3D Printed Soft Robotic Hand

Soft robotics is an emerging industry, largely dominated by companies which hand mold their actuators. Our team set out to design an entirely 3D printed soft robotic hand, powered by a pneumatic control system which will prove both the capabilities of soft robots and those of 3D printing. Through research, computer aided design, finite element analysis, and experimental testing, a functioning actuator was created capable of a deflection of 2.17” at a maximum pressure input of 15 psi. The single actuator was expanded into a 4 finger gripper and the design was printed and assembled. The created prototype was ultimately able to lift both a 100-gram apple and a 4-gram pill, proving its functionality in two prominent industries: pharmaceutical and food packing

DESI Observations of the Andromeda Galaxy: Revealing the Immigration History of our Nearest Neighbor

We present DESI observations of the inner halo of M31, which reveal the kinematics of a recent merger - a galactic immigration event - in exquisite detail. Of the 11,416 sources studied in 3.75 hour of on-sky exposure time, 7,438 are M31 sources with well measured radial velocities. The observations reveal intricate coherent kinematic structure in the positions and velocities of individual stars: streams, wedges, and chevrons. While hints of coherent structures have been previously detected in M31, this is the first time they have been seen with such detail and clarity in a galaxy beyond the Milky Way. We find clear kinematic evidence for shell structures in the Giant Stellar Stream, the Northeast Shelf and Western Shelf regions. The kinematics are remarkably similar to the predictions of dynamical models constructed to explain the spatial morphology of the inner halo. The results are consistent with the interpretation that much of the substructure in the inner halo of M31 is produced by a single galactic immigration event 1 - 2 Gyr ago. Significant numbers of metal-rich stars ([Fe/H]$>-0.5$) are present in all of the detected substructures, suggesting that the immigrating galaxy had an extended star formation history. We also investigate the ability of the shells and Giant Stellar Stream to constrain the gravitational potential of M31, and estimate the mass within a projected radius of 125 kpc to be ${\rm log_{10}}\, M_{\rm NFW}(<125\,{\rm kpc})/M_\odot = 11.80_{-0.10}^{+0.12}$. The results herald a new era in our ability to study stars on a galactic scale and the immigration histories of galaxies.Comment: 45 pages, 22 figures, 8 tables; Astrophysical Journal in press; Data at https://zenodo.org/record/697749

DESI Observations of the Andromeda Galaxy: Revealing the Immigration History of our Nearest Neighbor

We present DESI observations of the inner halo of M31, which reveal the kinematics of a recent merger - a galactic immigration event - in exquisite detail. Of the 11,416 sources studied in 3.75 hours of on-sky exposure time, 7,438 are M31 sources with well measured radial velocities. The observations reveal intricate coherent kinematic structure in the positions and velocities of individual stars: streams, wedges, and chevrons. While hints of coherent structures have been previously detected in M31, this is the first time they have been seen with such detail and clarity in a galaxy beyond the Milky Way. We find clear kinematic evidence for shell structures in the Giant Stellar Stream, the NE Shelf and Western Shelf regions. The kinematics are remarkably similar to the predictions of dynamical models constructed to explain the spatial morphology of the inner halo. The results are consistent with the interpretation that much of the substructure in the inner halo of M31 is produced by a single galactic immigration event 1 - 2 Gyr ago. Significant numbers of metal-rich stars are present in all of the detected substructures, suggesting that the immigrating galaxy had an extended star formation history. We also investigate the ability of the shells and Giant Stellar Stream to constrain the gravitational potential of M31, and estimate the mass within a projected radius of 125 kpc to be ${\rm log_{10}}\, M_{\rm NFW}(<125\,{\rm kpc})/M_\odot = 11.78_{-0.10}^{+0.13}$. The results herald a new era in our ability to study stars on a galactic scale and the immigration histories of galaxies

DESI Observations of the Andromeda Galaxy: Revealing the Immigration History of our Nearest Neighbor

We present DESI observations of the inner halo of M31, which reveal the kinematics of a recent merger - a galactic immigration event - in exquisite detail. Of the 11,416 sources studied in 3.75 hours of on-sky exposure time, 7,438 are M31 sources with well measured radial velocities. The observations reveal intricate coherent kinematic structure in the positions and velocities of individual stars: streams, wedges, and chevrons. While hints of coherent structures have been previously detected in M31, this is the first time they have been seen with such detail and clarity in a galaxy beyond the Milky Way. We find clear kinematic evidence for shell structures in the Giant Stellar Stream, the NE Shelf and Western Shelf regions. The kinematics are remarkably similar to the predictions of dynamical models constructed to explain the spatial morphology of the inner halo. The results are consistent with the interpretation that much of the substructure in the inner halo of M31 is produced by a single galactic immigration event 1 - 2 Gyr ago. Significant numbers of metal-rich stars are present in all of the detected substructures, suggesting that the immigrating galaxy had an extended star formation history. We also investigate the ability of the shells and Giant Stellar Stream to constrain the gravitational potential of M31, and estimate the mass within a projected radius of 125 kpc to be ${\rm log_{10}}\, M_{\rm NFW}(<125\,{\rm kpc})/M_\odot = 11.78_{-0.10}^{+0.13}$. The results herald a new era in our ability to study stars on a galactic scale and the immigration histories of galaxies

DESI Observations of the Andromeda Galaxy: Revealing the Immigration History of our Nearest Neighbor

We present DESI observations of the inner halo of M31, which reveal the kinematics of a recent merger - a galactic immigration event - in exquisite detail. Of the 11,416 sources studied in 3.75 hours of on-sky exposure time, 7,438 are M31 sources with well measured radial velocities. The observations reveal intricate coherent kinematic structure in the positions and velocities of individual stars: streams, wedges, and chevrons. While hints of coherent structures have been previously detected in M31, this is the first time they have been seen with such detail and clarity in a galaxy beyond the Milky Way. We find clear kinematic evidence for shell structures in the Giant Stellar Stream, the NE Shelf and Western Shelf regions. The kinematics are remarkably similar to the predictions of dynamical models constructed to explain the spatial morphology of the inner halo. The results are consistent with the interpretation that much of the substructure in the inner halo of M31 is produced by a single galactic immigration event 1 - 2 Gyr ago. Significant numbers of metal-rich stars are present in all of the detected substructures, suggesting that the immigrating galaxy had an extended star formation history. We also investigate the ability of the shells and Giant Stellar Stream to constrain the gravitational potential of M31, and estimate the mass within a projected radius of 125 kpc to be log10MNFW(<125kpc)/M⊙=11.78+0.13−0.10. The results herald a new era in our ability to study stars on a galactic scale and the immigration histories of galaxies

Presentazione del documento

The Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background experiment being built on Cerro Toco in Chile, due to begin observations in the early 2020s. We describe the scientific goals of the experiment, motivate the design, and forecast its performance. SO will measure the temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in six frequency bands centered at: 27, 39, 93, 145, 225 and 280 GHz. The initial configuration of SO will have three small-aperture 0.5-m telescopes and one large-aperture 6-m telescope, with a total of 60,000 cryogenic bolometers. Our key science goals are to characterize the primordial perturbations, measure the number of relativistic species and the mass of neutrinos, test for deviations from a cosmological constant, improve our understanding of galaxy evolution, and constrain the duration of reionization. The small aperture telescopes will target the largest angular scales observable from Chile, mapping ≈ 10% of the sky to a white noise level of 2 μK-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, to measure the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, at a target level of σ(r)=0.003. The large aperture telescope will map ≈ 40% of the sky at arcminute angular resolution to an expected white noise level of 6 μK-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, overlapping with the majority of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope sky region and partially with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. With up to an order of magnitude lower polarization noise than maps from the Planck satellite, the high-resolution sky maps will constrain cosmological parameters derived from the damping tail, gravitational lensing of the microwave background, the primordial bispectrum, and the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects, and will aid in delensing the large-angle polarization signal to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The survey will also provide a legacy catalog of 16,000 galaxy clusters and more than 20,000 extragalactic sources

The Simons Observatory: Astro2020 Decadal Project Whitepaper

International audienceThe Simons Observatory (SO) is a ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment sited on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in Chile that promises to provide breakthrough discoveries in fundamental physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. Supported by the Simons Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and with contributions from collaborating institutions, SO will see first light in 2021 and start a five year survey in 2022. SO has 287 collaborators from 12 countries and 53 institutions, including 85 students and 90 postdocs. The SO experiment in its currently funded form ('SO-Nominal') consists of three 0.4 m Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6 m Large Aperture Telescope (LAT). Optimized for minimizing systematic errors in polarization measurements at large angular scales, the SATs will perform a deep, degree-scale survey of 10% of the sky to search for the signature of primordial gravitational waves. The LAT will survey 40% of the sky with arc-minute resolution. These observations will measure (or limit) the sum of neutrino masses, search for light relics, measure the early behavior of Dark Energy, and refine our understanding of the intergalactic medium, clusters and the role of feedback in galaxy formation. With up to ten times the sensitivity and five times the angular resolution of the Planck satellite, and roughly an order of magnitude increase in mapping speed over currently operating ("Stage 3") experiments, SO will measure the CMB temperature and polarization fluctuations to exquisite precision in six frequency bands from 27 to 280 GHz. SO will rapidly advance CMB science while informing the design of future observatories such as CMB-S4

The Simons Observatory: Astro2020 Decadal Project Whitepaper

International audienceThe Simons Observatory (SO) is a ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment sited on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in Chile that promises to provide breakthrough discoveries in fundamental physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. Supported by the Simons Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and with contributions from collaborating institutions, SO will see first light in 2021 and start a five year survey in 2022. SO has 287 collaborators from 12 countries and 53 institutions, including 85 students and 90 postdocs. The SO experiment in its currently funded form ('SO-Nominal') consists of three 0.4 m Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6 m Large Aperture Telescope (LAT). Optimized for minimizing systematic errors in polarization measurements at large angular scales, the SATs will perform a deep, degree-scale survey of 10% of the sky to search for the signature of primordial gravitational waves. The LAT will survey 40% of the sky with arc-minute resolution. These observations will measure (or limit) the sum of neutrino masses, search for light relics, measure the early behavior of Dark Energy, and refine our understanding of the intergalactic medium, clusters and the role of feedback in galaxy formation. With up to ten times the sensitivity and five times the angular resolution of the Planck satellite, and roughly an order of magnitude increase in mapping speed over currently operating ("Stage 3") experiments, SO will measure the CMB temperature and polarization fluctuations to exquisite precision in six frequency bands from 27 to 280 GHz. SO will rapidly advance CMB science while informing the design of future observatories such as CMB-S4