Public Outreach

Dark Stars and Dark Matter

Posted by admin on June 1, 2022
Posted in: First Friday Astronomy, Public Outreach. Tagged: .
Gravitational lensing of distant galaxies observed by Hubble. From https://www.nasa.gov/content/discoveries-highlights-shining-a-light-on-dark-matter.

Although our current understanding of gravity, the theory of general relativity, arose only one hundred years ago, scientists were speculating about exotic gravitational effects going back to before the word “scientist” even existed. Today, astronomers employ gravity in a variety of ways to study the cosmos, to look for planets outside our solar system and even to weigh some of the largest celestial bodies in existence. These measurements have shed light on some of the darkest of astronomical mysteries.

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First Friday Astronomy/So You Got a Telescope? – June 3

Posted by admin on May 11, 2022
Posted in: First Friday Astronomy, Public Outreach.

First Friday Astronomy/So You Got a Telescope? Event – 2022 June 3

Did you get a new telescope, find an old telescope, just need help to learning how to use your telescope? Join Boise Astronomical Society for a hands-on telescope tutorial. Tutorial starts 5p MT at Boise State: maps.boisestate.edu/?id=715#!m/89075.

followed by

Weighing and Measuring the Universe with Galaxy Clusters – Dr. Andres Salcedo, U of Arizona

Lecture starts 7:30p MT

Attend virtually: boi.st/astrobroncoslive or In-person attendance on Boise State’s campus: maps.boisestate.edu/?id=715#!m/89069

Watch Dr. Salcedo’s talk!

Dunes on Io

Posted by admin on May 2, 2022
Posted in: BSU Journal Club, First Friday Astronomy, Public Outreach. Tagged: , , .

Jupiter’s moon Io has long been famous for its sky-splitting volcanic eruptions, powered by Jupiter’s tidal gravity. But strange ridge-like features in regions adjacent to the volcanoes have raised questions since their discovery — What are they? How are they formed? Are they somehow related to the volcanoes? A recent study has argued that, even under Io’s whisper-thin atmosphere, these ridges are probably vast dune fields. This new discovery adds yet another world to our growing trove of worlds where aeolian processes operate.

Voyager’s approach to Jupiter. From https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/science/jupiter/.
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Dust Bunnies in Outer Space

Posted by admin on March 28, 2022
Posted in: First Friday Astronomy, Public Outreach. Tagged: , .
A Hubble image of a dark knot of gas and dust called a “Bok globule”. From https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_541.html.

You may not know it, but every time you sweep your floor, you’re conducting an experiment in planet formation. The growth of dust bunnies under your broom resembles in some ways the processes of agglomeration that took place in the early Solar System and eventually produced the planets. By studying ongoing planet formation in other solar systems, we can probe the murky origins of our own Solar System. Insights from a Enlightenment-era German philosopher and World War II mathematicians, bolstered by newly bloomed mechanical desert flora, are uncovering the chaos that pervaded our Solar System’s beginnings.

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The Tides on Distant Worlds

Posted by admin on February 28, 2022
Posted in: First Friday Astronomy, Public Outreach. Tagged: , , .
The famous Bay of Fundy tidal bore. From https://media.giphy.com/media/SMiiPbCTHTydW/giphy-downsized-large.gif.

The tidal bore in the Bay of Fundy carries billions of tons of water up the estuary at 15 km per hour, illustrating the immense power of tides. But tidal interactions in planetary systems can do more than produce killer rafting: the Earth’s tidal grip has shaped the Moon’s rotation and orbit over billions of years. But tides also power volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io so potent they can be seen across the Solar System and may even be the key to life in the icy moon Europa.

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The Star That Wasn’t There

Posted by admin on January 29, 2022
Posted in: BSU Journal Club, Public Outreach. Tagged: , .
Image of Sirius A and Sirius B taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Sirius B, which is a white dwarf, can be seen as a faint point of light to the lower left of the much brighter Sirius A. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf.

White dwarf stars have been a mystery since they were first discovered. Extraordinarily hot and compact, the engima of white dwarfs was unraveled largely through the herculean efforts of the Harvard computers. Astronomers now know white dwarfs are the final stage of a violent aging process for Sun-like stars. And though astronomers originally expected such violence would spell doom for any planets in orbit, mounting discoveries show that some planets at least can survive this cataclysmic descent into stellar senescence. Whether any life survives on those planets is another matter.

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The Age of Asteroids

Posted by admin on January 7, 2022
Posted in: First Friday Astronomy, Public Outreach. Tagged: , , .

Evading the celestial police, one Italian monk ushered in the golden age of asteroidal discovery. Once thought the remnants of a long-lost planet, asteroids are now known to have been the ingredients in the cosmic confectionaries we call planets. Though their shadows have revealed a variety of asteroids, scientists will soon get their hands on fragments of these faraway finds.

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Fossils in the Sky

Posted by admin on October 15, 2021
Posted in: BSU Journal Club, Public Outreach. Tagged: , , .
The launch of the Lucy spacecraft. From https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-ula-launch-lucy-mission-to-fossils-of-planet-formation.

From a sandy spit in Florida, an ear-shattering rumble followed by a sky-splitting streak of light heralded the launch of NASA’s Lucy mission, a twelve-year effort to explore sky-borne fossils. The mission began its journey to visit seven asteroids, with orbits stretching from Mars to Jupiter.

Like artifacts from someone’s childhood, Lucy’s targets will help unravel the rich and complex story of the Solar System’s earliest days. But these targets promise an even deeper glimpse than before because of exactly where they orbit. These asteroids have been trapped for billions of years in a spiderweb woven from gravity, the subtle strands of which were teased apart in 1770s Prussia by the Franco-Italian heir to Newton’s legacy.

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