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Effects of associative (sequential) learning across speech perception, speech production, reading, and typing
Cytosolic ferritin and lipid-associated ferritin are metabolically different in guinea-pig livers
Emotional Engineers: Toward Morally Responsible Design
Engineers are normally seen as the archetype of people who make decisions in a rational and quantitative way. However, technological design is not value neutral. The way a technology is designed determines its possibilities, which can, for better or for worse, have consequences for human wellbeing. This leads various scholars to the claim that engineers should explicitly take into account ethical considerations. They are at the cradle of new technological developments and can thereby influence the possible risks and benefits more directly than anybody else. I have argued elsewhere that emotions are an indispensable source of ethical insight into ethical aspects of risk. In this paper I will argue that this means that engineers should also include emotional reflection into their work. This requires a new understanding of the competencies of engineers: they should not be unemotional calculators; quite the opposite, they should work to cultivate their moral emotions and sensitivity, in order to be engaged in morally responsible engineering
Spectral Energy Distributions of Type 1 AGN in the COSMOS Survey I - The XMM-COSMOS Sample
The "Cosmic Evolution Survey" (COSMOS) enables the study of the Spectral
Energy Distributions (SEDs) of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) because of the deep
coverage and rich sampling of frequencies from X-ray to radio. Here we present
a SED catalog of 413 X-ray (\xmm) selected type 1 (emission line FWHM km
s) AGN with Magellan, SDSS or VLT spectrum. The SEDs are corrected for
the Galactic extinction, for broad emission line contributions, constrained
variability, and for host galaxy contribution. We present the mean SED and the
dispersion SEDs after the above corrections in the rest frame 1.4 GHz to 40
keV, and show examples of the variety of SEDs encountered. In the near-infrared
to optical (rest frame -- 4000\AA), the photometry is complete for
the whole sample and the mean SED is derived from detections only. Reddening
and host galaxy contamination could account for a large fraction of the
observed SED variety. The SEDs are all available on-line.Comment: 22 pages, 22 figures, ApJ accepted, scheduled to be published October
20th, 2012, v75
Training of Instrumentalists and Development of New Technologies on SOFIA
This white paper is submitted to the Astronomy and Astrophysics 2010 Decadal
Survey (Astro2010)1 Committee on the State of the Profession to emphasize the
potential of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to
contribute to the training of instrumentalists and observers, and to related
technology developments. This potential goes beyond the primary mission of
SOFIA, which is to carry out unique, high priority astronomical research.
SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP aircraft with a 2.5 meter telescope. It will enable
astronomical observations anywhere, any time, and at most wavelengths between
0.3 microns and 1.6 mm not accessible from ground-based observatories. These
attributes, accruing from the mobility and flight altitude of SOFIA, guarantee
a wealth of scientific return. Its instrument teams (nine in the first
generation) and guest investigators will do suborbital astronomy in a
shirt-sleeve environment. The project will invest $10M per year in science
instrument development over a lifetime of 20 years. This, frequent flight
opportunities, and operation that enables rapid changes of science instruments
and hands-on in-flight access to the instruments, assure a unique and extensive
potential - both for training young instrumentalists and for encouraging and
deploying nascent technologies. Novel instruments covering optical, infrared,
and submillimeter bands can be developed for and tested on SOFIA by their
developers (including apprentices) for their own observations and for those of
guest observers, to validate technologies and maximize observational
effectiveness.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, White Paper for Astro 2010 Survey Committee on
State of the Professio
FACT - The First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope: Status and Results
The First G-APD Cherenkov telescope (FACT) is the first telescope using
silicon photon detectors (G-APD aka. SiPM). It is built on the mount of the
HEGRA CT3 telescope, still located at the Observatorio del Roque de los
Muchachos, and it is successfully in operation since Oct. 2011. The use of
Silicon devices promises a higher photon detection efficiency, more robustness
and higher precision than photo-multiplier tubes. The FACT collaboration is
investigating with which precision these devices can be operated on the
long-term. Currently, the telescope is successfully operated from remote and
robotic operation is under development. During the past months of operation,
the foreseen monitoring program of the brightest known TeV blazars has been
carried out, and first physics results have been obtained including a strong
flare of Mrk501. An instantaneous flare alert system is already in a testing
phase. This presentation will give an overview of the project and summarize its
goals, status and first results
A 1500 deg2 near infrared proper motion catalogue from the UKIDSS Large Area Survey
The United Kingdom Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS) began in 2005, with the start of the UKIDSS programme as a 7 year effort to survey roughly 4000 deg2 at high Galactic latitudes in Y, J, H and K bands. The survey also included a significant quantity of two epoch J band observations, with an epoch baseline greater than 2 years to calculate proper motions. We present a near-infrared proper motion catalogue for the 1500 deg2 of the two epoch LAS data, which includes 135 625 stellar sources and a further 88 324 with ambiguous morphological classifications, all with motions detected above the 5σ level. We developed a custom proper motion pipeline which we describe here. Our catalogue agrees well with the proper motion data supplied for a 300 deg2 subset in the current Wide Field Camera Science Archive (WSA) 10th data release (DR10) catalogue, and in various optical catalogues, but it benefits from a larger matching radius and hence a larger upper proper motion detection limit. We provide absolute proper motions, using LAS galaxies for the relative to absolute correction. By using local second-order polynomial transformations, as opposed to linear transformations in the WSA, we correct better for any local distortions in the focal plane, not including the radial distortion that is removed by the UKIDSS pipeline. We present the results of proper motion searches for new brown dwarfs and white dwarfs. We discuss 41 sources in the WSA DR10 overlap with our catalogue with proper motions >300 mas yr−1, several of which are new detections. We present 15 new candidate ultracool dwarf binary systems
280 one-opposition near-Earth asteroids recovered by the EURONEAR with the <i>Isaac Newton</i> Telescope
Context. One-opposition near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are growing in number, and they must be recovered to prevent loss and mismatch risk, and to improve their orbits, as they are likely to be too faint for detection in shallow surveys at future apparitions.
Aims. We aimed to recover more than half of the one-opposition NEAs recommended for observations by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) using the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in soft-override mode and some fractions of available D-nights. During about 130 h in total between 2013 and 2016, we targeted 368 NEAs, among which 56 potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), observing 437 INT Wide Field Camera (WFC) fields and recovering 280 NEAs (76% of all targets).
Methods. Engaging a core team of about ten students and amateurs, we used the THELI, Astrometrica, and the Find_Orb software to identify all moving objects using the blink and track-and-stack method for the faintest targets and plotting the positional uncertainty ellipse from NEODyS.
Results. Most targets and recovered objects had apparent magnitudes centered around V ~ 22.8 mag, with some becoming as faint as V ~ 24 mag. One hundred and three objects (representing 28% of all targets) were recovered by EURONEAR alone by Aug. 2017. Orbital arcs were prolonged typically from a few weeks to a few years; our oldest recoveries reach 16 years. The O−C residuals for our 1854 NEA astrometric positions show that most measurements cluster closely around the origin. In addition to the recovered NEAs, 22 000 positions of about 3500 known minor planets and another 10 000 observations of about 1500 unknown objects (mostly main-belt objects) were promptly reported to the MPC by our team. Four new NEAs were discovered serendipitously in the analyzed fields and were promptly secured with the INT and other telescopes, while two more NEAs were lost due to extremely fast motion and lack of rapid follow-up time. They increase the counting to nine NEAs discovered by the EURONEAR in 2014 and 2015.
Conclusions. Targeted projects to recover one-opposition NEAs are efficient in override access, especially using at least two-meter class and preferably larger field telescopes located in good sites, which appear even more efficient than the existing surveys
A primordial star in the heart of the Lion
Context: The discovery and chemical analysis of extremely metal-poor stars
permit a better understanding of the star formation of the first generation of
stars and of the Universe emerging from the Big Bang. aims: We report the study
of a primordial star situated in the centre of the constellation Leo (SDSS
J102915+172027). method: The star, selected from the low resolution-spectrum of
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, was observed at intermediate (with X-Shooter at
VLT) and at high spectral resolution (with UVES at VLT). The stellar parameters
were derived from the photometry. The standard spectroscopic analysis based on
1D ATLAS models was completed by applying 3D and non-LTE corrections. results:
An iron abundance of [Fe/H]=--4.89 makes SDSS J102915+172927 one of the lowest
[Fe/H] stars known. However, the absence of measurable C and N enhancements
indicates that it has the lowest metallicity, Z<= 7.40x10^{-7} (metal-mass
fraction), ever detected. No oxygen measurement was possible. conclusions: The
discovery of SDSS J102915+172927 highlights that low-mass star formation
occurred at metallicities lower than previously assumed. Even lower metallicity
stars may yet be discovered, with a chemical composition closer to the
composition of the primordial gas and of the first supernovae.Comment: To be published in A&
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