sa_blog - January 11th, 2006

The first press conference this morning was fantastic. They really took a machete' to the theoretical jungle and hacked a trail into the wilderness. Let's see where it led us:

• The first talk announced a theory which predicts that gravity can magnify gravity, just as gravity magnifies light (gravitational lensing). If true, the predicted focal points for our Sun's gravitational hollows exist at 25 and 550 AU from the Sun. The area going from the Sun out to these points have been described as gravitational hollows. In these areas the gravity of the Sun is affected by the gravity of another star along the same axis and this slightly increases the gravity of the Sun at that distance. So imagine the Sun with a bunch fo thin spikes spreading outward. The solar end of those spikes will point to another nearby star.
  
  Sirius would create the largest hollow in our solar system. It would be about 54 kilometers wide at the focal point and add 9.2 X 10^-6 extra gravitational acceleration to an object in the hollow. Modern superclocks (such as NIST) are already sensitive enough to detect this. The researchers propose satellites to go visit these spots. We currently have satellites in the vicinity, but they don't have accurate enough clocks to test this idea.
  
  There are lots of questions about this and the press conference moderator affectionately called it "crazy", but then again general relativity was also crazy once. This would have profound implications for relativity, such as explaining event horizon physics in black holes.
  
  (Incidently, the presenter/author behind this theory is Robert Nemiroff, one of the guys behind the famous Astronomy Picture of the Day.)
  
  
• The 2nd feature was about the discovery of a plane of dwarf galaxies around Andromeda. Nine of 14 of Andromeda's satellite galaxies have been mapped and found to lie in a very thin line perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy. They don't know why. Perhaps it is part of a the same filament of mass that formed Andromeda. Evidence to support this comes from the fact that the plane "points" to other local galaxies. Another theory is that they could be remnants of a recently merged galaxy which disintigrated into many smaller galaxies as opposed to being uniformly merged into Andromeda. Evidence to support this is that these dwarf galaxies have similar properties and makeup.
  
  
• Finally, the big one. Or the one that I personally think is the biggest of this meeting. Dr. Brad Shaefer (LSU) built a new Hubble Diagram of GRB afterglow redshifts. This diagram begins to diverge from that predicted by the Cosmological Principle (vacuum energy) at high redshifts (Z=3-6.2ish). The cosmological principly states that a ratio from this diagram should be at a certain level and never change. His results show that it is constant in the near term, but at large distances the ratio changes and deviates from that level. Shaefer was very careful to make it clear that this is but one hint that the cosmological constant may not be what we think it is. He mentioned that lots of other, independent confirmation needs to be done both with more GRB data and also with other methods. Super kudos to him. This could be the beginning of very big news in the field - or not. But it is exciting to at least see a glimpse of scientific method in action - slowly pulling back the blanket of ignorance from our eyes.
  

We will probably do SA episodes on many of these topics. Stay tuned.

One of the nice things about these conferences is that the AAS brings in an articulate expert to summarize the results at the end. This time it was the esteemed Michael Turner. He explained things well and added his own take. I enjoyed the feedback from these experts. Also, the journalists asked good questions at this particular conference. Many were skeptical of some claims and asked specific questions about the evidence and statistics behind it. They were thinking and doing their jobs. Kudos to them too, political journalists could learn a thing or two from them.

-Aaron

This afternoon I lost my camera. I was giving a talk about SA at the NASA E/PO session so I was harried and running around with a hundred bags. In the melee' my $500 camera got lost. But, an astronomer turned it in to lost and found. I couldn't believe it! Such great people. :) BTW, the talk went well. The audience applauded after we played the Monday Night Astronomy sketch from show #39. It's the first time I've been applauded mid talk before. :)

They had an astronomy visualization session at the same time as my talk so I couldn't attend. But I got a copy of the DVD they handed out that included the submitted visualizations. We'll check them out, get permission and try to post a few that are neat. These are based on real science, not gee-whiz sci-fi battles.

Dr. Shaefer gave a more detailed talk about his GRB Hubble Diagram. Again, it was during my talk so I couldn't attend. Pamela did, though, and is writing the next SA script on the subject. She also interviewed him and will post it soon. Buzz is that the heat is being turned up in this debate something fierce. The camp that discovered the cosmological constant are protecting their turf. Expect competiting articles in the press over the next few months. This should be a fun ride and will be an excellent example of science in action. Whether it proves true or false, it is the scientific method at work.

Things have been so busy today that I haven't even made it down to the poster room. Even though it is late in the meeting, more press releases are being dropped in our boxes. The latest one is from the Naval Research Lab. Using the Parkes radio telescope in Australia they measured the Shapiro delay in a millisecond pulsar to determine its mass to a degree 5 times more precise than previous measurements. One of the reasons this was possible is because new sophisticated software was developed for this project by CalTech and my alma-mater, Swinburne University of Technology. (Swinburne reprezent, homez!)

An ongoing debate in astronomy has to do with the funding of large vs. small telescopes. The construction of supermassive telescopes causes institutions to pool their money. This is shutting down and preventing construction of smaller telescopes. At this meeting that has been an undercurrent of many talks with speakers giving side comments supporting their point of view. To me this seems like a silly debate. There is a major information glut in astronomy right now and inefficiency is one of those things I really, really hate. Let's figure out how to handle what we have now before bickering over how to get more. My favorite definition of greed is when you miss something you never had to begin with.
-Aaron

I'm happy to announce that Dr. Kevin Marvel has been appointed the new director of the AAS. It was announced Monday but I missed it somehow. Kevin formerly was their Deputy Director. He is a brilliant man full of energy, ideas and charisma. I can think of many people who would be good at the job, but he is the only person perfect for it. He was born for the position. I'm so happy for him, for the AAS and astronomy in general. He is a forward thinker who has the respect of all and he truly gets it. American astronomy is in good hands. BTW, we interviewed him at the last AAS meeting in summer '05. Click here for more info and to listen.

Now I race to catch a 10pm overnight train to Boston. The right handed keyboard is turned over to Pamela who will keep you informed on tomorrow's activities. Adios!
-Aaron

I hope you all go over to our Slacker Extra feed and take a listen to what the current director of NASA, Michael Griffin had to say.

On Tuesday, NASA administrator Michael Griffin addressed the AAS. This is actually a rarity. Astronomy is in some ways the redheaded bastard stepchild of NASA. We generally send cute little robotic science platforms to space rather then rough and rugged men. We like satellites more than the shuttle, and would rather launch telescopes than pieces of the International Space Station. When we get near a NASA administrator, we fight to defend our small chunk of the NASA budget. We are like the child that fights to get attention of the parents.

Griffins talk is one of the most poetic talks I’ve heard in a while. I felt like I was hearing a classic book reading – something written by Peltier perhaps, or something written under the inspiration of Peltier by Levy. Griffin is someone who is clearly passionate about what he does, and who became a scientist because he was driven by heart not by pride and ambition (that's not to say he isn't, just that those things are beneath a passion that can't be surpressed)

His talk was a breath of frankness in a city where most things are hidden under a layer of political mumbo jumbo. Someone of what he said bugged me, but at least he was honest. Among his announcements: he wants to save Hubble, but it can't be done without the shuttle. No robot will miraculously be designed. Either the shuttle will work before Hubble loses its gyros, or it won't. Those are our options.

He also surprised many people in the audience when he presented Neta Bachall an award memorializing the outstanding contributions of her husband, John Bahcall, up until his death last year. Coming to the stage, Neta had her hair dyed jet black, and she speaks with a soft European accent. She had stops between sentences that could have been part of maintaining her perfect composure or they could have been part of making sure she accurately reads her notes. I felt, as I listened, that both these gossip columnist type impressions are part of what controls the metronome of this singular scientist's presentation. How many speeches has she had to give, accepting awards on behalf of the husband with whom she shared her life and so often shared the authorship of well referenced, cutting edge science papers? Bahcall and Bahcall is a scientific partnership that will be missed.

When Nita was done, Griffen returned to his talk, projecting the future. He alluded to his desire to make space exploration a manned enterprise. He did acknowledge that human space exploration scares us scientists who like to send our robotic instruments to other worlds because manned space flight tends to steal our budgets. He stated that he doesn’t want to hurt our work, but acknowledged that everything can’t be done in the single, small NASA budget – things will be canceled. The question is what? GLAST seems safe – he sees it as part of the bright future. The Space Interferometry Mission was also mentioned, along with James Webb Space Telescope as part of our future. Only time will tell if they actually live. Budgets are tight. And they are getting worse.

During the question and answer session one thing that came up that really frustrated me was the phrase "NASA is not the department of Education." This sentence was used more than once by more than one NASA administrator. It refers to the idea that while NASA does fund educational initiatives (it has both a NASA education department and education and public outreach initiatives associated with many space missions), its main focus isn't education, and they are looking to reduce the money they expend on teaching. This is something that is going to be discussed bye a well known state university faculty member in an upcoming Phantom Astronomer, so for now I'm simply going to say I'm annoyed, and this faculty member can articulate all the ideas behind my annoyance better than I can. What the SA-Extra feed. Things are about to get interesting.

The internet keeps going down in the hotel. I would have posted this yesterday, but the while I could download anything I wanted, I couldn't even submit a web form. The problems at this conference are unending. Someone is going to be written a letter, but for now I'm just going to write to you, gentle reader.

There is more coming. More is stored and waiting to be written. Tune in tomorrow, and I'll some up the final day of the conference (which was admittedly today, but since I'm posting yesterday today, I'm going to post today tomorrow. Make sense?)

AND tonight is the press dinner and the after hours party. . .
-Pamela