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Spotlight

Recent Advanced Degrees at Astronomy/Steward

Since May 1, 2022, three Astronomy grad students have received Doctorates: Katrina Litke Marslender on May 3, Ryan Endsley on May 18, and Minghao Yue on May 19. 

Photos can be seen HERE, HERE, and HERE. Congratulations to all of you, we are proud of you.

Also, in May, 2022, Hector Rico of the Department Office received  his Master's degree in Public Health with an emphasis in Health Services Administration. A photo of a celebration in the Dept. Office can be seen HERE.

 

Using Algae to Capture Carbon

UA Astronomy and Planetary Science Professor Daniel Apai and Research Associate Martin Schlecker are working on a novel, scalable solution to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. The project idea was inspired by Apai’s astrobiology research on habitable exoplanets and long-term climate feedbacks that may stabilize the surface temperatures of those worlds. Their team is using a special type of microalgae to capture carbon dioxide. These microalgae use energy from photosynthesis to extract carbon dissolved in the ocean to build shells made of calcium carbonate, a highly stable mineral. As the algae can divide several times a day, they offer a highly scalable, natural solution for large-scale atmospheric carbon dioxide removal. 

 

The University of Arizona press release can be found HERE.

 

Imaging of Planets Embedded in a Protoplanetary Disk

Astronomers at The University of Arizona, including Glenn Schneider, Olivier Guyon, and Kevin Wagner, were recent co-authors on a study that used the Subaru/SCExAO instrument along with the Hubble Space Telescope to uncover some of the first images of a planet (the planet is at the center-bottom in the cover photo to our web story) in the process of forming within its protoplanetary disk. AB Aurigae b, at 90 au from the star and still embedded within its disk, is seen driving spiral arms and clearing an inner gap within the disk of gas and dust. This giant planet is among the youngest known and provides an opportunity to learn about how very massive planets form and interact with their parent disks.

AB Aurigae b is the first planet discovered by SCExAO at the Subaru telescope, which was led and developed by Professor Guyon. Images from the HST work can be seen HERE. For moreinformation, see the original paper (Currie et al. 2022, can't be seen without a subscription to Nature) HERE and the University of Arizona press release HERE.

The Sky and Telescope story is HERE.  

Astrocharlas Public Talk in Spanish

A 2minute video (in Spanish) introducing April 25th's talk can be seen HERE
Dr Begoña Vila of Nasa/Goddard will be presenting the next Steward Astrocharlas talk in Spanish. It is Monday April 25 at 6:30pm in ENR S107 (see poster, note that the talk is NOT in the Steward Observatory building). The abstract (in English here, the Spanish abstract is on the poster) is: "The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most complex telescope that has been launched into space to date. It has a sun shield as large as a tennis court that has successfully unfolded into space, a mirror composed of 18 aligned smaller mirrors and instruments that will operate at 40 K (-388 F). It will help us to see the beginning of our Universe and search for candidate planets for life."
You can see the Spanish-language poster, along with the Lecture-Room address (note that it is NOT in Steward Observatory) HERE. The youtube  address and the Astrocharlas website can also be found on the poster. This talk is only in Spanish.

2021 Steward Photo Contest

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Photo Contest. The first place photo was by UArizona undergrad Charles Goldberg. Data were taken from Chicago with a 430mm telescope, in three filters (H-alpha, Si-II, and O-III) with a total exposure time of 31 hours. The second place image was made by Astronomy graduate student Harry Krantz, and is of smoky skies over Mt Bigelow in June 2021. The third place photo is also by Charles Goldberg, and is a collage of the Nov 2021 partial lunar eclipse, taken from Gates Pass.

Congratulations! We want to thank the judges: Adam Block, Sid Leach, Guy Jette, and Cindy Rainey.

 

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