AAS NOVA — Research Highlights 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 9:58 pm

Catching Radio Signals from Colliding Objects
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jun 26

Susanna Kohler wrote:
The merger of two compact objects — neutron stars or black holes — could be accompanied by a sudden, immediate flash of radio emission, according to predictions. Can an array of antennas in California help us spot these signals? ...

A First Search for Prompt Radio Emission from a Gravitational-Wave Event ~ Thomas A. Callister et al

Astrophysical Journal Letters 877(2):L39 (2019 Jun 01) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab2248
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1903.06786 > 15 Mar 2019

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bystander · Post by **bystander** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:04 pm

Testing Collapsars as the Key to Heavy Elements
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jun 28

Susanna Kohler wrote:
How do we get the heavy elements — elements with atomic mass above iron, like gold, platinum, or uranium — in our universe? A new study suggests that one theorized source, collapsing massive stars, may not be the best option. ...

Constraining Collapsar r-process Models through Stellar Abundances ~ Phillip Macias, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz

Astrophysical Journal Letters 877(2):L24 (2019 Jun 01) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab2049
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1905.04315 > 10 May 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:10 pm

Reinterpreting Planet-Driven Gaps
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jul 03

Susanna Kohler wrote:
The stunning substructures of gaps and rings revealed in protoplanetary disks have been attributed to the motions of hidden, newly formed planets. But are we interpreting our observations correctly? ...

On the Planetary Interpretation of Multiple Gaps and Rings
in Protoplanetary Disks Seen By ALMA ~ Ryan Miranda, Roman R. Rafikov

Astrophysical Journal Letters 878(1):L9 (2019 Jun 10) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab22a7
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1905.08259 > 20 May 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:19 pm

Can We Detect Gravitational Waves from Core-Collapse Supernovae?
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jul 05

Kerry Hensley wrote:
When massive stars explode as supernovae, they fling shredded stellar material into the interstellar medium. The explosion should also generate gravitational waves, but astronomers haven’t detected any yet. Is it just a matter of time before we detect gravitational waves from core-collapse supernovae, or are the signals still out of reach? ...

Characterizing the Gravitational Wave Signal from Core-collapse Supernovae ~ David Radice et al

Astrophysical Journal Letters 876(1):L9 (2019 May 01) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab191a
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1812.07703 > 18 Dec 2018 (v1), 23 Apr 2019 (v3)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:28 pm

How Venus Reacts when the Sun Strikes
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jul 08

Susanna Kohler wrote:
What happens to Venus when an enormous solar eruption slams into the planet? In 2011, the Venus Express spacecraft was on site to find out! ...

Observations of the Venus Dramatic Response to an Extremely
Strong Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection ~ Qi Xu et al

Astrophysical Journal 876(1):84 (2019 May 01) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab14e1

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:35 pm

Exploring a Black-Hole Mass Conundrum
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jul 10

Susanna Kohler wrote:
When the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) discovered its first merging black holes, astronomers were surprised: these black holes were much larger than we had expected! A new study looks at what these observations might tell us about black holes in star clusters. ...

Constraining the Black Hole Initial Mass Function with LIGO/VIRGO Observations ~ Rosalba Perna et al

Astrophysical Journal Letters 878(1):L1 (2019 Jun 10) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab2336
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1901.03345 > 10 Jan 2019 (v1),21 May 2019 (v2)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Thu Jul 18, 2019 3:40 pm

Exploring an Odd Stellar Death
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jul 17

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Massive stars can die in a lot of different ways! A new study explores one possible channel in more detail. ...

Massive Stellar Mergers as Precursors of Hydrogen-Rich
Pulsational Pair Instability Supernovae ~ Alejandro Vigna-Gómez et al

Astrophysical Journal Letters 876(2):L29 (2019 May 10) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab1bdf
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1903.02135 > 06 Mar 2019 (v1), 25 Apr 2019 (v2)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 3:22 pm

Heating Up a Solar Flare
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jul 19

Kerry Hensley wrote:
Powerful solar flares are dazzlingly bright in ultraviolet and X-ray images of the Sun. Despite their demands for attention, there’s still a lot that we don’t know about these unpredictable eruptions. ...

The Response of the Lyα Line in Different Flare Heating Models ~ Jie Hong et al

Astrophysical Journal 879(2):128 (2019 July 10) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab262e
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1905.13356 > 30 May 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Aug 06, 2019 4:14 pm

Five Years Watching Volcanoes on Another World
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jul 22

Susanna Kohler wrote:
For all that space telescopes are powerful tools for exploring our universe, we can achieve some remarkable science using ground-based observations! A new study explores the lessons learned from five years of monitoring Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io from the ground. ...

Io's Volcanic Activity from Time Domain Adaptive Optics Observations: 2013-2018 ~ Katherine de Kleer et al

Astronomical Journal 158(1):29 (2019 July) DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab2380
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1906.05426 > 12 Jun 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Aug 06, 2019 4:22 pm

A Speedier Check of Models
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Jul 24

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Astronomy is driven forward by a combination of novel observations and complex, inventive modeling. How can astronomers better analyze their models? A new study presents a tool for the job — and is also the first article published under a new partnership between the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the Journal of Open Source Software. ...

Model Dispersion with PRISM: An Alternative to MCMC for Rapid Analysis of Models ~ Ellert van der Velden et al

Astrophysical Journal Supplement 242(2):22 (2019 June) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4365/ab1f7d
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1901.08725 > 25 Jan 2019 (v1), 12 Jun 2019 (v3)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Aug 06, 2019 4:40 pm

Inferring History from Atmospheres
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Aug 01

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Can we use clues from the present to figure out how a planet has been blasted by the radiation of its host star in the past? According to a new study, it’s a definite possibility. ...

Close-in Sub-Neptunes Reveal the Past Rotation History of Their Host Stars: Atmospheric
Evolution of Planets in the HD 3167 and K2-32 Planetary Systems ~ Daria Kubyshkina et al

Astrophysical Journal 879(1):26 (2019 Jul 01) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab1e42
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1906.12153 > 28 Jun 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Aug 06, 2019 4:46 pm

Not so Fast: Some Stars Show a Spin-down Slowdown
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Aug 03

Kerry Hensley wrote:
Many people start to slow down as they age, and stars seem to be the same way. Astronomers measure how fast stars spin to determine their ages, but new measurements suggest that some stars may wind down more quickly than others. ...

A Temporary Epoch of Stalled Spin-down for Low-mass Stars:
Insights from NGC 6811 with Gaia and Kepler ~ Jason Lee Curtis et al

Astrophysical Journal 879(1):49 (2019 Jul 01) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab2393
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1905.06869 > 16 May 2019 (v1), 25 May 2019 (v3)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Aug 06, 2019 4:53 pm

Using Mergers to Understand Neutron Stars
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Aug 05

Susanna Kohler wrote:
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the internal structure and behavior of neutron stars, the compact remnants of giant, collapsed stars. Can the mergers of neutron stars with another type of exotic object, black holes, reveal important information? ...

Constraining the Neutron Star Radius with Joint Gravitational-Wave and Short
Gamma-Ray Burst Observations of Neutron Star-Black Hole Coalescing Binaries ~ Stefano Ascenzi et al

Astrophysical Journal 877(2):94 (2019 Jun 01) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab1b15
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1808.06848 > 21 Aug 2018

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:42 pm

An “Impossible” White Dwarf Identified in Kepler Data
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Aug 07

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Though Kepler’s primary mission ended years ago, the resulting dataset remains a vast playground in which astronomers continue to discover new surprises in stellar light curves. The latest? Evidence of a white dwarf that defies all expectations. ...

Self-lensing Discovery of a 0.2 M_⊙ White Dwarf
in an Unusually Wide Orbit around a Sun-like Star ~ Kento Masuda et al

Astrophysical Journal Letters 881(1):L3 (2019 Aug 10) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab321b
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1907.07656 > 17 Jul 2019 (v1), 11 Aug 2019 (v2)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:48 pm

Spotting Molecular Gas in the Distant Universe
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Aug 09

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Let’s be honest: the universe has an awful lot of gas. But the gas discovered in a new study isn’t your run-of-the-mill atomic gas! We’ve now found dense, star-formation-enabling molecular gas farther out than ever before. ...

A Luminous Molecular Gas Pair beyond Redshift 7 ~ Ekaterina Koptelova, Chorng-Yuan Hwang

Astrophysical Journal Letters 880(2):L19 (2019 Aug 01) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab2ed9
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1907.02721 > 05 Jul 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:58 pm

A Nearby Stellar Stream Gets Carded
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Aug 14

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Pisces–Eridanus may try to pass itself off as a billion years old, but scientists are calling its bluff. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has now carded this nearby stream of stars, revealing that it’s actually a relative baby! ...

TESS Reveals that the Nearby Pisces–Eridanus Stellar Stream is only 120 Myr Old ~ Jason L. Curtis et al

Astronomical Journal 158(2):77 (2019 Aug) DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab2899
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1905.10588 > 25 May 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Fri Aug 16, 2019 11:05 pm

Launching a Stellar Superflare
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Aug 16

Kerry Hensley wrote:
With energies a thousand times greater than an average solar flare, stellar superflares can strip away atmospheres and endanger life on planetary surfaces. These violent outbursts often go hand in hand with coronal mass ejections, shaping the evolution of planets near and far. ...

Modeling a Carrington-scale Stellar Superflare and Coronal Mass Ejection from κ¹Cet ~ Benjamin J. Lynch et al

Astrophysical Journal 880(2):97 (2019 Aug 01) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab287e
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1906.03189 > 07 Jun 2019 (v1), 30 Jul 2019 (v2)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 5:43 pm

Planetary History Written in Saturn’s Rings
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Aug 30

Kerry Hensley wrote:
Saturn may appear calm and motionless from afar, but the immense planet is subtly pulsing and oscillating — and those oscillations impose a pattern on the planet’s rings that could tell us about Saturn’s history. ...

Memoirs of a Giant Planet ~ Yanqin Wu, Yoram Lithwick

Astrophysical Journal 881(2):142 (2019 Aug 20) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab2892
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1901.04511 > 14 Jan 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:37 pm

Constraining Collisions of Dark Matter
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Sep 11

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Though dark matter appears to be common in the universe, there’s still a lot we don’t know about it. A new study has now shed some light on this mysterious topic using faint satellite galaxies around the Milky Way. ...

Constraints on Dark Matter Microphysics from the Milky Way Satellite Population ~ Ethan O. Nadler et al

Astrophysical Journal Letters 878(2):L32 (2019 Jun 20) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab1eb2
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1904.10000 > 22 Apr 2019 (v1), 19 Jun 2019 (v2)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Sep 17, 2019 5:31 pm

Are There More Stars Like Boyajian’s Star?
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Sep 13

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Remember KIC 8462852, better known as Boyajian’s star (or you may have seen it referred to as the “alien megastructure” star)? We still don’t have a definitive explanation for this source’s odd behavior — in part because we thought that Boyajian’s star was one-of-a-kind.

But what if it isn’t?

A Search for Analogs of KIC 8462852 (Boyajian's Star):
A Proof of Concept and the First Candidates ~ Edward G. Schmidt et al

Astrophysical Journal Letters 880(1):L7 (2019 Jul 20) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab2e77

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bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:21 pm

Uniting Short Gamma-ray Bursts and Neutron Star Mergers
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Sep 25

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are brief flashes of high-energy emission lasting less than two seconds. These events have long been hypothesized to occur when two neutron stars spiral in and collide, launching enormously powerful jets of light and matter. Can we now definitively make this connection? ...

GW170817 Afterglow Reveals that Short Gamma-Ray Bursts
are Neutron Star Mergers ~ Yiyang Wu, Andrew MacFadyen

Astrophysical Journal Letters 880(2):L23 (2019 Aug 01) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab2fd4
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1905.02665 > 07 May 2019

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bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:27 pm

Two Eyes to Hunt Stray Planet Masses
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Sep 27

Susanna Kohler wrote:
How can we measure the masses of free-floating planets wandering around our galaxy? A new study identifies one approach that combines the power of two upcoming missions. ...

WFIRST and EUCLID: Enabling the Microlensing Parallax
Measurement from Space ~ Etienne Bachelet, Matthew Penny

Astrophysical Journal Letters 880(2):L32 (2019 Aug 01) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab2da5
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1908.02720 > 07 Aug 2019

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:36 pm

When Black Holes Shred Sun-Like Stars
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Sep 30

Susanna Kohler wrote:
When a passing star gets a little too close to a massive black hole, destruction ensues. But how does the star’s age affect the outcome? ...

The Tidal Disruption of Sun-like Stars by Massive Black Holes
~ Jamie Law-Smith, James Guillochon, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz

Astrophysical Journal Letters 882(2):L25 (2019 Sep 10) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab379a
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1907.04859 > 10 Jul 2019 (v1), 06 Aug 2019 (v2)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 4:58 pm

Watching Stars Evolve in Real Time
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Oct 02

Susanna Kohler wrote:
Sometimes slow and steady wins the race — like in the long-term, continuous monitoring of a variable star. A collection of more than 100 years of data has now given us a rare opportunity to watch, in real time, as a star evolves. ...

Stellar Evolution in Real Time: Models Consistent with the Direct Observation
of a Thermal Pulse in T Ursae Minoris ~ László Molnár, Meridith Joyce, László Kiss

Astrophysical Journal 879(1):62 (2019 Jul 01) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab22a5
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1905.00597 > 02 May 2019 (v1), 04 Jun 2019 (v2)

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 3:01 pm

Should We Blame Pulsars for Too Much Antimatter?
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2019 Oct 09

Susanna Kohler wrote:
The Earth is constantly being bombarded by cosmic rays — high energy protons and atomic nuclei that speed through space at nearly the speed of light. Where do these energetic particles come from? A new study examines whether pulsars are the source of one particular cosmic-ray conundrum. ...

GeV Observations of the Extended Pulsar Wind Nebulae Constrain the
Pulsar Interpretations of the Cosmic-Ray Positron Excess ~ Shao-Qiang Xi et al

Astrophysical Journal 878(2):104 (2019 Jun 20) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab20c9
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1810.10928 > 25 Oct 2018 (v1), 09 May 2019 (v3)