planets Archives - News@91��ɫ

Two new observatory domes coming to 91��ɫ U will improve night sky viewing

sandramc — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 12:03:21 +0000

State-of-the-art, remote-controlled domes will replace old ones from the 1960s

TORONTO, June 9, 2022 – Two new state-of-the-art domes will replace the original 1960s domes at the Allan I. Carswell Astronomical Observatory at 91��ɫ, opening the night sky for better viewing of planets, stars, nebulas and more.

Preparation for the new domes is happening now on 91��ɫ’s Keele Campus. On the morning of Tuesday, June 14 (weather permitting), the old domes will be craned off and the new ones craned on. The time of the event will be decided Monday morning depending on the weather forecast, but media are welcome to watch from one of the designated safe areas.

“These new domes will be a functional and technological improvement, the likes of which the observatory hasn't seen since its construction. Unlike the old domes, the new domes will have an automatic control system that goes to a computer where you can tell the dome to follow the telescope. Not only is this a huge timesaver, it means we can collaborate with other astronomers and teachers anywhere in the world for research and outreach,” says Assistant Professor , observatory director. “To get the best use out of the recent one-metre telescope, plus the 60cm telescope, which we already had, it was well time we replaced the domes.”

As the old domes are some 50 years old, the system that controls them has been a patchwork of various electronic fixes over the years.

“These new domes will give us a massive upgrade in terms of our technology. We can come at the beginning of the night, set up the telescope, and then operate them from home, which is something we can’t do right now with the dome for the one-metre telescope,” says grad student Sunna Withers of the Faculty of Science.

The design of the new domes will allow for a larger viewing area as the top part of the shutter opens up and the bottom part flips down, exposing more of the sky. It will also now follow the telescope as it moves. One of the main advantages will be the ability to expand research and public observing activities.

Photos of original domes: /news/wp-content/uploads/sites/242/2022/06/DSC00021-scaled.jpg

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Photo of domes from 1969 - /news/wp-content/uploads/sites/242/2022/06/Under-construction-Petrie-Science-Bldg-1969-by-A.-Ross-Dawson.png

Photo of domes from 1970 - /news/wp-content/uploads/sites/242/2022/06/Observatory-1970-by-A.-Ross-Dawson.jpg

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91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:
Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

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91��ɫ U research identifies icy ridges on Pluto

roshanp — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 19:18:41 +0000

TORONTO, January 4, 2017 - Using a model similar to what meteorologists use to forecast weather on Earth and a computer simulation of the physics of evaporating ices, a new study, published in the journal by , Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering at 91��ɫ’s Lassonde School of Engineering, has found evidence that snow and ice features previously only seen on Earth, have been spotted on Pluto.

“Penitentes” which are formed by erosion, are bowl-shaped depressions with spires around the edge, and are several metres high.

The groundbreaking research, done in collaboration with researchers at NASA and Johns Hopkins University, indicates that these icy features may exist on other planets where environmental conditions are similar.

“The identification of the ridges of Tartarus Dorsa as Penitentes suggests that the presence of an atmosphere is necessary for the formation of penitentes, which would explain why they have not previously been seen on other airless icy satellites or dwarf planets,” says Moores. “But exotic differences in the environment give rise to features with very different scales. This test of our terrestrial models for penitentes suggests that we may find these features elsewhere in the solar system, and in other solar systems, where the conditions are right."

Moores, along with his 91��ɫ postgraduate fellow, Dr. Christina Smith, Dr. Anthony Toigo, at the Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University and NASA Research Astrophysicist, Dr. Scott D. Guzewich, at the in Maryland, USA compared their model to ridges on Pluto imaged by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. Pluto’s ridges are much larger - 500 metres tall and separated by three to five kilometres - as compared to their meter-sized earthly counterparts.

Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

“This gargantuan size is predicted by the same theory that explains the formation of these features on Earth,” says Moores. “In fact, we were able to match the size and separation, the direction of the ridges, as well as their age: three pieces of evidence that support our identification of these ridges as penitentes.”

Moores says though Pluto's environment is very different from the Earth - it is much colder, the air much thinner, the sun much dimmer and the snow and ice on the surface are made from methane and nitrogen instead of water - the same laws of nature apply. Both NASA and Johns Hopkins University were instrumental in the collaboration that led to this new finding. Both provided background information on Pluto's atmosphere using a model similar to what meteorologists use to forecast weather on Earth. This was one of the key ingredients in Moores’ own models of the penitentes, without which this discovery would not have been made.

is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 26 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 295,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media contact:

Anjum Nayyar, Media Relations, 416 736 2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca.

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Ultimate survivors: Tatooine worlds orbiting two suns often survive violent escapades of aging stars

roshanp — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 13:35:18 +0000

TORONTO, October 12, 2016 – Planets that revolve around two suns may surprisingly survive the violent late stages of the stars’ lives, according to new research out of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre and 91��ɫ. The finding is surprising because planets orbiting close to a single sun, like Mercury and Venus in our solar system, would be destroyed when the aging star swells into a red giant.

Led by Veselin Kostov at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, in collaboration with 91��ɫ master’s student Keavin Moore and Professor Ray Jayawardhana, the study found that planets orbiting two (binary) stars – also referred to as circumbinary planets or “Tatooine worlds” after the iconic planetary home of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars – often escape death and destruction by moving out to wider orbits.

Artist view of a planet orbiting two aging stars that exchange material and spiral closer together. Image by Jon Lomberg

The paper, “,” has been accepted for publication in .

“This is very different from what will happen in our own solar system a few billion years from now, when our Sun starts to evolve and expand to such a tremendous size that it will engulf the inner planets, like Mercury and Venus and possibly Earth too, faster than they can migrate out to larger orbits” says Kostov. “It seems that if we had a second star in the center of our solar system, things might go differently.”

Binary star systems are ubiquitous in the Universe and consist of two stars that orbit around a common center of gravity. If the two stars are close enough to each other, when one starts evolving and expanding into a giant, they exchange material and spiral towards each other resulting in their sharing a common atmosphere (also called a common envelope). The binary star system ends up losing a large amount of mass, or might be destroyed in a supernova explosion.

“Given the exciting recent discoveries of planets circling binary stars, some with orbits similar in size to that of Mercury around the Sun, we were curious to explore the ultimate fate of these Tatooine worlds,” says Jayawardhana. “We found that many such planets are likely to survive the messy and violent late stages of their stars’ lives by moving farther out.”

Reconfiguration of the orbit of planet (green) initially orbiting the binary at Mercury’s distance (black dotted). If the binary was instead a single, Solar-type star, it would expand to the yellow dashed circle during the Red Giant Stage, engulfing Mercury, Venus, and even potentially Earth itself.

The team, which also included Daniel Tamayo of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and Stephen Rinehart of NASA Goddard, simulated the fate of nine circumbinary planets recently discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission. They found that the planets will predominantly survive the common envelope phase – even those orbiting very close to their stars. In addition, the planets can migrate to farther orbits similar to what it would be like if Venus moved out to where Uranus orbits our Sun. In some cases, planets can even reach more than twice the distance to Pluto.

Interestingly, when there are multiple planets orbiting a binary star, some can be ejected from the system, while others can switch places or even collide with their stars.

“The reconfiguration can be quite dramatic when there are several planets,” says Moore. “Although all of the known circumbinary planets are gas giants, it is possible that somewhere out there is a terrestrial circumbinary planet that migrates to an orbit that now makes the planet potentially habitable for a little while.”

Images:

Caption: Artist view of a planet orbiting two aging stars that exchange material and spiral closer together. Image by Jon Lomberg.

Caption: Reconfiguration of the orbit of planet (green) initially orbiting the binary at Mercury’s distance (black dotted). If the binary was instead a single, Solar-type star, it would expand to the yellow dashed circle during the Red Giant Stage, engulfing Mercury, Venus, and even potentially Earth itself.

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Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 22097, sandramc@yorku.ca

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