Posts tagged 2012
CU joins Sloan Digital Sky Survey to map stars, galaxies and quasars in 3D
Jun 26th
The survey, known as SDSS-IV, is the fourth stage of an effort that began with SDSS-I in 2000 to create the largest digital color image of the northern sky, said CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, lead scientist in the effort by CU-Boulder to join the survey. Since 2000, astronomers have mapped about one-half of the visible northern sky in three dimensions as part of the three prior Sloan sky surveys, discovering nearly half a billion astronomical objects ranging from asteroids and stars to galaxies and distant quasars in the process.
“We got into this because we think it is going to be a great recruitment tool for new students, and we have one of the best undergraduate majors in the country,” Shull said. “We also want to recruit high-caliber graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.”
The SDSS 2.5-meter telescope is located at the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, N.M., and is owned by the Astrophysical Research Consortium, or ARC, an organization of eight research institutions including CU-Boulder. The Sloan telescope sky-mapping project is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the participating institutions, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Apache Point also hosts several other telescopes, including a 3.5-meter optical telescope owned and operated by ARC and routinely used by CU-Boulder.
ARC was formed in 1984 to create a national observatory that could provide telescope time to each member university based on its investment. Current ARC members in addition to CU-Boulder are the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., the University of Washington, the University of Virginia and New Mexico State University. CU-Boulder owns a one-eighth share of each of the two telescopes.
The costs to build new instruments, make observations and analyze data from the SDSS-IV from 2014 to 2020 is estimated to be between $50 million and $60 million, said Shull. The Sloan Foundation is contributing roughly $10 million, while additional funds are coming from more than 10 full institutional members, including CU, and from scientists with individual and small group memberships from various institutions.
Full institutional partners like CU-Boulder are paying roughly $1 million to join part four of the Sloan sky survey effort. CU-Boulder’s member fee was supported by university grants, awards, donations, general funds and indirect cost recovery savings. As an early institutional partner joining the Sloan IV survey before the end of the current fiscal year, CU received a $350,000 discount from ARC, said Shull.
Light from the Sloan telescope is directed to two powerful new instruments — a dual-channel visible light, or optical spectrograph, and a near-infrared spectrograph. Astronomical spectrographs break light into telltale colors much like a prism, revealing information about the size, temperature, composition and motion of celestial objects, said Shull.
The Sloan spectrographs will carry out a massive survey of galaxies and quasars in the distant universe, as well as stars in the Milky Way and thousands of nearby galaxies, said Shull, who also is a member of CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy.
The new optical spectrograph on the Sloan telescope can take data from up to 1,000 galaxies or quasars simultaneously, he said. The instrument includes a circular aluminum plate roughly the size of a large pizza pan with 1,000 small perforations precisely drilled to match up with known astronomical objects in the sky. Each hole is plugged with an optical fiber attached to the spectrograph.
“I think this is going to be a perfect way for undergraduates to get their hands dirty working with ‘big data,’ said Shull. “A lot of undergraduates are better at computers than we are, so hiring a freshman or a sophomore who really wants to get into computing and big data sets in the field of astronomy is one of our goals.”
One of the biggest discoveries by SDSS-III astronomers came in 2012 when they detected the predicted signature of the first sound waves from matter and radiation in the early universe, said Shull. Sloan researchers used a multi-fiber spectrograph as part of the Baryon Oscillation Sky Survey, or BOSS, to detect the large-scale structures of ancient galaxies — similar in some ways to ripples on a pond — that were preserved after the Big Bang.
Shull, who plans to use the multi-fiber spectrograph to hunt for distant quasars in the early universe going back 13 million years, said the BOSS effort also is expected to reveal new information about so-called “dark energy.” A hypothetical form of energy that makes up the majority of the universe and produces a force that opposes gravity, dark energy is thought to be the cause of the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Another SDSS-IV effort will be a sky survey in the infrared to probe the distribution, dynamics and chemistry of stars and to explore the formation of our Milky Way Galaxy and its two companion galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, said Shull. Since the two Magellanic Clouds are best viewed from the southern hemisphere, SDSS scientists plan to collaborate with astronomers who are using the 2.5 meter du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas, Chile, on the effort.
SDSS-IV astronomers also will be using the BOSS instrument to study the internal structure of 10,000 nearby galaxies. The data will include precise velocities of stellar motions and chemical abundances for a large range of galaxy masses, types and environments. The data will complement observations of two newly completed American telescopes: the ALMA millimeter and submillimeter array radio telescope in Chile and the Expanded-Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico.
SDSS-IV also has had a significant citizen science component since 2007, when a data set of a million galaxies was released to the public, who were asked to classify them in three categories: Elliptical galaxies, merging galaxies and spiral galaxies, including the direction of the spiral arms. An astounding 70,000 classifications were received by SDSS scientists from the public within an hour of the data release, and during the first year more than 150,000 people made more than 50 million galaxy classifications.
CU has a legacy in space dating back nearly 70 years, said CU-Boulder Vice Chancellor for Research Stein Sture. It is the top funded public university by NASA, has a $70 million instrument now flying on the Hubble Space Telescope, is leading a $485 million mission to Mars and controls four NASA satellites from campus.
A video news story on the project is available at http://youtu.be/1Rke59L5cAo.
-CU-
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No more geeky hardware in the trash or go to jail
Jun 22nd
Many Electronics will be Prohibited from Trash Bins Starting July 1
The Electronic Recycling Jobs Act bans electronics from landfills
Boulder County, Colo. – Effective July 1, Boulder County residents can no longer place computers and many other types of electronics at the curb, or in waste bins, for collection and disposal. The Electronic Recycling Jobs Act, signed by Governor Hickenlooper in April of 2012, intends many benefits for the state including job creation through material recovery, diversion of hazardous material from landfills and reduction of energy and raw material resource demands from mining and manufacturing.
Banned devices include:
- television sets
- central processing units (CPUs)
- computer monitors
- peripherals
- printers
- fax machines
- laptops
- notebooks
- ultra books
- net books
- electronic tablets
- digital video disc players
- video cassette recorders
- video display devices with a screen greater than four inches
The law requires that consumers deliver their electronic equipment to collection facilities or collection events. Boulder County will no longer accept waste electronics at the Nederland or Allenspark transfer stations or county recycling drop off centers. Residents of Nederland and Allenspark can expect county-organized collection events on or around Labor Day weekend.
Electronic devices contain a number of hazardous elements that can migrate if disposed in a landfill, potentially contaminating groundwater and soil. Brokers and recyclers with an e-Steward or R2 certification have demonstrated that they meet specific environmental standards and safely manage used electronics. Residents of Boulder County can find a list of certified electronics recyclers and local collection events atwww.bouldercounty.org/env/recycle/pages/ewaste.aspx.
For more information, contact Jeff Callahan, Boulder County Resource Conservation Division at 720-564-2221 orjcallahan@bouldercounty.org.
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CU’s Van Halen is 1st team All American
Jun 7th
EUGENE, Ore. – Aric Van Halen finished his track and field career at the University of Colorado by earning All-America First Team honors with an eighth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday night at the NCAA Championships at Historic Hayward Field.
Van Halen, the 2013 Pac-12 Champion, finished in 8:44.50 to earn his best placing at nationals; his previous best finish was 10th in 2012 when he was named to the All-America Second Team.
The top three finishers went to the start from the gun and immediately pulled away from the rest of the field. The other nine racers ran together for the majority of the race and Van Halen was right near the front of that pack and led the group for four laps until just before the field entered the bell lap. It was right before that lap that he dropped down to around eighth which is where he would finish.
COBURN COMPETES FOR THE STEEPLE CHASE CHAMPIONSHIP at 3:57 MT on ESPNU
The top three competitors in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase finished very closely. UTEP’s Anthony Rotich won in 8:21.19 and Texas A&M’s Henry Lelei, the overall favorite, ended up second after taking a spill in the final water jump (8:23.16). Arkansas’ Staney Kebenei was third in 8:24.45. Curtis Carr (BYU) was the next to cross the finish in 8:40.87. The following four finishers were separated by less than 1.5 seconds. Dakota Peachee (High Point) was fifth in 8:43.04, Louisville’s Mattias Wolter was sixth (8:43.59) and Eastern Kentucky’s Ole Hesselbjerg was seventh (8:43.80). Van Halen beat out Wichita State’s Tomas Cotter for the eighth position by .60 seconds (8:45.10).
In the high jump, Mark Jones made his first attempt over the bar at 6-8.75, but missed all three tries at 6-10.75. He tied with two others for 21st overall as all three made it over 6-8.75 on their first attempt. He’s the first Buff since Jason Dudley in 1990 to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the high jump.
Emma Coburn will wrap up the championships on Saturday afternoon for the Buffs in the women’s steeplechase. She will be going for her second title in the event as she won the championship in 2011 before redshirting the 2012 season. Coburn’s final is at 2:57 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live on ESPNU. Live stats will also be available at www.flashresults.com.
NCAA Outdoor Championships Schedule (CU Events Only)
Historic Hayward Field (Eugene, Ore.)
Track Events
Men’s 3,000-Meter Steeplechase Finals: (1. Anthony Rotich, UTEP, 8:21.19) 8. Aric Van Halen, 8:44.50
Field Events
Men’s High Jump Finals: (1. Derrick Drouin, Indiana, 7-8) t21. Mark Jones, 6-8.75
– release by Colorado track & field –
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