At ALMA with Tania Burchell of NRAO

Cross-posted on CosmoQuest

Well hello, everyone. I am finally just about done with pictures and video from my trip to see ALMA in Chile a few weeks ago. I still have some podcast content to cut together and post on our brand new 365 Days of Astronomy website, but I thought I’d share all the goodness so far.

As mentioned in a previous post, I was invited to join a group of journalists hosted by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) to visit one of the most badass telescopes around on the even of its inauguration. The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array, or ALMA, is a radio interferometer that will greatly improve astronomers’ ability to probe star formation, planet formation, and the formation of galaxies. So, basically, it studies young things! This is a ground-based telescope on a scale we’ve never seen before, and for a fraction of the cost of your typical space-based observatory.

First, we spent a bit of time in Santiago, Chile, where several inauguration events were being held. You can find the pictures of our jaunts on Flickr and my blog post for Discovery about the Metro exhibit and opera performance. I hope I can slip a few seconds of the performance into my podcast, but the whole thing is under copyright, so you had to be there to experience it! How I’d love to see more public displays of love for science here in the US!

Finally, we got up to the Atacama Desert and the observatory itself for the big tour. Even though we only had a few hours at the high site, the actual place where the antennas are located, it was the highlight of the experience. Get a preview of that and some of the operations at the “low site” the day before inauguration in my “home movie” below.

I’ve also posted some quick clips of the antennas “dancing” to George Hrab and the robot arm mucking about. Though you can view all the pictures in one big set, I’d point you specifically to the highlights I collected for Discovery.

The day of the inauguration itself was full of celebration and speeches, but I was specifically interested in the new science results that were announced that day. With just the early science array, some truly impressive starbursts were seen in the early universe. This particular study shows the power of ALMA as a redshift finding machine for star-forming galaxies across a wide swath of the universe’s history.

I’ll admit. I wasn’t always an ALMA fan. The science to be done at that wavelength is fascinating, but after a decade of hearing how AMAZING a telescope that doesn’t exist yet is GOING to be… you get a bit bored. I wanted to see some action. Well, thanks to the NRAO, I HAVE seen the promise of the science and the amazingly precise machine itself. I’m a convert. I stopped worrying and love the ALMA!

Oh! I almost forgot. I got to do an impromptu Hangout from the operations site with Mat Kaplan of the Planetary Society where we interviewed a number of scientists and engineers on the ALMA project. I’m so thankful to our guests for sitting in on another one of our crazy Hangout experiments, and I’m glad those of you that did catch it live enjoyed. It’s still quite fun if you want to watch the recording:

I hope I got to bring you along on my journey in some way through these videos and images and blog posts. As a scientist and a fan of science, I can’t truly describe how awe-inspiring it is to see a big project like this actually come to life, to work well, and to anticipate its future. Who knows, maybe we’ll be able to bring some ALMA images into the citizen science fold one day. Would you like to explore the submillimeter sky, too?

So I’ve been going back and watching interesting sci-fi and comedy programs on Netflix while I work on more mundane tasks or before bed. Most recently, I’ve been watching all of Red Dwarf in order, from the very first series in the late 80s, to Red Dwarf X which aired just last year. In joking about it with my boyfriend, Tim, we decided to go ahead and make the disgusting looking and odd sounding specialty of Dave Lister, the Triple Fried Egg Chili Chutney sandwich. Happily, there is already at least one blog dedicated to geeky recipes, so we followed the instructions over at Feasty Geeks. Here is our attempt…

The main ingredients are, not surprisingly, eggs, chutney, chili sauce, and butter (for frying the eggs). We went for a mango chutney, which was amusingly named Patak’s, so don’t try and feed it to a Klingon. The Sriracha chili sauce was recommended by Feasty Geeks, so we gave that a shot. It looks like hot firey death, but it’s actually not all that bad.

Oh yeah, and you need bread.

We decided to toast the bread to help with the stability of the sandwich to come.

The man they call… Tim, cracking another egg. This was Tim’s first shot at overeasy or fried eggs, so he was careful and kept the heat on the lowest setting. You don’t really want to do that, as you’ll read in a bit. His meticulous care made me think he was more Kryton than Lister, and I was the one hovering about being annoying… more like Lister.

While the eggs were cooking, he then got to work on the first beer milkshake. Stout, vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup into a blender. Not the most ideal blender for the job, but he got it to work.

The result… DELICIOUS!

Of course, Lister prefers lager, so Tim also tried a version with lager, ice cream, and frozen peaches. Not that Dave would willingly put fruit in his own beer milkshake, but I imagine Kryton would sneak it in as an attempt to get some healthy eating done. Unfortunately, the blender couldn’t handle the sheer awesomeness and this happened:

What little bits we could scoop out with our fingers were, however, also delicious.

Okay, now back to the sandwich… we toasted the bread (actually, I toasted the bread, and I was very proud of this, my only contribution to the meal) and started to spread the chutney and chili sauce while Tim flipped the eggs. Then, layering!

Then moment of truth came when I tried to cut the sandwich. Sadly, it was now clear that we’d overcooked the eggs. There was no volcanic eruption of yolk as we’d expected!

However, this first test proved that the sandwich itself was far tastier than it had any right to be. The sweetness of the chutney and the spiciness of the chili sauce worked perfectly on the egg-bread substrate. Delighted, I asked Tim for a triple fried egg chili chutney sandwich for breakfast the next day, and he obliged. This time, he was much faster with the eggs, and we got the yummy messy result that we were hoping for…

All hail the Triple Fried Egg Chili Chutney sandwich, and my boyfriend who thinks of doing crazy things like this when we’re together.

 NOMS!

Usually blog wars make me sad. People get angry and cranky at each other, feelings are hurt, no one really wins or learns anything. I don’t like blog wars. Except, for this one. May I introduce to you,

THE TURBULENT SCIENTIST VS. BACKGROUND DOMINATED

Pictures courtesy of XSEDE, NICS, Bob Rood, and wherever the heck Dan got that “butterfly”.

So here is the backstory. My good friend, Dr. Jake Simon, writes some insightful stuff about science, skepticism, and politics over on his Facebook page. Realizing that his posts were generating quite a bit of discussion, he decided to try his hand at blogging, a move that I applaud.

However, there was a disturbance in the Force. My other good friend, Dr. Dan Wik, took exception to Jake’s blogging and started his own in rebuttal, threatening various things with a soldering iron that should probably not be mentioned and calling out Jake’s research methods. Jake defends his purely theoretical research, claiming that Dan has data-envy. Dan fires back with his thousands of x-ray photons, but Jake has a Kraken-sized super computer at his disposal. Most recently, Dan has rebutted with a picture of a fly on butter which makes me worry about his sanity a bit, but I suspect that this argument is far from over.

For those of you who may be sarcasm-challenged, these guys are best of buds and former roommates now separated by two post-doctoral positions several hundred miles apart. It’s a shame, really, when such a bromace is long-distance. And they used to bicker like this in person all the time. Though the feud may not be real, the science that they discuss IS very real. I think they’ve stumbled upon a very entertaining and novel way to introduce aspects of their scientific research to the public. I encourage following this blog war down whatever strange rabbit hole they go. You’ll be amused AND learn something along the way.

After telling everyone I’d be at the media/music/explosion that is South by SouthWest (SXSW) for several days, I got this phone call today asking if I’d like to be in Chile that week for the inauguration of the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array, or ALMA. So even though my brain was yelling YES, I sadly declined since I had other responsibilities. I was promptly chastised by my boss, Pamela, who then yelled YES along with my brain and said GO TO CHILE.

So, I’m going to Texas. For two days. AND THEN I’m going to Chile. And I am so freaking excited like you have no idea.

It is news to no one that I love radio astronomy and radio telescopes. I love them so so much that one powerful little array in West Virginia and South Africa was the focus of my dissertation work. Ever since my internships as an undergraduate, first at MIT Haystack and then at the Very Large Array in New Mexico, I was fascinated with the completely unintuitive way that radio telescopes can be used to study the universe. Also, to see and visit those monstrous dishes, to walk around in them in some cases, to see the wires and receivers and literal nuts and bolts that make them work… is an amazing experience.

Don’t mind us, just chilling in the dish. Socorro Summer Students of 2004!

So Pamela was right to yell at me. How could I pass up a chance to visit the mountain vistas of the Atacama Desert and the world’s most advanced millimeter telescope perched high above the world at 16,500 feet? I’ll be one of a dozen or so members of the press along with National Radio Astronomy Observatory staff and various dignitaries from every organization involved. It’ll all be tweeted and Google Plussed as internet is available, blogged for Discovery News Space, and videoed and recorded for your viewing and listening pleasure later through our various CosmoQuest feeds.

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) and C. Padilla

So thanks to John Stoke and everyone at NRAO for this amazing opportunity. Everyone else, please join in for the ride, March 10-14th!

Also be sure to say hi to me on March 8th at the big NASA tent at SXSW if you are going to be in Austin. Scott, Pamela, Fraser, and the rest of the NASA extravaganza will be there all weekend! One of us will be sure to blog abut that on CosmoQuest when it gets closer.

Filmed as a Hack Day project at the American Astronomical Society meeting a few weeks ago. Just… watch it.

<3

I’m there! If you are here as well, say hello to the pink-haired girl. If not, go here for where you can watch sessions online and follow us on Twitter and Google+ with #scio13.

Also, if you haven’t been paying attention on Google+ over the last 30ish hours or so, this happened. TL;DR: the science suggested users list so far only has one female scientist. We’re getting positive responses from Google and MASSIVELY positive responses from people who can recommend their favorite STEM women. Check it out. And I’ll also add that if you are a science communicator, Google+ is the place to be right now for great content and community.

More later!

I’ve added a new widget over there on the right for the “Stand Up” campaign to end the stigma against mental illness. As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I have generalized anxiety disorder which can wreak havoc on my work, my relationships, and my self-esteem. Instead of ignoring it, I finally had to face it and go into therapy a couple of years ago. Something like 1 in 4 adults in America are dealing with mental health issues at any given time. Let’s take care of our brains and each other without passing judgement, shall we?

If you haven’t already seen this lovely TED Talk by Ruby Wax on the subject, take a few minutes to do so:

UPDATED (2/13) to include link to info about GAD.

I’ve been hesitant to write about this, since it was a rather private affair, but astronomy lost a shining star recently when my friend Heidi lost her battle with cancer. She was Assistant to the Director at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and worked in the Dean’s office at the University of Virginia before that. But more importantly, she was a cheerful, inspiring woman who loved astronomy and was a fervent supporter of everything we did at UVa Astro and the NRAO. In some of my most depressing times in grad school, her enthusiasm and support were like a guiding beacon of awesomeness, reminding me of what I could do and be. When I do outreach, it’s for people like Heidi that just loved and absorbed every bit of the interesting science happening around her.

So why am I mentioning this now? The NRAO released a news item that they are renaming a nebula seen with a radio telescope, W50, the “Manatee Nebula” after a whimsical comment that Heidi made about the image. That comment was picked up on by the ever-awesome Tania Burchell who is a star science communicator for the NRAO and actually used to work with manatees! Tania blogs about her reasons for pushing forward with the name and how they got it approved just in time for Heidi to see the poster while she was in hospice care. It is really worth a read, because it links astronomy and biology in a cool way! So kudos to Tania on getting that through, and have fun at the Manatee Festival today.

Credits: NRAO/AUI/NSF, WISE/NASA; Tracy Colson

I’ll be submitting a blog post to Discovery soon about the cool science in that nebula image, but I wanted to make the personal connection here as well.  I will also point out that those of you that were touched by Heidi’s influence (or her story) can make a donation in her name to support astronomy outreach at UVa, a cause that she supported in life.

Thanks for everything, Heidi. We miss you.

I was going to write something serious, like an update from AAS, but then this happened instead.

Pamela Gay:

Scott Lewis:

and my updated pony…

With props to General Zoi’s Pony Creator.

Update: Pamela made us a happy little pony family. Apparently I am “all the adorbz of a tiny postdoc pony.”

Note: when typing about the American Astronomical Society meeting, be careful that AAS does not autocorrect to ASS. Hilarity may ensue.

That said… it’s time to get back on a plane and head to Long Beach for the annual big meeting of US astronomers! Now, after the gargantuan AGU meeting I was at last month, this will probably seem quaint and provincial. But it is just about my favorite time of year. First of all, there is ALL THE ASTRONOMY that you could want to hear and talk about. I get to see all my old astronomy buddies from undergrad and now grad school, PLUS some of my LA friends are finally within striking distance. Pamela Gay, Scott Lewis, and I will be there representing CosmoQuest with posters and talks and some time spent at the giant NASA booth an awesomeness in the exhibit hall. But my hair is still pink so I probably won’t be that hard to find. Here’s a rough schedule of where I’ll be that I’ll update as needed. Unless otherwise noted, these events are for conference attendees only.

Sunday:

• 5 – 7 PM – We’re going to try and make the K-12 Educator Reception at Naples Ballroom III at Renaissance Long Beach
• 7 – 9 PM – Hopefully also we’ll make some of the opening reception at The Aquarium of the Pacific because that sounds fun

Monday:

Update: My rough Monday plan #aas221: NASA booth at 9:30, 11:40, 2; Early Science with HERA at 10; JWST booth at 4; wander posters 5:30; funsies!

Tuesday:

• All day – Scott and I have our posters up (#248.02 and #248.03) but who knows when we’ll actually be there. We’ll put up a sign. Or something. Exhibit Hall A at Long Beach Convention Center
• 10:50 AM – Pamela gives a talk about CosmoQuest at Astronomy Outreach for Non-traditional Audiences in Room 102B at Long Beach Convention Center
• 11:30 AM – 2:00 PM - Education and Public Outreach Student Event in Exhibit Hall A at Long Beach Convention Center. I’ll probably be with STSci at NASA
• 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM – NRAO Town Hall in Room 104C at Long Beach Convention Center
• 9pm ish – Possible TweetUp being organized at Congregation Ale. All welcome if in the area!
  

Wednesday:

• 6 PM Knitter meetup! Details TBA
• THE Party. Of course.

Thursday:

• 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM - Hack Day at Beacon A (Downtown Hyatt Long Beach)

The usual contact info is @noisyastronomer on Twitter and hashtag #aas221 for the meeting in general.

See you there!