The Latest in Canadian Astronomical News and Research

SATELLITES TRACK ORIGIN OF NORTHERN LIGHTS
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/24/substorm-aurora.html

Canadian and U.S. scientists have zeroed in on the cause of the aurora borealis, tracing the shimmering northern lights to the way the "tail" of the Earth's magnetic field snaps back into shape in response to the solar wind.

University of Alberta professor Ian Mann, a principal investigator with the THEMIS mission, said the results clearly favour magnetosphere tail reconnection as the cause.

"We had absolutely ideal conditions, and the results are crystal clear as to the timing," Mann told CBC News. "It's a beautiful result."

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SUPER-LUMINOUS SUPERNOVAE SN2006GY, SN2005GJ AND SN2005AP: POSSIBLE SIGNATURE OF EXPLOSIVE CONVERSION OF A NEUTRON STAR INTO A QUARK STAR
http://www.astro.umontreal.ca/~casca/PR/04062008.html

Astronomers are announcing today that they have found that the explosive conversion of a neutron star into a quark star (namely, a Quark-Nova) has the right properties to explain the super-luminous supernovae SN2006gy, SN2005gj and SN2005ap.

Denis Leahy and Rachid Ouyed of the University of Calgary in Canada are presenting their results today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. Their results are of special interest for two reasons: astronomers previously did not have a satisfactory explanation for super-luminous supernovae; and this provides supporting evidence for the existence of quark stars- a manifestation of a new state of matter.

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CANADIAN WEATHER STATION ON MARS RUNNING SMOOTHLY,
SCIENTISTS SAY
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/21/phoenix-weather.html

Canada, which is part of a group working to bring samples of Mars back to Earth, has helped the mission exploring the Red Planet to get more bang for its buck, says a key American scientist.

Peter Smith, the lead scientist behind the Phoenix Mars Lander, describes the Canadian contribution to the mission as "a godsend," and says a $37-million Canadian-built weather station on board the spacecraft has worked "flawlessly" since it landed on May 25.

The Canadian Space Agency is part of an international working group that's already working on the mission to bring the samples back from Mars. While the details are still being discussed, the agency says it's too early to say what commitments will be made by Canada.

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OBSERVATIONS OF UNIQUE TWIN-PULSAR STAR SYSTEM SHOW EFFECTS OF GENERAL RELATIVITY
http://www.astro.umontreal.ca/~casca/PR/04072008.html

Researchers at McGill University's Department of Physics - along with colleagues from several countries - have confirmed a long-held prediction of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, via observations of a binary-pulsar star system. Their results will be published July 3 in the journal Science.

Pulsars are small, ultradense stellar objects left behind after massive stars die and explode as supernovae. They typically have a mass greater than that of our Sun, but compressed to the size of a city like Montreal. They spin at staggering speeds, generate huge gravity fields and emit powerful beams of radio waves along their magnetic poles.

These illuminate Earth-based radio-telescopes like rotating lighthouse beacons as the pulsar spins. More than 1,700 pulsars have been discovered in our galaxy, but PSR J0737-3039A/B, discovered in 2003, is the only known double-pulsar system; that is, two pulsars locked into close orbit around one another. The two pulsars are so close to each other, in fact, that the entire binary could fit within our Sun. PSR J0737-3039A/B lies about 1,700 light years from Earth.

This new test of Einstein's theory was led by McGill astrophysics PhD candidate René Breton and Dr. Victoria Kaspi, leader of the McGill University Pulsar Group.

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