HEADNEWS: THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER OF THE
HIGH ENERGY ASTROPHYSICS DIVISION OF THE AAS
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Newsletter No. 98, June 2011 |
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5. HEAD in the News - Megan Watzke (HEAD Press Secretary)
November 2010 – May 2011
In recent months, news has come from several different areas of high-energy astrophysics. On November 15th, a televised Chandra press conference was held at NASA HQ to announce the discovery of the youngest nearby black hole (SN 1979c). The story received widespread coverage – from the Washington Post to Al Jazeera and everything in between.
A strong presence for HEAD missions was on display at the January AAS in Seattle. Fermi had an intriguing result for the press and public with the detection of beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth. Also in Seattle, Chandra had its hands in a few press conferences, including one on the “heartbeat” of a black hole and the discovery of a supermassive black hole in the center of a dwarf galaxy.
Just before the AAS, a press release announced that XMM-Newton had teamed up with Herschel to look at Andromeda. This, and a release on the most distant mature galaxy cluster in March, garnered significant coverage. Many online stories were generated by Suzaku’s announcement later that month on achieving the clearest picture yet of the Perseus Cluster. In late April, Swift and Hubble released news on their data probing the debris of an asteroid collision.
In early May, NASA held another televised press conference to announce the achievements of the longest-running NASA program, Gravity Probe B. This event was covered by the New York Times and many other prestigious media outlets. And, just before the deadline for this newsletter, Fermi and Chandra teamed up to release their data on the recent “superflares” seen from the Crab Nebula.
These and many other results -- some of which are listed below -- demonstrate the wide appeal of the topics covered by the HEAD missions.
Press Releases:
November 15, 2011
“NASA’s Chandra Finds Youngest Nearby Black Hole”
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/press/10_releases/press_111510.html
January 5, 2011
“Andromeda’s Once and Future Stars”
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMY1K0SDIG_index_0.html
January 10, 2011
“Surprise: Dwarf Galaxy Harbors Supermassive Black Hole”
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/press/11_releases/press_011011.html
January 10, 2011
“NASA’s Fermi Catches Thunderstorms Hurling Antimatter into Space”
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/fermi-thunderstorms.html
January 12, 2011
“Taking the Pulse of a Black Hole System”
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/press/11_releases/press_011211.html
January 20, 2011
“Swift Survey Finds ‘Missing’ Active Galaxies”
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/active-galactic-nucleus.html
February 23, 2011
“NASA’s Chandra Finds Superfluid in Neutron Star’s Core”
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/press/11_releases/press_022311.html
March 9, 2011
“An Old Galaxy Cluster Discovered in the Young Universe”
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=48483
March 24, 2011
“Suzaku Shows Clearest Picture Yet of Perseus Cluster”
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=48483
April 26, 2011
“NASA’s Chandra Finds New Evidence on Origin of Supernovas”
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/press/11_releases/press_042611.html
April 28, 2011
“NASA’s Swift and Hubble Probe Asteroid Collision Debris”
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/asteroid-collision.html
May 4, 2011
“NASA’s Gravity Probe B Confirms Two Einstein Space-Time Theories”
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/gpb/gpb_results.html
May 11, 2011
“NASA’s Fermi Spots ‘Superflares’ in Crab Nebula”
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/crab-flare.html
“The Crab in Action and the Dog That Did Not Bark”
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/crab/
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