physics-news
Relativistic Jet
Tanmoy Laskar
Mysterious bright flash is a black hole jet pointing straight at Earth.
Earlier this year, astronomers at the Palomar Observatory detected an extraordinary flash in a part of the sky where no such light had been observed the night before. From a rough calculation, the flash appeared to give off more light than 1,000 trillion suns.
The team, led by researchers at NASA, Caltech, and elsewhere, posted their discovery to an astronomy newsletter, where the signal drew the attention of astronomers around the world, including scientists at MIT and the University of Utah. Over the next few days, multiple telescopes focused in on the signal to gather more data across multiple wavelengths in the X-ray, ultraviolet, optical and radio bands, to see what could possibly produce such an enormous amount of light.
Now, the U and MIT astronomers and collaborators have determined a likely source for the signal. Tanmoy Laskar, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the U, was co-author of a study that appeared on Nov. 30 in Nature Astronomy. The scientists report that the signal, named AT 2022cmc, likely comes from a relativistic jet of matter launched by a supermassive black hole at close to the speed of light. They believe the jet is the product of a black hole that suddenly began devouring a nearby star, releasing a huge amount of energy in the process.
Astronomers have observed other such “tidal disruption events,” or TDEs, in which a passing star is torn apart by a black hole’s tidal forces. AT 2022cmc is brighter than any TDE discovered to date. The source is also the farthest TDE ever detected, at some 8.5 billion lights years away—more than halfway across the universe.
Palomar Observatory
How could such a distant event appear so bright in our sky? The team said the black hole’s jet may be pointing directly toward Earth, making the signal appear brighter than if the jet were pointing in any other direction. The effect is called “Doppler boosting.”
AT 2022cmc is the fourth Doppler-boosted TDE ever detected and the first such event that has been observed since 2011. It is also the first TDE discovered using an optical sky survey.
“One of the tell-tale signatures of the presence of such a jet is powerful radio emission from a small volume of space,” said Laskar. A preliminary report alerted the team that this event might have detectable radio emissions. “So, we followed it up with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico, and boom, there it was! Bright radio emission signaling a compact, Doppler-boosted jet.”
As more powerful telescopes start up in the coming years, they will reveal more TDEs, which can shed light on how supermassive black holes grow and shape the galaxies around them.
“We know there is one supermassive black hole per galaxy, and they formed very quickly in the universe’s first million years,” said co-author Matteo Lucchini, a postdoc in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “That tells us they feed very fast, though we don’t know how that feeding process works. So, sources like a TDE can actually be a really good probe for how that process happens.”
Feeding frenzy
Following AT 2022cmc’s initial discovery, the team focused in on the signal using the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER), an X-ray telescope that operates aboard the International Space Station.
“Things looked pretty normal the first three days,” recalled the study’s lead author Dheeraj “DJ” Pasham, who is an Einstein Fellow at MIT. “Then we looked at it with an X-ray telescope, and what we found was, the source was too bright.”
Typically, such bright flashes in the sky are gamma-ray bursts—extreme jets of X-ray emissions that spew from the collapse of massive stars.
“Both GRBs and TDEs are events that have superfast jets pointed at Earth,” said Laskar. “One of the key ways to distinguish between them is in the X-rays. Jetted TDEs seem to also have strongly variable X-ray emission.” Indeed, the team found that X-ray emissions from AT 2022cmc swung widely by a factor of 500 over a few weeks.
The team then gathered observations from other X-ray, radio, optical and UV telescopes and tracked the signal’s activity over the next few weeks. Another remarkable property they observed was the signal’s extreme luminosity in the X-ray band.
“This particular event was 100 times more powerful than the most powerful gamma-ray burst afterglow,” Pasham said. “It was something extraordinary.”
They suspected that such extreme X-ray activity must be powered by an extreme accretion episode—an event that generates a huge churning disk, such as from a tidal disruption event, in which a shredded star creates a whirlpool of debris as it falls into a black hole.
The team found that AT 2022cmc’s X-ray luminosity was comparable to, though brighter than, three previously detected jetted TDEs. These bright events happened to generate jets of matter pointing straight toward Earth. The researchers wondered: If AT 2022cmc’s luminosity is the result of a similar Earth-targeting jet, how fast must the jet be moving to generate such a bright signal? To answer this, Lucchini modeled the signal’s data, assuming the event involved a jet headed straight toward Earth.
“We found that the jet speed is 99.99% the speed of light,” Lucchini said.
To produce such an intense jet, the black hole must be in an extremely active phase—what Pasham described as a “hyper-feeding frenzy.”
“It’s probably swallowing the star at the rate of half the mass of the sun per year,” Pasham estimated. “A lot of this tidal disruption happens early on, and we were able to catch this event right at the beginning, within one week of the black hole starting to feed on the star.”
“We expect many more of these TDEs in the future,” Lucchini added. “Then we might be able to say, finally, how exactly black holes launch these extremely powerful jets.”
“When the next TDE is discovered, we will again be ready to catch its light from X-rays to radio waves,” Laskar said. “By combining such data with physical models, we hope to build a full picture of how supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies grow, evolve, and shape their environments over cosmic time.”
Nick Borys
"I just wanted a more interesting job."
Nick Borys, who received his Ph.D. in Physics from the U, is now Assistant Professor of Physics at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman, Montana. He has had an interesting journey from receiving an undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science at the Colorado School of Mines to leading an experimental condensed matter physics and materials science research group at MSU. The Borys Lab researches materials that consist of two-dimensional sheets of atoms and their potential applications in quantum technologies that use the quantum properties of light for sensing, secure communication, and computing.
Images from the Borys Lab
In the lab, Borys and his team perform investigations by studying how new material systems interact with light on very small length scales, very fast time scales, and ultra-cold temperatures. In addition to his research group, he co-led the team that established the MonArk NSF Quantum Foundry at MSU. Borys is presently a co-associate director of MonArk and runs its day-to-day operations at the university. MonArk is a multi-institute, multi-state team focused on developing and researching 2-D materials for quantum technologies as well as innovating new technologies to accelerate the pace of research on 2-D materials. Borys is also the instructor for an upper-division quantum mechanics course in the Department of Physics at MSU.
He was raised in the Rocky Mountain Front Range in Colorado and considers Longmont and the surrounding rural farming area his original home, because that’s where he attended middle school and high school.
Throughout his later school years, he developed a strong interest in computer-based technologies. He taught himself several programming languages, became proficient in many different operating systems, and of course, learned how to build his own systems. While studying at the Colorado School of Mines, he was certain that he wanted to be a software engineer and computer scientist, and he received a bachelor of science degree in 2004.
Nick Borys
“By my junior year, I was moonlighting as a full-time software engineer in the evenings while pursuing my undergraduate degree in the daytime. Looking back, I’m not sure how I managed both.”
Pivotal Experiences
During his undergraduate education, two pivotal experiences ultimately directed his interest to physics. He was working on a construction team, remodeling office space for a local software company. While installing rubber molding one day, the CEO of the company stopped by, and he and Borys began talking about computers and software. The CEO was delighted that Borys had taught himself programming languages, and he hired him on the spot as a part-time software engineer. Over a year, the part-time job transitioned to full-time, and the first company was purchased by another.
“By my junior year, I was moonlighting as a full-time software engineer in the evenings while pursuing my undergraduate degree in the daytime,” said Borys. “Looking back, I’m not sure how I managed both.” By the spring of 2004, he graduated with an undergraduate degree and three years of professional software engineering experience. He had a sense of what a software engineering career would be like, and he looked forward to pursuing the next steps in his career at a larger company.
But fate intervened when he took several courses in the Department of Physics just before graduation. Thanks to inspired teachers, he fell head-over-heels in love with quantum mechanics. “Unfortunately, it was too late to change my major, and I had to settle for just taking a few additional physics classes that allowed me to deepen my passion,” he said.
After graduation, he accepted a new position at Boeing to develop software for the military, but realized within six months that he missed thinking about physics. One day while talking with a colleague who was working on an interesting problem, Borys asked how he could get involved with such projects, and the colleague he told him to get a Ph.D., preferably in computer science or physics. At that point, Borys decided to attend graduate school and pursue a Ph.D. in physics.
The U and Favorite Professors
He wanted to study at the University of Utah first and foremost because of the program and the research. “I knew that I wanted to perform experimental work, and I remember being excited by the research efforts of Professor Jordan Gerton and Distinguished Professor Valy Vardeny,” he said. In addition to the research program, he was also enamored with Salt Lake City and the Wasatch mountains. Growing up in Colorado, he had a love for mountaineering and had just started rock climbing. So, the University of Utah and Salt Lake City were an excellent fit.
He has fond memories of his classes with Professor Oleg Starykh, Professor Mikhail Raikh, Distinguished Professor Alexei Efros, Professor Eugene Mishchenko, and Werner Gellerman, Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Science. He also loved his conversations with Christoph Boehme, Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, as well as Jordan Gerton. “All of these professors are excellent physicists, and my interactions with them motivated me to want to be their colleagues one day,” he said. “But undoubtedly, Professor John Lupton, my Ph.D. advisor, made the strongest impact on me and, on a near-daily basis, demonstrated how fun and exciting research could be. Without experiencing John’s passion, excitement, creativity, and professionalism, I am not sure I would have continued on the academic track. Working with him was inspiring and very formative for my excitement for scientific research in academia.”
Post-Graduate Career
After Borys obtained his Ph.D., he continued working in the same lab under the direction of Lupton, who had just moved to the University of Regensburg and offered Borys a postdoc position in his group as the rest of the graduate students finished their degrees. Lupton gave him significant latitude to work independently and help colleagues finish their projects. “The autonomy and independence of this period were great experiences for me, and by working with John and his vibrant team of students and postdocs, I continued to develop a strong passion for academic-style research,” said Borys.
As things wound down at the U, he began looking at national labs for his next position and landed a non-permanent scientist position at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. At the Molecular Foundry, he honed the skills he had developed at the U in optical spectroscopy of nanoscale systems and took the opportunity to learn several new experimental and fabrication techniques in the field of nano-optics. The experience deepened his love for academic-style research and gave him a great opportunity to develop a talent for mentoring younger colleagues and graduate students. After five years at the Molecular Foundry, he moved to MSU.
Value of U Education
Borys says the U gave him countless opportunities to develop his passion for physics into a career. The vibrant community of professors, especially his advisor, demonstrated how fun and engaging high-end science can be. “It was not my intention to become a professor when I entered graduate school,” said Borys. “I just wanted a more interesting job. But after seeing the interactions among the professors in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the U and the type of problems they were working on, I was hooked on the prospect of working in physics full-time at the professor level. They inspired me to pursue an academic career that allowed me to perform the same type of very creative and innovative research.”
Beyond his career, the friendships he developed with peers and colleagues during his graduate studies at the U are among his most cherished and valued relationships to this day.
Advice for students
“It is impossible that I did everything right, but I wouldn’t make major changes if I could do things over again,” he said. “All-in-all, I feel very fortunate to be a professor in a field that I love and in a geographic area that allows me access to my passion for the outdoors.”
If he could go back in time to his younger self, he would tell himself not to be afraid of changing directions in life and that hard work pays off. “Stay disciplined. Stay committed. Be sure to have fun. Enjoy the people with whom you work and all of their unique personalities and diverse backgrounds. Take a bit more time off for climbing trips and vacations with friends,” he said.
In his spare time, he gets outdoors as much as possible, especially enjoying rock climbing and skiing.
By Michelle Swaner, originally published at physics.utah.edu.
Construction Update
Construction is about to begin on the University of Utah’s new Applied Science Project. The project will restore and renovate the historic William Stewart building and construct an addition to the building on the west side, adjacent to University Street. Construction will start in early October.
Construction Timeline
This important project will provide new and updated space to serve the University of Utah’s educational and research mission. It will serve as the new home for the Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences, focusing on aerospace, semiconductor technology, biotechnology, data science, hazardous weather forecasting, and air quality. Together, the two departments teach more than 5,600 students. See why the University of Utah College of Science is so excited about launching this project.
New construction will provide a 56 percent increase in experimental and computer lab capacity. There will be 40,700 square feet of renovated space in the historic Stewart Building and a 100,00 square foot new addition. The project will preserve and restore the historic character of the William Stewart Building while introducing a modern yet complementary design for the new addition. The new building’s exterior finishes will resemble the latest addition to the Crocker Science building next door.
Tree protection plans are in place, and the project team has taken steps to ensure the safety and preservation of Cottams Gulch, which will remain open and accessible during construction. In addition, the project team is working with Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theater leadership to ensure construction does not affect theater activities.
Cottam's Gulch
Planetarium Internship
Keegan Benfield, Christian Norseth, Ethan Lamé, and Carson Brown.
U students create new presentations during planetarium internship.
This past summer Keegan Benfield, Ethan Lamé, and Christian Norseth, in the U’s Department of Physics & Astronomy, participated in an internship program at Evans & Sutherland, a Cosm company.
Cosm/E&S, considered the world’s first computer graphics company, has developed advanced computer graphics technologies for more than five decades.
Their technology developed Digistar 7, the world’s leading digital planetarium system, with full-dome programs and production services, giant screen films formatted for full-dome theaters, premium-quality projection domes, and theater design services.
The Physics Department had an opportunity to chat with the students about the internship.
Cyri Dixon
How did you learn about the internship?
- Benfield - senior: physics, mechanical engineering
I learned about it through an email from my U of U physics advisor, Cyri Dixon, the day before the internship closed. The email introduced me to Cosm. I was excited and applied right away. - Lamé - senior: physics
I first heard about the internship with Cosm from Cyri Dixon. It sounded interesting, so I thought I might as well apply. - Norseth - graduate 2021: physics
My advisor, Dan Wik, told me about the internship during one of our meetings.
What problem were you trying to solve at Cosm/E&S?
Ethan Lamé
- Lamé
We were given the task of creating shows using their software, Digistar. We each picked a topic to research, and then we used Digistar to program the show as if it were to be shown to a planetarium audience. - Norseth
My understanding is that Cosm/E&S put a lot of effort into adding accurate astronomical data and surveys into their planetarium software, and they wanted a way to show planetariums how to use the data. - Benfield
The astrophysics interns were assigned two projects: designing two presentations on astrological objects and compiling a research paper that complemented the productions. The goal was to demonstrate the Digistar 7 system capabilities.
How did you go about developing a solution?
Christian Norseth
- Norseth
I selected two topics and researched them. I chose Extrasolar Systems and Stellar Formation Regions. We had a general outline of what kind of information we should include in our 5-10-minute planetarium show. I compiled a lot of information and then wrote out a “storyboard” with each element I wanted to include. I then designed the show in Digistar by writing automated scripts in the Digistar Command Language that controlled where you were in space and other visual elements on the dome. We could test our shows out on a projector dome that you would have in a planetarium. - Benfield
During the first week, we were instructed on how to use the Digistar 7 systems and were given a general tour of the company facilities, including their three domes. We learned the operations and usage of the medium dome so that we could test our presentations. We used the remaining nine weeks to research, develop code, and collaborate on the shows. - Lamé
After the first week of training using the Digistar software, we all jumped into using the scripting language to code our own movements and animations. After I did some research on my topic, I created a sort of story that I wanted to tell the audience, and then used the Digistar code to show the audience exactly what I wanted to show them.
Did you collaborate while still working on your own projects?
Keegan Benfield
- Lamé
We each worked on different topics throughout the internship, but we still helped each other. There are a lot of functionalities that the Digistar software has that we found through experimentation on our own topics, so if one of us had a question on how to do something, the others would often have an answer. - Benfield
Each astrophysics intern selected their own two topics to investigate and research on their own time. However, we regularly met at the offices to discuss our code, receive help in coding, and peer review each presentation. We could easily rely upon each other when a problem occurred. Due to the variety of options that the Digistar 7 systems offered, each intern developed a unique method of generating various celestial objects so that each of our presentations were different. - Norseth
We all worked on our own shows individually, but we helped each other figure things out. We would help each other with framing certain information or give suggestions on how to create an element in our shows.
Tell us about your daily routine.
- Benfield
My work day usually started around 9 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m. The day was broken up into sections depending on the number of meetings I had that day. For the days with fewer meetings, I spent my time in the computer lab or medium dome, developing my presentations and aiding or receiving coding aid from other interns. We also reviewed each other’s content in the dome. On days with multiple meetings, I spent my time preparing and conducting a little bit of coding.When I wasn’t at Cosm’s facilities, I was at the Marriott Library, conducting online research or scouring the library for research books.Each intern was assigned a Cosm buddy—an older company member. I met bi-weekly with my buddy to discuss any problems and to review my and practice my presentations.We did have internship week, where all of the interns traveled to the facilities here in Utah. We had multiple activities, ranging from an airplane competition, designing a Cosm event, and having dinner and a movie in the large dome. We also received tips about hiring and using LinkedIn as a networking tool. - Norseth
Every week I’d come into the office on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and get to work in a shared computer space. If I needed to test any content on the dome, I’d export my scripts and head down to the bottom floor where I could use the projector dome. - Lamé
Typically, I would arrive just before 9 a.m. and jump into working on whatever work I had from the previous day. There were occasionally meetings during the day that we were able to join from our laptops, but for the most part, we stayed in the computer lab, working on our shows. Most people were there most days, so I was rarely the only one in the room. Often, we would go to a planetarium projection dome in the office and play our shows to see how the movements/animations worked and fix any bugs that popped up. I would often be doing research on the internet while working on these projects to make sure that the information I had was correct and to search for more engaging stories to tell.
Evans & Sutherland - Digistar 7
Future plans?
Daniel Wik
- Norseth
I’m hoping to attend graduate school in astrophysics. This is my second year applying, but I should have a published paper under my belt this time. After my Ph.D., I’m not sure what I’ll do, probably try to become a professor or conduct some kind of astronomy-related research. - Lamé
I’m planning to apply to some graduate school programs in astrophysics, and maybe even an engineering program or two. I’d love to dive deeper into a related field in grad school and once I know that I enjoy working with that skill set, eventually move into an industry job. - Benfield
I love learning and developing skills that are desirable for my career path. I want to enter the field of defense contractors or work at a national lab. I also plan on continuing my education by earning a master’s or a Ph.D. in engineering, computer science, and physics. Eventually, I want to start my own company based on some inventions that I have semi-planned out.
About the internship
Melinda Orms
According to Melinda, Orms, Product Manager at Cosm, the Astrophysics Internship program with the University of Utah, Department of Physics & Astronomy, began after Dr. Anil Seth, Associate Professor, reached out to Cosm in the spring of 2022. Cosm invited Seth and his colleagues to visit the company’s Experience Center. During the visit, faculty had a tour of the system and its capabilities. Cosm talked about its desire to collaborate and the idea to have interns from the U Astrophysics program first surfaced.
“Our summer internship registration period had just ended here at Cosm, said Orms. “However, Karen Klamczynski, our training director, and I wrote up a plan for the Astrophysics Internship program, and we were able to get special approval to move forward at a very late date. Because a significant amount of training was involved, we required four interns in order to launch the program. We sent the information to Daniel Wik, Assistant Professor in the U’s Astrophysics program. We gave him a deadline of a few days to secure candidates for the program. I don’t know how, but he did it, but we ended up with six applicants and filled our four positions.”
The company-wide internship had 13 participants, located in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and New York. They filled positions in many areas of the company, including technical writing, business development, design, and sales, etc.
Digistar is the world’s most advanced planetarium system, and Cosm’s customers teach science and astronomy in facilities all around the world. The company wanted to make it easier for their customers to present topics that utilize the wealth of astronomical data that is pulled into Digistar.
“We had Ethan, Christian, and Keegan take an abbreviated training course to learn how to use our system,” said Orms. “They selected and researched topics. For each topic, they created Digistar visualizations (5-10-minute shows) and supporting information and materials. Their projects were shown to our customers from all around the world. What they created will be made available to our customers for use in their planetariums. We finished the internship with an evening in the dome where they presented their lessons to friends and family and some of their professors.”
Cosm plans to continue and, hopefully, expand, its Astrophysics Internship program with the U’s Department of Physics & Astronomy. The company is looking forward to selecting more interns in January and are discussing plans for hosting a lecture in the dome.
STAR-X Proposal
Daniel Wik
Astrophysicist Dan Wik proposal selected by NASA
NASA has selected four mission proposals submitted to the agency’s Explorers Program for further study. U astrophysicist Dan Wik is a member of the STAR-X Proposal Team, one of the two Astrophysics Medium Explorer missions selected by NASA for further study. The proposals include missions that would study exploding stars, distant clusters of galaxies, and nearby galaxies and stars.
Adapted from a news release by NASA
Two Astrophysics Medium Explorer missions and two Explorer Missions of Opportunity have been selected to conduct mission concept studies. After detailed evaluation of those studies, NASA plans to select one Mission of Opportunity and one Medium Explorer in 2024 to proceed with implementation. The selected missions will be targeted for launch in 2027 and 2028, respectively.
Daniel Wik, assistant professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Utah, is a member of the STAR-X Proposal Team, one of the two Astrophysics Medium Explorer missions selected by NASA for further study. For more information about Wik and the STAR-X team, visit: http://star-x.xraydeep.org/.
“The fact that STAR-X has passed this competitive milestone is a testament to the hard work and vision of both the hardware and science teams, and it has been enormous fun for me to contribute to this effort and collaborate with such a talented and convivial group of scientists. I hope this collaboration will continue for years,” said Wik.
Daniel Wik
Wik is an X-ray astronomer, who primarily works with observations conducted by the NuSTAR mission, along with data from other X-ray observatories, such as XMM-Newton, Chandra, and the soon-to-launch XRISM, studying galaxies and galaxy clusters. Before joining the U in 2017, he was a research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center outside of Washington, D.C.
“NASA’s Explorers Program has a proud tradition of supporting innovative approaches to exceptional science, and these selections hold that same promise,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “From studying the evolution of galaxies to explosive, high-energy events, these proposals are inspiring in their scope and creativity to explore the unknown in our universe.”
NASA Explorer missions conduct focused scientific investigations and develop instruments that fill scientific gaps between the agency’s larger space science missions. The proposals were competitively selected based on potential science value and feasibility of development plans.
The two Medium Explorer teams selected at this stage will each receive $3 million to conduct a nine-month mission concept study. Astrophysics Medium Explorer mission costs are capped at $300 million each, excluding the launch vehicle. The selected proposals are:
UltraViolet EXplorer (UVEX)
- UVEX would conduct a deep survey of the whole sky in two bands of ultraviolet light, to provide new insights into galaxy evolution and the lifecycle of stars. The spacecraft would have the ability to repoint rapidly to capture ultraviolet light from the explosion that follows a burst of gravitational waves caused by merging neutron stars. UVEX would carry an ultraviolet spectrograph for detailed study of massive stars and stellar explosions.
- Principal investigator: Fiona Harrison at Caltech in Pasadena, California
Survey and Time-domain Astrophysical Research Explorer (STAR-X)
- The STAR-X spacecraft would be able to turn rapidly to point a sensitive wide-field X-ray telescope and an ultraviolet telescope at transient cosmic sources, such as supernova explosions and active galaxies. Deep X-ray surveys would map hot gas trapped in distant clusters of galaxies; combined with infrared observations from NASA’s upcoming Roman Space Telescope, these observations would trace how massive clusters of galaxies built up over cosmic history.
- Principal investigator: William Zhang at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
The two Mission of Opportunity teams selected at this stage will each receive $750,000 to conduct a nine-month implementation concept study. NASA Mission of Opportunity costs are capped at $80 million each. The selected proposals are:
Moon Burst Energetics All-sky Monitor (MoonBEAM)
- In its orbit between Earth and the Moon, MoonBEAM would see almost the whole sky at any time, watching for bursts of gamma rays from distant cosmic explosions and rapidly alerting other telescopes to study the source. MoonBEAM would see gamma rays earlier or later than telescopes on Earth or in low orbit, and astronomers could use that time difference to pinpoint the gamma-ray source in the sky.
- Principal investigator: Chiumun Michelle Hui at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama
A LargE Area burst Polarimeter (LEAP)
- Mounted on the International Space Station, LEAP would study gamma-ray bursts from the energetic jets launched during the formation of a black hole after the explosive death of a massive star, or in the merger of compact objects. The high-energy gamma-ray radiation can be polarized, or vibrate in a particular direction, which can distinguish between competing theories for the nature of the jets.
- Principal investigator: Mark McConnell at the University of New Hampshire in Durham
The Explorers Program is the oldest continuous NASA program. The program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the Science Mission Directorate’s astrophysics and heliophysics programs.
Since the launch of Explorer 1 in 1958, which discovered the Earth’s radiation belts, the Explorers Program has launched more than 90 missions, including the Uhuru and Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) missions that led to Nobel prizes for their investigators.
The program is managed by NASA Goddard for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, which conducts a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system, and the universe.
For more information about the Explorers Program, visit: https://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov.
NuFact 2022
Professor Pearl Sandick, Assistant Professor Yue Zhao, and Professor Carsten Rott.
Physics Department hosts NuFact International Workshop at Snowbird
Professor Carsten Rott and colleagues from the Department of Physics & Astronomy recently hosted an international workshop on neutrinos at Snowbird. Known as NuFact, the workshop brought together experimentalists, theorists, and accelerator physicists from all over the world to share their knowledge and expertise in the field. NuFact had more than 150 in-person participants and numerous virtual contributions.
A neutrino is a subatomic particle that is similar to an electron but has no electrical charge and a very small mass. Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe, but they are difficult to detect because they have very little interaction with matter.
Professor Pearl Sandick and Assistant Professor Yue Zhao served as co-organizers of the conference. The team also included Rebecca Corley and other graduate students, who were instrumental in hosting the event.
Carsten Rott
“NuFact is one of the most important conferences in the field of neutrino physics,” said Rott. “It was an honor and a great opportunity that the scientific program committee selected Utah as the venue for the 23rd conference in this workshop series.”
One of the pre-workshops called “Multi-messenger Tomography of the Earth” encouraged experts from earth science and neutrino physics to explore the possibility of using neutrinos to understand the composition of the inner Earth. “I enjoyed the open exchange of ideas in this interdisciplinary workshop,” said Rott. “This work may one day significantly enhance our understanding of the Earth’s composition and dynamics.”
At this year’s workshop, a new working group was created called Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Education, & Outreach (IDEEO). “We’re excited to establish this as a permanent working group associated with the NuFact conferences,” said Sandick. “This year’s sessions were incredibly productive. We already see meaningful, positive changes, and I anticipate more to come as our scientific community continues to work on IDEEO.”
Dean Peter Trapa delivers opening remarks.
The conference was supported by the University of Utah (Department of Physics & Astronomy, the College of Science, the VPR Office, the National Science Foundation, Caen Technologies Inc., the Center for Neutrino Physics @ Virginia Tech, and MPDI Instruments.
College Rankings
U.S. News & World Report has released their 2022-2022 National University Rankings. The University of Utah is now ranked No. 1 in Utah and No. 42 nationally among public universities.
The College of Science fared even better. National rankings for public universities put Biology at No. 13, Chemistry at No. 20, Mathematics at No. 22, and Physics & Astronomy at No. 47.
There are many factors used to determine a school’s final ranking in the U.S. News & World Report but one factor that is not considered is cost. When cost is factored, there are few universities that challenge the University of Utah.
Star Trek
According to Captain James T. Kirk, space is the final frontier (although oceanographers might have something to say about that). Beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, there is a vast area of the Universe that we will likely never completely understand, despite the best efforts of mathematicians, physicists and astronomers.
However, rather than being a source of frustration, space represents infinite possibility, which is why astronomers like Dr Gail Zasowski, an astronomer based at the University of Utah in the United States, enjoy what they do in their professional lives. Gail is an astronomer with a particular interest in understanding where and when our Milky Way galaxy formed its 100 billion stars. Her research will help us understand how the infant Milky Way grew into the massive spiral galaxy that we see today.
WHAT ARE OUR CURRENT LIMITATIONS REGARDING UNDERSTANDING THE HISTORY OF OUR GALAXY?
Ironically, the main limitation to our understanding is closely related to the main advantage: that we are embedded inside the Galaxy. It can be thought of as the difference between looking at a map of a city and standing on a street in that city. “Looking at a map is like looking at other galaxies – we can see the overall shape and structure, where the business and residential areas are, and so on,” explains Gail. “But standing in that city has historically been like studying the Milky Way – we can’t see the pattern of streets or what the next neighbourhood looks like, but we can see the people and the shop windows, smell the smells, hear the sounds.”
However, in recent years, astronomers have been able to peer farther into the Milky Way than ever before. A lot of the difficulty in observing our galaxy is because of the thick clouds of gas and dust that fill the disc part of the Milky Way and block the starlight behind them. But some surveys, including the second generation of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III and IV projects, use infrared light to study the stars, which are much less affected by the intervening dust. The problem of perspective still exists, but astronomers are getting closer to being able to characterise the Milky Way in the same way as external galaxies.
Image of the Milky Way for the APOGEE project.
WHY IS THE MILKY WAY SO IMPORTANT?
We can observe the Milky Way at a higher resolution than other galaxies because of our proximity to it. Although there are some challenges as previously noted, we can observe the small-scale building blocks of galaxies, such as individual stars and small gas clouds. “These observations have shaped our understanding of a large fraction of astrophysics, from what happens in the interiors of stars to the ways a whole galaxy can change over billions of years,” says Gail. “We then apply this understanding to interpret our observations of other galaxies – where we can’t see things at the same level of detail – and create a picture of how galaxies in the Universe, and the Universe itself, have evolved since shortly after the Big Bang.”
The ’big-picture’ questions Gail and her team are trying to answer include: “Where and when did the Milky Way’s stars form?”, “What are the main sources of heavy elements in today’s Milky Way stars, and when and how were they synthesised?” and “What is the best way to apply what we learn in our Galaxy to understanding what happens in other galaxies?”
Addressing these questions involves answering smaller ones, like: “How old are the stars in a specific part of the Milky Way and what is their chemical makeup?”, “What series of evolutionary events could give us this pattern of stellar ages and chemistry?”, and “How does the gas and dust between the stars move around throughout these events?”
METHODS, FINDINGS AND SUCCESSES
To uncover what elements are in a star, Gail and her team are part of a larger team that measures the star’s light at different wavelengths. Atoms of different elements absorb that light at different wavelengths, so models are fitted to the pattern of absorption compared with wavelength to determine how much of each element is present in the star. These same models also account for the star’s temperature, surface gravity and other properties that are necessary for computing distances and ages.
2022 Meeting of the American Astronomical Society
Gail’s group has worked hard to link detailed measurements that can be made in the Milky Way with global measurements that can be made in other galaxies (which are less detailed but cover a higher number of galaxies in different environments with different histories). “It has been very exciting to see many different analyses on stars in different parts of the Milky Way come together in a comprehensive picture of where and when its stars formed, including the influence of gas accretion events billions of years ago, which strongly affected the regions near the Sun (but which probably happened before the Sun formed!),” explains Gail.
“It has also been extremely gratifying to see the students and post-doctoral researchers in my group taking ownership of their work and leading their own projects, often collaborating with each other and with very little input from me. I value the success of the scientific work for increasing our understanding of the Universe and for launching the careers (in and out of academia) of so many hard-working scientists.”
WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERM PLANS FOR GAIL’S RESEARCH?
Many of the upcoming datasets – including for the SDSS-V, the next data releases from ESA’s Gaia mission and NASA’s Roman Space Telescope – will provide ever-larger troves of measurements of the stars in our Milky Way and nearby galaxies. “I am excited to work on recreating the history of our galaxy – playing the movie of its life, backwards – by mapping out where and when the stars form, how they release their new elements back into the galaxy and how those new elements move around between the stars before being incorporated into the next stellar generations,” says Gail. “I love learning things that no one has ever known before.”
Astronomy is something that surely interests all of us to some degree and is a field that is ready for new discoveries. Only around 400 years ago, Galileo was chastised for championing Copernican heliocentrism (the belief that the Earth revolved around the Sun). This demonstrates just how ready the field of astronomy is when it comes to new and novel ideas that could fundamentally change our understanding of the ways things are.
The 2.5-metre Sloan Telescope (lower right) observing the centre of the Milky Way.
WHAT DOES GAIL FIND MORE REWARDING ABOUT HER RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gail loves learning things that no one has ever known before, such as seeing a particular pattern or correlation for the first time. In many ways, astronomy is not centred on answering questions, but on asking questions that no one has thought to ask before. “What I find particularly rewarding is getting to learn all these things about some of the biggest, most beautiful and most unfathomable objects in the Universe,” explains Gail.
“By ‘unfathomable’ I don’t mean un-understandable, but rather that we can’t truly picture their size, we can’t hold something that big or that hot or that old in our minds. Even stars, which we see every night with our eyes, and which are on average rather small and cool compared to other things in the Universe – our brains just aren’t set up to imagine those regimes.”
WHAT CHALLENGES WILL THE NEXT GENERATION OF ASTRONOMERS FACE?
There are always technical challenges: think about the difficulties of studying space without a telescope! Then think about the first telescopes and how primitive they were. Now think about the telescopes that we have presently and consider how they will one day be seen as primitive! It is a basic fact that we will be able to understand more about space with time simply because of access to improved and better tools.
But then, there are also data challenges. “Our datasets, observational and simulated, are getting increasingly larger, and being able to store this information and access it already requires specialised knowledge,” says Gail. “In addition, data is more complex, so understanding how to put all that data into a meaningful physical understanding is a challenge that is unlikely to be solved any time soon, but it’s exciting to think that one day it will be.”
HOW HAVE OUTREACH AND EDUCATION INITIATIVES, AT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH AND ELSEWHERE, HELPED ENCOURAGE YOUNG PEOPLE TO STUDY STEM?
One of the things the team tries to do with these kinds of programmes is to emphasise that science is something that shows up in everyday life. It’s not some obscure knowledge that only genius people in lab coats have access to. It affects all of us every day and is something we can all learn about. “We try to do fun projects that show how scientific knowledge, maths and computing manifest themselves in objects and activities that everyone can contribute to,” explains Gail.
“We want to convey the idea that studying STEM prepares people for a wide range of things in life – not just jobs! If you want to study science as a career, you can do it, even if you don’t fit the stereotypical image of what, say, the movies tell us a ‘scientist’ looks like.”
Adding the sticker to the first APOGEE instrument at APO.
WHAT WERE YOUR INTERESTS WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
I’ve always loved reading, especially science fiction and historical novels. In school, I enjoyed science and language classes the most – I love learning how systems work, both the physical system of the Universe and human systems of language and communication. I’m also an avid outdoor enthusiast and love camping and spending time in nature, especially here in Utah, with its red-rock canyons, deserts and incredibly dark night-time skies!
WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME AN ASTRONOMER?
It wasn’t until I was at university that I understood that ‘astronomer’ was a job that people could have (my earlier schools didn’t really push science as a career). I took an introductory astrophysics course during my first year at university, and the combination of the enormity and beauty of the Universe, coupled with actually being able to understand pieces of it with maths and physics, was irresistible.
WHAT ATTRIBUTES HAVE MADE YOU SUCCESSFUL AS AN ASTRONOMER?
Being detail-oriented has been very helpful, I think. A lot of my day-to-day work involves writing code, reading and writing papers, and understanding all the nitty-gritty details of a dataset that might influence our interpretation of our results. Not being able or interested in submerging oneself in those details would make the daily work much more challenging.
Being a people person has also been helpful. Much of the astronomical progress currently is made in collaboration with other people, as simulations and datasets get larger and more complex, and just require so many more individuals to create them. I love working with a team of people on a common project and doing my part to make sure the team is a fun and inclusive place to be, which almost always leads to better science too.
WHAT ARE YOUR PROUDEST CAREER ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR?
I am very proud of the scientific knowledge that my team and I have contributed to our understanding of the Universe. I am also proud of what I have been able to do in the classroom and broader environment in the field and my department. Both of these were recognised with a Cottrell Scholar Award in 2021, which honours early-career faculty who have shown excellence in both research and education.
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH CHALLENGES AT WORK?
Deep breaths! Very few things are solved well if people are worked up or angry. If the science or the data are challenging, I take a step back and think about the root of the problem. Taking a walk or working on something else for a while can be very useful. It’s helpful to remember that the Universe isn’t trying to be difficult! Often, things are just more complicated than we anticipated they would be, and our job is to make our treatment of the data more sophisticated in response.
If there are tensions with people causing challenges, I take a similar approach: focus on why people are acting like they are, not the effects on me or my feelings. If someone is behaving inappropriately, that does need to be addressed, but often the root of the conflict is a misunderstanding or miscommunication that a calm, neutral message can resolve.