On the Road: American Astronomical Society June meeting, Wednesday recap

After all the apocalypse, exoplanets, and solar talks Tuesday at the 216th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), I wanted to make sure I gave ample time to the somewhat quieter, but equally interesting, scientific poster sessions. Some of the big players in the exhibition hall (Apogee Instruments, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL], the Space Telescope Science Institute, and of course AAS itself) reminded me of NEAF with their big booths and free swag. The bulk of the hall, though, was nothing more than posters pinned up on walls. I’ve always enjoyed this aspect of scientific conferences because it’s more easygoing and self-directed. You don’t like this one poster? Just go on to the next; you don’t have to wait.

One poster, titled “Quasar Disk Temperatures: Lessons from the Lines,” specifically caught my eye. I talked to its lead author, Alyx Stevens of the University of Texas at Austin, to find out just what these lessons are. The experiment in question was about material “falling into” quasars and the heat it should emit according to current theories. Stevens’ work showed that the real-life temperatures are completely different, so something must be wrong with the theories. When I asked what that might be, she just shrugged and said no one really knows yet. She said she was a little disappointed by the results, which she just got in the past few weeks, because they were pretty much the opposite of what she expected to get, but I found them fascinating: A reasonably simple physical process is apparently completely misunderstood, and right now nobody can explain it! It’s a problem just waiting for someone (possibly Stevens, who said she’ll continue to work on it) to figure it out. Now that’s science.

Of course, I made sure to visit more of the lectures as well, starting with a morning session simply titled “Extrasolar Planets.” The first speaker, Gene Serabyn of JPL, talked about “Imaging Exoplanets with an Extreme Adaptive Optics Coronagraph.” Maciej Konacki of the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Poland talked about the planetary dynamics of and observational techniques for planets in a binary system. The title was “The Radial Velocity TATOOINE Search for Circumbinary Planets,” and we soon learned that TATOOINE (presumably named after Luke Skywalker’s home world, famous for its binary sunsets) actually stood for “The Attempt To Observe Outer-planets In Non-single-stellar Environments.” Wow. And after Konacki, Elisabeth Adams of MIT gave her talk, “Searching for Transit Timing Variations of the OGLE Planets,” all about the work she’s done tracking the timings of various transiting exoplanets (planets that pass in front of their parent star from our point of view). In addition to improving our knowledge of these specific planets’ orbits and radii, her technique revealed an unusual light curve (the pattern of light caused by the transiting planet dimming its star’s light) that’s currently unexplained and another exoplanet with a potentially decreasing orbit.

Afterward, I went to Kevin Luhman’s lecture, “The Formation of Brown Dwarfs and Wide Planetary Companions.” Luhman, of Pennsylvania State University, discussed the various theories and observations pertaining to both brown dwarfs and the planets that sometimes orbit them. He could thus narrow down which processes must have occurred in real life and what each field (theory and observation) might therefore want to try next.

The afternoon talks kept up the deep-space theme, starting with Goran Pilbratt of the European Space Agency and his lecture, “The Cool Universe: Herschel’s First Year in Flight.” Pilbratt, project scientist for the Herschel Space Observatory, summed up the satellite’s first year in flight, just a few days after the May 14 anniversary of its “spot on” launch. He started by explaining the need for a large infrared telescope in space, then detailed its design and launch, and ended with a few examples of the science it’s done so far. While it could have been a detail-heavy, boring talk, Pilbratt’s conversational tone and personal interjections kept the talk interesting and even lively; he probably got more laughs than any other AAS speaker, except maybe the public lecturers.

Following Pilbratt was Jon Miller of the University of Michigan. His talk, “Revealing Black Hole Spin in X-rays” was just as interesting and well delivered as most of AAS’ talks, but it seemed somewhat slower after Pilbratt’s spirited performance. But the audience did learn about black hole spin, a fundamental characteristic in astrophysics. By analyzing a black hole’s spin, Miller said, scientists can sometimes learn about its early behavior (and even birth), as well as open a window to fundamental physics not otherwise available in black holes.

Finishing the day, and my time at AAS, Daniel Altschuler of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory spoke on “Science, Pseudoscience and Education.” Having fielded dozens of letters to Astronomy about the “imminent” 2012 apocalypse, and seeing the rising popularity of our new “astronomy myths” section on www.Astronomy.com, I was extra curious to hear what Altschuler would say. For nearly an hour and a half, he spoke eloquently and humorously on the important of teaching our population — especially children — the importance of critical, logical thinking. While beliefs in astrology and ghosts aren’t bad by themselves, someone who is convinced of their veracity doesn’t have very good reasoning skills; what then if such a person became president, Altschuler asked? He encouraged teachers of all ages to address the issue directly and include the Loch Ness monster and alternative medicine and flying saucers in their lessons, examining them rationally and logically. Throughout his talk, Altschuler interspersed famous quotes and single-panel cartoons with his original thoughts, keeping the pace upbeat and colorful. He might have gotten the most laughs of any talk so far at AAS, and certainly produced the most thoughtful conversations as audience members left afterward. 

And so ends my time here in Miami, and thus my coverage. It’s been fun seeing all these talks and hearing all this science, but I’m pretty anxious to return home, even if it is in Wisconsin. Luckily, I understand there will be more science to cover from there, too.

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On the Road: American Astronomical Society June meeting, Tuesday recap

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