One Astronomer's Noise

Entries from December 2009

A Little Diversion…

December 28, 2009 · 3 Comments

I’ve discovered this great new method for dealing with all my stress…

I’ll let you know how it works out for me!

No, seriously, I look forward to the day when a dangerous cult like Scientology can’t afford prime real estate in Midtown Manhattan.

Stay tuned… after this vacation I’ll be at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, DC, catching up on all the astronomy goodness I can handle.  When I’m not too busy running between sessions, manning my posters, and catching up with all my long-distance astronomy pals, I’ll try and write about some of the cool new research being presented! I’m sure there will be a Twitter hashtag for the meeting as well.

Categories: fun · general
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Winter Wonderland

December 20, 2009 · 1 Comment

If you are my friend on Twitter, you’ve probably been oversaturated with this already… but it FREAKIN SNOWED here in Charlottesville! We unofficially measured 20 inches outside of my apartment, and some people in the area measured even more. A snowstorm like this can be very dangerous as some lost power (most of us had brief outages, but Dominion stayed well on top of it) and others were stranded in their cars or had to abandon them on the road. As I most definitely do not have 4-wheel drive, I holed up in my house and tried working from home, which worked quite well on Friday, but I was distracted by the HOLYCRAPSNOW on Saturday.  I could act like a scientist (taking measurements) AND a kid (sledding!) and capture it on video which I’ve posted on Youtube:

(and pictures on Flickr.)

George Privon was tweeting away as well while also posting videos on his vimeo channel including a hilarious time-lapse shoveling one, and his best impression of Les Stroud, but with a better soundtrack. He also has some stunning photos on Flickr!

Categories: general
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Anthropogenic Global Warming and Skepticism

December 17, 2009 · 2 Comments

The blogosphere is amazing. Issues can flare up and come back down more quickly than I can get around to actually reading it happen.  Phew! And as so many things flare up and die down, sometimes it’s best to wait and see the reactions and counter-reactions unfold.

With “Climategate” and the Copenhagen Conference happening at the moment, global warming has been at the forefront of the news cycle and many people’s minds.  I noticed particularly in my occasional lurking about the JREF forums that AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) was being heavily discussed on the science boards.  I was a bit surprised to see that so many skeptics are also skeptical of AGW, although the science weighs pretty heavily in its favor.  Climate change is no doubt a huge and complex issue that can only be well understood by a studious few, but the same goes for many topics that skeptics tend to weigh in on, such as vaccinations, medicine, and evolution.  Of course, these are much broader and heavier topics than the paranormal claims that were investigated for decades by “traditional” organizations such as CSICOP (now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.)  Is it possible that as the skeptical movement grows and diversifies that we are collectively taking on bigger and bigger fish, or even overstepping our capabilities?

In order to tackle these big issues, skeptics need to ally themselves with the experts in these fields.  The Science-Based Medicine blog is a great example of real-life medical doctors weighing in on alternative medicine and anti-vaccination issues.  Many of the skeptical podcasts interview experts in a wide variety of fields in order to broaden our education.  However, trusting the experts runs counter to one common rallying call of skepticism, which is to “do the research yourself.”  For me, scientific research means actually sitting in the lab/office and doing the work that goes in the peer-reviewed journals, though skeptical research often means sifting through web or print sources for the information. In that latter case, you need to trust your sources.  Learning how the scientific method works, how science and scientists really work, and learning who to trust is actually an important part of skepticism, especially if we are to overcome a perfectly natural tendency to reject something that is complex and inconvenient.

So that brings me to the fooferah I mentioned in the first paragraph, that being James Randi’s post on the Swift blog about AGW.  Honestly, I don’t want to comment much on it and let his words, as well as a very thoughtful follow-up, speak for themselves.  Randi is darn good at what he does, and his commentary doesn’t change that.  Also, his opinions are not necessarily the official stance of the JREF or of the skeptical movement in general. That’s part of what is so great about skeptics, we won’t fall in line behind our heroes if they say something that we don’t agree with.  Also, our heroes are willing to self-correct when necessary, and that is invaluable.

So, I’m not going to get up in arms that the godfather of skepticism showed some skepticism of AGW, or at least admitted ignorance on the topic.  But it does make me want to work that much harder to make sure that the methods, as well as the results, of science are more broadly and deeply understood.  And I hope that skeptics will continue to reach out to the experts when tackling the “big fish” topics.

That being said, any actual climate change scientists want to meet for coffee? I know I have a lot to learn…

Categories: science · skeptic
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Prayer for Serenity

December 15, 2009 · 3 Comments

Whedon, grant me the Serenity
to leave the Alliance I cannot change;
courage to aim to misbehave;
and wisdom to fly like a leaf on the wind.

Gorram.

Oh, not THAT serenity prayer?

Thanks for the inspiration, Jackie!

Categories: fun
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A Very Brief History of Christmas

December 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I love Christmastime.  I love the lights, the trees, the gift-giving, the hot chocolate by the fire… okay, I don’t have a fireplace anymore. For as much as I complain about cold and snow, less a problem now that I live in Virginia, I do love celebrating this particular holiday.

The day after Thanksgiving, I was already excited to start decorating. I’ve inherited my mother’s Dickens village, and I love putting it together every year, with all the little people in a quaint Victorian Christmas town.  When I mentioned this to one of my friends she replied, “But wait, aren’t you an atheist?”  I was a little confused and took a minute to think.  Oh right, Jesus is the reason for the season, isn’t he?

The things I like about Christmas aren’t related to the Christian story at all.  The winter solstice, or the shortest day of the year, in terms of daylight hours, was an important date in many ancient traditions.  This is now considered the first day of winter, but it also marks when the days will begin getting longer, a welcome event for farming communities and people who don’t like to come home from work when it’s dark.  It’s the day that the sun starts moving higher in the sky again, thus it is unconquered, or Sol Invictus.  Winter festivities around the world included Roman Saturnalia, full of gift-giving and merry-making (ancient eggnog anyone?), Roman new year celebrations , which helped to give us indoor greenery to celebrate life amongst the cold, and Scandinavia, which gave us the Yule log. Later, as Christianity became more established, they threw their holiday into the mix as to not be forgotten, and to reaffirm Jesus as the “unconquered son.”

Since Christmas was so heavily steeped in pagan tradition, it was rejected by the Puritans who settled the “New World.” Christmas had mixed popularity in colonial America but fell out of favor, along with other English customs like tea time and Doctor Who, after the Revolutionary War. In this era, Christmas continued to be celebrated in various forms in Europe where the Christmas tree and Santa Claus became part of the holiday.

Christmas as we know it was reinvented in 19th century America as a peaceful family holiday that focused on children. The practice of putting a Christmas tree in the house and giving presents to children from Santa were incorporated at this time, and the holiday grew up to be one of goodwill towards all mankind.  It was declared a national holiday in 1870.

So really, when you look at it, axial tilt is the REAL reason for the season, and we have a rich, complex history of traditions that have been invented and reinvented over the years to surround that. I think that as long as you don’t get wrapped up in cynical, crass commercialism, it can be the most wonderful time of year!

So I’ll happily have myself a godless little Christmas, but don’t get offended if I tell you “Happy Holidays.” I understand that some people celebrate Hanukkah instead of Christmas, or Kwanzaa or Festivus or the Solstice or even the Feast of the FSM, so “Happy Holidays” is perfectly appropriate, especially when I don’t know the person! I’m not attacking Christmas with that phrase.

Go ahead, fellow non-believers.  Turn up the holiday music, light your lights, put up your tree, and get something nice for your loved ones.  And, yes, flashing-light reindeer antlers are entirely appropriate.

Okay, who knocked over the kids? Must be the war on Christmas!

Categories: general
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My very first Letter to the Editor

December 12, 2009 · 2 Comments

In response to a post on the Hook news blog, “Pelt Michaels? Climategate includes swipe at Pat.“  I hope I don’t sound like a total goober…

I’d like to briefly respond to the Hook news blog post by Lisa Provence titled “Pelt Michaels? Climategate includes swipe at Pat.”  It was incorrectly reported here that Dr. Phil Jones resigned from his post at the University of East Anglia, when he has only stepped aside from his post as director of the Climate Research Unit while there is an investigation into the matter. The information is available on the CRU website: http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/2009/dec/CRUphiljones

I would also caution in using the word “skeptic” when describing Pat Michaels and others climate change contrarians. A skeptic, as recently defined by John Rennie of Scientific American, is one who favors “dispassionate, rational inquiry, a respect for scientific thought and a well-grounded doubt in ghosts, astrology, creationism and homeopathy.” (http://bit.ly/8bg9Fx) It is proper to view climate change science with a healthy dose of skepticism, but the scientific evidence for anthropogenic global warming is overwhelming and comes from many different sources.  The so-called CRU “scandal” will not change the scientific results from sources all over the world, but instead highlight a serious problem with scientific communication to the public and public distrust of science.

Thank you!

Categories: science · skeptic
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Warp speed, Scotty

December 10, 2009 · 5 Comments

Last week I took a little break from work to participate in Virtual Drinking Skeptically, which is a fun video chat with cool skeptical people from all over the world.  Someone, and I’m sorry because I can’t remember who it was as I was still fiddling with the software and dealing with a slow network… brought up jets in galaxies that seem to be moving faster than the speed of light. I don’t think I did a very good job of explaining it, and I couldn’t find a terribly good illustration right away, so I’ll try again here!

Most galaxies have a supermassive black hole (that’s millions of times the mass of the sun) in the center, and if this black hole has gas and other material falling onto it, you get a bright, energetic active galactic nucleus (AGN).  Sometimes, this AGN gives off powerful radio radiation in the form of a jet of material that blasts away from the nucleus at nearly the speed of light.

Boom, baby. (Click to embiggenate. Courtesy NRAO/AUI)

In some of the jets, when you zoom in to the very small scales with a telescope like the Very Long Baseline Array, you can track “blobs” of luminous material as it moves away from the black hole at the center.  And in some of these cases, the blobs appear to be moving across the sky at a speed greater than the ultimate, cosmic speed limit… the speed of light!

3C279, how fast can you go? via NRAO/AUI.

To find out what’s really going on, you need to take the angle of the jet into account.  The jet of 3C279, and other such AGNs that appear to show superluminal motion, are lined almost along the line of sight between the AGN and Earth.

Let’s take an example where a blob of material moves at about 0.96 times the speed of light… fast, but not impossible for this blob of ionized material in a jet. It moves 25 light years (that’s a measure of distance, don’t forget!) in a span of 26 years along a path that is just a few degrees away from our line of sight. We take observations of this blob at the beginning of this track and again at the end of it, so we are seeing the light emitted from the blob at each of the plotted positions.

Ignoring my imprecise angles, you can make a right triangle where you break the distance it has traveled into its components along and perpendicular to our light of sight.

At the first position, the blob’s light is given off to be detected by a telescope on Earth. 26 years later, light is give off from a different position that is now 24 light years closer to Earth. Therefore, the light is received only two year after the observation of the first position!

To an earthling, it appears that they blob has moved horizontally 7 light years in just 2 years, making its motion 3.5 times the speed of light! But in reality, it was just going 0.96 times light speed.

Apparent superluminal motion is a fun little concept, and it is a great example of astronomical objects that show change well within a human lifetime. And it shows us that you don’t want to call Einstein wrong just at the first glance of the observations. Radio jets point at or away from us at all angles, so naturally we will see some show this phenomenon. (More than you would think because of relativistic beaming, but that’s another story.)

This also has nothing to do with the concept of the “edge of the visible universe” in which galaxies are receding away from us at faster than the speed of light, so we will never see them, because of the rapid expansion of spacetime. This also does not violate the cosmic speed limit since space itself is expanding and just dragging the galaxies along, and space is not subject to the same constraints as matter.

Lest you ever forget… the universe is a weird and awesome place…

If you’d like to use my diagrams, feel free, but do me a favor and link back here? Thanks!

Categories: astronomy · science
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