Airglow Sky over France

Image Credit & Copyright: Julien Looten

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230215.html #APOD

Unexpected Clouds Toward the Andromeda Galaxy

Image Credit & Copyright: Yann Sainty & Marcel Drechsler

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230117.html #APOD

In the case of the supernova remnant, the arXiv article did stick:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04809

Seems like it’s still not on arXiv, as of today. Hilarious.

(Meanwhile Fesen’s having a rather eventful day: I saw him again in the press conference room, where he was presenting the discovery of a remnant of the only known supernova of type Iax in the Milky Way.)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2023/01/images-capture-850-year-old-aftermath-stellar-collision

Not a lot to say when you don’t have any idea what it is, you know? So they wrote a short note, and submitted it to the Research Notes of the AAS. And posted it to arXiv.

Overnight, it disappeared off arXiv.

So they posted it to arXiv again.

And it disappeared again.

Fun fact: it turns out that arXiv automatically deletes all articles first published to RNAAS, because the crackpot quotient is so high. Much higher than the background crackpot quotient of unpublished articles.

Fesen didn’t initially believe the amateurs when they brought him the first image. It was a fifty-hour exposure, and he told them it was a reflection. Try it again, he said, with a different pointing.

So they dropped another 50 hours on it. The emission was still there, and he still didn’t believe them.

It took several of these arduously long exposures from multiple telescopes and sites to convince him it was real. And still nobody has any clear idea what it IS.

Last night at #AAS241 I went to dinner with @PhilMassey, and we ran into Rob Fesen. Who proceeded to sit us down and tell us what sounded like the world’s worst shaggy dog story about a bunch of amateur astronomers and an [OIII] image of M31.

https://www.astrobin.com/1d8ivk/

@janerigby haha I’m still in denial(*) that the meeting is next week

(*) denial = Buffalo, with a lot melting snow a handful of Southwest cancellations

In 1976, the US govt looked at how long it would take to achieve practical fusion energy, given various funding scenarios. The path we've been on since then is the one labeled "fusion never."
Fusion seemed like a cool idea, but not an urgent one. 6/n #fusion #future

The power that goes into igniting a fusion pellet is much less than the total amount that NIF consumes. "Breakeven" comes nowhere close to covering all of that consumption! A useful fusion power plant would require anything from Q=5 to Q=100. 3/n
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_energy_gain_factor#Extrapolated_breakeven #fusion

You're about to hear a lot about #NuclearFusion. I've followed the field for years & can offer context. Top line:
- NIF's "breakeven" does not generate more power than it consumes
- NIF is not a model for a commercial fusion reactor
- This news is a big deal all the same. 1/n

Useful information on what you’ll find in your timeline. #Mastodon