African Astronomical Society’s Post

Register now to the #IAUGA2024 and don't lose the Focus Meeting 8 “Advances and Challenges in Understanding the Solar and Stellar Dynamos”. The primary goal of the interdisciplinary meeting is to discuss advances in observations and modeling of solar and stellar magnetic fields and their manifestations, including flares and CMEs. The meeting topics include historical and modern observations, observational constraints on dynamo theories, recent attempts to understand and predict magnetic activity on the Sun and stars, current observational and theoretical challenges, and future developments and collaborations. #AfricaLookUp Department of Science and Innovation The National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) The International Astronomical Union IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach IAU Office of Astronomy for Development African Astronomical Society Kevin Govender Charles Takalana, PhD Vanessa McBride Daniel Cunnama Letebele Masemola-Jones

This is my first article. This article accepted by New Astronomy journal. If you want to see all the article you can go to this link: https://lnkd.in/dRSMaTe3

Oops, I did it again! My latest work has just been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 🍾 In this study, we utilised the most detailed simulations of planetary collisions and integrated ML models to develop a state-of-the-art analytical model that accelerates and widely improves our simulations of terrestrial planet formation. Among the many questions we aim to answer are: How did the Earth form? Why do we have water on Earth and not just a planet-sized sandcastle? Why is it the way it is, allowing us to be here and publish papers about why it is the way it is? Because, let’s face it, the universe is pretty wild and we just love trying to make sense of it all! 😂

🌍 This week is International Dark Sky Week, which is an annual event during Global Astronomy Month, every April.   🌑 Dark Sky Week takes place during the week of the new moon when night skies are darkest. It helps to spread the word about light pollution and the importance of dark skies. It is also a chance to celebrate advancements in astronomical research, at places like Jodrell Bank. 👉Read our article on Space-based Infrastructure here- https://lnkd.in/eSc3p7Uk   📚 Read more in our publication ‘On Space’- https://lnkd.in/gTiMg8mt

The fastest-spinning known neutron star is PSR J1748-2446ad. It rotates at an incredible rate of about 716 times per second! The scientists discovered the pulsar, in a globular cluster of stars called Terzan 5, located some 28,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. For reference, the fastest speeds of common kitchen blenders are 250-500 Hz. The below image is taken from site of National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE AFFECTS US BECAUSE WE ARE ONE WITH EVERYTHING: A University of Toronto astronomer’s research suggests THE SOLAR SYSTEM IS SURROUNDED BY A MAGNETIC TUNNEL THAT CAN BE SEEN IN RADIO WAVES. Jennifer West, a research associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, is making a scientific case that TWO BRIGHT STRUCTURES seen on opposite sides of the sky – previously considered to be separate – are actually CONNECTED AND ARE MADE OF rope-like filaments. The connection forms what looks like A TUNNEL AROUND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. #solarsystem #unity #solareclipse #equilibrium #jasnicaklaramatic https://lnkd.in/dktvKfuS

Is it possible to fine-tune a vision foundation model on random crops of radio astronomy images without a galaxy at the center? This is the question I spent the majority of last winter focusing on, and the short answer: Yes! Using continuum images from the MeerKAT MGCLS survey, we successfully fine-tuned both a ResNet and ViT using DINO, matching reported performance on FR-I/FR-II morphology classification and far exceeding the ability of other models to predict the number of radio sources present in each image. The full paper is now published in Astronomy & Astrophysics: https://lnkd.in/dTvJ-wFp

If you like astronomy, you will have seen the famous image of a black hole. Well, it is actually a composition, not a real image. Now there are more updates: https://buff.ly/3S5LVRD #BlackHoleDiscovery #AstronomyUpdates #GalacticExploration

An international team of astronomers have used National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to determine key characteristics of a newly-discovered magnetar, Swift J1818.0-1617, to unprecedented levels of precision. When a neutron star forms with a fast pulsar-like spin and a magnetic field thousands of times stronger than a typical neutron star, it’s given the designation magnetar. These stars pack roughly double the mass of our Sun into a physical size on the scale of tens of kilometers— the size of a city. Full article: https://lnkd.in/e_DmEura

🌑 Today, we witness a significant astronomical event: the total solar eclipse across North America. As professionals and enthusiasts in the field of astronomy and related sciences, let's ensure we observe this phenomenon safely with proper solar viewing equipment. This moment of daytime darkness offers a unique opportunity for observation and study, not to be repeated in the contiguous US until 2044. Will you be watching? Click here to find out what time you'll be able to view the eclipse: https://lnkd.in/g4FXudrE