UCL DEPT. OF SPACE & CLIMATE PHYSICS
MULLARD SPACE SCIENCE LABORATORY

Astronomy Journal Club


On Wednesday mornings, once a fortnight, we meet at 11:30 (unless otherwise stated) for a journal club. The location for each meeting will be announced beforehand.

Attendees bring interesting papers, and a brief introduction is given to the Journal Club. Each paper presentation is then followed by discussion. The entire event should take one hour. The papers could be anything published in the last year in astrophysics, related science and relevant to astronomy.

We encourage MSSL astronomers and astrophysicists to come to Journal Club for a discussion on recent research. Please contact Megan Whewell with suggested papers, or for other JC queries. Links to suggested and discussed papers will be added below.

Calendar 2015
Date Title
21 Jan
Common Room
A spin-down clock for cool stars from observations of a 2.5-billion-year-old cluster
(Meiborn et al, 2015, Nature accepted, doi:10.1038/nature14118)
The Rich Are Different: Evidence from the RAVE Survey for Stellar Radial Migration
(Kordopatis et al, 2014, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1412.5649)
Searching for intermediate mass black holes: understanding the data first
(Bianchini et al, 2015, Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 312, arxiv.org:1501.04114)
4 Feb
Library
Integral manoeuvres for the future
(ESA news article)
Radio-far infrared correlation in "Blue Cloud" galaxies with 0 < Z < 1.2
(Basu et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv.org:1502.00330)
The companion candidate near Fomalhaut - a background neutron star?
(Neuhauser et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1501.07083)
Characterizing the Star Formation of the Low-Mass SHIELD Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Imaging
(McQuinn et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv.org:1501.07313)
18 Feb
Library
25 year anniversary of Pale Blue Dot photo
Gravitational Lensing by Spinning Black Holes in Astrophysics, and in the Movie Interstellar
(James et al, 2015, Classical and Quantum Gravity accepted, arxiv.org:1502.03808)
A glitch and an anti-glitch in the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1841-045
(Sasmaz Mus et al, 2014, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1411.5274)
Looking for Population III stars with He II line intensity mapping
(Visbal et al, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv.org:1501.03177)
Made-to-measure models of the Galactic box/peanut bulge: stellar and total mass in the bulge region
(Portail et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1502.00633)
Far-infrared observations of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray burst host galaxies
(Kohn et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1501.01004)
4 Mar
Stable Block, Room A
Observation of Comet Lovejoy by the Dark Energy Survey
BBC News story: Bright spotlight on Dawn mission to Ceres
BBC News story: Rosetta catches its own shadow
A dusty, normal galaxy in the epoch of reionization
(Watson et al, 2015, Nature accepted, arxiv.org:1503.00002)
"Spoon-feeding" an AGN
(Mainetti et al, 2015 "Swift:10 years of Discovery", arxiv.org:1502.07835)
Three-dimensional Tomography of the Galactic and Extragalactic Magnetoionic Medium with the SKA
(Han et al, 2015 "Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array", arxiv.org:1412.8749)
18 Mar
Library
Recent solar storm and resulting Aurorae
Space as never seen before - Space centres seen through the eyes of photographer Edgar Martins (partnered with ESA)
Upcoming partial solar eclipse (from the UK) - MET Office news story
Explosive lithium production in the classical nova V339 Del (Nova Delphini 2013)
(Tajitsu et al, 2015, Nature accepted, arxiv.org:1502.05598)
The Effects of Boxy/Peanut Bulges on Galaxy Models
(Fragkoudi et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1503.03068)
A New Merging Double Degenerate Binary in the Solar Neighborhood
(Debes et al, 2015, AJ accepted, arxiv.org:1503.00349)
Mapping high-velocity H-alpha and Lyman-alpha emission from Supernova 1987A
(France et al, 2015, ApJL accepted, arxiv.org:1502.05403)
1 Apr
NA

~~~~ Easter break ~~~~

15 Apr
Library
45 year anniversary of Apollo 13 mission
The Swift GRB Host Galaxy Legacy Survey — II. Rest-frame NIR Luminosity Distribution and Evidence for a Near-Solar Metallicity Threshold
(Perley et al. 2015, ApJ submitted, arxiv.org:1504.02479)
Identifying the source of perytons at the Parkes radio telescope
(Petroff et al, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv.org:1504.02165)
29 Apr
Library
25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope launch
Protests in Hawaii about the Thirty Meter Telescope project
The abundance of satellites depends strongly on the morphology of the host galaxy
(Ruiz et al, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv.org:1504.02777)
Coevolution Between Supermassive Black Holes and Bulges Is Not Via Internal Feedback Regulation But By Rationed Gas Supply Due To Angular Momentum Distribution
(Cen, 2015, ApJL accepted, arxiv.org:1504.07248)
13 May
Stable Block A
ESO News Release: The Dark Side of Star Clusters
Telescope clash deeply rooted in Hawaii’s past
UK General Election result:
What will a Conservative government mean for UK science?
UK researchers fret about downgrading of science minister role
A Periodically Varying Luminous Quasar at z=2 from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey: A Candidate Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Gravitational Wave-Driven Regime
(Liu et al, 2015, ApJ published, arxiv:1503.02083)
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Discovery of nine Ultra Faint satellites in the vicinity of the Magellanic Clouds
(Koposov et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv:1503.02079)
Stellar Kinematics and Metallicities in the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II (Simon et al, 2015, ApJ submitted, arxiv:1504.02889)
27 May
Library
ESA News: Four decades of tracking European spacecraft
Hawaiian telescope fight prompts new rules for Mauna Kea
"The Brightest Galaxy Ever Discovered Shines Like 300 Trillion Suns"
Active galactic nuclei flicker: an observational estimate of the duration of black hole growth phases of ~1e5 years
(Schawinsky et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv:1505.06733)
Neutrino and Cosmic-Ray Emission from Multiple Internal Shocks In Gamma-Ray Bursts
(Bustamante et al, 2015, Nature published, arxiv:1409.2874)
10 June
Library
Mimicking gamma-ray bursts
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory press release
Sharpest View Ever of Star Formation in the Distant Universe
ESO Press release
ALMA long baseline observations of the strongly lensed submillimeter galaxy Hatlas J090311.6+003906 at z=3.042
(ALMA Partnership et al, 2015, ApJ Letters accepted, arxiv:1503.02652)
Finding gas-rich dwarf galaxies betayed by their ultraviolet emission
(Meyer et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv:1506.00044)
Supercritical accretion disks in ultraluminous X-ray sources and SS 433
(Fabrika et al, 2015, Nature published, Nature website)
24 June
Library
Astronomers explain why a star is so hot right now
ANU press release
NASA Simulation Suggests Black Holes May Make Ideal Dark Matter Labs
NASA press release
ALMA Precisely Measures Black Hole Mass
ALMA press release
The X-ray outburst of the Galactic Centre magnetar SGR J1745-2900 during the first 1.5 year
(Coti Zelati et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv:1503.01307, Chandra press release)
The Mass and Spin of The Extreme Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy 1H0707-495 and Its Implications for The Trigger for Relativistic Jets
(Done and Jin, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv:1506.04547)
8 July
Library
NASA’s New Horizons on Track for Pluto Flyby
NASA press release
Counting Stars with Gaia
ESA press release
Discussion on SMBH and galaxy interaction
(Slides were emailed around, contact Megan for copies)
22 July
Library
Views of Pluto Through the Years
NASA press release
Rosetta and Philae status update
ESA blog update
Prof Stephen Hawking backs venture to listen for aliens
BBC News article
A very luminous magnetar-powered supernova associated with an ultra-long γ-ray burst
(Greiner et al, 2015, Nature published, Nature article)
Total eclipse of the heart: The AM CVn Gaia14aae / ASSASN-14cn
(Campbell et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv:1507.04663)
August
NA

~~~~ Summer break ~~~~

23 Sept
Library
7 Oct
Library
21 Oct
Library
4 Nov
Library
18 Nov
Library
2 Dec
Library
16 Dec
Library

Journal club schedules in other years: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.


Mullard Space Science Laboratory - Holmbury St. Mary - Dorking - Surrey - RH5 6NT - Telephone: +44 (0)1483 204100 - Copyright © 1999-2012 UCL


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