This eerie close-up shot of the Sun in ultraviolet light demonstrates the kind of hauntingly beautiful, and scientifically rich, photos NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is capable of. NASA/GSFC/SDO photo
“It works!” said Jesper Schou of Stanford University early on. He was talking about SDO’s Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), but he could just as easily have meant SDO in general. Schou’s talk — and his successors’ on two other instruments aboard SDO (the Extreme UV Variability Experiment and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly) — demonstrated the efficacy of the orbiting observatory with breathtaking (often literally) images and videos. Most of the session ended up taking place with the lights out, the better to appreciate these up close and personal views of the Sun. Many times, when a new image came on, I heard whispered “wows” and low whistles, in addition to gasps — this despite each speaker apologizing for the projector’s poor reproduction quality! They’ve already collected scores of terabytes of data with no sign of slowing down and are looking forward to analyzing it as soon as possible. I think as long as they keep producing such images, they won’t have to worry about attracting folks to the project.
Many of the day’s other talks either used SDO data or anticipated the deluge of fantastic data it would soon bring. Theodore D. Tarbell of Lockheed Martin went so far as to include SDO “teasers” at the end of another, earlier lecture, “Fundamental Solar Physics Results from Hinode and the Solar Dynamics Observatory.” He joked that it might be a little presumptuous to promise fundamental physics results, but that the SDO teasers alone would probably prove him right.
Another morning session, titled “Magnetic Reconnection in Astrophysics and the Lab,” surprised me with a familiar face: Ellen Zweibel of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whom I’d interviewed for an assignment almost 2 years ago. She talked about the theory behind magnetic reconnections and how it applies to the two biggest astronomical examples: coronal reconnection in solar flares and interstellar reconnections. (I got the sense that this was a pretty high-level, specialized talk, especially when she began calling on questioners by name.) After her was Masaki Yamada of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, who explained how such reconnection behavior could be re-created in the lab (alas, using computer models, and not using miniature plasma fusion chambers, as I’d hoped).
Dean Pesnell (left) and Thomas Woods (right) helped present some of the data at the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s big talk; this was one of the rare moments where the lights were on and the projector screens didn’t amaze and inspire with images of the Sun. Bill Andrews photo
But not everything is solar, or even solar system, at AAS. Two talks in the afternoon discussed one of my favorite topics, exoplanets. The first, “Highlights of the CoRoT Mission: Extrasolar Planets, Stellar Structure and Activity” by Annie Baglin of Paris Observatory, turned out to focus more on stellar structure and activity than exoplanets. That makes sense because the COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits (CoRoT) satellite has been quite successful with one of its main missions — applying what we know of the Sun’s seismology to other stars. I was still a bit sad to get so little about its other main mission — finding and analyzing transiting exoplanets. Then again, those discoveries are always the first to hit the news, so perhaps it’s only fair.
Luckily, the second talk, “Planet Formation: Lessons from Extrasolar Planets” by Philip Armitage of the University of Colorado, didn’t disappoint. It was still a little technical at times, but he aimed to address the mechanics of planet formation and to determine if the solar system is atypical (because, after all, despite 450 or so exoplanets to date, none of them seem to reside in a system similar to ours). Armitage discussed the main theories for planetary formation, and showed how the more recently proposed planetary scattering theory and the more commonly accepted core accretion theory both explain a lot of what scientists have found, indicating the truth is likely a combination of the two. As for our solar system being unusual, his short answer was “we don’t know,” but he noted that it wouldn’t be an unlikely system to form based on current theories.
Rounding out the day was AAS’s Tuesday public lecture, “Avoiding Armageddon: Diverting Asteroids with Nuclear Explosives.” If nothing else, Dave Dearborn of the Lawrence Livermore National Labs knows how to name a presentation; Dean Pesnell joked at the big SDO talk that it sounded way more interesting than the Solar Physics Division’s Members meeting, scheduled at the same time. Once again, the public lecturer really knew how to excite the audience, even if it wasn’t quite as big (or diverse) as Monday’s. Dearborn took pains to make his talk clear for everyone, saying at one point he’d try extra hard to avoid the acronyms astronomers routinely use. His talk spanned an explanation of what asteroids are, to why we might worry about them, to how we could possibly avoid an impact, to the specific benefits (and drawbacks) of using nuclear weapons to do so. Summing up, for certain cases nukes really would be the best technology to use because we know so much about them and can model an asteroid’s reaction to a nuclear blast pretty well if we know what the asteroid’s made of. (Two myths Dearborn explicitly addressed: A nuclear device wouldn’t need to be detonated in or near an asteroid’s center, and we wouldn’t need to worry about the nuclear debris because it would soon become indistinguishable from the general radioactivity of space.) He only brought up Bruce Willis (of Armageddon fame) twice, though, which I admit is less than I expected.
And so ends another day at AAS! Tomorrow’s my final day here, so I’ll try to visit the poster sessions and catch all the talks I can. And, of course, I’ll blog and tweet the results, so stay tuned!
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On the Road: American Astronomical Society June meeting, Monday recap
On the Road: American Astronomical Society June meeting, Sunday recap