Until I can get my laptop fixed and/or get a new one, my ability to write blog posts is a bit limited. At least there is a sizeable collection of things to share, including a steady supply of new videos from the Euclid Consortium like this one:
Archive for Euclid
Why Do We Need Simulations for the Euclid Telescope?
Posted in Euclid, The Universe and Stuff with tags Cosmology, Euclid, simulations on June 23, 2024 by telescoperThe Mystery Object
Posted in Euclid with tags EC2024, Euclid, Euclid Consortium, Merchandise, Roma on June 18, 2024 by telescoperAmong the various items of Euclid Merch in the goody bag given to attendees at the annual Euclid Consortium Meeting in Rome are a nice bag, a cap, a notebook, and a mystery object:
Can anyone suggest what this item does?
(Wrong answers preferred.)
Sono arrivato a Roma
Posted in Biographical, Euclid with tags Euclid, Euclid Consortium, La Sapienza, Roma, Rome on June 17, 2024 by telescoper
This morning, I took a short (~ 90 minute) flight from the pleasantly warm (23°C) Barcelona to the swelteringly hot (31°C) city of Rome. It’s actually forecast to be 39°C on Thursday and 40°C on Friday. Fortunately, I’m not staying that long!
The occasion for this trip is the annual Euclid Consortium Meeting, which is being held at the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza“. The main sessions are in the splendid Aula Maxima thereof, with its imposing mural:
I’m giving a talk there in the first plenary session tomorrow…
Update: here’s me giving my plenary talk:
Euclid Updates
Posted in Euclid, The Universe and Stuff with tags Dwarf galaxies in the Perseus galaxy cluster, ESA, Euclid, Euclid Flagship simulation, Ice, Knud Jahnke on June 11, 2024 by telescoperI’m travelling back to Barcelona today, later than planned because I’ve had a heavy cold that I struggled to shake off and didn’t want to infect fellow passengers on the flight. While I’m in transit I thought I’d share some updates about the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission.
The first thing to share is a piece by Knud Jahnke with news about Euclid’s issue with ice in the optical system. The latest intervention has led to an improvement, but since it is a closed system ice will probably form again – though perhaps not in the same place – and further procedures will probably be necessary in future. In the meantime, though, the survey resumes.
Now for some short videos -three, to be precise – about the Early Release Observations mentioned here. I posted another one in this series here. I think the titles are self-explanatory:
And if that isn’t enough, for those of you who like simulations here is another video about the Euclid Flagship simulation described in this paper.
Sub-Stellar Objects in the Euclid Early Release Observations
Posted in Euclid, The Universe and Stuff with tags arXiv:2401.00204, Euclid, planet formation, sub-stellar objects on May 31, 2024 by telescoperI have a busy day in front of me here in Not-Barcelona so I thought I’d do a quick post sharing a video about the Euclid Early Release Observations (EROs) that came out last week. The press materials accompanying the release of the EROs and the science paper relating to this work, mention “freely floating planets”, but that doesn’t make sense in terms of the modern definition of a planet so here they are described as sub-stellar objects. The paper describing this work can be found on the arXiv here.
Euclid Paper Day!
Posted in Barcelona, Euclid, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags A&A, arXiv, arXiv:2405.13491, astronomy, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Cosmology, dark matter, ESA, Euclid on May 24, 2024 by telescoperThis morning’s arXiv update brought the expected deluge of preprints from Euclid. You can find details of all fifteen of the new articles here. Ten of them relate to the Early Release Observations of which five were announced yesterday and five last November. These are essentially byproducts of the testing and calibration phase of the Euclid mission rather than the main cosmological survey. ESA is making a series of short videos about these results which I will share on here from time to time.
Of more direct relevance to cosmologists such as myself are the following five reference papers:
- Euclid. I. Overview of the Euclid mission, Euclid Collaboration: Mellier et al.
- Euclid. II. The VIS Instrument, Euclid Collaboration: Cropper et al.
- Euclid. III. The NISP Instrument, Euclid Collaboration: Jahnke et al.
- Euclid. IV. The NISP calibration unit, Euclid Collaboration: Hormuth et al.
- Euclid. V. The Flagship galaxy mock catalogue: a comprehensive simulation for the Euclid mission, Euclid Collaboration: Castander et al.
The overview paper, led by Yannick Mellier (Euclid Consortium Lead), giving a general description of the mission capabilities and science goals, will be the main reference paper and just about every active member of the Euclid Consortium is on the author list (including myself). That’s over a thousand people, not quite at the level of the Large Hadron Collider but getting there. I do think we need to find a better way of giving credit to work in large collaborations than through authorship, but until someone comes up with a workable scheme, and people responsible for hiring researchers adopt it, we’re stuck with what we’ve got. At least I can say that I’ve read that paper (which is 94 pages long, including the author list)
Papers II-IV are technical articles relating to Euclid’s instruments and their calibration, which will also be important references for the survey part of the Euclid mission. Paper V is about the Flagship simulations and the mock catalogues produced therefrom; I discussed these a while ago here. It is led by Francisco Castander of Institut de Ciencies de l’Espai, who organized the meeting I attended recently here in Barcelona.
These papers now now be peer-reviewed and, assuming they are accepted, published in a special issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A).
New Results from Euclid
Posted in Euclid, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags Cosmology, Early Release Observations, Euclid, Euclid Survey, European Space Agency on May 23, 2024 by telescoperAs it was foretold, exciting new results from the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission have now been released.
You can read more about these images here.
Together with the five images released last November that makes a total of ten Early Release Observations from the pre-survey phase of Euclid. It’s not all about the pictures, however. Today also saw the release of ten scientific papers to go with these images, as well as five reference papers for the main survey. You can find them all, with accompanying information here. They will be announced on arXiv tomorrow.
You might also be interested to read my Euclid piece on RTÉ Brainstorm which has just appeared. This is not just about the new images, but gives an update on what Euclid has been up to since launch, and what we can expect in the future. There’s also a version adapted for Maynooth University PR purposes here. It includes this quote:
Today’s release of new data and technical papers from Euclid is exciting in itself but also marks the start, after months of painstaking calibration and testing of the instruments, of Euclid’s main cosmological survey. We are on the threshold of a new era in cosmology. Maynooth is the only University in Ireland to be involved in this mission and it is very exciting to be at the forefront of such an important scientific development.
I’m also quoted in a piece in the Irish Times. You’ll probably find the article blocked by a paywall but my bit is:
Gearing up for Thursday’s Euclid News
Posted in Euclid, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags astronomy, dark matter, ESA, Euclid, Euclid Consortium, European Space Agency, Little Book of Irish Research, Science Foundation Ireland on May 21, 2024 by telescoperIt’s a hectic time ahead of a Big Event on Thursday 23rd May, which will include the publication of five new Early Release Observations (EROs). I’m not at liberty to say what they are until after 12 noon (CEST) on Thursday except that they’re very pretty. You can watch the live stream here:
Including the five released on November 7th 2023 that will bring the total to ten. All the ERO pictures will be available on the ESA archive here.
Thursday will also see the release of ten scientific papers related to the EROs; they will appear on arXiv on Friday 24th May. These will be the first science results from the Euclid mission.
But that’s not all! Thursday will also see the publication of five papers from the Euclid Consortium (of which I am the sole member based in Ireland). These will be the principal technical reference papers aimed at the astronomical community about the Euclid mission, covering the instruments, cosmology and other astronomy science possibilities, as well as the cosmological simulations used to assist the analysis of the mission. One of these, the main overview paper for the mission, has over a thousand authors (one of whom is your truly).
Thursday’s announcements are likely to significant level of press interest. That’s not only due to the European Space Agency’s own social media feeds and the like, but also local activities in Ireland. For example, there’s this from Science Foundation Ireland using this, from the Little Book of Irish Research:
I have also written a piece for RTÉ Brainstorm, as a kind of update on the one I wrote last year on the occasion of the launch; this will go live after the embargo is lifted on Thursday.
.Astronomy
Posted in Barcelona, Euclid, The Universe and Stuff with tags astronomy, dotastronomy, ESAC, ESOC, Euclid, European Space Agency, European Space Astronomy Centre, European Space Operations Centre, Madrid on April 24, 2024 by telescoper
So here I am at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) just outside Madrid for a conference called .Astronomy 13. It is (obviously) the thirteenth such conference but the first that I have attended. I’m giving a plenary talk in half-an-hour or so. I travelled from Barcelona by train yesterday evening, which was a comfortable and uneventful trip, the (approximately) 504 km from Barcelona to Madrid Atocha station taking about 2 hours and 30 minutes that cost about 30 euros. I stayed overnight in Madrid and took a shuttle bus from to ESAC. The only glitch in my travels so far was that I got on the Metro Line 6 (the equivalent of the Circle Line), but chose the wrong platform and went the long way round. I still got there in time to get the shuttle.
Incidentally, ESAC hosts the Euclid Science Operations Centre (SOC) which plays a central role in the processing of data from Euclid and is also responsible for the development and operations of the Euclid Archive from which data will be distributed to the global astronomical community.
UPDATE: Back in Barcelona. The return by train was just as smooth an uneventful as the outbound journey, and in fact arrived back about five minutes ahead of schedule. Thanks to the organizers for inviting me – I’m sorry I couldn’t stay for longer as I like the idea of the .Astronomy meetings. Perhaps we should have one in Ireland sometime?
In the Dark 