223rd Annual AAS Meeting

818 Pages·2012·4.72 MB·English

223rd Annual AAS Meeting
Washington, DC – January, 2014
Meeting Abstracts
90 – HAD I: Origin of Structure and the 111 – Interstellar Medium & Dust I
Expanding Universe 112 – Nearby Dwarf & Irregular Galaxies
91 – HAD II: From Barnard's Star to the 113 – Novae, Dwarf Novae and Evolved Stars
Kepler Mission: Searching for Low Mass 114 – Pulsars & Neutron Stars I
Companions to Stars 115 – QSOs, AGN
100 – Welcome Address 116 – Results from the Pan-STARRS1 Surveys
101 – Kavli Foundation Lecture: The Hubble 117 – Star Formation I
Deep Field and its Legacy 118 – The Sun
145 – New Science from the 119 – Linking Visualization and
CLASH/CANDELS Multi-Cycle Treasury Understanding in Astronomy
Programs Poster Session 120 – HAD Business Meeting
146 – Exoplanets and Kepler Poster Session 121 – NSF Town Hall
147 – HAD III: Poster Session 122 – The International Astronomical Union:
148 – Instrumentation: Ground or Airborne Roles and Goals
Poster Session 123 – The NASA Kepler Mission Town Hall:
149 – Instrumentation: Space Missions Poster 2014 and Beyond
Session 124 – WGLE Town Hall
150 – AGN, QSO, Blazars Poster Session III 125 – Variable Stars
151 – Stellar Atmospheres, Winds Poster 126 – AGN on Sub-kiloparsec Scales
Session 127 – Cosmology & CMB II
152 – Stellar Evolution, Stellar Populations 128 – Dynamics and Habitability of
Poster Session Exoplanets - What have we learned from
153 – Pulsars & Neutron Stars Poster Session Kepler?
154 – Novae, Cataclysmic Variables, Evolved 129 – Evolution of Elliptical Galaxies and
Stars Black Holes
155 – Binary Stellar Systems, X-ray Binaries 130 – Evolution of Star Formation and Dust in
156 – Variable Stars Poster Session Galaxies
157 – White Dwarfs 131 – Extrasolar Planet Characterization &
158 – The Sun Poster Session Theory II
160 – Developing Our Own Future: 132 – Extrasolar Planet Detection - Ultra-
Undergraduate Research and Enrichment Short-Period, Circumbinary, and Exomoons
Through Peer-Led Programs Poster Session From Kepler
102 – Cosmology & CMB I 133 – Galaxy Evolution at z > 2
103 – Exoplanets and Kepler Astrophysics 134 – HAD V: History of Astronomy
104 – Exoplanets: Exomoons and Migration 135 – HEAD II: Consistent Cluster
105 – Extrasolar Planet Characterization & Cosmology: What are Planck, SZ telescopes,
Theory I and X-ray observations telling us?
106 – Galaxy Clusters: Star Formation, AGN, 136 – Instrumentation II: Ground Missions
Interactions 137 – Intergalactic Medium & QSO II
107 – HAD IV: History of Astronomy 138 – Interstellar Medium & Dust II
108 – HEAD I: News from the Galactic 139 – New Science from the
Center: A Multiwavelength Update on the Sgr CLASH/CANDELS Multi-Cycle Treasury
A*/G2 Encounter Programs
109 – Instrumentation I: Space Missions 140 – Pulsars & Neutron Stars II
110 – Intergalactic Medium & QSO I 141 – The Dark Energy Camera and the Dark
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Energy Survey Years
159 – Developing Our Own Future: 214 – Star Formation II
Undergraduate Research and Enrichment 215 – Stars - M & L Dwarfs
Through Peer-Led Programs 216 – Supernovae & Nebulae I
142 – Henry Norris Russell Lecture: New 217 – Surveys and Large Programs I
Developments in Galactic Archaeology 218 – The Solar System
143 – HAD Doggett Prize Lecture: Applied 219 – Cannon Award: Giant Planets in Dusty
Historical Astronomy Disks
144 – AAS Publications Town Hall 220 – CSWA Demographics Survey 2013
200 – The Thick and Thin Disks in Spiral 221 – NASA Town Hall
Galaxies 222 – Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Town
243 – The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph view Hall
of the Circumgalactic Medium Poster Session 223 – AGN Theory and Techniques
244 – Star Formation Poster Session 224 – Astronomy Education Policy, EPO
245 – Cosmology Poster Session Programs, and Undergraduate Education
246 – Evolution of Galaxies Poster Session 225 – Astrophysics Code Sharing II: The
247 – The Solar System Poster Session Sequel
248 – Lenses & Waves Poster Session 226 – Cosmology & CMB IV
249 – NITARP: The NASA/IPAC Training in 227 – Evolution of Emission Line Galaxies
Archival Research Program 228 – Extrasolar Planet Detection - Kepler
250 – AGN, QSO, Blazars Poster Session I Mission and Microlensing Surveys
251 – AGN, QSO, Blazars Poster Session II 229 – Extrasolar Planet Detection -
252 – Starburst Galaxies Poster Session Occultations, Coronagraphy, and Astrometry
253 – Astroinformatics and Astrostatistics 230 – Extrasolar Planet: Spectroscopy,
Poster Session Metallicity, and Composition
254 – Surveys and Large Programs Poster 231 – Galaxy Evolution in Groups/Clusters
Session 232 – Laboratory Astrophysics
255 – Computation, Data Handling, & Image 233 – Lenses & Waves II
Analysis Poster Session 234 – Reports from NASA's Astrophysics
256 – Catalogs Poster Session Program Analysis Groups
257 – Laboratory Astrophysics Poster Session 235 – Supernovae & Nebulae II
258 – Observatory Site Protection Poster 236 – Surveys and Large Programs II
Session 237 – The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph view
201 – AAS Prize Presentations: Education of the Circumgalactic Medium
Prize, Joseph Weber Award presented by AAS 238 – The Galactic Center
President David Helfand 259 – HAD VII: Oral History Project
202 – Instrumentation III: Ground or Airborne 239 – Heineman Prize: The Formation of
Missions Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes:
203 – Building the Astronomical Information Insights and Puzzles
Sciences: From NASA's AISR Program to the 240 – HEAD Rossi Prize: The Amazing Pulsar
New AAS Working Group on Astroinformatics Machine, Alice K. Harding and The Pulsing
and Astrostatistics Gamma-ray Sky, Roger Romani
204 – Cosmology & CMB III 241 – HEAD Business Meeting
205 – Evolution of Galaxy Structure 242 – National Radio Astronomy Observatory
206 – Extrasolar Planet Detection - Town Hall
Identification, Classification, and Validation of 300 – Pierce Prize: Exploring the Stellar
Kepler Candidates Graveyard of the Milky Way
207 – Extrasolar Planet: Atmospheres 343 – Time Domain Astronomy, the Large
208 – Galaxy Clusters: Cosmology and Synoptic Survey Telescope, and Transient
Evolution Follow-up Poster Session
209 – HAD VI: History of Astronomy 344 – Preparing for Future NASA Missions
210 – Jets and Outflows from AGN Poster Session
211 – Lenses & Waves I 345 – Young Stellar Objects Poster Session
212 – Pulsars & Neutron Stars III 346 – The Milky Way, The Galactic Center
213 – Spitzer Space Telescope: The Next Ten Poster Session
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347 – Extrasolar Planet Characterization 328 – Galaxies II - Starbursts
Poster Session 329 – Galaxies III - Andromeda and Nearby
348 – Extrasolar Planet Detection Disks
349 – Astrobiology Poster Session 330 – Gamma Ray Bursts: Phenomenology
350 – Circumstellar Disks Poster Session and Model
351 – Dust Poster Session 331 – Interstellar Medium & Dust IV
352 – Gamma Ray Bursts Poster Session 332 – Large Scale Structure & Cosmic
353 – Planetary Nebulae, Supernova Distance II
Remnants 333 – Public Policy: Perspectives from
354 – Supernovae Poster Session Congressional and White House Staff
355 – Dwarf & Irregular Galaxies Poster 334 – Stars - Brown Dwarfs and YSOs
Session 335 – Supernovae & Nebulae IV
358 – Galaxy Clusters Poster Session 336 – The Milky Way
301 – AGN Across the Spectrum: I 337 – The Proper Use of GRE Scores and
302 – Data Handling & Catalogs Noncognitive Measures for Enhancing
303 – Debris Disks Around Young Stars and Diversity and Excellence in Astronomy
Planet Formation I Graduate Programs
304 – Demographic Studies and the AAS 338 – Astronomy and Public Policy
305 – Developing Career Opportunities in 339 – Preparing for Future NASA Missions:
Science Policy and Industry at All Career The Strategic Astrophysics Technology
Levels Program
307 – Evolution of Local Group Galaxies 340 – The Millimetron Space Mission
308 – Exoplanets: Interiors, Evolution, and 341 – Wide Field InfraRed Space Telescope
planetarydisks (WFIRST)
309 – Galaxies I - Motions, Velocities, 342 – ESO: Present and Future
Kinematics, Masses 400 – Engineering Considerations for Large
310 – Galaxy Evolution at z~2 Astrophysics Projects
311 – Gamma Ray Bursts: Multi-wavelength 438 – The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope
and Afterglow Array (NuSTAR) Poster Session
312 – Interstellar Medium & Dust III 439 – The Exciting Future of Cosmic
313 – Large Scale Structure & Cosmic Microwave Background Measurements Poster
Distance I Session
314 – Scientific Opportunities with the James 440 – APOGEE - A Fresh View Into the Stellar
Webb Space Telescope Populations of the Milky Way Poster Session
315 – Stars 441 – Stars, Cool Dwarfs, Brown Dwarfs
316 – Supernovae & Nebulae III 442 – Star Associations, Star Clusters -
317 – Time Domain Astronomy, the Large Galactic & Extra-galactic Poster Session
Synoptic Survey Telescope, and Transient 443 – Black Holes Poster Session
Follow-up 444 – Education and Public Outreach Events
318 – Warner Prize: The Origin of Stellar and Programs
Masses 445 – Upper-Level Undergradutae and
319 – The Hubble and James Webb Space Graduate Education, Research Opportunities,
Telescopes Town Hall Meeting and Diversity
320 – U.S. National Research Council’s 446 – Observatories for Education and Public
Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics Outreach
Town Hall 447 – Astronomy Programs and Resources for
321 – AGN Across the Spectrum: II High School Students and Teachers
322 – Astronomy Education Research 448 – Astronomy Education Research
323 – Binary Systems 449 – Professional Development Workshops
324 – Evolution of Galaxy Mergers and Programs for Teachers
325 – Exoplanet Models 450 – Education and Public Outreach
326 – Extrasolar Planet Detection - Optical Resources
RV Surveys 451 – Astronomy 101: Courses and Resources
327 – From Protostars to Lensed Galaxies: 452 – Increasing the Accessibility of
The Immense Riches from Herschel Astronomy Poster Session
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453 – Spiral Galaxies Poster Session Eruptions
454 – Molecular Clouds, HII Regions, 419 – Giant Magellan Telescope Organization
Interstellar Medium Poster Session Town Hall
455 – Elliptical Galaxies Poster Session 420 – Transforming NOAO, A Town Hall
456 – Dark Matter & Dark Energy Poster Discussion
Session 421 – AGN at Radio to IR Wavelengths
457 – Large Scale Structure, Cosmic Distance 422 – Binary Systems - ULXs and Stellar
Scale Poster Session Collisions
458 – Intergalactic Medium, QSO Absorption 423 – Black Holes II
Line Systems Poster Session 424 – Circumstellar Disk Topics with some
459 – The NASA SMD Science Education and Evolved Star Talks to Boot
Public Outreach Forum 425 – Clouds in Brown Dwarfs and Giant
401 – A Melange of Circumstellar and Stellar Planets
Presentations 426 – Cosmology & CMB VI
402 – AGN Across Cosmic Time 427 – Dark Matter & Dark Energy II
403 – APOGEE - A Fresh View Into the Stellar 428 – Dwarf & Irregular Galaxies
Populations of the Milky Way 429 – Emerging Impacts on Structure
404 – Astronomy Across Africa: A New Dawn Formation and AGN Science from NanoHz
405 – Binary Systems - Dwarfs and Giants Gravitational Wave Studies
406 – Black Holes I 430 – Extrasolar Planet Detection - M Dwarfs
407 – Cosmology & CMB V and Young Stars
408 – Dark Matter & Dark Energy I 431 – Galaxy Clusters in High Energies and
409 – Debris Disks Around Young Stars and Radio
Planet Formation II 432 – Galaxy Evolution at z~1
410 – Evolution of Nearby Galaxies 433 – Star Clusters and Associations, Galactic
411 – Extrasolar Planet Detection - and Extragalactic
Ground-Based Observations 434 – Stellar Evolution II
412 – Galaxy Clusters in the X-rays 435 – The Exciting Future of Cosmic
413 – Public Policy Microwave Background Measurements
414 – Science Highlights from NASA’s 436 – Young Stellar Objects II
Astrophysics Data Analysis Program 437 – AIP Gemant Award Lecture: Star Trek:
415 – Stellar Evolution I The Search for the First Alleged Crab
416 – The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Supernova Rock Art
Array (NuSTAR) 460 – Berkeley Prize: Using the SDO
417 – Young Stellar Objects I Atmospheric Imaging Assembly to Study
418 – An Astronomical Time Machine: Light Solar Activity
Echoes from Historic Supernovae and Stellar
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90 – HAD I: Origin of Structure and the Expanding Universe
Special Session – Baltimore 5 – 05 Jan 2014 01:30 pm to 03:30 pm
When Hot Big Bang cosmology became widely accepted from the 1960s theorists realised that an explanation of how
structure arises in the universe was a complex intellectual puzzle. Speakers in this session will explore how aspects of the
problem of structure formation developed in the last century. Speakers will explain how the problem of origin - the "why is
there something rather than nothing?" question slowly dawned. Speakers will explain why expansion models of the universe
were only slowly accepted. New scholarship sheds light on the exchanges between Einstein and Hubble. A new timeline will
be presented of events in 1948 concerning the thermal radiation associated with a hot expansion. The session concludes with
an assessment of Beatrice Tinsley's contribution to derailing the famous "search for two numbers" that would define the
evolution of the universe.
90.01 – NOR YET THE LAST TO LAY THE OLD ASIDE: Structuring the Something
1
Virginia L. Trimble
1. UC, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
Once we agree that the Universe is full of stuff, obvious follow-up questions are how is it arranged and why that way rather
than some other? For many cultures, the distributing has been part and parcel of the creation. The modern view shoves
baryogenesis, leptogenesis, WIMP- genesis, and all very far back in time, but builds up structure continuously, using not-very-
special initial conditions and gravity (plus perhaps other forces) to develop what we see today. In between come some
remarkable constructs, including Thomas Wright’s hierarchy, Descartes’s Voronoi tesselation of whirlpools in the aether,
Alfred Russel Wallace’s (yes, the evolution guy) “Goldilocks” location for the solar system, Cornelis Easton’s off-center spiral
arms, and the Kapteyn Universe. The talk will explore some of these and others, why the proposers thought they were likely,
and the supporting entities they were required to abandon—luminiferous aether, solar system centrality, transparent space,
and all. Dark stars and dark matter, under those names, were part of the inventory from early interpretations of Beta Lyrae,
through the writings of A.M. Clerke, to 1922 papers by Kapyteyn and Jeans.
90.02 – A One Galaxy Universe and the Shift to Modern Cosmology
1
Robert W. Smith
1. Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
It was generally believed in 1900 that the visible universe consisted of our own galactic system. Some astronomers reckoned
other galaxies might exist, but such external stellar systems had not been sighted in even the most powerful telescopes. In
this paper I will examine these views and then explore how and why they fell from favor such that a recognisably modern
cosmology had begun to emerge within another two decades.
90.03 – REDSHIFTS AND THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE - PARADIGM SHIFT OR
SLOW DAWNING?
1
Cormac O Raifeartaigh
1. Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland, Ireland.
The observation by Edwin Hubble of a linear relation between the redshift of the spiral nebulae and their radial distance
marked one of the great discoveries of 20th century astronomy. This paper examines how the finding was interpreted as
possible evidence for a universe of expanding radius by a number of theoreticians, but not astronomers. A brief review of the
cosmic models of theoreticians such as Lemaître, Eddington, Einstein, de Sitter and Tolman is given, contrasting their
different views of issues such as spatial curvature, the cosmological constant, the singularity and the formation of structure.
It is argued that the concept of an expanding universe was not fully accepted for many years, and is best seen as the slow
dawning of an idea rather than an abrupt Kuhnian paradigm shift.
90.04 – Dismantling Hubble's Legacy?
1, 2
Michael J. Way
1. NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, United States. 2. Department of
Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala, Sweden.
Edwin Hubble is famous for a number of discoveries that are well known to amateur and professional astronomers, students
and even the general public. The origins of three of the most well-known discoveries are examined: The distances to nearby
spiral nebulae, the classification of extragalactic-nebulae and the Hubble constant. In the case of the first two a great deal of
supporting evidence was already in place, but little credit was given. The Hubble Constant had already been estimated in
1927 by Georges Lemaitre with roughly the same value that Hubble obtained in 1929 using redshifts provided mostly by
Vesto M. Slipher. These earlier estimates were not adopted or were forgotten by the astronomical community for complex
scientific, sociological and psychological reasons.
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90.05 – What happened in 1948?
1
P. J. Peebles
1. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States.
The idea that the universe is filled with the sea of thermal radiation now termed the Cosmic Microwave Background was first
discussed in eleven publications in the year 1948 by Alpher, Herman, and Gamow. Precision measurements of this radiation
are a central part of the evidence establishing the relativistic hot Big Bang theory of the expanding universe. The eleven
1948 papers offer a fascinating illustration of the exploration of a new line of research, and the confusion that can attend it.
That includes a common misunderstanding of the considerations that led to the idea of this thermal radiation.
90.06 – How Beatrice Tinsley Destroyed Sandage's Quest for a Standard Candle
1
Simon Mitton
1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The goal of cosmology and most extragalactic optical astronomy during the heroic period spanning the half century from
Hubble to Sandage (1920s – 1970s) was a search for two numbers, the Hubble constant and the deceleration parameter.
Standard candles were needed to establish the measure of the universe. In 1968, Beatrice Tinsley, then a postdoctoral fellow
in the astronomy department of the University of Texas at Austin showed that the great enterprise at Palomar of calibrating
the galaxies was in need of major revision. At the 132nd AAS Meeting (June 1970, Boulder, Colorado) she presented a paper
on galactic evolution on the magnitude-redshift relation. In her Abstract she boldly wrote: "My present conclusion is opposite
to that reached by most cosmologists." In fact her claims caused great consternation among cosmologists. In 1972 she
published eight papers on the evolution of galaxies, and the effects of that evolution for observational cosmology and the
origin of structure.
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91 – HAD II: From Barnard's Star to the Kepler Mission: Searching
for Low Mass Companions to Stars
Special Session – Baltimore 5 – 05 Jan 2014 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
One of the signal advances in astronomy in the last 25 years has been the discovery of extrasolar planets. Speakers in this
session will examine the role of applying new technologies, hardware and software, scientific and cultural, to the search for
planets in the universe. Speakers will identify what the limits of detection have been over the past century, and how these
limits have been extended to the point where humanity seems now on the verge of actually finding habitable abodes of life
circling other stars. Speakers who have been participants in the process will discuss their strategies and modes of operation,
and what they feel are the key artifacts of the material heritage of the process that should be preserved to better record and
appreciate this stage in the search for life in the universe. Speakers include Geoff Marcy, David Latham, Gordon Walker, Bill
Borucki, Tim Brown, and Edward Dunham.
91.01 – Hydrogen Fluoride: an unexpected calalyst in the search for extra-solar
planets
1
Gordon A. Walker
1. , Victoria, BC, Canada.
In the 1970s we developed low light level digital TV systems at UBC for the DAO 1.2-m telescope coudé spectrograph. John
Glaspey eliminated reading-beam jitter using telluric water vapor lines as fiducials. Later, when we switched to solid state
diode arrays, I suggested to Bruce Campbell that we could look for extra-solar planets using telluric lines to eliminate RV
errors induced by irregular slit illumination. He went a step further by introducing a deployable absorption cell of hot HF
gas. In December 1978 he and I demonstrated that an RV precision ~10 m/s was possible from observations of the Sun!
Sufficient precision to detect the reflex acceleration of a solar-type star accompanied by a Jupiter. Bruce moved to CFHT in
1979 where the coudé spectrograph was a replica of that at DAO. He built an HF cell and gas handling system and we were
granted some 6 to 8 nights per year. Modeling the line spread function proved critical in the reductions while, at the
telescope, isolation of the telescope exit pupil and estimation of the epoch of the weighted mean exposure time were key. The
program lasted some 12 years with, initially, little to show by way of results other than demonstrating the technique worked
and so it attracted little interest but ample skepticism.
91.02 – The Unseen Companion of HD 114762
1
David W. Latham
1. Harvard-Smithsonian, CfA, Cambridge, MA, United States.
I have told the story of the discovery of the unseen companion of HD114762 (Latham et al. 1989, Nature, 389, 38-40) in a
recent publication (Latham 2012, New Astronomy Reviews 56, 16-18). The discovery was enabled by a happy combination of
some thinking outside the box by Tsevi Mazeh at Tel Aviv University and the development of new technology for measuring
stellar spectra at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Tsevi's unconventional idea was that giant exoplanets
might be found much closer to their host stars than Jupiter and Saturn are to the Sun, well inside the snow line. Our
instrument was a high-resolution echelle spectrograph optimized for measuring radial velocities of stars similar to the Sun.
The key technological developments were an intensified Reticon photon-counting detector under computer control combined
with sophisticated analysis of the digital spectra. The detector signal-processing electronics eliminated persistence, which
had plagued other intensified systems. This allowed bright Th-Ar calibration exposures before and after every stellar
observation, which in turn enabled careful correction for spectrograph drifts. We built three of these systems for telescopes
in Massachusetts and Arizona and christened them the "CfA Digital Speedometers". The discovery of HD 114762-b was
serendipitous, but not accidental.
91.03 – Technology Enabling the First 100 Exoplanets
1
Geoffrey W. Marcy
1. UC, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.
The discoveries of the first 100 exoplanets by precise radial velocities in the late 1990's at Lick Observatory and Observatoire
de Haute-Provence were enabled by several technological advances and a cultural one. A key ingredient was a cross-
dispersed echelle spectrometer at a stable, coude focus, with a CCD detector, offering high spectral resolution, large
wavelength coverage, and a linear response to photons. A second ingredient was a computer capable of storing the megabyte
images from such spectrometers and analyzing them for Doppler shifts. Both Lick and OHP depended on these advents. A
third ingredient was a stable wavelength calibration. Here, two technologies emerged independently, with iodine gas
employed by Marcy's group (used first by solar physicists doing helioseismology) and simultaneous thorium-argon spectra
(enabled by fiber optics) used by Mayor's group. A final ingredient was a new culture emerging in the 1990's of forward-
modeling of spectra on computers, enabled by the well-behaved photon noise of CCDs, giving Poisson errors amenable to
rigorous statistical algorithms for measuring millipixel Doppler shifts. The prospect of detecting the 12 meter/sec reflex
velocity (1/100 pixel) of a Jupiter-like planet was considered impossible, except to a few who asked, "What actually limits
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Doppler precision?". Inspired insights were provided by Robert Howard, Paul Schechter, Bruce Campbell, and Gordon
Walker, leading to the first 100 exoplanets.
91.04 – Barriers to the Development of the Kepler Mission
1 1 3 2
William J. Borucki , Natalie M. Batalha , Edward W. Dunham , Jon M. Jenkins
1. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States. 2. SETI Institute, Mountain View,
CA, United States. 3. Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States.
Contributing teams: Kepler Science Team
No one had ever proposed nor flown a spacecraft mission that could do automated photometry of many thousands of stars
simultaneously with the 10 ppm photometric precision necessary to detect the transits of Earth-size planets. Consequently,
several barriers needed to be overcome before the Kepler Mission concept was accepted by the Discovery Program review
panel. To overcome these barriers it was necessary to; 1) demonstrate that an appropriate combination of detectors and data
analysis techniques was available that had the precision necessary to detect transits of Earth-size planets, 2) prove that the
variability of solar-like stars was likely to be sufficiently low that SNR of transits from Earth-size planets could be detected
with high reliability, 3) demonstrate the automated observations of thousands of stars simultaneously and the automated
analysis of the observations, 4) develop a lab test facility to demonstrate the 10ppm photometric precision necessary to find
Earth-sized planets orbiting solar-like stars and do it in the presence of the noise expected from on-orbit operation including
thermal variations, the presence of nearby stars, and the impact of energetic particles, 5) form a team of experienced,
technically qualified people who agreed that the technique would work and that they would support the mission
development, operation, and the analysis of the results. The approaches used to overcome these barriers will be presented.
91.05 – The Discovery of Extrasolar Planets via Transits
1 2 3 2
Edward W. Dunham , William J. Borucki , Jon M. Jenkins , Natalie M. Batalha , Douglas A.
3 1
Caldwell , Georgi Mandushev
1. Lowell Obs., Flagstaff, AZ, United States. 2. NASA Ames, Moffett Field, CA, United States. 3.
SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, United States.
The goal of detecting extrasolar planets has been part of human thought for many centuries and several plausible approaches
for detecting them have been discussed for many decades. At this point in history the two most successful approaches have
been the reflex radial velocity and transit approaches. These each have the additional merit of corroborating a discovery by
the other approach, at least in some cases, thereby producing very convincing detections of objects that can't be seen. In the
transit detection realm the key enabling technical factors were development of: - high quality large area electronic detectors
- practical fast optics with wide fields of view - automated telescope systems - analysis algorithms to correct for inadequacies
in the instrumentation - computing capability sufficient to cope with all of this This part of the equation is relatively
straightforward. The more important part is subliminal, namely what went on in the minds of the proponents and detractors
of the transit approach as events unfolded. Three major paradigm shifts had to happen. First, we had to come to understand
that not all solar systems look like ours. The motivating effect of the hot Jupiter class of planet was profound. Second, the fact
that CCD detectors can be much more stable than anybody imagined had to be understood. Finally, the ability of analysis
methods to correct the data sufficiently well for the differential photometry task at hand had to be understood by proponents
and detractors alike. The problem of capturing this changing mind-set in a collection of artifacts is a difficult one but is
essential for a proper presentation of this bit of history.
91.06 – Adapting Low-Tech Gear to Exoplanet Discovery
1, 2
Timothy M. Brown
1. Las Cumbres Global Telescope Network, Inc., Goleta, CA, United States. 2. CU/CASA, Boulder,
CO, United States.
The discovery of 51 Peg b by Mayor and Queloz revealed (among other things) that discovering extrasolar planets, though
certainly difficult, was not as hard as professional astronomers had previously thought. At the same time, the astronomical
equipment available to amateurs -- including optics, mountings, and CCD detectors -- had become quite capable. This
combination of factors led to successful exoplanet programs that leaned heavily on amateur-grade hardware, seeking faster
development times and lower costs than were possible for traditional no-compromises astronomical instrument programs. I
will describe two of these in which I played a role: the AFOE (Advanced Fiber Optic Echelle) spectrograph, and the STellar
Astrophysics and Research on Exoplanets (STARE) transit-search wide-field imager.
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100 – Welcome Address
Plenary Session – Potomac Ballroom A – 06 Jan 2014 08:00 am to 08:30 am
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101 – Kavli Foundation Lecture: The Hubble Deep Field and its
Legacy
Plenary Session – Potomac Ballroom A – 06 Jan 2014 08:30 am to 09:20 am
101.01 – The Hubble Deep Field and its Legacy
1
Robert E. Williams
1. STScI, Baltimore, MD, United States.
Although deep images of distant galaxies were hardly a novel concept at the time, various aspects of the Hubble Deep Field
resulted in its influence on subsequent studies of high redshift objects and on the culture in which large projects are carried
out on unique facilities. The sensitivity, spatial resolution, and low background of HST were essential in making the HDF a
success in its imaging of galaxy evolution from after the epoch of reionization to the present time. Subsequent deep fields
and follow up studies on HST and other facilities have produced a number of results important to our understanding of
galaxy evolution. Among these are: establishing the credibility of photometric redshifts as a foundation for extragalactic
research; determination of the rate of star formation over cosmological time; producing early, reliable maps of dark matter;
providing essential SNe data that revealed dark energy; resolving the X-ray background; enabling the evolution of galaxy
luminosity functions to be determined; and yielding detailed gravitational lensing maps that identify the locations of
magnified images of z>10 objects around clusters of galaxies. Undertaken using HST Director’s Discretionary time the HDF
set a precedent by providing unique non-proprietary observational data to the community in addition to a fully reduced
dataset virtually immediately after the observations were taken. Collaborative follow up studies on other facilities, e.g., Keck
spectroscopy, Chandra X-ray imaging, etc., that were important to the interpretation of the HDF images were arranged even
before the HDF observations were taken in order to facilitate analysis of the joint data. These collaborative programs were as
essential to the success of the HDF as the HST images themselves.
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