Summary: YorkUniverse showNotes: 21 January 2013 Follow the York Observatory Tweeps on twitter: Jesse Rogerson (jesserogerson.com) - @jesserogerson Ryan Marciniak (astronomyinaction.com)- @AstroinAction Lianne Manzer - @liannemanzer YorkUniverse (yorkuniverse.com) - @YorkUniverse York University Astronomical Observatory (yorkobservatory.com) - @YorkObservatory Hosts Tonight: Jesse, Ryan, and Pat (yorku.ca/phall) This Week in History 21 January 2013 - Chris Hadfield drops puck at the leaf game http://goo.gl/ki6Ii 21 January 1979 - Neptune became the furthest planet in solar system 19 January 2006 - New Horizons launched 18 January 2002 - Gemini South Observatory dedicated Major Topics Covered 1. Gemini's New Adaptive Optics system - http://goo.gl/KSpQc GeMS - Gemini Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics System. Is a diffraction limited, Near Infrared (NIR) Adaptive Optics system designed to increase both the field of view and resolution of the adaptive optics at Gemini South. The outgoing light will be sent either to the NIR imager/Multi Object Spectrograph known as Flamingos2, or the NIR imager GSAOI GeMS has not 1 but 5 laser guide stars and 3 deformable mirrors used to sample atmospheric distortions and cancel it out in real time. It creates 3D snapshot of atmospheric turbulence about 500/1000 times/sec. About 80 hours will be offered to observers in 2013A, more after to come in the following semesters. Orion Bullets While commissioning GeMS, the GeminiSouth team observed the 'bullets' in Orion. You can actually see the movement they've made over 5 years since the last observation. Amazing! These are clumps of gas ejected at super sonic speeds, in clumps 100x larger than the orbit of pluto. 2. Curiosity finds multiple instances of surface water http://goo.gl/0C9iW http://goo.gl/YkCrl 3. Nessie found - long dark filament of star formation - http://goo.gl/AY8dx 4. Space Medicine - question from friend/listener - http://goo.gl/ihPvY See Chris Hadfield working on ISS medical emergencies 5. Earth possibly hit by a Gamma Ray burst 1200 years ago - http://goo.gl/lZuyw evidence in the trees! Analyst's Journal Tonight was the first airing of a new YorkUniverse production called 'The Analyst's Journal.' From the brain of Dr. John Moores. There are many papers published everyday, most of which don't make it to the front page of the News Paper, or to your nightly news program on television. Dr. John hosts a round table discussion with Jesse Rogerson and Lianne Manzer to cover some of the lesser known papers. http://goo.gl/k5Lis - 17.5 min
