Lmst

And that was it for #AAS246. I'll leave you with the final sunset from my hotel room taken at 11:30pm.

Sunset on a clear day. The city is in shadow in the foreground. In the background is the Cook Inlet and distant mountains.

And we'll wrap up my #AAS246 posts with the only plenary I got to on day 4: Public Policy Plenary: The Current Landscape for Science Policy and How YOU Can Make a Difference.

I have to be a little careful here because of my job, but I will recap what I can of what AAS leadership presented.

What Policy Looks Like at AAS
AAS Mission Statement
The mission of the American Astronomical Society is to enhance and share humanity's scientific understanding of the universe as a diverse and inclusive astronomical community.
https://aas.org/about/governance/society-resolutions

What Policy Looks Like at AAS
Strategic Priority 1: Address significant global issues that affect astronomy
• Advocate for implementation of the Decadal Surveys Recommendations.
• Advocate for STEM education, in coordination with Education Committee goals and initiatives.
• Advocate for funding, programs, policies, and regulations that broadly benefit the discipline.
• Establish and advocate policy and position points concerning outdoor ground-based lighting and protection of the full EM spectrum.
• Establish and advocate policy and position points concerning the increasing satellite presence in Earth orbit.
AAS Strategic Plan 2021-2026: https://aas.org/about/strategic-plan

Last thing for day 3 of #AAS246:

A panel discussion on the legacy of astronomer Vera Rubin, namesake of the soon-to-be-operational Rubin Observatory. And we were some of the first people to get our hands on the new Vera Rubin quarter, courtesy of the US Mint.

Nicole Drakos stands at a podium. Above here is a large screen showing slides: Vera Rubin's rotation curve measurements gave us the first clear evidence that galaxies are embedded in massive, invisible dark matter halos. Image of Vera Rubin. Plot of rotational velocity vs. distance from center for a spiral galaxy.
Kimberly Arcand, Maddie Lucey, and Amruta Jaodand sit on stage.

Four women astronomers, Kimberly Arcand, Nicole Drakos, Maddie Lucey, and Amruta Jaodand sit on stage.

A cardboard display with a grid for holding the American Women Quarters. They are all empty except for Dr. Vera Rubin.

And the final plenary lecture of #AAS246 day 3: Things in Disks: Towards a New Understanding of Galactic Nuclei by K.E. Saavik Ford.

Saavik Ford stands on stage behind a podium. Behind her is a giant screen with slides: Things in Disks: Towards a New Understanding of Galactic Nuclei, K.E. Saavik Ford.

Needed some sleep. Now I'm going to finish the AAS 246 recaps for real.

Next up on day 3 of #AAS246 a bit of history. The Osterbrock Book Prize Lecture: Where Are We? How Past Astronomers Found Their Place in the Universe — and on Earth by Seb Falk.

In the past, people across the world practiced naked-eye astronomy to make predictions, to tell time, and to navigate the seas.

Seb Falk stands on stage. Behind him is a giant screen with a medieval illustration of the spheres of the heavens, with the Earth at the center, and a series of concentric rings for the Sun, Moon, Earth, planets, and the fixed stars.

Back after a bit of a break exploring Anchorage. The conference is over, but now I have time to finish up my #AAS246 summaries.

Next on day 3 was the Rubin Observatory Town Hall.

Rubin is almost ready for science! They collected their first photons on April 15 and there was much rejoicing.

A person stands on stage behind a podium. Above them is a large screen with slides.
Rubin Observatory
Wednesday 11 June, 2025
AAS 245 TOWN HALL Anchorage

Rubin Observatory is almost ready!
Join us for the big reveal on June 23!
Participate in one of 200 global watch parties including Tucson, La Serena, and SLAC. Or just visit rubinobservatory.org on Monday June 23rd.
Map showing points of watch parties, distributed across the world with the most points in North America and Europe.

Rubin First Photon: first on-sky data with the full system were taken on April 15, 2025.

We were (and still are) so happy!
Screenshot of a Zoom meeting, featuring a room full of happy, smiling people.
NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory personnel celebrate in the control room following the arrival of the first photon.

Next plenary at #AAS246: Advancing Exoplanet Characterization: Five Years of High-Resolution Spectroscopy with KPIC by Dimitri Mawet.

Mawet included two bears on this title side, the big guy is JWST, little guy is ground-based observatories. They are friends, but this talk was JWST free zone.

Dimitri Mawet stands on stage. Behind him is a giant screen with slides. They feature two bears, one slightly larger than the other.
Advancing Exoplanet Characterization: Five Years of High-Resolution Spectroscopy with KPIC by Dimitri Mawet
David Morrisroe Professor of Astronomy, Caltech
Senior Research Scientist, JPL AAS 246, Anchorage AK, 12 June 2025

Drawing of JWST, crossed out. JWST-free.

I had some good discussions with folks about the galaxy research my collaborators and I are working on at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. #aas246

First plenary of day 3 of #AAS246 - The Hubble Space Telescope at 35: Eyeing the Future by Jennifer Wiseman.

Hubble just celebrated its 35th birthday. For many astronomers in the audience, Hubble has been around longer than they have. [Not me though, it launched when I was 5, it was an important part of my childhood].

Eyeing the Future, the Hubble Space Telescope 35 years of discovery: Jennifer Wiseman, HST Senior Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Space FLight Center, Jennifer.Weisman@NASA.gov.

Hubble Space Telescope Project
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the HST Mission!
Two people sit in the Hubble control room. Image of Hubble in space with the Earht's ocean and clouds in the background. Hubble instrument in a museum.

Hubble's 35th Anniverary!! April 2025
Composite shows four Hubble images in quarters. At top left is a crisp view of Mars in shades of orange, blues, and browns. At top right is planetary nebula NGC 2899, which is shaped like a single macaroni noodle, with its central torus appearing semi-transparent and blue and green, and its top and bottom edges in orange. At bottom left is a tiny portion of the Rosette Nebula. Very dark gray material shaped like a triangle takes up the center. At bottom right is barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 with a milky yellow center that forms a bar surrounded by multiple blue star-filled spiral arms that wrap up counterclockwise.

Hubble In Detail
NASA/ESA Mission
Launch Date: April 24, 1990
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery (Sts-31)
Mass: 27,000 Pounds (12,200 Kg) As Of Servicing Mission 4
Maximum Diameter: 14 Feet (4.2 M)
Length: 43 Feet (13 M)
Orbit Height: 320 Miles (515 Km)
Orbit Period: 95 Minutes To Complete One Orbit Around Our Earth
Orbit Velocity: 17,000 Miles Per Hour (27,000 Kilometers Per Hour)
Pointing Accuracy: .007 Arcsec

With the 5th #AAS246 presser come the paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.07262 (ALMA-JELLY I: High Resolution CO(2-1) Observations of Ongoing Ram Pressure Stripping in NGC 4858 Reveal Asymmetrical Gas Tail Formation and Fallback), the press release https://news.arizona.edu/news/belly-beast-massive-clumps-reveal-star-factories-bygone-era-cosmos (In the belly of the beast: massive clumps reveal star factories from a bygone era of the cosmos) and the papers https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ada8a6 (UNCOVERing the Faint End of the z ∼ 7 [O iii] Luminosity Function with JWST's F410M Medium Bandpass Filter) with the press release https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-uncovers-galaxy-population-driving-cosmic-renovation/ and https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.06198 (The "Dark-Matter Dominated" Galaxy Segue 1 Modeled with a Black Hole and no Dark Halo) with the press release https://www.utsa.edu/today/2025/06/story/researchers-offer-alternative-to-dark-matter-model.html

And here is (a recording of) the fifth and final #AAS246 press conference about "Recent and Upcoming Discoveries in the Broader Universe": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf9X5kntlYc - topics at https://aas.org/meetings/aas246/press-kit#Wed_am

Final plenary of day 2 of #AAS246: Unraveling AGN Feeding and Feedback: JWST, ALMA, and Integral Field Spectrometers to the Rescue by Erin Hicks.

All massive galaxies have supermassive black holes. Some have active galactic nuclei, actively accreting supermassive black holes. Supermassive black holes and galaxies seem to evolve together, which is a little odd, considering how small black holes are on galactic scales.

All massive galaxies host a supermassive black hole (BH).
Artist's concept of an Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), an image of a face-on spiral galaxy with a pullout showing a bright point surrounded by a dusty torus.

BH-Galaxy Co-Evolution
Multiple SMBH-host galaxy empirical correlations suggest co-evolution of the SMBH with the host galaxy.
What is the mechanism(s) that links the evolution of galaxy structures on such drastically different physical scales?
Two key processes:
• feeding of the BH growth
• feedback from AGN
Correlation Between Black Hole Mass and Bulge Mass. A line connects galaxies of increasing mass of central bulge: On scales of no black hole, one million solar masses, one billion solar masses.

Also, if you're wondering what the results are from #AAS246, it turns out the Sun does set in Anchorage near the solstice. It happens very late, but it's worth it!

An orange hued Sun turns the landscape of a sea plane on a lake-like body of water into a sunset landscape, with thin, wispy clouds low on the horizon top-lit by the sunlight.

And if you were wondering, yes the Sun does set here at #AAS246 in Anchorage. It happens late, but it's worth it!

An orange-hued Sun, low on the horizon, turns an idyllic scene of a seaplane on a lake in Alaska sunset-colored, with a thin haze of clouds top-lit by the setting Sun's light.

Next Plenary at #AAS246: Exoplanets in Multi-Star Systems by David Ciardi

While we may have a view of what the typical planetary system looks like based on our solar system, that might not be the case. On average, every star has one planet. Also, on average, most stars have stellar companions. So, planets in multi-star systems are common, probably about ~50% of all planets.

David Ciardi stands on stage in front of a giant screen with slides.
Exoplanets in Multi-Star Systems
David Ciardi, Deputy Director, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute — Caltech/IPAC
AAS #246 Anchorage, AK 2025 June 10

Traditional view of the solar system
The Sun and the eight planets of the solar system (plus pluto) are all in a line.

Stellar Multiplicity
But we know stars can have stellar companions
~25% of M stars
~50% of FGK stars
~100% of OBA stars
Plot of Multiplicity & Triple/High-order Fractions (%) vs Primary mass. Lower mass stars are under 20% mulitples, but higher mass stars approach 100%.
On average every star also has a planet

Why Stellar Companions Matter?
• Stellar companions affect how we disocover and how we characterize planets
• Stellar companions affect how planetary systems form and evolve
Spongebob meme: I Understand But Why Do We Care?

The STScI Town Hall at #AAS246.

First off was Neill Reid, Multi-Mission Project Scientist with some general updates.

There are significant budget challenges with the President's Budget Request that will affect Hubble, JWST, and Roman and hurt NASA community science.

All of the slides are available here:
https://outerspace.stsci.edu/display/AAS/STScI+Town+Hall+-+June+2025%2C+AAS+246

The FY26 President’s Budget Request includes severe cuts to NASA and NSF
science across the board
• NASA community science funding is reduced severely
• STScI and STScI’s missions will be impacted by those cuts
• Hubble and Webb would operate with reduced capabilities
• Roman is faced with major reductions in the last year before launch
• MAST and Universe of Learning also see impacts
• Grant funding is reduced substantially
• Most other areas with NASA Astrophysics, Planetary Science and Heliophysics are
projected to see significantly higher impacts with numerous cancellations
But
• It is important to remember that the PBR is the first step in a long process
NASA science leadership remains key for America’s future

To those of you who are missing the view of our first sunny day at #aas246, I present to you the following:

Next Plenary at #AAS246: The Missing Link: Planet Formation from Millions to Billions of Years by Meredith Hughes

There is an average of one planet around every star in the Milky Way. Where do those planets come from? How do they form? To help answer these questions, we can study debris disks around other stars.

Meredith Hughes stands on stage behind a podium, in front of a large screen.
The slide on screen:
The Missing Link: Planet Formation from Millions to Billions of Years. Meredith Hughes, Wesleyan University

Some questions
How do planets form?
What types of planets are common?
How normal is our Solar System?
How common is life in the Universe?

An average of at least one planet per star
Wow.
but where do they come from?
Image of a spiral galaxy.

With the 4th #AAS246 press conference come the press releases https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/punch/2025/06/10/nasas-punch-releases-its-first-images-of-huge-eruptions-from-sun/ and https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/swri-led-punch-mission-images-huge-solar-eruption about #PUNCH and https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-codex-captures-unique-views-of-suns-outer-atmosphere/ about #CODEX sitting on the ISS. While the corona shape predictions for the 2024 total solar eclipse were published in https://www.predsci.com/corona/apr2024eclipse/home.php

In this composite image of overlapping solar observations, the center and left panels show the field-of-view coverage of the different coronagraphs with overlays and are labeled with observation ranges in solar radii. The third panel shows a zoomed-in, color-coded portion of the larger CODEX image. It highlights the temperature ratios in that portion of the solar corona using CODEX 405.0 and 393.5 nm filters.

The PI of #PUNCH and a composite image from the images by the five satellites, during the ongoing #AAS246 press conference: the stitching already works quite well and will improve further, but already now halo CMEs can be followed to a larger angular size than ever before and until hours before Earth impact.

#AAS246

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