HEADNEWS: THE
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER OF THE HIGH ENERGY ASTROPHYSICS DIVISION OF THE AAS
|
Newsletter No. 88, May 2006 |
- Notes from the Editor - Christine Jones
- Views from the HEAD Chair -
Stephen S. Murray
- News from NASA Headquarters - Rick Harnden
- 2006 Bruno Rossi Prize Winners - Ilana Harrus (HEAD
Press Officer) and
Christopher Wanjek (EUD science writer)
- HEAD in the NEWS - Ilana Harrus, Christopher
Wanjek and Megan Watzke
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Operations
Report - Roger Brissenden (SAO) and Martin Weisskopf (MSFC)
- Chandra Fellows for 2006 Named - Nancy Evans
Report - Nancy Evans
- XMM-Newton Mission News - Randall Smith
and Phil Plait
- INTEGRAL Mission News - Christoph Winkler
- RHESSI Mission News - David Smith
- Swift Mission News - Christopher Wanjek,
Phil Plait and Lynn Cominsky
- RXTE News - Padi Boyd, Keith Jahoda, Gail
Rohrbach, Evan Smith, Jean Swank, Craig
Markwardt, Tod Strohmayer
- Suzaku Mission News - Richard Kelley for
the Suzaku team
- GLAST Mission News - Stephen Ritz,
Phil Plait and Lynn Cominsky
- Constellation-X News - Jay Bookbinder,
Ann Hornschemeier and Michael Garcia
- Meeting Announcements:
- HEAD Division Meeting - (October 4 -
7, 2006, San Francisco, CA)
- 6th INTEGRAL Workshop -- The Obscured
Universe (2 - 8 July, 2006, Moscow, Russia)
- Physics and Astrophysics of Supermassive
Black-Holes (9 - 14 July, 2006, Santa Fe, NM)
- 36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly and
Associated Events (16 - 23 July, 2006, Beijing, China)
- Cooling and Heating in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies (6 - 11 August 2006, Garching, Germany)
- Texas In Australia (11-15 December, 2006,
Melbourne, Australia)
- XXVI IAU General Assembly (14-25 August, 2006,
Prague, Czech Republic)
- The Role of Black Holes in Galaxy Formation and Evolution (10-13 September, 2006,
Potsdam, Germany)
- Recent Developments in the Study of
Gamma-ray Bursts (18-20 September, 2006,
London, England)
- Radiation Backgrounds from the First
Stars, Galaxies and Black Holes (9-11 October 2006, College
Park, Maryland)
- Extragalactic Surveys: A Chandra Science
Workshop (6-8 November 2006, Cambridge, MA)
- The Suzaku Conference: The Extreme Universe in the Suzaku
Era ( 4 - 8 December, 2006, Kyoto, Japan)
from the Editor - Christine Jones, HEAD Secretary-Treasurer,
headsec "at" cfa.harvard.edu, 617-495-7137
HEAD only delivers the table-of-contents for HEADNEWS into your mailbox.
The newsletter itself can be found online at
http://www.aas.org/head/headnews/headnews.may06.html.
Plans are underway for the next HEAD DIVISION MEETING which will be
held in San Francisco from Wednesday October 4 through Saturday
October 7, 2006 at the Stanford Court Hotel. Please mark your
calendars, bookmark the conference website and get on the conference
mailing list:
http://www.confcon.com/head2006/head06.php
Abstracts for the HEAD meeting are due July 21st to be published in B.A.A.S.
Also note that the deadline for the David Schramm Award for High
Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism is June 15, 2006.
Back to Top
2. Views from the HEAD Chair - Stephen S. Murray
As many of you already know, the news from NASA regarding space
science is at best mixed. The current set of HEA missions is dwindling. Our
flagship X-ray mission, Chandra, and the ESA XMM-Newton missian are
doing very well scientifically as is the GRB mission Swift. RXTE was
granted an extension until 2007, but no follow-on timing mission is
currently planned. However, Astro-E2 (aka Suzaku) lost the XRS
microcalorimeter, and HETE-2 is being terminated.
As for new high energy astrophysics missions, GLAST will launch by the
end of CY2006 or early in CY2007. The Exporer NuSTAR has been
terminated (or deferred), and other than Constellation-X and LISA,
which are pre-Phase-A, there are no other HEA missions in the NASA
pipeline. A look at the Science Mission Directorate budget, and in
particular the Astrophysics (aka Universe) Division shows that there
is no wedge opening up for the next several years and that the Beyond
Einstein Program budget is flat through FY2009. The proposed budget
for Con-X and LISA through FY2009 is very low. It is not enough to
sustain the development work that is needed, and in fact these
projects are in the process of starving with associated labs
dissipating. This is a dangerous situation for all of High Energy
Astrophysics. Furthermore, contrary to the recently completed Universe
Roadmap May 20, 2005 (available at
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/apio/universe.htm), there is no
commitment to move either LISA or Con-X into Phase-B once more funds
do become available. Instead there are words in the President's Budget
(and the NASA plan as presented by Mary Cleave to the Space Science
Board in March, 2006) to the effect that a decision regarding the
Beyond Einstein missions Con-X, LISA, and including JDEM as well, will
not be made until FY2009 at the earliest. It is quite possible that
NASA could move JDEM ahead of the flagship missions. The earliest
possible launch dates for any of these missions is rapidly closing in
on the 2015 time frame and beyond!
In the scenario supported by the FY2006 Presidential Budget, a
projection of no new HEA space missions after GLAST, for a decade or
more, presents a serious threat to the viability of our field. With
the Explorer Program in hiatus (no new call is expected until Fy2008
at the earliest and thus a launch date that is likely not earlier than
2012), there are virtually no new HEA mission capabilities in the
pipeline to carry us past the operational lifetimes of Chandra, Swift
and GLAST.
The Research and Analysis (R&A) program is facing a 15% cut in
FY2007. This decrease impacts essentially all of the ROSES grants,
many of which support High Energy Astrophysics (e.g., ADP, LTSA, APRA,
etc.). Many HEAD members will be affected by the lack of funds imposed
by the proposed R&A budget. The sub-orbital R&A program is also slated
for a 15% funding decrease in FY2007 resulting in fewer new
opportunities for balloons or rockets. There should still be some
support for new instrument development and short observations but not
as much as in the past.
So, the question is what to do? First our membership needs to be aware
of the new NASA advisory structure. There is a list of the advisory
committees (and working groups that are not advisory) at the end of
this message. Second we need to get a message to our colleagues on the
Astrophysics Sub-Committee of the Science Committee of the NASA
Advisory Council that we are worried in a broad and general way
about the health of HEA and its safe passage through these difficult
times. Third, members of our community might
want to let their elected officials know how they feel
about the NASA budget and its impact on science. A list of
various committee members can be found on the AAS Web site
(
http://www.aas.org/policy/Contact.html).
Contact Information for Working Groups and Advisory Committees -
Universe Working Group: Michael Cherry (Ch) cherry@lsu.edu
Astrophysics Sub-Committee: David Spergel (Ch)
dns@astro.princeton.edu
NASA Advisory Council: Neil Tyson (member) tyson@astro.amnh.org
Back to Top
3. News from NASA Headquarters - Rick Harnden
Those who track changes at NASA Headquarters may already know that the
division formerly known as "Universe" will soon be officially renamed
the "Astrophysics Division." Some may even remember that it had
previously been known by this name in the mid '90s. Also in the
process of being renamed are the three other divisions within the
Science Mission Directorate (SMD), which is now led by Associate
Administrator Dr. Mary Cleave and her deputy Dr. Colleen
Hartman. (Still not official as of this writing, new names for the
other divisions can be seen in the "org chart" that accompanies the
first web link below.)
NASA's science missions have continued to be "in the news," as can be
seen from articles elsewhere in this issue. Perhaps less laudable are
two political issues that have also received recent media attention:
budget cuts and "censorship." Regarding the former, on March 13,
2006, Dr. Cleave issued a "Dear Colleague" letter, which can be viewed
on the web, e.g., at:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=19928
As noted in her letter, a "constrained Federal budget environment"
presents "exciting but also challenging times" for NASA. Both "The
Hill" and the astronomical community have reacted to the NASA budget
reductions.
Charges of "censorship" within the agency were swiftly dealt with by
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who on March 30 promulgated new
"Principles and Policies on Scientific Openness." A link to the
complete policy document is contained in an article at:
http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=20121
First among the principles announced by Dr. Griffin is that NASA "is
committed to a culture of openness with the media and public that
values the free exchange of ideas...accurate and unfiltered."
As noted in Dr. Cleave's letter, the SMD Science Subcommittees have
been reconstituted under the NASA Advisory Council. The first subcommittee
meetings were held May 3-4, 2006, at the U. MD Conference Center.
Back to Top
4. 2006 Bruno Rossi Prize Winners - Ilana Harrus (HEAD
Press Officer)
Three scientists shared this year's Bruno Rossi Prize for their
pioneering work on understanding the exotic environment around
fast-spinning neutron stars, where matter can whirl about at nearly
light speed and where space itself is warped. The prize, awarded in
honor of Professor Bruno Rossi, is the top award given each year by
HEAD. The prize includes a talk to be given by the winners at the
upcoming January AAS meeting, an engraved certificate and a $1,500
award to be shared among the winners.
The winners are Tod Strohmayer of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
Deepto Chakrabarty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
Rudy Wijnands of the University of Amsterdam.
The three were recognized "for their pioneering research which
revealed millisecond spin periods and established the powerful
diagnostic tool of kilohertz intensity oscillations in accreting
neutron star binary systems."
Their work, done both independently and sometimes as collaborators,
has been described as breakthrough in interpreting the complex
signals emitted as X-ray light from millisecond pulsars. These
scientists have revealed that oscillations in the emitted X-ray light
can be used to measure the pulsar's spin rate and other key
parameters. Their observations were made with NASA's Rossi X-ray
Timing Explorer, now in its 11th year of operation.
"This is an unexpected honor," said Strohmayer. "This award really
acknowledges the community who built, operates and interprets data
from the Rossi Explorer. Without the dedication of many scientists
and engineers, none of the observations that my co-winners and I have
made would have been possible."
Strohmayer, an expert on thermonuclear X-ray bursts emitted from the
surface of neutron stars, credits Jean Swank, the Rossi Explorer
project scientist, also at NASA Goddard, for giving him the
opportunity to join the Rossi team.
Deepto Chakrabarty, an associate professor of physics at MIT and a
researcher at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space
Research, is an expert on millisecond pulsars. He credits his MIT
colleagues and collaborators, especially research scientist Edward
Morgan, for making his discoveries possible.
"Bruno Rossi was a giant at MIT; and as a MIT professor, I am humbled
to receive an award named in his honor," Chakrabarty said. "The Rossi
Explorer is a powerful tool to probe the environs of black holes and
neutron stars. It has been thrilling to join my colleagues in so many
discoveries."
Rudy Wijnands, a member of the University of Amsterdam's High-Energy
Astrophysics Group, discovered the first accreting millisecond
pulsar, in 1998. He is an expert in interpreting signals from X-ray
pulsars called quasi-periodic oscillations, or QPOs, emitted from gas
whipping around the pulsar at high speeds.
"I am very happy and thrilled that I received this award and that the
work of myself and of Deepto and Tod is recognized as being
important," said Wijnands. "I feel honored to be among the list of
scientists who have received this award."
Back to Top
5. HEAD in the News
- Ilana Harrus (HEAD Press Officer),
Christopher Wanjek, (EUD Science Writer),
and Megan Watzke, Chandra Press Officer
Major items in the News:
Swift continues its winning streak. Since last HEAD newsletter, the
mission won the "Best of "What's New"" award from Popular Science
magazine and was called one of Hubble's playmates on the front page of
the January issue of Sky and Telescope (along with Chandra, Spitzer
and Galex). Not to be undone by a newcomer, the older/wiser RXTE
generated some stories about event horizons and stable orbits. A
result on the X-ray background result, using RXTE data, also got good
coverage.
Results from the Chandra mission were presented at both the AAS in
Washington, DC, as well as the bi-annual "6 Years of Chandra"
symposium in Cambridge, Mass. Chandra was featured in press
conferences at both events. Also, the CXC EPO group hosted a
successful symposium on visualizing astronomy at the "6 Years"
meeting, which included a panel of reporters giving feedback to those
in attendance on what the media find useful. From their perspectives
at The Boston Globe, National Geographic, and The Discovery Channel, a
great deal of insight and helpful information was shared.
Chandra results were featured during a NASA media telecom
(phone-participation press conference) on April 24th. The results
from that press event will appear in the next issue of the HEAD
Newsletter. On a sadder note, we would like to extend our sincere
condolences to Col. Eileen Collins, the commander of STS-93, the
shuttle mission that put Chandra into orbit. Her father died on Feb
28. 2006 after being hit by a car in Elmira (NY) where he had gone to
hear his daughter speak at a local high school.
Below is the list of all HEAD-related press releases issued in the
past 6 months.
Please see also:
http://universe.nasa.gov/press/2006/
for press releases on subjects linked to the Structure & Evolution of
the Universe.
There is a large overlap with what is presented below.
April 19
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMSIWNFGLE_index_0.html
April 18
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/apr/HQ_06188_black_hole_simulation.html
April 17
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/apr/HQ_M06064_Chandra_update.html
April 07
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=987&Itemid=2
April 06
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_040606.html
http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases2006/20060406blackhole.html
April 05
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=984&Itemid=2
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=985&Itemid=2
April 04
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=976&Itemid=2
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=978&Itemid=2
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=979&Itemid=2
April 05
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=984&Itemid=2
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=985&Itemid=2
April 04
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=976&Itemid=2
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=978&Itemid=2
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=979&Itemid=2
March 23
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_032306.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2006/06-034.html
http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2006/Mar06/r032306d
March 21
http://www.news.wisc.edu/12310.html
March 17
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=38954
March 07
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Burrows3-2006.htm
March 03
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/brakingpulsar/
Feb 24
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Nousek2-2006.htm
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/oddball_burst.html
http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/new_cosmic_explosion.asp
Feb 23
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home06/feb06/fuse.html
Feb 23
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home06/feb06/fuse.html
Feb 22
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/feb/HQ_M06067_Milky_Way_Map.html
Feb 17
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Brandt2-2006.htm
Feb 03
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_020306.html
Feb 02
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/neutron_award.html
Jan 31
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0612.html
Jan 25
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0609.html
Jan 18
http://www.aas.org/head/rossi/rossi.recip.html#V
Jan 12
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0608.html
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/youngestbinarypulsar/
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home06/jan06/haro.html
Jan 10
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/jan/HQ_06006_Chandra_AAS_update.html
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_011006.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2006/06-001.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2005/blackhole_noreturn.html
http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2006/Jan06/r011006b
Jan 09
http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/text.asp?pid=797
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0604.html
Jan 05
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/milkyway_seven.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2005/new_blackhole.html
Dec 29
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2005/05-192.html
Dec 28
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/05_releases/press_122805.html
Dec 17
http://wwwinaf.astro.unipd.it/ufficio-stampa/comunicati-stampa-del-2005/cs_all_2005.pdf
Dec 15
http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/text.asp?pid=794
Dec 14
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Meszaros12-2005.htm
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2005/pr-32-05.html
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/blackhole_meal.html
Dec 12
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/05/051130.cosmopanel.shtml
Dec 06
http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/05-12-06-01.all.html
Dec 01
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/05_releases/press_120105.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2005/05-187.html
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0515.html
Nov 29,
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/05_releases/press_112905.html
Nov 22
http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12767.html
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051122-1839.asp
Nov 17
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM20VJBWFE_index_0.html
Nov 16
http://www.lanl.gov/news/releases/archive/04-091.shtml
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=1168
Nov 10
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/05/051110.auger.shtml
Nov 09
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2005/swift_award.html
Nov 08
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Swift11-2005.htm
http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/text.asp?pid=778
Nov 02
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/05_releases/press_110205.html
Nov 01
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/nov/HQ_05353_massive_star.html
Image releases from Chandra:
April 06
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/a400/
March 23
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/4c37/
March 06
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/n2841/
Feb 15
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/puppisa/
Feb 03
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/n5746/
Jan 11
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/cartwheel/
Jan 10
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/galaxies/
Dec 28
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/earth/
Dec 15
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/sn1006/
Dec 01
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/perseus/
Nov 29
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/sn70/
Nov 15
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/d316/
Nov 02
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/wd1/
Back to Top
6. Chandra X-ray Observatory Operations Report - Roger
Brissenden (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) and
Martin Weisskopf (Marshall Space Flight Center)
During the last six months, Chandra continued to operate with
excellent spacecraft and science instrument performance. The mission
will reach 7 years of operation on July 23 and retains significant
(not life-limiting) long-term reserves of consumables. Chandra has
continued operation without any major anomalies and has now gone for
6.3 years without a safe mode.
The CXC mission planning staff continued to devote much effort to
minimizing the effects of increasing spacecraft temperatures on the
scheduled observing efficiency. The temperature increase is due in
large part to the degradation of a layer of metalized Mylar insulation
that provides Chandra's passive thermal control. During the last year
a number of competing thermal constraints have resulted in a increased
number of observations having to be split into multiple short duration
segments. These allow the spacecraft to cool at preferred attitudes
but results in a decreased schedule efficiency (down ~4% in the last
year) and an increase in the complexity of data reduction for
observers. Overall the schedule average efficiency since November was
63% compared with a maximum possible of ~70%.
In working to address the problem, the engineering team has focused
attention on constraints associated with the EPHIN (Electron Proton
Helium Instrument) radiation detector. A study showed that EPHIN can
operate safely at higher temperatures than previously assumed (up to
120F), and the Flight Director Board has approved increasing the
maximum limit from 96F to 110F. The change has provided welcome relief
to planners, the number of split observations has been dramatically
reduced and the scheduled efficiency is now expected to increase.
In order to minimize false triggers of the radiation detector caused
by the higher EPHIN operating temperature, a flight software patch was
installed that increases the trigger threshold of one of the electron
detection channels (E1300) by a factor of two. The increased
threshold will also reduce the number of false radiation safing events
due to puffed-up radiation belts.
A second flight software patch was installed to reduce excessive
heating of the motor that drives the Science Instrument Module
(SIM). The software modification causes the SIM to move only once
during a radiation safing event. Previously, the SIM was moved twice,
first to an intermediate position, to allow the HRC camera door to be
closed, and then to the final HRC-S position. The two moves can cause
excessive SIM motor temperature levels. The change was possible
because the HRC door is no longer closed during radiation safing
events.
In other operational highlights, Chandra completed the 2006 winter
eclipse season in January with nominal power and thermal
performance. The aspect camera continues its excellent performance,
with measurements of its dark current showing a nominal trend of
increase in the number of warm pixels. High solar activity interrupted
the observing schedule only once since November, and the schedule was
replanned four times to accommodate fast turn-around Target of
Opportunity (TOO) observations, with response times ranging from 1 to
3 days.
Both the ACIS and HRC focal plane instruments have continued to
operate well overall. A brief episode of anomalous telemetry was
received from the HRC instrument in December. The anomalous data were
seen in the secondary engineering portion of the telemetry stream and
had no operational impact. No corruption of the X-ray event data was
observed and the event is under investigation. The ACIS FI CCD CTI
trend has continued at the expected rate of 2.5% per year and the BI
CCD trend has continued at the expected rate of 0.5% per year and
careful monitoring of the contamination build up on the Optical
Blocking Filer indicates that the transmission at 0.7 keV has
decreased by the expected ~1.0% over the last year.
The processing, archiving and distribution of Chandra data has
continued without difficulty, and the average time from target
observation to data distribution has been maintained at approximately
one day. The archive continues to grow at ~0.5 TB per year, with data
retrievals remaining at ~200 to ~400 GB per month. In February a full
reprocessing of the Chandra data was started. The reprocessing will
incorporate the latest algorithms and calibration and is expected to
increase the archive by ~1 TB upon completion next spring.
A major milestone was passed by the Operations Control Center's ground
team in November. The team successfully transitioned the ground system
from the original Silicon Graphics computers to new machines using the
Linux operating system. The new system has operated smoothly since the
transition and will ensure long-term maintainability of the ground
hardware and software. The team also took care to ensure that the
2005-2006 leap second had no impact on the ground system or mission
operations.
The Science Data System team released version 7.6.5 of the CXC Data
System in support of the Cycle 8 Call for Proposals (CfP) in December,
and issued updates in January and February to support the start of the
archive re-processing in February. CIAO 3.3 was released in November
and provided many tool upgrades and bug fixes, as well as Cycle 8
proposal support.
The Chandra Press Office issued nine press releases and 19 image
releases since November, including a NASA media telecon in April that
described new calculations of the efficiency of black-hole energy
production.
The Cycle 8 CfP was issued on Dec 16. 723 observing proposals were
received by the March 15 deadline, and the Peer Review is scheduled to
begin on June 22 in Boston. The ninth Chandra Fellows peer review,
held in January, considered a record 88 proposals for Chandra
fellowships.
We look forward to Chandra's 7th anniversary in July and the
continuation of outstanding scientific return from the mission.
Back to Top
7. Chandra Fellows for 2006 -- Nancy Remage Evans
This year we had a record number of 88 applications for
Chandra Postdoctoral Fellowships. This year was the first time
we had electronic applications. The list of new Fellows, their
PhD institution and their host institution
is provided below.
Carlos Badenes (Univ. Politecnica Catalunya, Rutgers)
Shane Davis (UC Santa Barbara, Institute forAdvanced Studies)
Jifeng Liu (University of Michigan, CfA)
Elena Rasia (Univ. Padova , University of Michigan)
Masahiro Tsujimoto (Kyoto University, Penn State)
Keep an eye on our web pages for information about the Chandra Fellows
Symposium (Friday, October 13, 2006, at the Center for Astrophysics,
Cambridge, MA), and the annual Fellowship
competition (November, 2006). The Chandra Fellows Symposium
is open to all, and we encourage you to drop by to hear some
exciting new X-ray results. For more information, see
http://cxc.harvard.edu/fellows/
Back to Top
8. XMM-Newton Mission News - Randall Smith (NASA/GSFC) and
Phil Plait (Sonoma State)
The US XMM-Newton Guest Observer Facility (GOF) just completed the
2006 NASA Senior Review, which examined the mission's successes in the
past two years and continued funding through 2010. The scientific
report to the Senior Review is available at
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/FTP/xmm/doc/SR2006.pdf.
Regarding the
satellite itself, apart from the loss of MOS1 CCD6 in March 2005,
likely caused by a micro-meteoroid impact scattering debris into the
focal plane, all instruments are in good health.
Recent notable accomplishments include the release of the XMM Slew
Survey which includes over 5000 sources covering over 6000 square
degrees of sky based on EPIC pn observations. The catalogue includes
source position, flux in three bands, possible identifications with
known sources, and the source extent. In addition to the EPIC survey,
The US XMM GOF has made data from Optical Monitor observations
available through MAST (
http://archive.stsci.edu/xmm-om/). This
catalogue includes source lists and images in several different
filters, all produced using SAS v6.0. The source detection,
photometry are done automatically, with astrometry matched against the
standard Guide Star Catalogue. Finally, the US XMM GOF has released
software to model the EPIC MOS particle background, available at
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/xmmhp_xmmesas.html. This
software models the quiescent particle background both spectrally and
spatially for the EPIC MOS detectors, and produces output that can be
used in standard tools such as XSPEC and ds9.
The release of the Science Analysis System (SAS) 7.0 is expected in
Summer of 2006, and will incorporate many enhancements. Users who do
not wish to install SAS can now use the online XMM-Newton Science
Archive (XSA v2.9 and above) to automatically reprocess observations
to use the latest calibration; see the documentation for assistance.
In addition, the US XMM GOF and the HEASARC will release within a few
weeks an update to Hera which will generate EPIC responses on demand,
with more features, such as generating exposure maps, to follow.
The anticipated dates for the AO6 XMM-Newton proposals have been
announced. The announcement is expected to be released on August 28,
2006, with a due date of October 6, 2006 at 12:00 UT. HEAD members
should note that the proposed due date falls during the 2006 HEAD
meeting.
For more information about XMM-Newton, please visit the US Guest
Observer Facility pages at
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/xmmgof.html
XMM-Newton EPO
The Contemporary Laboratory Experiences in Astronomy (CLEA) activity
"The Deaths of Stars and the Birth of the Elements" has been completed
and is now in use. In this computer-based exercise
http://xmm.sonoma.edu/edu/clea/index.html,
high school and college
students analyze realistically simulated X-ray spectra of a supernova
remnant and determine the abundances of various elements in them. In
the end, they will find that the elements necessary for life on
Earth-the iron in their blood, the calcium in their bones- are created
in these distant explosions. The XMM-Newton CLEA activity consists of
a teacher manual and the software to model X-ray spectra from a
supernova. The manual has instructions for the installation and
execution of the activity, student worksheets, and extended
information/activities for teachers. Project CLEA is based at
Gettysburg College, and directed by Prof. Larry Marschall. This
activity is one of the few CLEA labs that is not based on
visible-light simulations. The XMM-Newton E/PO program sponsored an
activity developed in partnership with the Space Place at JPL. "Black
Hole Rescue" inspires students by reading an article about black
holes, then engages them in learning how to spell the scientific words
that they have read in the article. The students have to catch the
letters before they are swallowed up by the black hole! Designed for
elementary and middle-school students, the game has words at two
different levels of difficulty and is available in both English and
Spanish. Check it out at:
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/blackhole/index.shtml
Since November 2005 (the last newsletter), XMM-Newton Educator
Ambassadors and
E/PO professionals disseminated educational materials and XMM-Newton
content at two
different workshops, reaching 47 participants. (see:
http://xmm.sonoma.edu/materials.html
Back to Top
9. INTEGRAL News - Christoph Winkler
In November 2005, ESA's Science Programme Committee approved another
extension of the INTEGRAL mission until 16 Dec 2010, subject to
another usual status and performance review in fall 2007.
INTEGRAL operations continue smoothly with the spacecraft, instruments
and ground segment performing nominally. The successful 7th SPI
annealing took place from 9-24 January. During this time interval, a
ToO observation of 3C279 was scheduled among other
observations. Directly after the annealing period, INTEGRAL undertook
a series of four special observations using the Earth as an occulting
device in order to study the cosmic diffuse high-energy background. A
publication is in preparation. Further ToO observations were done in
February and March for the new BHC XTE J1817-330. A ToO observation,
together with XMM, on SGR 1900+14 was scheduled for April.
As we are approaching the solar minimum, a slow increase of the
instrumental background counting rates is observed. Work is in
progress to re-allocate some TLM allocation in order to preserve the
core scientific capabilities. The Villafranca antenna, which was used
as back-up for Redu, will stop TM/TC services in 2007. Work is ongoing
to assure a back- up option for the Redu station.
The INTEGRAL AO-4 has been opened on 13 March, the proposal deadline
was 21 April. It contains a prototype Key Programme with 2 Ms to be
spent on the Galactic Centre region. The AO-4 observing cycle will
begin on 16 August 2006 (12 months duration). Prior to the release of
AO-5 the community will be invited to submit ideas for Key Programmes
in a special AO in fall 2006.
The number of refereed/non-refereed INTEGRAL scientific publications
over the period 01 Dec 2002 until end February 2006 is 153/335.
The findings of Diehl et al. on the 26Al line emission in the inner
Galaxy and their determination of the core-collapse SN rate (Diehl et
al., Nature 439, 45, 2006) has found a world-wide echo in the media,
including in general news sources.
Pian et al. (A&A 449, L21, 2006) report on INTEGRAL observations of a
dramatic outburst of the blazar 3C 454.3 indicating inverse Compton
scattering external to the broad line region.
A hard tail up to 100 keV in the persistent emission from SGR 1900+14
has been detected by Gotz et al. (A&A , 449, L31, 2006) in the
quiescent state of the source without bursts. A comparison with AXP
spectra indicates different spectral behaviour between AXPs and SGR's,
both types believed to be magnetars. Kuiper et al. (ApJ in press,
2006) have studied four AXP's combining INTEGRAL & RXTE data. They
find exceptionally hard total emission and hard pulsed emission above
10 keV, exceeding spin-down power by a few orders of magnitude, and
supporting the magnetar interpretation for AXPs but requiring a new
mechanism for particle acceleration in the magnetospheres.
Chenevez et al. (A&A 449, L5) report on an unusual thermonuclear burst
from GX 3+1 which during the first few seconds resembles a normal type
I X-ray burst but then shows an extended decay for ~30 minutes, but
quite different from a superburst. Reanalysing archival data with the
latest software, Sidoli et al. (A&A accepted) have found two
previously unnoticed outbursts of IGR J11215-5952, which appears to be
another Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient.
SPI observations of SN1006 provide a new upper limit on the SN Ia 511
keV annihilation radiation ruling out the possibility that SN Ia
supernovae produce all of the positrons in the Galaxy if the mean
positron lifetime is less than 100 ky (Kalemci et al., ApJ 640, L55,
2006).
Over 180 abstracts have been received for the 6th INTEGRAL workshop,
"The Obscured Universe" which will take place 2-8 July 2006, in IKI,
Moscow, Russia (see
http://hea.iki.rssi.ru/integral06
for workshop and programme details)
Back to Top
10. RHESSI Mission News - David M. Smith, U. C. Santa Cruz
The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI)
Small Explorer mission continues healthy, although radiation damage
continues to take its toll on its detectors, particularly for
high-resolution studies of gamma-ray lines. We expect to anneal the
detectors to repair this damage sometime this year.
In addition to the many new RHESSI preprints on solar results in the
archive at Montana State University
(
http://solar.physics.montana.edu/cgi-bin/eprint/default_page.pl),
there is a colorful and wide-ranging set of "RHESSI Science Nuggets"
being posted periodically. These short reports are casual in style,
well-illustrated, and suitable for a general scientific audience. The
site is run by editor Hugh Hudson and webmaster Steven Christe of
U. C. Berkeley. The URL is:
http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~tohban/nuggets
and occasionally non-solar items are featured as well.
A very exciting non-solar result comes from a new analysis of RHESSI
data on the hyperflare of SGR 1806-20 on December 27, 2004. Watts and
Strohmayer (2006, ApJL 637, L117) found a series of quasi-periodic
oscillations in the pulsing tail of the event. In addition to
confirming
QPOs in the range of tens of Hz found by Israel et al. (2005, ApJL,
628, L53), Watts and Strohmayer found a pulse-phase-dependent QPO
at 626.5 Hz, suggesting a higher-order crustal mode that would take
far more energy to excite.
Many RHESSI solar results will be discussed at the next meeting of the
Solar Physics Division of the AAS, in Durham, NH from June 25 to 30,
2006.
A status report on RHESSI non-solar astrophysics is being prepared for
the 6th INTEGRAL workshop in Moscow, July 2 to 8. We hope for a good
set of presentations at this year's HEAD meeting as well.
Back to Top
11. Swift Mission News - Christopher Wanjek, Padi Boyd and Phil Plait
The Swift spacecraft and instruments continue to
perform well and return exciting new science
results across a broad range of topics, including short
and long gamma ray bursts, supernovae in nearby galaxies,
galactic transients, AGN, comets, and follow-ups on
BAT-detected sources. During Swift's Cycle 1 and
Cycle 2 Guest Investigator rounds, over 100 GIs have participated
in Swift science. Swift results have been presented at numerous
science meetings, in refereed publications, and appeared in
the popular press. Key discoveries and highlights include:
- Arcsec localizations for short GRBs, leading to
discovery that the progenitors may be the merger
of compact objects, unlike long burst progenitors.
- Detection of many high-redshift GRBs, including
one at z=6.29. The Swift long GRBs average redshift
is 2.7 compared to 1.2 from pre-
Swift bursts. The Swift sample is more complete, thus
tracing more of the star formation rate in the universe.
- Detection of a GRB 060218 at z=0.033, coincident with
SN2006aj, providing the most complete lightcurve
of a SN Ib/c.
- Surprising early afterglow lightcurve
phenomena (e.g. rapid decays and large flares),
implying that the central engine remains active ten
times longer than previously thought.
- Unique observations of SNe, filling voids in our
understanding by probing UV and X-ray emission during
the early stage (days) after the outburst. Dense sampling of
light curves has been done by Swift for a dozen SNe.
- The most sensitive hard X-ray sky survey to date,
finding over 100 AGN, including the elusive class
of absorbed Sy 2's.
Since the launch of Swift, there have been 97 publications
in refereed journals that relate to Swift (list at
http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/results/publist/). These
papers include 35 with a Swift team
member as first author and 62 with a first author outside
the team. The large number of Swift papers by non-team
authors is striking evidence of the mission's impact in
the science community. Note that seven
published papers have been in Nature or Science, one of
the largest numbers for any mission in a single year.
The Swift Cycle 3 call for proposals (part of
ROSES-2006) has been expanded to allow limited target
of opportunity (ToOs) observations to be proposed.
Proposals should capitalize on Swift's unique capabilities
for rapid, multi-wavelength response. As with all Swift data,
no proprietary data rights will be granted, but PIs will be
allowed to triggeraccepted ToO targets that meet the trigger
conditions,and will be awarded funding to carry out the
proposed investigations. Observation-only proposals will also
be permitted from non-US PIs. ToO requests for exceptional
transient opportunities will continue to be accepted
through the Swift ToO web site even for ToO's
not accepted into the GI program. We expect
the Swift ToO program to be heavily oversubscribed
based on the wide array of unique ToO observations
made by Swift in its first year, including SNe on the rise
in nearby galaxies, the Deep Impact collision with
Comet Tempel 1, transient outbursts of galactic black
hole candidates, and flaring active galaxies.
Swift Cycle 3 proposals are due July 28, 2006. The review
is tentatively planned to take place in early October in San
Francisco just prior to the HEAD meeting. For more information
on the Swift Cycle 3 GI program, the exciting Swift science
program, access to data, software and documentation, or to
volunteer to be a peer reviewer, visit the Swift Web site at
http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov
Swift E/PO News
Midway through its second year of normal operations for Swift, the
Sonoma State University Swift E/PO group continues to support the
mission. Several milestones were passed since the last HEAD
newsletter; including Swift's first anniversary in orbit, and its
100th observed GRB-- GRB 060108A.
The E/PO group has published the third and fourth quarterly
newsletters, designed to keep scientists and the public updated on
the latest Swift news. The newsletters open with a note from PI Neil
Gehrels, and have articles by Swift scientists about recent
discoveries, updates on the Swift Science Center and Mission
Operations Center, links to news articles featuring Swift, and
articles about the education and amateur astronomy connection. The
newsletters are online (in both HTML and PDF) at
http://swift.sonoma.edu/resources/multimedia/newsletter/index.html.
The real-time all-sky GRB
(http://grb.sonoma.edu">
http://grb.sonoma.edu/>http://grb.sonoma.edu ) page is still going
strong, with about 70,000 unique visits since November 2005. The page
displays all the GRBs detected by Swift, INTEGRAL, and other
gamma-ray satellites as they send out notices to the Gamma-Ray
Coordinates Network.
As usual, Prof. Lynn Cominsky helped prepare several Swift press
releases, and ran a session at the St. Louis American Association for
the Advancement of Science meeting in St. Louis in February, 2006,
featuring Swift (and other) observations of the SGR 1806-20 magnetar
superflare of December, 2004.
The planetarium show "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity"
premiered at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (see the GLAST
E/PO entry for details). The show features Swift, showing the launch
and describing its mission to detect the births of black holes.
Since November 2005 (the last newsletter), Swift Educator Ambassadors
and E/PO professionals disseminated educational materials and Swift
content at 19 different workshops, reaching 879 participants.
Back to Top
12. RXTE News - Padi Boyd, Keith Jahoda, Craig Markwardt,
Gail Rohrbach, Evan Smith, Tod Strohmayer, and Jean Swank
The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has now passed it's first
decade in orbit, and continues its workman-like service to the high
energy astrophysics community. The Stage 1 review of 128 proposals
submitted for RXTE Cycle 11 took place in November 2005. The
proposals and targets that were recommended to NASA Headquarters by
the review panel are now available online at
http://rxte.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/timeline/cycle11_targets.html.
Proposals have been received for the Stage 2 (budget) round and are
now in the process of being reviewed. A total of 59 budgets were
received for Guest Observer funding. We expect to release the results
of the budget review in early summer.
The Cycle 11 observing program is currently well underway. This would
be the last official observing cycle pending an extension by NASA
through the 2006 Senior Review process. The RXTE users group (RUG)
made its "pitch" to the Senior Review panel on Wednesday, April 26,
2006. Many thanks go to RUG chairman Fred Lamb (Univ. Illinois),
project scientist Jean Swank (NASA/GSFC), and RXTE user Jon Miller
(Univ. Michigan) for presenting the case for extending the mission. We
also thank all RXTE users and friends whose science results helped us
make a strong case for continuing the mission.
In summarizing the impact of RXTE on high energy astrophysics the
users group was able to identify a total of 49 RXTE-related PhD theses
dating from 1997 to the present. This seemed an astounding number to
us and will likely represent one of the most important legacies of
RXTE. A list of the RXTE theses can be found at
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/whatsnew/xte_phds.html. The
most recent RXTE-related PhD thesis was written by Fotis Gavriil while
at McGill University and now a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) fellow
at NASA/GSFC, on "Magnetar-like X-ray Bursts from Anomalous X-ray
Pulsars." The list also includes recent Rossi Prize awardee Rudy
Wijnand's (Univ. of Amsterdam) thesis on, "Millisecond phenomena in
X-ray binaries."
RXTE's 10th Anniversary was celebrated with a party on the evening of
January 12th at the NASA/GSFC recreation center and a symposium of
science talks on January 13th also at NASA/GSFC. Both events were well
attended and by all accounts a good time was had by all. The symposium
covered many aspects of RXTE science with both reviews and new results
being presented, and concluded with Fred Lamb's Goddard Scientific
Colloquium, "The Impact of Rossi XTE on General Relativistic and High
Energy Astrophysics." The full program of science talks can be found
at
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/whatsnew/bday_conf_agenda.html.
We will be updating this link with slides from each of the talks in
the near future. The availability of the slides will be announced
on the RXTE webpage
(
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/xte_1st.html).
Science Highlights:
RXTE continues its high rate of scientific discoveries. All of its
intruments remain stable and are performing well. Recent months have
been noteworth for a new outburst from the Soft Gamma-ray Repeater
(SGR) SGR 1900+14, including a "storm" of burst events on March 29,
2006; an eruption of the recurrent, symbiotic nova RS Oph; the
discovery of an SGR-like burst from another anomalous X-ray pulsar
(AXP 4U 0142+61); and continued monitoring of a recently discovered
transient Z-source, XTE J1701-462, and the new black hole candidate
XTE J1817-330.
On March 25, 2006, renewed burst activity from SGR 1900+14 was
reported by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT, GCN 4922, Atel
774). This was the first recurrence of burst activity from SGR 1900+14
since late 2002, and it triggered an extensive set of RXTE follow-up
observations; to study bursts, monitor for changes in the spin-down
rate of this magnetar, and to correlate such changes with properties
of the persistent and burst emission. Analayses of the data are in
progress. In other magnetar news, using RXTE observations of AXP 4U
0142+61, Vicki Kaspi (McGill Univ.) and collaborators have found an
SGR-like burst from this anomalous X-ray pulsar (Atel 794). The burst
resembles the weakest event seen from AXP 1E 1048-5937, and further
strengthens the connections between SGRs and AXPs. Interestingly,
Spitzer observations have recently discovered a debris disk around
this object (Wang, Chakrabarty & Kaplan, 2006, Nature, 440, 772).
Two bright transients have been the object of careful RXTE scrutiny
over the last few months. Both were found in January, 2006 by the RXTE
All Sky Monitor (ASM). XTE J1701-462 was found first (Atel. 696, 700,
703), and XTE 1817-330 appeared 10 days later (Atel 714, 743). XTE
J1701-462 was discovered with a flux near 500 mCrab, and reached a
peak near 900 mCrab. Initial timing studies founds QPOs near 6 and 55
Hz (Atel. 703). Subsequently, more extensive RXTE observations have
been studied by Jeroen Homan (MIT) and colleagues. They suggested the
source most closely resembles the bright neutron star LMXBs known as
"Z" sources, which would make the object the first known transient in
this class (all others are persistent X-ray sources). In February,
having dimmed by about a factor of 2, the source showed indications of
kHz QPO behavior (Atel 748). RXTE will continue to follow the source
as it declines in flux. Of particular interest is to determine if its
timing and spectral properties begin to resemble those of the lower
luminosity, Atoll class of neutron star LMXBs.
XTE J1817-330 was also very bright when discovered, with a flux near 1
Crab. PCA scanning observations determined an arcminute position, and
found the source with a very soft spectrum, typical of black hole
binaries in the "high-soft" state (Atel. 714). Radio, near IR, and
optical counterparts were then rapidly found (Atel. 721, 724, 733).
RXTE, Chandra and optical spectroscopy indicate that the absorbing
column to the source is relatively modest (Atel. 743, 746 749), and
that the source should be an excellent target for quiescent optical
studies to deduce the black hole mass. Further RXTE observations
revealed timing and spectral variability characteristic of black hole
binaries (Atel. 752).
In early February, 2006 the recurrent nova RS Oph was found to be in
outburst (IAUC 8671). RXTE TOO observations by Jennifer Sokolowski
(SAO) and collaborators detected the source out to 25 keV and also saw
a strong Fe line. They suggested the observed plasma temperature of
about 10 keV is consistent with shock heating of the nebular material
by fast moving ejecta (Atel. 737). Subsequent observations found a
decreasing flux and plasma temperature, consisent with deceleration of
the ejecta (Atel. 741). Swift/XRT observations have been studying the
supersoft X-ray spectrum.
In a result capitalizing on RXTE's longevity and well calibrated
background, Mikhail Revnivtsev (MPA, Garching) and colleagues at MPA
and the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow have used 10 years of
RXTE slew data to create an image of the Galactic X-ray
background. They found that the RXTE image spatially matches the
distribution in the infrared obtained by NASA's COBE mission. The
strong spatial correlation suggests that the X-ray emission observed
with RXTE traces the galactic stellar mass distribution. Most of the
X-rays are then attributed to discrete sources, the bulk of which are
thought to be cataclysmic variables and stars with active coronae.
Details can be found at
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/milkyway_map.html
and in Sazonov et al. 2006, A&A, 450, 117.
RXTE GOF Update:
The GOF has recently added a new feature for RXTE proposals to the
HEASARC archive, and is conveniently linked into the Browse archive
query interface. The table of results of a Browse query now includes
links to HEXTE merged light curves for each target in a proposal, in
addition to the previously available PCA merged light curves. These
light curves are available as FITS files and as GIF graphic files that
are easily Browsed with the click of a mouse. Now you can see
instantly whether your favorite source displays significant time
variability in both PCA and HEXTE, right on your Browse results
screen. Try it out by typing the name or coordinates of a source of
interest and choosing the RXTE archive at:
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/archive.html
RXTE Education and Public Outreach:
The RXTE Education and Public Outreach efforts continue to reach
students, educators and the general public by capitalizing on the
exciting objects of RXTE's core science--- black holes, neutron stars,
and active galaxies and the extremes of physics---to engage the target
audience and set the stage for science, techology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) learning. Over the past year, we have worked with a
teacher intern from NASA Explorer School Anne Beers Elementary to
design and present an educator workshop based on the High Energy
Groovie Movie and associated activities at
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/outreach/HEG/groovie.html
This workshop was presented to several groups of teachers visiting
NASA, and as part of Washington DC's STEM summit. For the school year
beginning in Fall 2006, we will continue to present this workshop to
local educator groups and regional science teachers' meetings, as well
as capitalize on a new partnership with the H. B. Owens Science Center
in Lanham, MD. The Owens Science Center, part of the Prince Georges
Public School System in Maryland, is home to a Challenger Learning
Center as well as a planetarium, and both are used in student
enrichment programs daily during the regular school year. With the
educator staff we are working to incorporate core RXTE science into
the 6-8th grade planetarium shows, and as part of a learning module
used in the Challenger Learning Center. Our RXTE education goals link
directly to NASA's desired outcomes of 1) attracting and retaining
students in STEM disciplines through a progression of educational
opportunities for students, teachers and faculty and 2) building
strategic partnerships and linkages between STEM formal and informal
education providers that promote STEM literacy and awareness of NASA's
mission.
Back to Top
13. Suzaku News - Richard Kelley, for the Suzaku team
For the Cycle 1 resolicitation, the US astronomical community
submitted 164 Suzaku observing proposals to NASA, for an
oversubscription rate of more than a factor of 4. The competition was
similarly strong in Japan and at ESA. After the national reviews and
international merging meeting, the final target list was posted on the
web in mid March
(
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/suzaku/tlminfo/ao1list.html). US
PIs will receive individual e-mails shortly with the peer review panel
evaluations; additionally, e-mails to the successful PIs will include
an invitation to submit a Stage 2 (budget) proposals.
Meanwhile, GO observations have already started. The operations team
at ISAS (via the Suzaku GOF for US proposals) is contacting PIs
several weeks prior to their observations to verify and/or fine-tune
key observing parameters. Timely replies are appreciated and will
help guarantee a smooth operation of the observatory. The data
processing teams at ISAS and the GOF are making final preparations for
the distribution of processed data to GOs, as well as of the public
release of Suzaku FTOOLS and calibration files.
Preliminary results from the Science Working Group phase of the
mission (2005 August - 2006 March) have already been presented at
various meetings. HEAD members are invited to attend the special
session during the Calgary AAS meeting (Tuesday morning, June 6), when
a series of seven invited talks will highlight the early results from
Suzaku. We also expect the first refereed publications based on
Suzaku data to start appearing shortly, culminating in a special issue
of Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan in late 2006.
Several months after launch it was observed that the throughput of the
XIS cameras had dropped significantly. At about 600 eV, corresponding
to the O K region, the effective area had gone down by about a factor
of two, and to a varying degree in each of the four XIS modules. The
loss in throughput is almost certainly due to contamination that has
accumulated on the optical blocking filters and not the sensors
themselves or the x-ray optics. Spectral analysis indicates that the
contamination is predominantly composed of carbon. A monitoring
program has been initiated to track contamination. In parallel with
this, laboratory tests in the US and Japan were devised to assess the
feasibility and risk of elevating the temperature of the XIS camera
modules to drive off the contamination. Fortunately, during the past
few months the rate of contaminant accumulation has dropped
significantly (by a factor of two or so). The plan therefore is to
continue to monitor the contamination level with periodic observations
of the the SNR E0102-72 (once per 2-3 weeks) and prepares for a
decision point in July. The goal is to execute any countermeasures
prior to the August call for Cycle 2 observing proposals.
The Suzaku E/PO program has introduced a newsletter for teachers,
"Suzaku News You Can Use". This 2-page newsletter features
information about the mission, objects that Suzaku studies, a brief
history x-ray astronomy, and teacher resources. There is even a quiz
question! Future issues will include a "Meet the Crew" feature in
which teachers can get to know members of the Suzaku team. The
newsletter is developed in collaboration with Patrick Keeney, a high
schoolteacher in Pennsylvania. The newsletter is distributed via
email, and on the web at:
http://suzaku-epo.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/astroe_lc/newsletter/suznuz.html
SN1006 anniversary celebration!
The Suzaku E/PO program offered a new opportunity, which opened the
doors of research to a team of highly motivated high-school
students. In 2005, prior to launch, we advertised a nation-wide call
for observing proposals from high-school teams to use data from
Suzaku. We reviewed 20 proposals written by teams involving more than
80 students. The winning team was a group of eight high school
students from Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco who worked
with their teacher, Dr. Mark Hurwitz, to write a proposal for a
supernova remnant. With agreement from the Suzaku Science Working
Group, we sent them the data for SN 1006 in January 2006. Five of the
students will be present at the upcoming AAS meeting in Calgary and
Cyrus Stoller will present the result of their analysis in the special
Suzaku session on Tuesday morning (session 35). Don't miss an
opportunity to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the remnant and ask
questions about their experience working on Suzaku data.
Back to Top
14. GLAST News -- - Steven Ritz and Phil Plait
Great progress is being made in all areas of the
mission, as excitement continues to build toward
launch in the Fall next year. Highlights include:
The GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM) construction,
integration, and system testing are
complete. The GBM is now undergoing
environmental testing at MSFC, with delivery to
General Dynamics (Spectrum Astro) expected in early summer.
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) construction and
integration are complete. System testing at SLAC
is near completion, with shipment to NRL for
environmental testing in early May. Delivery to
General Dynamics is expected this summer.
A very successful Mission Operations Review was
held at Goddard in March. Integrated mission launch planning is also
ongoing.
We are moving forward with the First GLAST
Symposium, to be held at Stanford University
during the week of 5 February 2007. In addition
to sessions covering a wide variety of science
topics, workshops for Guest Investigators will be
conducted by the GLAST Science Support Center
(GSSC) in advance of the first proposal
cycle. GLAST-related sessions are also being
planned for the HEAD and AAS meetings.
There have been periodic SWG and Users Committee
telecons, with the next Users Committee
face-to-face meeting at Goddard 8-9 May.
The second Data Challenge (DC2), involving the
LAT, GBM, and GSSC teams, is in full
swing. Fifty-five days of all-sky survey
observations have been simulated, using a very
detailed (and secret) sky model. Both signal
photons and backgrounds (~5 billion events) have
been generated and passed through a high-fidelity
LAT simulation and event reconstruction. GBM
data for GRBs are also included. Team members
access and analyze the data in the planned
formats using the high-level science tools under
development. The DC2 kickoff meeting was held at
SLAC in early March, with the closeout meeting --
when the "truth" will be revealed -- at Goddard
in late May. This is the second in a series of
data challenges, which may be thought of as a
very effective alpha testing of the end-to-end
system. Members of the Users Committee will
participate in a beta test of the system this Fall.
Work is ramping up across the LAT collaboration
for the beam test of the calibration unit at CERN
in July and August. The next LAT collaboration
meeting will be held Aug. 28
GLAST E/PO News
The big news for GLAST E/PO is that the planetarium program "Black
Holes: The Other Side of Infinity"
(
http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/blackholes/) premiered at the Denver
Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS). Thomas Lucas, the producer and
director, along with DMNS used GLAST seed money to obtain NSF funding
to create the program. The show, narrated by Liam Neeson, takes the
viewer on a stunning tour of black holes, featuring scientific
visualizations by the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications. Instead of artists' illustrations, this full-dome,
totally digital high-resolution program uses the results from advanced
supercomputer calculations to display accurate representations of such
fantastic scenes as a trip through the Milky Way, two galaxies
colliding over the course of billions of years, the first stars in the
Universe forming (and subsequently exploding), and, finally, the last
plunge you'll ever take -- the fall into the supermassive black hole in
the center of the Galaxy. The show was attended by more than 30,000
people in the first six weeks of its run at DMNS. E/PO program manager
Sarah Silva teamed up with Sharon Unkart, the Teacher Programs
Coordinator for DMNS to put together a teacher's workshop to go along
with the public premier of "Black Holes," complete with an Educator
Guide loaded with black hole activities for students. Also, Education
Resource Director Philip Plait wrote an article about the show for The
Planetarian, the journal of the International Planetarium Society, and
it will be the cover article in their September 2006 issue. The
companion television program "The Monster of the Milky Way," is also
due to air as a PBS NOVA show in September.
The Global Telescope network (GTN;
http://gtn.sonoma.edu) is
growing. New members have joined from South America and Australia,
strengthening the global aspect of this consortium. The GLAST Optical
Robotic Telescope, or GORT, continues to make observations of
high-energy astronomical targets in support of the GLAST mission. The
GTN is also supporting a series of educational activities given by SSU
group member Tim Graves to students attending the Roseland University
Prep Charter high school in Santa Rosa, California. Students at RUP
were also thrilled to learn that local amateur astronomer Steve Wishny
donated a 10" Newtonian reflector telescope to them for their use.
Since November 2005 (the last newsletter), GLAST Educator Ambassadors
and E/PO professionals disseminated educational materials and GLAST
content at 32 different workshops, reaching 1065 participants.
Back to Top
15. Constellation X Mission News -- - Jay Bookbinder, Ann
Hornschemeier, and Michael Garcia
This has been an eventful six months for the Con-X project. While
we'd like to start with the technical highlights of the year, it's
unfortunate that the President's FY07 budget request in February,
and the updating of the NASA FY06 operating plan have become a major
concern. The FY07 Beyond Einstein budget is currently projected to be
$21.5M (only 25% of our expectation at this time last year), with
Con-X probably receiving about $4.5M of this amount. The current FY06
budget was reduced from about $9.5M to about $4.5M this February. As a
result, many of the milestones for FY06 have become, as best, goals
for the year, or pushed out into even later years. In particular,
the Technology NRA for instrument development that was planned for the
Spring of FY06 has now been deferred. The goal had been to advance
technologies to high TRL levels, and bring in new ideas and approaches
for the instruments. The key paragraph of the budget stated that:
?0;The Beyond Einstein program budget reflects an indefinite deferral
of the start of development of the LISA and Constellation-X mission
activities. Technology and science studies will continue with the
goal of selecting a mission for development later this decade
(including the Joint Dark Energy Mission).
A letter summarizing the FY07 budget issues has been sent to the FST,
outlining an advocacy approach for those who are interested. The
letter can be downloaded from:
ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/transfer/jbookbinder/FST1.pdf
On more positive notes, we started off 2006 with a very well attended
Town Hall meeting at the January AAS - nearly 300 people participated
- and we followed that up with a Facility Science Team meeting in
February. The presentations from the FST meeting are available on the
website at:
https://conxproj.gsfc.nasa.gov
(then go to Resources --> Meetings).
One of the highlights of the last six months has been the Con-X team
effort to define a less expensive mission implementation using a
single Delta-IVH launch vehicle as opposed to the baseline of two
Atlas-V vehicles (with 2 spacecraft per vehicle). Numerous
configurations were considered, with focal lengths ranging from 10m
(the current baseline) to 25m and number of telescopes varying between
one and four. In November 2005 the Con-X team selected the most
promising configuration, which turned out to be very similar to our
original design. This configuration, the "10-4" (10m focal length, 4
telescopes), has now been designed in more detail (full thermal
design, costing, etc.) and is in the process of being adopted as our
new baseline mission. Some detail about this single launch option is
available in the Single Launch Configuration presentations on the
aforementioned website.
The Con-X science team, led by Mike Garcia, Ann Hornschemeier and
Divas Sanwal and with support from the Facility Science Team, has been
updating the Science Requirements Document, based in large measure on
the Science with Constellation-X booklet (also on the Resources
section of the website). We have begun our studies of the radiation
environment at L2, leveraging off of the radiation study being
conducted by JWST. Divas Sanwal took the experience of Chandra,
XMM-Newton, and other X-ray missions and applied it to the Con-X
mission plan in order to evaluate observing efficiency (we estimate
that 85% observing efficiency is feasible). Divas also conducted some
important work on the radiation environment at L2, calculating
anticipated particle background rates of the spacecraft.
The SXT team was well underway to having an X-ray test of a mirror
pair at MSFC in the summer, but this effort, as with many others,
has been significantly delayed due to the budget
issues. Individual mirror segment fabrications have come a long way,
with Will Zhang and his team producing segments that are very close to
the flight requirements, suggesting that it may be possible to
improve the process to the point where epoxy replication is no longer
required, saving money and improving performance.
On other technology development fronts, substantial progress has been
made by the calorimeter groups in achieving the required energy
resolution at both 1.5 and 6 keV. 8x8 arrays are also being routinely
fabricated that have both high QE and filling factors. While the
launch of the Suzaku calorimeter proved that the calorimeter concept
works in a space environment, demonstrating the expected energy
resolution, stable gain, the low-temperature anti-coincidence detector
concept, and the lack of radiation effects on the microcalorimeter
array - its early loss was a blow to the entire community.
On the Grating/CCD team, MIT has generated patterned gratings of the
required size and line ruling density, while Colorado has fabricated a
holographic radial groove grating with high line
density. Unfortunately, the plans to upgrade the MIT facility to
produce the desired radial groove pattern, planned for FY06, have been
pushed out because of the budget issues described below. On the CCD
front, two more lots of event-driven CCDs have been fabricated, and
the high-yield chemisorption process has been demonstrated, as have
improvements to the molecular beam epitaxy approach.
The HXT team has also made progress on both the glass and nickel
mirrors- the HEFT mirrors have flown following the HERO and InFOCUS
flights, and demonstrating that glass optics that meet the mass and
performance requirements, while two thin (100 and 150 microns)
nickel-shell optics have undergone an X-ray test showing resolution
that exceeds the requirements. Caltech's CdZnTe detectors
have now flown on HEFT, and meet our requirements.
The Integrated Product Team (IPT) Leads have completed their work
(with many thanks for their outstanding efforts to Fiona Harrison,
Kathy Flanagan, and Rich Kelley) and we welcomed aboard the Instrument
Scientists: Ann Parsons for the HXT, Jean Cottam for the
Gratings/CCDs, and Rick Shafer for the Calorimeter. Ann Hornschemeier
was formally appointed as Deputy Project Scientist in August 2005,
after serving in an acting capacity from October 2004-July 2005. Rob
Petre was named as a Deputy Project Scientist in March 2006.
Lastly, EPO efforts continued at the AAS meeting, where we distributed
a set of spectroscopy glasses with diffraction gratings in the
"lenses" and included text on X-ray spectroscopy inside. These were a
big hit with the crowd, with visitors to the Con-X booth taking away
1000 pairs of these glasses. These Constellation-X glasses are
available to school groups in small quantities (30-50 per request) via
the Con-X web site. A one-page top-level summary of Con-X science and
technologies was also handed out at this meeting. The AAS posters,
the Town Hall presentations, the one page summary, Chris Reynold?7;s
Warner Prize lecture (which mentions Con-X prominently) can be found
at the main Con-X web site (constellation.gsfc.nasa.gov) under
Resources -> Presentations and Resources->Mission Documents. The
Con-X team hopes you will find these posters, presentations, and
handouts useful in your discussions about Con-X.
Back to Top
16. MEETINGS -- (a partial list!)
Editor's note: A list of international astronomical meetings can be
found at
http://cadcwww.dao.nrc.ca/meetings/meetings.html
Below are listed meetings that may be of interest to HEAD members, and
particularly those where the meeting organizers have asked to have
their meeting announcement included in the HEAD newsletter.
FUTURE MEETINGS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEAD Division Meeting
San Franscisco,
October 4 - 7, 2006,
http://www.confcon.com/head2006/head06.php
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
36TH COSPAR SCIENTIFIC ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATED EVENTS
Beijing, China, 16 - 23 July 2006
The following sections may be of particular interest --
Gamma-ray Bursts in the Swift Era (organizers: Gehrels and Piro)
Multi-scale and Multi-wavelength Studies of Black Holes (organizers: Li and
Mirabel)
Different Manifestations of Neutron Stars (organizers: Lai and Strohmayer)
New High-Energy Results on Supernova Remnants and Pulsar Wind Nebulae
(organizers: Vink and Slane)
Challenges in High Resolution Space Astronomy: Astrophysics,
Technology and Data (organizers: Fabbiano and Elvis)
Shedding New Light on Dark Matter and Dark Energy (organizers: Jones and Forman)
More information on these and other COSPAR sessions can be found at
http://www.cosis.net/members/meetings/programme/view.php?p_id=171&PHPSESSID=01f4567b198ca7cc45cae81227aaf078
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heating vs. Cooling in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies
August 6 - 11, 2006 in Garching, Germany
MPA/ESO/MPE/USM Joint Astronomy Conference
Detailed multiwavelength observations suggest that the dense plasma
regions at the centers of galaxy clusters, previously thought to
harbour cooling flows, are subject to a delicate balance between
heating and cooling, which substantially reduces mass condensation and
star formation rates. While these regions are quite complex, the rich
observational detail now becoming available can guide understanding
and modelling. The aim of this conference is to provide a synthesis of
all the observational evidence and to confront it with astrophysical
modelling. Analogous issues arise in the models of galaxy formation
where the observed properties and the evolution of the galaxy
population can only be explained if gas cooling and star formation are
assumed to be regulated by feedback heating. The conference will
explore possible connections between these two areas.
See also our WEB-page:
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~cool06
Heritage -
There has been a series of very successful meetings focussed on the
physics of cooling flows, each organized at an appropriate moment and
assembling almost all the scientists who made interesting
contributions to the field. This series started with the NATO ASI
organized by Andy Fabian in Cambridge (1988), which provided an
excellent review of the field combining the observational results in
the X-ray, optical and radio regimes. The next conference, organized
by Noam Soker in Israel in 1995, reviewed in particular the insights
gained with ROSAT and ASCA. The third organized by Craig Sarazin and
Thomas Reiprich in Charlottesville in 2003 allowed a first discussion
of the paradigm change initiated by new results from XMM-Newton and
Chandra: the realization that spectral signatures of massive cooling
are absent, while clear signatures of AGN interaction with the
intracluster medium in several cooling flow clusters are observed,
suggesting that AGN may be the source of heating. Some of the most
important current questions are how the heating is done and what
processes are involved, questions which bring us much more deeply into
astrophysics.
Motivation -
In recent years the effort to understand cluster cooling cores has
grown both in terms of observation (in particular in X-rays with the
Chandra and XMM-Newton satellites) and in terms of detailed numerical
hydrodynamical simulations. A review of the state of the subject is
thus timely. Also, in recent years it has been much more generally
appreciated that the suppression of gas cooling in the center of
galaxy clusters may be a model for the effects of feedback in galaxy
and structure formation in general. In our meeting we consequently
broaden the view to include feedback and self-regulation during galaxy
formation.
Topics
*) Evidence for cooling, cold material, and star formation in the
centers of galaxy clusters and elliptical galaxies
(results from observations in X-rays, optical, IR, radio, absorption
studies and other diagnostics)
*) Heating by the AGN-intracluster medium interaction and by other
processes; confrontation with observed cooling core structure
(observational results, particularly in X-rays and radio, and
theoretical modelling and simulations)
*) The entropy structure of the intracluster medium and chemical
enrichment
as signatures of feedback heating in the past
*) The need for feedback regulation in galaxy formation
(detailed comparison of model predictions and observations),
modelling of feedback during galaxy formation both from
stars/supernovae and from AGN
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texas in Australia
23rd Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics
Melbourne, Australia,
11-15 December 2006
for more information, please see
http://www.texas06.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6th Integral Workshop -- The Obscured Universe
2 - 8 July 2006, Moscow, Russia
The 6th INTEGRAL (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory)
workshop `The Obscured Universe' will take place from 2 - 8 July
2006 in Moscow, Russia.
Information on workshop registration and hotel booking, instructions
for authors and kits for the preparation of abstracts (including
examples) will be made available in due time via the WWW pages of the
Local Organizing Committee (LOC) (final details will be given in the
second circular):
http://hea.iki.rssi.ru/integral06
The ESA INTEGRAL pages on the WWW will also provide access to the
latest workshop information:
http://integral.esac.esa.int/integ_workshops.html
It is intended to make all accepted abstracts and the scientific
programme information available on the WWW.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Physics and Astrophysics of Supermassive Black-Holes
July 9 - 14, 2006,
Santa Fe, New Mexico
In the past, they were recognized as the most destructive force in
nature. Now, following a cascade of astonishing discoveries,
supermassive black holes have undergone a dramatic shift in
paradigm. Astronomers are finding out that these objects may have been
critical to the formation of structure in the early universe, spawning
bursts of star formation, planets, and even life itself. They may have
contributed as much as half of all the radiation produced after the
Big Bang, and at least 300 million of them may now be lurking through
the vast expanses of the observable cosmos. The most accessible among
them appears to be lurking at the Center of our own Galaxy.
This meeting will bring together astronomers, astrophysicists, and
general relativistis now working at the forefront of supermassive
black hole research with the goal of furthering our understanding of
the formation and evolution of these intriguing objects.
This gathering is sponsored jointly by Los Alamos National Laboratory
and The University of Arizona, and will be held at the Bishop's Lodge
Resort and Spa, just minutes outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The
hotel website may be found at
http://www.bishopslodge.com/. If you
are not familiar with Santa Fe, one of the most historic cities in the
U.S., you may find useful information at
http://santafe.org/. Among
the many attractions that Santa Fe has to offer, the open-air opera
season begins July 2.
Details of the meeting, including the registration page, may be found
at
http://qso.lanl.gov/meetings/meet2006/index.html. Please check
this site regularly for updates, including the complete list of
attendees, hotel reservations, and travel information.
There is no conference fee and LANL is partially subsidizing hotel
costs. However, due to space limitations at the meeting site, the
total number of participants will be restricted to 100 individuals.
We therefore urge you to register as soon as possible, but no later
than January 31, 2006, when decisions regarding attendance will be
made. Registration after this date will still be possible, but all
the available slots may be filled by then.
The Local Organizing Committee:
C. Fryer (fryer@lanl.gov),
F. Melia (melia@physics.arizona.edu),
G. Rockefeller (gaber@lanl.gov)
The Scientific Committee: R. Blandford, S. Komossa,
A. Fabian, F. Melia,
X. Fan, D. Merritt,
C. Fryer, M. Rees,
R. Genzel, S. Shapiro,
A. Goldwurm, R. Sunyaev
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
XXVI IAU General Assembly
August 14 - August 25, 2006,
Prague, Czech Republic
http://www.astronomy2006.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Role of Black Holes in Galaxy Formation and Evolution
September 10 - September 13, 2006,
Potsdam, Germany
http://www.aip.de/thinkshop4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recent Developments in the Study of Gamma-ray Bursts
September 18 - September 20,
Royal Society, London, England
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/grbmeeting
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Radiation Backgrounds from the First
Stars, Galaxies and Black Holes (9-11 October 2006, College
Park, Maryland)
http://www.astro.umd.edu/october/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extragalactic Surveys:A Chandra Science
Workshop (6-8 November 2006, Cambridge, MA)
http://cxc.harvard.edu/xsurveys06
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Suzaku Conference: The Extreme Universe in the Suzaku
Era ( 4 - 8 December, 2006, Kyoto, Japan)
http://www-cr.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp/conference/suzaku2006/
Back to Top
HEADNEWS, the electronic newsletter of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society, is issued twice yearly by the HEAD Secretary-Treasurer. The HEAD Executive Committee Members are:
