“Was The Milky Way’s Core Once A Quasar?”

I develop novel instrumentation for ground-based mostly telescopes to detect and characterize extrasolar planets andhost stars, with an emphasis on terrestrial exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars (aka M dwarfs, aka purple dwarfs). I’m particularly interested by high-throughput, fiber-feb spectroscopy and the combination of lock-in amplification techniques and zero-read-noise detectors into optical astronomy. Michael Bottom , Graduate Scholar Likewise, the spectrometers’ vacuum pumps had been changed with models that use about half the energy. The design team also observed that the software program operating the spectrometers may very well be adjusted so the machines routinely energy down (not change off entirely) when not in use.

Ever wonder what it’s prefer to be a part of an astronomy division at a serious college — what instruments the scientists use, and what analysis they’re doing? Peter V. Mason of the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics on the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena affords Astronomy readers this glimpse into the research happening at Caltech. This is the primary in a series of blogs he’ll write for us. In this entry, Peter introduces us to a number of the field observatories Caltech researchers use. The web is a treasure trove of astronomy info. Here are a couple of of our favorite sites to get you began!

I discover all sides of astronomy fascinating and have had the pleasure of collaborating in several areas of analysis: from molecular clouds, to star formation, to circumstellar disk evolution, and now planet formation and evolution. As part of Professor Johnson ‘s ExoLab group I am collaborating in a wide selection of research subjects in addition to serving as manager for Venture MINERVA —an observatory to be positioned on Palomar Mountain designed to find the nearest and lowest mass exoplanets using comparatively inexpensive, industrial components. Philip Muirhead , Postdoctoral Scholar

Sargent’s research has concentrated largely on understanding how stars and different planetary methods type and evolve and depends on observations at radio, millimeter, and infrared wavelengths. She was Director of Caltech’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) from 1996 until 2007. In that position, she led the Caltech effort to assemble the Mixed Array for Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) which combined the OVRO millimeter-wave telescopes with those of the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association array, and was CARMA Director from 2003-to-2007. Thanks for the knowledge, Peter! Stay tuned for more about the remote observatories Caltech astronomers employ as well as the research these scientists currently conduct with the various telescopes.

Quimby first made headlines in 2007 when—as a graduate pupil at the University of Texas, Austin—he discovered what was then the brightest supernova ever found: 100 billion instances brighter than the sun and 10 times brighter than most different supernovae. Dubbed 2005ap, it was also a little bit odd. For one thing, its spectrum—the chemical fingerprint that tells astronomers what the supernova is made from, how far-off it’s, and what happened when it blew up—was unlike any seen earlier than. It additionally showed no indicators of hydrogen, which is commonly found in most supernovae.