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SN1987A, Past and Present

Posted in Biographical, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , , , on February 23, 2024 by telescoper

There’s a new paper in Science featuring observations using the MIRI and NIRSpec instruments on JWST of Supernova SN1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. I couldn’t resist doing a short post about this result, partly because the paper features Maynooth colleague Paddy Kavanagh, and partly because I’m old enough to remember when this supernova was detected, in 1987. In fact I was doing my PhD at the time. When I started lecturing a few years later I used to use it as an example of a Type II (core-collapse) supernova. At first I would say “you will remember SN1987A” then, as the years passed, I realized that students would have been quite young in 1987 so I changed this to “some of you will remember SN1987A”. Still later, I realized that none of my students had even been born in 1987 so I forgot about the remembering bit and just talked about SN1987A. As of 2024, nobody under the age of 37 was born in 1987. Tempus has a distinct tendency to Fugit.

In 1987 I was in Sussex and I remember Roger Tayler getting very excited about the detection of anti-neutrinos from SN1987A at the Kamioka Observatory in Japan. There weren’t many – 12 altogether – but he wanted to do a statistical analysis of the arrival times to see if there was any evidence that might indicate the neutrinos had mass. Being rather “old-school”, he did a Monte Carlo experiment involving drawing numbers written on bits of paper out of a cardboard box. After a brief chat I suggested I could do a much better job using a random-number generator on a computer so I wrote a bit of code and did the computation. The results showed no evidence for neutrino mass.

Anyway, this type of supernova should produce a neutron star or black hole sitting inside a ring-shaped remnant. The ring has been well studied, but in 37 years of observation the central object has not been detected. The results in the latest paper (by Fransson et al.) involve a spectroscopic study of the emission lines of ionized argon from the SN1987a remnant at sufficiently high spectral resolution to map the velocity structure. The results suggest that ionizing radiation from a neutron star is illuminating gas from the inner parts of the remnant.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adj5796

For more details, see the paper.

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Open Access Talk at UNSW

Posted in Biographical, Open Access, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , on February 21, 2024 by telescoper

After an exciting start to the day involving a fire alarm and consequent evacuation of my hotel, I today ventured into the suburbs of Sydney via the Light Rail system (i.e. the tram) to the University of New South Wales. The tram ride took about 20 minutes from Central and, incidentally, took me right past the Sydney Cricket Ground. Anyway, the UNSW campus at Kensington is very impressive:

After a few gremlins with the WIFI connection, the talk I gave was a longer version of the one I did at the University of Sydney on Monday. In discussions with the Astrophysics group at UNSW, I found they were particularly unhappy about the decision of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society to charge a high level of APC (Article Processing Artificial Profit Charge) so is looking at alternative journals that aren’t so exploitative. A journal has no right to call itself “open access” if it excludes researchers on grounds of cost. The problem with the Open Journal of Astrophysics in this case is that they need their publications to be in “high impact journals” for research assessment purposes, and OJAp doesn’t have an “official” journal impact factor yet. The fascination of bureaucrats with the obviously flawed journal impact factor disturbs me greatly but I hope we will have one soon so we may be able to help them out before too long.

Anyway, here are the slides from today’s talk:

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A Sunny Afternoon in the Botanic Gardens

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , on February 17, 2024 by telescoper

I took a stroll this afternoon in Sydney’s splendid Royal Botanic Garden. It was quite warm, so I soon had to retreat into a bar for some light refreshment, but not before I took a few snaps. The last one, incidentally, is of a wedding ceremony…

Two of the pictures show examples of Australian birds that are common in Sydney. The Australian White Ibis – called “Bin Chickens” because of their scavenging habits – look rather elegant from a distance but close up look rather manky. The smaller bird on the arm of the bench is a Noisy Miner. These are aggressively territorial, rather like the Eurasian Robin familiar to folk in the Northern hemisphere. They are also rather noisy. The other common native bird I see frequently is the Cockatoo. I’ll do a separate post about these very peculiar creatures when I get some decent pictures.

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Asbestos in the Park

Posted in Biographical, LGBTQ+ with tags , , , on February 15, 2024 by telescoper

Time, I think, a bit of local news. There’s an ongoing asbestos crisis not only in Sydney but across all New South Wales. It seems that the mulch that has been used in many public parks, school grounds and even a hospital garden is contaminated with asbestos. One affected site is Victoria Park, which I walk through from my flat to the University. At least the park is still open, so you can walk on the paths and sit on the lawns, but all areas with mulch are fenced off:

As it happens, Victoria Park was to be used for one of the events planned for Sydney Mardi Gras, which starts today*, but that particular event has been cancelled though many others are unaffected.

The contaminated mulch at all the sites affected was supplied by the same company, Greenlife Resource Recovery. I hope they have to foot the bill for clearing it all up!

*It is, of course, a complete coincidence that this LGBT festival coincides with my stay in Sydney…

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Sydney, Ten Days in

Posted in Biographical with tags , , on February 14, 2024 by telescoper

Taking a few moments over breakfast to post about life in Sydney. This morning is cooler than it has been for a while and it’s all a bit rainy. It was very warm (by my standards) earlier in the week (up to 31°C) and very humid, culminating in thunderstorms but those were some way off in the distance so didn’t affect us greatly. Since then it’s been in the mid-20s with a mixture of clouds, light rain, and sunshine. You have to be careful here, though, as it is perfectly possible to get sunburn when it’s cloudy. I’m definitely glad I brought my hat.

Preparing for Fresher’s Fair
Fresher’s Fair

Other than the weather, the main thing at the University is that it’s Orientation Week, when the new students arrive. Campus has been much busier this week than it was last week, as you can see from the pictures above; I wanted to stand in the same spot for the second picture but there were too many people. Lectures start next week, for both new and returning students, so it should get even busier.

I’ve managed to book tickets for two different performances at the Opera, The Magic Flute and La Traviata. These weren’t cheap but I couldn’t resist seeing the Sydney Opera House from the inside. I’m also planning a trip to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, were there is a special exhibition of art by Wassily Kandinsky which I must see. I’m also going to travel around a bit to give a few talks in the Sydney area.

My diary is filling up, so the second half of this visit will be rather busier than the first, but it should all be interesting!

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Supermarket Sweep

Posted in Biographical with tags , , on February 11, 2024 by telescoper

Since I’m in a self-catering apartment here in Sydney, I’ve needed to scout out the local shops. It turns out the nearest supermarket to my residence is called Coles. When I was buying a few bits and bobs there I showed the name on my debit card to the person at the checkout, but they wouldn’t even give me a discount.

Coles is one of the two big supermarket chains in Australia, the other being Woolworths. I was a bit surprised by that as the UK Woolworths went down the tubes some time ago. I’ve tried both stores during my stay here and it pains me to say that I think Woolworths is the better of the two; it also has the highest market share. There’s also an Aldi near me.

One thing that surprised me about both Coles and Woolworths is that neither sells alcoholic beverages while Aldi does. It turns out that both have associated drinks businesses, Liquorland and BWS respectively, usually located right next to the supermarkets. For some reason it has been decided to keep them separate from the general stores. That might be because of licensing laws or because of purely commercial reasons. I’ve sampled a couple of wines while I’ve been here (one red and one white, both mid-price) and both were nice. Imported wines are available, but I’ll be sticking to local producers while I’m here. Of course the grape varieties are of European origin, but grown in Australia: the red I tried was a Montepulciano and the white a Riesling.

Other than that the main difference between supermarkets here and in Ireland (or the UK) is the much greater selection of Asian food and ingredients. Most groceries are of Australian origin, though, and even brands that are familiar back home (e.g. Heinz) are generally made here under licence. Anyway, I didn’t come all the way here to eat what I would eat at home, and it’s been fun sampling some of the local delicacies, such as Barramundi. I haven’t had kangaroo yet. I did try a Tim Tam but was unimpressed.

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Walkabout in Sydney

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , , , on February 10, 2024 by telescoper

It was a bit rainy this morning so my planned Saturday walk around Sydney was a bit truncated. I made it to Sydney Harbour but didn’t go on a boat trip, which I’ll do later. I didn’t have time to visit the Botanical Gardens or the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which are nearby, but will do so later. I was planning to take more pictures with my little compact camera too, but when I took it out I realized its battery was virtually flat and I had to use my phone camera instead. The light here is very different from Ireland! Fortunately I’m here long enough that I’ll have other opportunities for exploration.

My residence in Sydney is the district called Ultimo, which is very central and close to the University of Sydney campus. There is excellent public transport from here to Circular Quay, close to both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, but I needed to stretch my legs so took a leisurely stroll of about an hour, my route taking me through Haymarket and Chinatown to Circular Quay. It being Chinese New Year, I took a detour to look at some of the preparations for two weeks of celebrations. I enjoyed the walk, which followed the tram line most of the way there, and it was getting rather warm in late afternoon so I returned by tram.

Anyway, after much fiddling about, I’ve managed to embed a video I put on Instagram. As you can hear, it was quite windy!

P.S. Here’s an interesting factoid for you: the population of Greater Sydney (5.3M) exceeds that of the entire Republic of Ireland (5.0M).

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Sydney Calling…

Posted in Biographical with tags , , on February 7, 2024 by telescoper
Zoom calls from Australia are awkward…

I know that’s an obvious joke, but I couldn’t resist.

The thing that’s really awkward about Zoom calls from Australia is when the other attendees are in Europe and North America. I had to chair a (Euclid-related) telecon in the early hours of yesterday morning, which wasn’t much fun, though I think it went OK and I did manage to get some sleep afterwards.

Other than that I’ve been remarkably free of jet lag. I had received dire warnings from other colleagues who have made the trip, but it doesn’t seem to have affected me badly at all. By now I’m used to what time it is, though I still have problems with what day it is. That’s because most of the emails I get are sent from Europe and these are generally sent yesterday (my time), i.e. from a place where my today is the sender’s tomorrow. If somebody says “let’s chat tomorrow” that confuses me!

Although I haven’t had much trouble with the time difference, the one thing that I have taken time to adjust to is eating habits. I got on the plane at Abu Dhabi at 10.25pm and once the plane had reached cruising altitude they served dinner (and, of course, wine). The trouble is that was around 7am Sydney time when I should have been having breakfast. I arrived in Sydney around 7pm Sydney time, when I should have had dinner, but all I had was a craving for breakfast (especially coffee). Obviously my stomach wasn’t yet tuned in. Anyway, just two (or is it three?) days later, I’m back to having breakfast at breakfast time and dinner at dinner time so all is well.

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University of Sydney, Physics, and Astronomy…

Posted in Biographical, History with tags , , , , on February 7, 2024 by telescoper

Here’s a gallery of random pictures I took on the way to the Physics Department at the University of Sydney this morning.

The academic year at the University of Sydney is about to start, with the new intake of students beginning to arrive next week and the first lectures taking place the week after that. The rows of tents are for the various student societies which will be hoping to recruit new members. The University was founded in 1850 and the architectural style of the older buildings on campus is what you might call Victorian Gothic Revival. There are also buildings dating from the 1920s, such as the Faculty of Medicine (1922) and the Physics Building (1924); the latter seems much bigger on the inside than the outside, and also has a new building next to it devoted to nanoscience.

Entrance to Campus
Preparing for Fresher’s Fair
Gothic Revival
Built in 1922
Way in to Physics
Long Corridor
A refracting telescope
Grubb Telescope Company 1893

I’ve posted before about the famous optical instrument manufacturer, the Grubb Telescope Company, founded in Dublin by Thomas Grubb and later renamed Grubb Parsons after its relocation to Newcastle upon Tyne. I’ve posted about other connections too, including the presence in the Physics Department in Barcelona of a refracting telescope made by Grubb. Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw yet another Grubb Telescope near the entrance to the Physics building of the University of Sydney, this one made in 1893. This is further evidence – as if it were needed – that, in its time, the Grubb Telescope Company really was the world leader in optical instrumentation.

P.S. The later manifestation of the Grubb Telescope Company – Grubb Parsons – also has Australian connections, including making the primary mirror for the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and building the UK Schmidt situated next to the AAT at Siding Spring Observatory (about 500 km from Sydney).

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Arrived Down Under

Posted in Biographical with tags on February 5, 2024 by telescoper

The plane from Abu Dhabi to Sydney set off a bit late but, 13 hours later, arrived slightly ahead of schedule in Sydney at about 7pm local time. I hadn’t quite realized how much of the flight is actually across Australia itself. It’s quite a big place. Who knew? The route took us over Sri Lanka, incidentally.

Australian immigration and customs were a bit of a rigmarole but didn’t really take all that long and once through I took a taxi to the hotel where I’ll be stating for the next month or so. I have a self-catering suite, which is very nice so I’m looking forward to my stay here.

It’s warm in Sydney – about 26° when I landed – but a bit overcast and very muggy. Rain is forecast.

Today is a public holiday in Ireland, the first Monday on or after 1st February. Astronomically speaking this cross-quarter day is about half-way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Here of course it’s between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox, which takes place at the beginning of August in the Northern Hemisphere and is in Ireland sometimes referred to as the start of Autumn. The climate here in Sydney is very different from Ireland, however, and I don’t think anyone thinks of 1st August as Autumn.

Anyway, the flight went really well. I even slept for a few hours so I’m not particularly tired, but I’m still 11 hours out of kilter so I’ll try to stay up as long as possible and get a good night’s sleep to try to reset my internal clock. I plan to go for a walk tomorrow morning to explore my immediate surroundings then head up to the University campus to say hello to Physics Department.

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