2023-04 April Science Readings

Well, I'm still ploughing through the backlog. But progress …

Articles studied this April - some of which might go to Slashdot.

The backlog of old stuff

A quick "Funny"

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The Backlog

I get a daily mailing of new papers, and open ones that grab my attention by the title. I've got to speed up that pipeline to get through the backlog.

What have I got open on the tab list?

The Event Horizon Telescope Image of the Quasar NRAO 530 link This isn't "new" observation with the EHT, but calibration observations made back in 2017 as part of the initial runs of the radio interferomenter. "Their observed brightness temperature suggests that the energy density of the jet is dominated by the magnetic field. " - Intensity, polarisation and position of features changes. Further observations. I think I can leave this one pending.

Machine learning detects multiplicity of the first stars in stellar archaeology data link Complex study on Population-III stars, trying to work out their multiplicty from the fine details of the metallicity of thes Milky Way's "EMP" (Extremely Metal-Poor) stars. Yes, there were probably a lot of multiple, within the same range as today. Worth testing - because these stars supernovae are likely to end up beig the oldest probes into the universe since the CMB, and we need to know (or at least, test) that the stars then were similar to those we see "today" to calibrate our models on.

The Venus’ Cloud Discontinuity in 2022 link There's some weird stuff going on in Venus' atmosphere - it rotates faster (at some altitudes - than the ground. Which is ... odd. Continuing observation campaign.

Limits on Neutrino Emission from GRB 221009A from MeV to PeV using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory link In last month's GRB221009A Slashdot posting I predicted more papers. I think this was posted to ArXiv a couple of days later than that one, and there will be more in the backlog. I commented on /. that this was a (relatively rare) negative report - "we looked for Y, which we expected to see, but didn't". Valuable, but as sexy as the Ann Widdicombe range at Ann Summers.
See also : The first JWST spectrum of a GRB afterglow: No bright supernova in observations of the brightest GRB of all time, GRB 221009A, "The host galaxy appears rather typical amongst long-GRB hosts and suggests that the extreme properties of GRB 221009A are not directly tied to its galaxy-scale environment." ; The power of the rings: the GRB 221009A soft X-ray emission from its dust-scattering halo (What formed those ring-like structures presented in the composite paper, and what we can deduce from them.) ; Implication of GRB 221009A: Can TeV Emission Come from the GRB Prompt Phase? The highest-energy particles from the source probably "probe" deepest into the central "engine" of the event, and thus the whole class of events. ; GRB 221009A THE BOAT Studies the brightness of the GRB, and justifies calling it at least the "Brightest since human civilisation began."

Galaxy Zoo stuff : Galaxy Zoo: Kinematics of strongly and weakly barred galaxies ; Reanalysis of the spin direction distribution of Galaxy Zoo SDSS spiral galaxies I know "Galaxy Zoo" - do you? (Seriously - answers in a comment below, please!) It's one of the early examples of "Citizen Science", using the bulk observations of (lightly) trained amateur observers to classify (previously-made survey) images of galaxies using the human eye-brain abilities for pattern recognition. No dpoubt it'll be replaced by AI models ... uhhh, trained on Galaxy Zoo results. That's counting "angels dancing angel-counting dances on pinheads" territory. Recursion, potentially to a worrying level.
Anyway, two papers here. The first reports a moderate, neither expected nor unexpected relationship between bar strength (contrast) and rotation speed). Peculiar, but not exactly Earth shattering.
The second is just odd. Peculiar. As determined by GZ observers, presumably not interacting, the spin direction of galaxies is fairly strongly non-random (sigma 2.33~3.97). Which ... might be some larege scale structure of the universe. Or some unexpected aspect of GZ viewers, users, or ... something. What it means I have no idea, but it's definitely not expected. Watching brief.

And that's got my "Feburary pile" cleared (with a couple of exceptions). Things to do tomorrow, but maybe get March cleared over the next couple of days.

And now it's May 11th, and I haven't touched this for nearly a month.

Back to List.

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Redshift calculator https://wellsite-geologist.blogspot.com/2023/02/2023-february-posting-commentary.html#Redshift Something is borked, but I didn't note what.

Back to List.

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Funny diving.

DiverNet job advert for people to work diving in the "storage ponds" at Sellafield.

This looks like a really fun job. I wonder if the Slashdoterati will find it as amusing?

Actually, it's probably going to be a really tedious job, with masses of paperwork and endless waiting around, taking radiation readings. But the pay would be good. Maybe. [May update : the /. editors didn't bite.]

Back to List.

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Back to List.

And that's as much as I got last month.

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