NASSP Newsfeed

Getting Africa Launched in Space Science

arno-admin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:18:39 +0200

Reaching the Stars: All Join Hands . . .

South Africa has a long history of excellence in astronomy, a sound high-tech infrastructure and clear skies. But southern Africa's rich, diversified expertise in astrophysics and space science has never been available to students in one place --- until now. Researchers from around the region are joining forces to create a cooperative, combined programme where South African students --- and students from around Africa --- can earn Honours and Masters degrees while being mentored and taught by a `dream team' of South Africa's leading scientists.

A National Community in Space

The National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP) draws on scientists from 13 institutions at present: the Universities of Cape Town, of the Orange Free State, of Natal (Durban and Pietermaritzburg), of Zululand and of the Northwest, Rhodes University, Potchefstroom University, the university of South Africa, the South African Astronomical Observatory, Hartebeesthoek Radio Observatory, Hermanus Magnetic Observatory and iThembaLab. Others are likely to join in as well.

Hosted in Cape Town

For the first five years, NASSP will be hosted by the University of Cape Town. Lecturers from other institutions will spend time at UCT, working with students in their specialties before returning to home base.

From Cape Town to the Cosmos

Students will travel to use southern Africa's space science research facilities. These will include the Southern African Large Telescope (the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere) and HESS (a new, powerful telescope array for studying gamma rays and cosmic rays) in Namibia, as well as the existing optical/infrared telescopes at Sutherland and the radio telescope at Hartebeesthoek. Southern Africa may also get the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometer Array, though other contestants are still in the ring.

An Initiative for Africa

NASSP will provide the training required to give graduates the broad science skills needed in any modern technological society. This unique new opportunity in Southern Africa aims at providing highly skilled people who will be in demand in fields ranging from aerospace to financial services to telecommunications --- all areas where astronomers trained overseas have been successful. Other graduates will join the growing community of African researchers who will use the continent's new, `giant eyes' to explore the Universe --- our environment on the grandest possible scale.

For more information contact the NASSP coordinator:

Dr Peter Dunsby,
Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics,
University of Cape Town,
South Africa,
E-mail: peter.dunsby@uct.ac.za

Funding Boost for Postgraduate Space Science Programme

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:19:36 +0200

Astronomers of South Africa have succeeded in obtaining US$175 000 from the Ford Foundation for the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP), most of which is earmarked for student bursaries and travel grants. NASSP is an outcome of the NRF's strategic planning for astronomy and space science - it is a national postgraduate training programme designed to increase the number of black students in this field, increase African interaction and provide a worldclass training course.

NASSP will initially be hosted at the University of Cape Town where two programmes will begin in February 2003: an Honours and the taught part of a Master's in astrophysics and space science. Lectures will be given by staff in the NASSP consortium and will cover most areas of modern astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. In addition to lecture courses, students will be expected to take a substantial practical component, which will involve several field trips to some of southern Africa's space science research facilities. The include the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS).

Student graduating from this programme will be both equipped to do research at the cutting edge of astrophysics and have the broad science skills needed in any modern technological society.

NASSP is a remarkable collaboration between scientists from, at present, 13 institutions: the Universities of the Free State, Natal, Zululand, the Northwest and Cape Town, Rhodes University, Potchefstroom University, the University of South Africa, the SAAO, HartRAO, the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory, and iThemba LABS.

National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme Takes Off

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:32:26 +0200

On Thursday 13 February 2003 the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme was officially launched at a function attended by among others the US Ambassador Mr Cameron R Hume and the Director-General of Science & Technology Dr Rob Adams.

The new NASSP students had a chance to meet Deputy Vice Chancellor Cheryl de la Rey and many guests from the Departments of Maths & Applied Maths, Physics, Astronomy and Statistics at UCT, as well as representatives from some of the universities currently part of the NASSP consortium: University of Zululand, Rhodes University, University of Natal, Potchefstroom University, University of the NorthWest.

The students were also joined by representatives from the NRF, SAAO, iThemba Labs and SALT.

NASSP Honours Observational Techniques Symposium at SAAO

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:34:51 +0200

The NASSP Honours Colloquium meeting was held on Wednesday 7th May. The thirteen Honours students made short presentations on different satellite missions, ranging from planned to completed missions and involving targets as diverse as the asteroids and Titan, the furthest reaches of the Universe and the most massive explosions ever seen.

Four staff acted as assessors; Peter Dunsby from UCT, and Patricia Whitelock, Peter Martinez and Dave Kilkenny from SAAO. The general feeling of the assessors was that the overall standard was high, with some of the individual presentations being of exceptional quality - especially given the general lack of experience in this area. All involved left with a very positive feeling about the abilities of the NASSP Honours students.

The programme was as follows:

09:30 - 10:30 Chair: Dave Kilkenny
Janus Brink	HUYGENS	Mission to Titan
Thapelo Tshenye	PLUTO EXPRESS	Binary mission
Ngaka Mphirime	ROSETTA	Asteroid fly-bys and comet intercept


11:00 - 12:20 Chair: Peter Martinez
Keobakile Sedupane	NEAR	Mission accomplished
Alet de Witt	COROT	The search for other Earths
Mike Brownstone	MOST	Stellar Seismology


12:20 - 13:00 Chair: Peter Dunsby
Edward Jurua	XMM/NEWTON	X-ray multi-mirror satellite
Webby Miyoba	SWIFT	Gamma-ray outbursts
Elme Breedt	INTEGRAL	The search for the Universe's most violent explosions


14:00 - 15:20 Chair: Patricia Whitelock
Philip Southey	GAIA	God's Atlas
Seshini Pillay	HERSCHEL/SPIRE	In search of young galaxies
Denise Dale	GALEX	The evolution and history of the Universe
Helen Seals	COBE	What's that in the background?

NASSP students Radio Astronomy practical

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:40:30 +0200

For the radio astronomy practical at HartRAO, twelve NASSP Honours students were joined by two students doing Honours in Physics with Electronics at Rhodes University. The practical followed on directly from the radio astronomy course given by Prof. Justin Jonas of RU/HartRAO. The students travelled up from Cape Town by bus, with a day long stayover in Bloemfontein to visit Boyden Observatory.

The students arrived at Boyden in the late afternoon. After a small informal dinner the students were escorted through the observatory and were shown the 1.5 m UFS-Boyden telescope as well as the 13 inch Alvin Clark telescope, manufactured in 1884. The time was well spent since the students were exposed to some practical hands-on astronomy. The highlight of the evening was looking at Mars through the oldest working telescope around, the 13 inch. Since Mars is now the closest to Earth in 60 000 years, it was glorious through the telescope, and several Oohs and Aahs could be heard.

The students then travelled on to HartRAO, where more on-site accommodation for visitors has been created. As there are now 24 beds available, all the students were housed at the observatory.

Arriving at HartRAO on the afternoon of Monday, 25 August, the students were soon learning about the practical realities of radio astronomy, with a tour around the facility. Fabio Frescura of Wits/HartRAO gave a presentation on pulsar research, the first of three talks for the students given by researchers proximate to HartRAO.

On the Tuesday morning the students were taken up the radio telescope to see the microwave receivers and the telescope itself at close quarters. They were also introduced to the space geodesy programme by Dr. Ludwig Combrinck, and shown the satellite laser ranger and global positioning system base station in action.

Live radio astronomy followed on Tuesday under the tutelage of Justin Jonas. The first step consisted of calibrating the receiver systems in each wavelength band by means of drift scans through the radio galaxy Virgo A. In the evening drift scans of Mars were made at a range of wavelengths in order to determine its brightness temperature and hence to deduce its physical temperature, given its angular size at the time.

On Wednesday the students were introduced to spectroscopy at radio wavelengths by Mike Gaylard, after some practical revision of what happens at visible wavelengths, using hand-held optical spectroscopes. The first spectrum taken was that of a methanol maser at 6.7 GHz. This was followed by a radio recombination line observation and drift scan on the Carina Nebula, in order to determine the electron temperature in the nebula. The mysteries of the "Local Standard of Rest" and radiative transfer through ionised and neutral media were delved into during the discussion around the observations. The students were also treated to a pre-lunch talk by Prof. Johan van der Walt from PUCHO on his research at mm-wavelength into regions where high mass stars are forming.

Thursday saw the students in the microwave laboratory with Justin Jonas. Here they were set the task of measuring the noise figure of a microwave amplifier. Prof Okkie de Jager from PUCHO also visited and gave an impromptu lecture on gamma-ray astronomy to the students. In the evening they were able to join in the tailend of the public viewing 'Mars party' held at the Observatory.

On Friday Jonathan Quick and the students made a map of the radio emission of the Sun at a wavelength of 2.5cm. At this wavelength, seven beamwidths fit into the diameter of the Sun, permitting 'hotspots' to be identified.

The NASSP students left on Friday afternoon for the return trip to Cape Town, barring one who stayed for the weekend to carry out a project. This was to investigate the recombination line emission from the Orion Nebula over the full wavelength range available. To this end spectra and drift scans were obtained at 18, 13, 4.5 and 2.5cm wavelength, and the data were reduced by the student while on site.

NASSP receives funding for IT

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:52:53 +0200

NASSP has been awarded a once off strategic allocation of R440,000 by the University of Cape Town to fund a postgraduate computer facility and a half-day dedicated person to run the facility.

Giant eye reveals new pulsating binary stars

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:53:46 +0200

A telescopic search of the southern skies one frigid July night during a fieldtrip to Sutherland revealed a special secret to stargazer Denise Dale.

Dale, an honours student on the new, collaborative National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP) hosted at UCT, identified two binary stars in which the central star pulsates. As these binary stars interact with each other, mass flows from the low mass companion to the more massive central star, known as a white dwarf.

Only two other mass-transferring binary stars have been discovered, one of which was recently found by Dale's UCT supervisors, astronomers Distinguished Professor Brian Warner and Dr Patrick Woudt.

New discoveries such as these are being made possible by such initiatives as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in the United States, which has resulted in the sighting of 40 new interacting binary stars (sometimes called cataclysmic variable stars). From these, Warner and Woudt selected two as possible candidates in which the central star pulsates. These were the two that Dale studied in Sutherland.

"Both turned out to be pulsating, doubling the number of known pulsating cataclysmic variable stars," she added.

A white dwarf, she explained, is an evolved star and when such a star reaches a specific temperature range (12 000 deg Kelvin) it will pulsate. "With the pulsations one can, in principle, study the density structure of the star."

The timing of the discovery meant Warner could announce it at a conference on variable stars in Christchurch, as well as at the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Sydney a week later.

The find is significant in astronomical circles. "Pulsating stars are observed quite commonly in isolated white dwarfs and the pulsation period can be used to study the density structure of the star (astroseismology) but they are very rare in mass-transferring binaries," Dale explained.

"Having doubled the sample from two to four, we can now possibly study what effect mass accretion will have on the central star."

These new celestial objects are being found through dedicated surveys of big areas in the sky, using big telescopes. But as the sightings are quite faint, these are followed up using bigger telescopes such as the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) at Sutherland.

This "giant eye" facility, the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, will be ready for action by the time Dale reaches PhD level in 2005.

Dale was one of 13 students who travelled to Sutherland and then on to the HartRAO and Boyden observatories during the two-week fieldtrip.

"These fieldtrips are hugely valuable as students learn new observational techniques," said course co-ordinator Associate Professor Peter Dunsby.

The students enjoyed a practical introduction to optical/infrared observational techniques. And despite bad weather, they were able to take part in observations made with 0.5m, 0.75m, 1m and 1.9m telescopes. Ugandan honours student Edward Jurua measured an sdB star over several nights using the 1.9m telescope. Once he graduates, Jurua plans to put his energies into space science programmes in southern African and particularly the development of the field in his home country.

Another honours student, Thapelo Tshenye, has been interested in astronomy since boyhood. A graduate of the University of North West in Mmabatho (he hails from Rustenburg), Tshenye says he loves the African skies.

"The Sutherland trip was the best, perhaps because I am passionate about optical astronomy."

"The quality of their practical work was very high," Dunsby noted, adding that many of the honours projects would be good enough to publish at the end of the year.

In its first year, the NASSP course has been very successful and is expanding fast. "This year's intake of 13 honours and five master's students is likely to be topped next year when as many as 30 students are expected, with an additional three MSc students still on the programme," Dunsby added.

Good news for the programme is the recent allocation of R440 000 for a new teaching computer laboratory next year, an important facility.

Published in the UCT's Monday Paper on 29th September

(The NASSP course is a collaboration between 13 institutions, including the Universities of Free State, Natal, Zululand and Rhodes, as well as the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), the Hartebeespoort Radio Observatory and the iThembaLab.)

Joint NASSP-SAAO Summer School a success.

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:55:11 +0200

Summerschool Programme

SAAO Summer School

The aim of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) Summer School is to introduce the NASSP Honours students to an array of topics in astronomy and space science through numerous hands-on activities and practical experiences. The programme focusses on three main topics, namely "Practical Astronomy" (including an Introductory Astronomy course, Planetarium sessions, observing evenings and computer-based exercises), "Rocketry and Space Flight" (including lectures, as well as the building and launching of model rockets) and "Robotics and Planetary Exploration" (introducing computer programming through the use of robotic LEGO rovers). Visits to a range of scientifically interesting facilities are also included in the schedule. All activities involve some degree of assessment and participants should realise that the quality of their Summer School experience will depend on the amount of effort they are prepared to invest. While the three weeks will be extremely busy, it should be a lot of fun!

HMO Summer School

The Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO) will host a summer school for the NASSP Hons students from 14 to 19 February 2006. The aim of the HMO Summer School: Introduction to Space Physics is to introduce the NASSP Honours students to a number of topics in space science through lectures, tutorials and practical experiences.

The summer school will include lectures, videos, and internet sessions in order to give NASSP students an introduction to the Earth's space environment. Topics will include:

Basic concepts in space plasma physics.
Structure and variations of the Earth's magnetic field.
The sun, solar activity, and the solar wind.
Structure of the ionosphere and plasmasphere.
Structure and dynamics of the magnetosphere.
The effects of space weather on man's technological systems.

2Hip2BSquare

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:58:02 +0200

Hip2BSquare is built on the belief that dreams can be realised by anybody with energy and the willingness to invest in their education early on. Whatever your dream may be, you can reach it if you are willing to work hard at school and make smart decisions about your life. One of the greatest aspirations the youth of today can have is to be savvy and smart about the choices they make in life. Hip2BSquare aims to drive home the message that knowledge is power". Mark Shuttleworth

The weekly television show 'Hip2bSquare' (SABC 2, Mondays @ 4pm) is just one element of Mark Shuttleworth's vision for a techno-literate Africa. It aims to promote careers in science and mathematics to schoolgoers, and to impress upon them the importance of these subjects at school.

NASSP MSc student Michelle Wiehahn was thrilled to be given the chance to speak about Astronomy in a recent episode of the program. She answered questions relating to observatories in general, and the South African Astronomical Observatory's Sutherland site in particular.

Visit their website, hip2b2, for more information on the Shuttleworth Foundation's exciting project.

NASSP/AIMS 2005 Student Workshop on SALT Science

arno — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:59:27 +0200

Background: The SALT dedication on 10 November 2005 will be followed by a week long international symposium entitled "The Science Case for Extremely Large Telescopes". This symposium, which is sponsored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), will be the highest profile astronomical conference ever held on the African continent and will attract the top users of large telescopes from all over the world. These events present a unique opportunity to introduce Southern African students to the type of science that is done on large telescopes and to the people who do it.

Taking advantage of this situation a student workshop will be run at AIMS in Muizenberg from 7 to 11 November with participants attending the SALT dedication at Sutherland on November 10. The workshop is jointly organized by the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP) and the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS); a secondary objective is to bring these two groups, who have many common interests, closer together. We note that both AIMS and NASSP have students from elsewhere in Africa as well as South Africa and, as potential future users of SALT and other astronomical facilities in Southern Africa, they comprise a particularly appropriate group to be present for the SALT dedication.

Lecturers: Five international experts will each present a series of four lecture/demonstrations, on broad topics of interest to users of large telescopes, including astronomical theory and instrumentation:

Gibor Basri (University of California and the Keck Telescopes, USA)
Extra-solar planets and brown dwarfs
Jay Gallagher (University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA)
Galaxies and Galactic Structure
Brian Schmidt (Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatory, Australia)
Stellar Evolution and Supernovae
Jerry Sellwood (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA)
Cosmology and Dark Matter
Andreas Quirrenbach (University of Leiden, Netherlands)
Adaptive Optics

Programme: here (MS Word document).

Lecture notes: here.

Students: Those attending will comprise NASSP students and AIMS students with a physics background. Other physics research students interested in attending should write a brief email motivation to Patricia Whitelock (paw@saao.ac.za) stating their full names, relevant qualifications, the course for which they are registered, the email address of their supervisor and one paragraph on why they want to attend the workshop.

We also anticipate being able to allow about 10 of the students to attend the international symposium the following week. They will be expected to help with small tasks, such as distributing question and answer papers during the symposium.

Organizing Committee:

Peter Dunsby (UCT)
Fritz Hahne (AIMS/SU)
Renee Kraan-Korteweg (UCT)
Clifford Nxomani (SAAO)
Neil Turok (AIMS/Cambridge)
Patricia Whitelock (SAAO) - Chair

Sponsors: