on Arxiv

Biomedical Sciences

2007-04-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

I published an Op Ed in the Santa Cruz Sentinel today on the importance of the biomedical sciences at UCSC, and the need for our new Biomedical Sciences Building.

Donald Osterbrock (1924-2007)

2007-01-12T09:11:00.000-08:00

University of California, Santa Cruz Professor and Astronomer Emeritus Donald Osterbrock died yesterday, January 11th. Don was a prolific and distinguished astronomer, publishing nearly 500 works over more than half a century, including his textbook Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei. During his career he received many of the highest honors in astronomy, from the Bruce Medal to the Henry Norris Russell lectureship to the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. But he is most remembered here for his eight years as Director of the Lick Observatory during an important period after the establishment of the UCSC campus, for his constant curiosity and good humor at talks and in the hallways, and, in recent years, for his frequent historical talks on the important (and not-so-important) people and institutions of early and mid-20th century astronomy. He was himself a towering figure in 20th century astronomy, but it is as a valued colleague and friend that we will all miss him. Update: A UCSC press release about Don is now available.

Comet McNaught

2007-01-11T21:23:00.000-08:00

We went out again tonight to watch the comet. Neither the weather nor the comet was as spectacular as Tuesday night, but I did take my camera along this time. The clouds added some character to make up a bit for the loss of clarity. This picture was taken with my little Panasonic FZ1, with a 1/30 second exposure.

Zooomr

2006-10-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

I've been gradually moving all my digital photos over to Zooomr, a rather nice alternative to flickr with a generous upload policy for people with blogs. Only a relatively small fraction of photos with people in them are publicly accessible, but any family or friends who want to see umpteen soccer photos, or records of many parks and rec drama performances, just let me know. I've put together a few of my personal favorites. Zooomr still has rather crude facilities for browsing, but it is improving fast.

The Formation of the Double Pulsar PSR J0737-3039A/B

2006-09-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

I. H. Stairs, S. E. Thorsett, R. J. Dewey, M. Kramer, C. A. McPhee Recent timing observations of the double pulsar J0737-3039A/B have shown that its transverse velocity is extremely low, only 10 km/s, and nearly in the Plane of the Galaxy. With this new information, we rigorously re-examine the history and formation of this system, determining estimates of the pre-supernova companion mass, supernova kick and misalignment angle between the pre- and post-supernova orbital planes. We find that the progenitor to the recently formed B pulsar was probably less than 2 solar masses, lending credence to suggestions that this object may not have formed in a normal supernova involving the collapse of an iron core. At the same time, the supernova kick was likely non-zero. A comparison to the history of the double-neutron-star binary B1534+12 suggests a range of possible parameters for the progenitors of these systems, which should be taken into account in future binary population syntheses and in predictions of the rate and spatial distribution of short gamma-ray burst events. Appeared in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 373, L50-L54 (subscription required). Preprint from astro-ph.

Infrared and Optical Observations of GRB 030115 and its Extremely Red Host Galaxy: Implications for Dark Bursts

2006-08-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Andrew Levan, Andrew Fruchter, James Rhoads, Bahram Mobasher, Nial Tanvir, Javier Gorosabel, Evert Rol, Chryssa Kouveliotou, Ian Dell'Antonio, Michael Merrill, Eddie Bergeron, Jose Maria Castro Ceron, Nicola Masetti, Paul Vreeswijk, Angelo Antonelli, David Bersier, Alberto Castro-Tirado, Johan Fynbo, Peter Garnavich, Stephen Holland, Jens Hjorth, Peter Nugent, Elena Pian, Alain Smette, Bjarne Thomsen, Stephen Thorsett, and Ralph Wijers We present near-infrared (nIR) and optical observations of the afterglow of GRB 030115. Discovered in an infrared search at Kitt Peak 5 hours after the burst trigger, this afterglow is amongst the faintest observed in the R-band at an early epoch, and exhibits very red colors, with R-K~6. The magnitude of the optical afterglow of GRB 030115 is fainter than many upper limits for other bursts, suggesting that without early nIR observations it would have been classified as a "dark" burst. Both the color and optical magnitude of the afterglow are likely due to dust extinction and indicate that at least some optical afterglows are very faint due to dust along the line of sight. Multicolor Hubble Space Telescope observations were also taken of the host galaxy and the surrounding field. Photometric redshifts imply that the host, and a substantial number of faint galaxies in the field are at z~2.5. The overdensity of galaxies is sufficiently great that GRB 030115 may have occurred in a rich high-redshift cluster. The host galaxy shows extremely red colors (R-K=5) and is the first GRB host to be classified as an Extremely Red Object (ERO). Some of the galaxies surrounding the host also show very red colors, while the majority of the cluster are much bluer, indicating ongoing unobscured star formation. As it is thought that much of high redshift star formation occurs in highly obscured environments it may be that GRB 030115 represent a transition object, between the relatively unobscured afterglows seen to date and a population which are very heavily extinguished, even in the nIR. Astrophysical Journal, 647, 471 (2006) astro-ph preprint

Denice D. Denton (1959-2006)

2006-06-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

The campus remembers an outstanding scholar and dedicated leader. Although she was with us only a short time, her pursuit of excellence and diversity will continue to shape UC Santa Cruz.

Statement of UC President Robert C. Dynes It is with profound sadness and shock that we have learned today of the death of Chancellor Denice Denton. Her tragic passing is a tremendous loss for the entire University of California family.Denice was an accomplished and passionate scholar whose life and work demonstrated a deep commitment to public service and to improving opportunity for the disadvantaged and underrepresented. She was a person of enthusiasm, of big ideas, of tremendous energy, and of great promise. In a relatively short time at UC Santa Cruz, she began moving on ambitious plans for the campus and emerged as an important voice in national higher education issues. Our thoughts and prayers at this hour are with Denice's partner, Gretchen Kalonji, and with the rest of Denice's family and many friends. They, and we, have lost a wonderful and talented person.

Exoenvironmentalism

2006-05-30T00:07:00.000-07:00

In late June 2007, there will be a meeting held in Santorini (celebrating Alex Wolszczan's birthday) on the search for Earth-like planets. Because a major theme of the meeting is to be the effect of environment on planet formation (e.g., the original extrasolar planets, found orbiting a pulsar, or the planet in the M4 globular cluster), my first suggestion for a meeting title was Exoenvironmentalism: Earths in the Balance. Although we've settled instead on Extreme Solar Systems, Steinn Sigurðsson has correctly pointed out that exoenvironmentalism is a word worth holding onto.

My new job

2006-05-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

Stephen Thorsett named dean of physical and biological sciences

By Tim Stephens UCSC has appointed Stephen Thorsett to serve as dean of the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences. The UC Board of Regents approved the appointment May 18, effective July 1.

Thorsett, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, has served as acting dean of physical and biological sciences since 2005, when the previous dean, David Kliger, was appointed campus provost and executive vice chancellor. "Professor Thorsett has shown himself to be an exceptional leader with well-developed management skills," said UCSC Chancellor Denice D. Denton. "He has a strong commitment to diversity and a genuine interest in the well-being of all the disciplines for which he will be responsible." Thorsett's accomplishments as acting dean include a newly updated academic plan; leadership of the campus's California Teach Program to increase the number and quality of science and math teachers in California schools; and the establishment of a task force designed to study the climate for women faculty in the division, one goal of which is to promote women and minorities into academic leadership roles. "I'm honored and delighted to have this chance to work with my colleagues from the science division and across the campus on building and strengthening our educational and research programs," Thorsett said. "Our students and faculty already make important contributions to environmental science, biomedical science, and the development of advanced technologies. An important goal for me will be to better connect our programs to partners both inside and outside our local region who share our interest in these societally important research areas." Thorsett's considerable administrative experience at UCSC includes service as associate dean in the division and chair and associate chair of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He also chaired the Academic Senate Committee on Research and served for two years as the Senate's Parliamentarian. In addition, he has been a member and subcommittee chair for the University-wide Committee on Research Policy and has served on numerous national and international advisory and review committees and panels. The author of more than 100 scientific publications, primarily on radio pulsars and gamma-ray bursts, Thorsett has made important contributions in astronomy and astrophysics. He has used radio pulsar timing to confirm aspects of general relativity and to investigate binary systems, neutron star masses, and planets around pulsars. Thorsett uses all of the major national radio telescope facilities in his research, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope, and he is a core member of the science teams of two major NASA satellites for high-energy astrophysics (GLAST and NuSTAR). Thorsett earned a B.A. in mathematics from Carleton College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Princeton University. He was an assistant professor of physics at Princeton University before joining the UCSC faculty in 1999. Thorsett lives in Santa Cruz with his wife and daughter.

The differing locations of massive stellar explosions

2006-03-20T22:41:00.000-08:00

A. S. Fruchter, A. J. Levan, L. Strolger, P. M. Vreeswijk, S. E. Thorsett, D. Bersier, I. Burud, J. M. Castro Ceron, A. Castro-Tirado, C. Conselice, T. Dahlen, H. C. Ferguson, J. P. U. Fynbo, P. M. Garnavich, R. A. Gibbons, J. Gorosabel, T. R. Gull, J. Hjorth, S. T. Holland, C. Kouveliotou, Z. Levay, M. Livio, M. R. Metzger, P. E. Nugent, L. Petro, E. Pian, J. E. Rhoads, A. G. Riess, K. C. Sahu, A. Smette, N. R. Tanvir, R. A. M. J. Wijers, and S. E. Woosley Published in Nature. When massive stars exhaust their fuel they collapse and often produce the extraordinarily bright explosions known as core-collapse supernovae. On occasion, this stellar collapse also powers an even more brilliant relativistic explosion known as a long-duration gamma-ray burst. One would then expect that gamma-ray bursts and supernovae should be found in similar environments. Here we show that this expectation is wrong. Using Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the host galaxies of long-duration gamma-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae, we find that the gamma-ray bursts are far more concentrated on the very brightest regions of their hosts than are the supernovae. Furthermore, the host galaxies of the gamma-ray bursts are significantly fainter and more irregular than the hosts of the supernovae. Together these results suggest that long-duration gamma-ray bursts are associated with the very most massive stars and may be restricted to galaxies of limited chemical evolution. Our results directly imply that long-duration gamma-ray bursts are relatively rare in galaxies such as our own Milky Way. Preprint at the Arxiv.

My visited states

2006-03-06T21:12:00.000-08:00

Can you find the state I haven't visited? And I pretend to be an astronomer! create your own visited states map.

Books and Music

2006-02-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

Although probably not of interest to anyone but me, I've added to my front page some information about my current reading and listening, using two very nice plugins: Now Reading and WP Audioscrobbler. The music listing is mostly there as a stunt, just to show myself how easy it is. I've recently become the extremely happy owner of two Slim Devices Squeezeboxes, which are the best toy I've gotten in ages. They plug into the stereo downstairs and the Creature Speakers upstairs and provide excellent streaming radio (much better than having to listen to Gene Shay on XPN on my laptop computer speakers), streaming music from our newly-digitized CD collection, and integration with Last.FM. All driven by open source software.