2024
Date Title Details
Jan 10 Javier wins the HEAD innovation prize! Former HEAG member, Dr. Javier Garcia, won the HEAD innovation prize along with his colleagues Dr. Thomas Dauser and Dr. Tim Kallman for the development of novel models to describe emission in the strong gravity regime from accreting compact objects. The relxill models they compiled are used extensively in the X-ray astrophysics community. Congratulations Javier!
Jan 11 The HEA Group attends AAS 243 Several members of the HEA Group traveled to New Orleans to attend the 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS 243). Asia talked about the integrated effect of black hole feedback on galaxies, Brian presented his work on early hard X-rays from the nearby core-collapse supernova SN2023ixf, Murray presented his results on a new sample of transient ultraluminous X-ray sources and Peter talked about probing the circum-nuclear environment of growing supermassive black holes with HEX-P.
Feb 6 Asia gives a colloquium at Pomona College Postdoc Asia Piotrowska gave the Physics and Astronomy Colloqium at Pomona College. The title of the talk was "Putting the breaks on star formation in galaxies: the cosmological impact of supermassive black holes". Her talk was well received and she got many questions from the audience.
Feb 7 Peter gives a virtual talk at New York University Abu Dhabi Postdoc Peter Boorman gave a virtual talk as part of the "Variable Sources in Galaxies" workshop at New York University Abu Dhabi. The workshop was dedicated to astrophysical systems that display variability in galaxies, and Peter presented the latest compilation of Compton-thick AGN identified to-date with NuSTAR as well as prospects for the future with HEX-P. NuSTAR's unique passband is crucial for revealing complex changes in the X-ray spectrum of such sources and revealing variability at high X-ray energies.
Feb 13 UVEX is selected! UVEX: The Ultraviolet Explorer has been selected for flight and is targeted to launch in 2030 as NASA’s next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission. Congratulations to the Principal Investigator Professor Fiona Harrison and the entire UVEX team! For more details about UVEX's selection, you can read the press release. Additionally, check out this video to learn more about UVEX and the remarkable journey ahead.
Mar 25 Ed does astronomy on tap Postdoc Ed Nathan gave a talk at Astronomy on Tap. He gave a talk entitled “Black Holes: Dining with the Stars” in which he described the various masses that black holes have, including primordial black holes. He even posited if there is a black hole at the center of our Sun (there probably isn't).
Apr 7 The HEA Group travels to Texas for HEAD 21 and the solar eclipse Several members of the group inlcuding Shina, Murray, Brian, Asia, Ed and Dan travelled to Horseshoe Bay, Texas to attend the 21st Meeting of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the AAS. There they presented their recent findings and met with other members of the high energy astrophysics community. Javier also received his HEAD innovation prize along with his colleagues Dr. Thomas Dauser and Dr. Tim Kallman. The venue was in the path of totality for the 2024 North American solar eclipse. Despite some cloud cover, the group got to see the solar corona in all its glory.
Apr 22 NuSTAR Cycle 10 results are out! The results of the NuSTAR Cycle 10 review have been released. Among the successful proposers were group members Shina, Peter and Hannah, as well as former members Matteo, Felix, Amruta, Javier, Gullo, Sean and Yuhan. Find out all about the proposed science in Cycle 10 here. Congratulations all!
Apr 24 Hannah's paper is accepted for publication! Staff Scientist Hannah Earnshaw's paper entitled Return to the forgotten ULX: a broadband NICER+NuSTAR study of NGC 4190 ULX-1 has been accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal. NGC 4190 ULX-1 is a bright ultraluminous X-ray source in the nearby galaxy NGC 4190 and is nicknamed the forgotten ULX since while it is relatively bright and nearby, it hasn't been studied in detail until now. Hannah found that despite the lack of detected pulsations, there is tantalizing evidence for NGC 4190 ULX-1 being a candidate neutron star accretor from its variability properties. Hannah has also been awarded joint NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observing time to study this source further in NuSTAR Cycle 10. Congratulations Hannah!
May 6 The HEA group celebrates Black Hole Week 2024 The first week of May is Black Hole Week and Shina, Asia and Dan took to social media to answer questions from the public about about these strange balls of gravity. Asia and Dan featured in a ScienceAtNASA YouTube video explaining what black holes are, and Dan and Shina answered questions from the public on the NASA Universe X account.
May 23 Murray, Brian and Hiro are recognised by Caltech for their years of service to the institute Staff Scientists Murray Brightman, Brian Grefenstette and Hiro Miyasaka were recognised by Caltech at The 69th Annual Staff Service & Impact Awards, Murray for 10 years of service, Brian for 15, and Hiro for 20! They received a certificate and had their pictures taken with the President of Caltech, Dr. Thomas Rosenbaum at an event at Beckman Auditorium.
2023
Date Title Details
Jan 9 Aria get a Posse Scholarship Aria Gasca, a high school student who worked with Margaret Lazzarini as part of the Hybrid Summer Research Connections program in the summer of 2022, was recently awarded a prestigious Posse Scholarship to attend Tulane University next year. Aria worked on a research project combining NuSTAR, Chandra, and Hubble observations of the nearby galaxy Triangulum to identify optical counterparts to hard X-ray sources in the galaxy.
Jan 12 The HEA Group attends AAS 241 Several members of the HEA Group including Amruta, Dan, Ed, Javier, Hannah, Karl, Margaret, Murray, Peter and Yuhan traveled to Seattle to attend the 241st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS 241). There they presented their work through talks, iposters and press conferences, and met with colleagues old and new.
Jan 12 Hannah goes observing to Hawaii Staff Scientist Hannah Earnshaw went to Hawaii to use the near infrared camera NIRC2 on the Keck telescope to look for infrared counterparts to ultraluminous X-ray sources in nearby galaxies. The laser guide star system on Keck allows for taking very high-resolution images, which they will use to find out which exact star is the companion to the X-ray source.
Jan 20 Summer undergraduate research opportunities in the HEA Group Do you want to spend a summer doing research in the HEA Group? Caltech offers the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program which gives undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct research under the guidance of experienced mentors working at the frontier of their fields. Check here for opportunities, including in the HEA Group.
Jan 23 Renee wins the 2023 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize Former postdoc Renee Ludlam is the recipient of the American Astronomical Society's (AAS) 2023 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize. The prize is awarded for outstanding achievement in observational astronomical research based on measurements of radiation from an astronomical object. Renee won for her novel explorations of the relativistic universe that have revealed fundamental properties of neutron stars. Congratulations Renee!
Jan 26 NuSTAR Cycle 9 proposals submitted The deadline for NuSTAR Cycle 9 proposals was on January 26th and many members of the HEA Group made submissions to have their targets observed. Successful proposals will be selected by an anonymous review panel and observations will start in June 2023. Good luck to everyone who submitted a proposal!
Jan 30 Caltech to host the First UVEX Community Workshop On March 13-15, 2023, Caltech will be hosting the First UVEX Community Workshop: Synergies and New Opportunities, to explore the potential science opportunities presented by the Ultraviolet Explorer, a proposed MIDEX mission currently in Phase A of development and led by Professor Fiona Harrison. For more information and to register, see here.
Feb 3 Peter gives a tutorial on Bayesian X-ray spectral fitting Postdoc Peter Boorman visited the University of Clemson to present a colloquium and give a tutorial on Bayesian X-ray spectral fitting. Bayesian spectral analysis is useful for systematic fitting with minimal user input of initial parameters, efficient systematic fitting of large datasets with many sources or comparing many models and provides accurate parameter constraints, even for (very) low counts or for complex parameter spaces with strong degeneracies.
Feb 9 NuSTAR observations of the Sun highlighted in a JPL press release This week JPL highlighted observations of the Sun made by NuSTAR in a press release. NuSTAR observed the Sun at the same time the X-ray Telescope (XRT) on the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hinode mission and and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. These observations occurred in June 2022 during the perihelion pass of the Parker Solar Probe, which enables scientists to link activity observed remotely in the Sun’s atmosphere with the direct samples of the solar environment taken by the probe.
Feb 10 Swift Cycle 19 results are out The results from the Swift Cycle 19 peer review have now been published. Among the successful proposers is NuSTAR Project Scientist Daniel Stern, who has been awarded time to observe the potential electromagnetic counterparts from black hole mergers in the accretion disks of AGN. Congratulations Dan!
Feb 13 Peter gives a talk at Astronomy on Tap Postdoc Peter Boorman presented his research at Astronomy on Tap about finding accreting supermassive black holes. Astronomy on Tap is a regular nation-wide event in which astronomers present their research in an informal setting at local bars. For more details of future events in Pasadena, see the webpage here.
Feb 15 The HEA Group gets a visit from Professor Adlyka Annuar Professor Adlyka (Ady) Annuar is currently visiting the HEA Group from the National University of Malaysia. She is visiting for a month to work on a sample of local AGN mainly using NuSTAR and Chandra data. Welcome Ady!
Feb 27 McKinley becomes a professor Former postdoc McKinley Brumback has accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Physics at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, beginning in July 2023. In her new role, Professor Brumback will teach physics core curriculum, mentor undergraduates in high energy astrophysics research, and help the Middlebury Physics Department expand its offered astronomy curriculum. Congratulations McKinley!
Mar 12 Labani gets a CITA National Fellowship Postdoc Labani Mallick was offered and accepted a CITA National Fellowship. She will conduct independent research on high-energy astrophysics at the University of Manitoba under the CITA National Fellowship program.
Mar 15 Caltech hosts the First UVEX Community Workshop This week Caltech hosted the First UVEX Community Workshop: Synergies and New Opportunities. Astronomers from all over the US and abroad came to hear and talk about Gravitational Wave astronomy, stars, galaxies, dust and time domain astronomy in the UV.
Mar 26 The HEA Group travels to Hawaii for HEAD 20 The 20th Meeting of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the AAS will take place on the Big Island of Hawaii, March 26-30. Many members of the HEA Group will be in attendence to present their work on ultraluminous X-ray sources, X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. There will also be a special session on X-ray probe concepts, including the High Energy X-ray Probe (HEX-P) lead by NuSTAR Project Scientist Daniel Stern.
Apr 6 Matteo's result is highlighted in a JPL press release Former HEA Group member Matteo Bachetti's work on the orbital decay of the ultraluminous X-ray pulsar powering M82 X-2 was highlighted in a JPL press release. His result confirmed that the pulsar is intrinsically as bright as it appears, and is not a result of the emission being beamed in our direction. Congratulations Matteo!
Apr 10 Labani gives a seminar at CSU Stanislaus Postdoc Labani Mallik visited California State University, Stanislaus this week and gave an invited seminar. The title of her talk was "Accreting Massive Black Holes at the Center of Galaxies and their Impacts on Small and Large Scales."
Apr 14 Peter gives a seminar at Wayne State University Postdoc Peter Boorman gave seminar at Wayne State University on the NuSTAR Local AGN NH Distribution Survey (NuLANDS).
Apr 17 NuSTAR Cycle 9 results are out! The results from the NuSTAR Cycle 9 peer review have now been published. Among the successful proposers were HEA Group members Amruta, Javier, Peter and Shina. Congratulations!
Apr 24 Karl attends IACHEC NuSTAR Science Operations Manager, Karl Forster, attended the 15th meeting of the International Astronomical Consortium for High-Energy Calibration (IACHEC) in Pelham, Germany. These annual meetings bring together calibration teams from all the high-energy astrophysics missions in operation, development and those being planned. The years of experience of the IACHEC members has helped with the calibration of many missions, including NuSTAR, and these annual working meetings provide a forum for the community to discuss and coordinate calibration activities.
Apr 29 HEA Group members volunteer at Explore JPL NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory held their annual open house event, Explore JPL, which is a chance for visitors to to learn more about space exploration, robotics, and technology being developed. HEA Group members Ed, Lynnie, Peter and Shina took part to share their knowledge on NuSTAR and black holes.
May 1 Dr. Asia (Joanna) Piotrowska joins the HEA Group Asia joins us from Cambridge University in the UK as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Asia!
May 4 Murray's paper on transient ULXs is accepted for publication Staff Scientist Murray Brightman's paper on a new sample of transient ultraluminous X-ray sources he found was accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal. Congratulations Murray!
May 12 Peter gives a talk to an Astronomy Club Peter Boorman gave a lecture to the Antelope Valley Astronomy Club in Palmdale. The talk overviewed the history of X-ray astronomy, and the different multi-wavelength techniques available today to identify and study accreting supermassive black holes observationally. The talk also presented some of the exciting research highlights from the past ~11 years of NuSTAR operation and the prospects on the horizon with the High Energy X-ray Probe mission concept.
May 19 NuSTAR detects hard X-rays from a nearby supernova The closest supernova in a decade, SN 2023ixf, was found in the Pinwheel galaxy (M101) and is thought to have been produced by the collapse of a massive star. Telescopes all over the world, and in space, rushed to observe this rare event. Staff Scientist Brian Grefenstette organised for NuSTAR to observe it, and reported on the detection of hard X-rays in an Astronomer's Telegram
May 22 Yuhan defends her thesis! Graduate student Yuhan Yao successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “High Energy Transients Powered by Black Holes”. In August, she will start a Miller fellowship at UC Berkeley. Congratulations Yuhan!
May 29 Margaret's paper on high mass X-ray binaries in M33 is accepted for publication Postdoctoral fellow Margaret Lazzarini's paper on the high mass X-ray binary population of nearby galaxy M33 was accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Congratulations Margaret!
May 31 Lynnie defends her thesis! Graduate student Lynnie Saade successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Unveiling Supermassive Black Hole Growth and Co-evolution Using X-rays”. In July, she will start a postdoctoral researcher position at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center working on IXPE. Congratulations Lynnie!
Jun 4 Yuanze goes to AAS 242 Graduate student Yuanze Ding traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 242nd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS242). There he presented his results on high density corrections to the XILLVER reflection model commonly used to fit the X-ray spectra of AGN and X-ray binaries.
Jun 8 Brian submits his paper on SN 2023ixf Staff Scientist Brian Grefenstette submitted his paper on early hard X-rays from the nearby core-collapse supernova SN2023ixf. He used NuSTAR to measure the brightness and absorption in the X-rays, and infer the mass-loss rate of the progenitor star.
Jun 8 Asia takes part in a summer physics camp for young women Postdoc Asia (Joanna) Piotrowska connected online with this year’s participants of the Summer Physics Camp for Young Women held jointly in Santa Fe, NM and Hilo, HI. During the ‘Space Chatter’ event, camp students had an engaging conversation with Asia about supermassive black holes and cosmology, learning how NuSTAR observations allow us to measure the properties of some of the most exotic objects in the Universe. In tandem with discussing science, students also had an opportunity to ask Asia about her experience of pursuing a professional career in science as a woman and as for advice on subject choices in the future.
Jun 19 Ed travels to Europe for conferences in Greece and Italy Postdoc Ed Nathan attended The X-ray Universe conference in Athens, Greece and the Vasto Accretion meeting in Vasto, Italy. He presented a poster to both conferences entitled "Polarised reflection: Creating polarised XILLVER tables" and in Vasto he presented a talk entitled "Phase-resolved spectroscopy of QPOs seen in simultaneous NuSTAR & XMM-Newton observations of H1743-322 across multiple outbursts". The meeting was also covered by the local press which featured Ed in its photos!
Jun 21 The HEA Group welcomes the SURF/WAVE fellows of 2023 The arrival of summer brings the lastest group of SURF and WAVE fellows to Caltech, here for 10 weeks to undertake summer research. The HEA Group welcomes Diana Avila, Joahan Castaneda Jaimes, Madeline Gardner, Annie Giman, Sanya Gupta, Dylan Perez and Miranda Zak. Wishing you all a productive and fun time with us!
Jun 27 Brian gives a presentation about NuSTAR to the NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee Staff Scientist Brian Grefenstette gave a presentation at the APAC meeting which had a focus on Time Domain and Multi-Messenger astrophysics. He talked about NuSTAR's continuing contribution to the field through its follow up of transient X-ray phenomena.
Jul 1 Dan attends the lauch of Euclid NuSTAR Project Scientist Dan Stern attended the launch of Euclid, a space telescope designed to explore the evolution of the dark Universe. Dan is also the Deputy PI of the NASA-Funded Euclid Science Team.
Jul 12 Asia presents at EAS 2023 Postdoc Asia Piotrowska travelled to Krakow, Poland to attend the European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting. There she gave a talk on constraining black hole growth history with population spin measurements using HEX-P and presented her results on supermassive black hole feedback in galaxies.
Jul 24 Ryan Pfeifle visits the HEA Group Dr. Ryan Pfeifle visited the HEA Group for a week and gave a talk on his research on hunting for dual AGNs in the hard X-rays. Ryan is an expert on multi-wavelength studies of merging galaxies & dual AGN with a focus on X-ray imaging and spectral analyses.
Jul 24 Chandra Cycle 25 results are out! The list of approved targets for Chandra's Cycle 25 have been posted. Both Daniel and Murray were awarded target of opportunity observations to observe X-ray transient sources. Congratulations both!
Aug 1 Shina attends a high resolution X-ray spectroscopy workshop Postdoc Shina Adegoke traveled to MIT to attend a workshop on high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. There he presented his work on X-ray reflection spectroscopy of the transient black hole candidate MAXI J1803-298.
Aug 5 Margaret's summer students give their final presentations Michael Aguiniga, David Chau, Jessie Serrano, & Rayana Yasin, high-school students who were working with postdoc Margaret Lazzarini for the summer as part of Caltech's Hybrid Summer Research Connections (HSRC) program, gave their final presentations on Saturday, August 5. Congratulations!
Aug 14 Margaret starts a new job at Cal State LA Postdoc Margaret Lazzarini starts her new job as Assistant Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Cal State LA after spending two years in the HEA Group. Congratulations Margaret!
Aug 14 Asia attends a machine learning workshop Postdoc Asia Piotrowska traveled to Heidelberg, Germany to attend a workshop on machine learning in astrophysics. The meeting focused on bringing senior experts, early career researchers and students in natural sciences and mathematics to work on a range of astrophysical problems. The workshop combined lectures, tutorials and individual short projects, materials for all of which are publicly available here.
Aug 21 Johannes Buchner visits the HEA Group Johannes is a post-doctoral researcher at MPE in Germany working on a wide array of astrophysical phenomena including black holes, gamma ray bursts, and exoplanets. He is also an expert in astrostatistics, notably being the creator of the UltraNest nested sampling package and numerous other widely-used astrophysical packages. He visited the group and gave a talk entitled "Can we measure the host galaxy mass of Seyfert 1?".
Aug 24 The summer students present their work! Diana Avila, Joahan Castaneda Jaimes, M Gardner, Annie Giman, Sanya Gupta, Dylan Perez, Vismaya Pillai and Miranda Zak, who spent the summer doing research in the HEA Group, presented their work in oral and poster formats, concluding their time with us. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours! Do you want to join us for summer research? WAVE applications are due in January 2024 and SURF applications are due in February.
Sep 11 Núria Torres-Albà visits the HEA Group Núria is a postdoctoral fellow at Clemson University and is an expert in high-energy studies of active galaxies. Núria will be visiting for the entire week (September 11—15) and will be in Cahill room 268. She will give a talk entitled "X-raying the Torus: A multi-epoch study of obscuration in nearby AGN" on Monday, September 11th at 16:00 in Cahill room 370.
Sep 11 Asia does astronomy on tap Postdoc Asia Piotrowska will give a talk about how supermassive black holes shape their host galaxies at Astronomy on Tap on Monday, September 11 at 7:30PM at the Dog Haus Biergarten. The event also features live music by Jason Achilles and Forrest Mitchell.
Sep 11 Peter's book chapter is published! Long-term NuSTAR group collaborator Johannes Buchner and NuSTAR postdoc Peter Boorman published a textbook chapter in the Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astronomy. The chapter gives a review of the statistical methods involved with X-ray spectral fitting, including a number of hands-on exercises and example code and they posted it on arXiv. Nice work Peter and Johannes!
Oct 9 Lea Marcotulli visits the HEA Group Lea is a NASA Einstein Fellow at Yale and is an expert on X-ray and gamma ray emission from AGN and blazars. She will give a talk entitled "The most powerful persistent jets through cosmic time" on Monday, October 9th at 16:00 in Cahill room 370.
Oct 16 Murray takes part as an expert in NASA's Astrophoto Challenge NASA's Astrophoto Challenge is a periodic opportunity for learners of all ages to create their own multi-color/multi-wavelength images of famous celestial objects using both ground-based telescopes and data from space-based NASA/ESA telescopes. The 2023 Summer NASA's Astrophoto Challenge focussed on the Phantom Galaxy, M74. For these challenges, participants were able to take their own data with the MicroObservatory robotic telescope network, or use a curated set of data from the following NASA and ESA missions: Webb, Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, and XMM-Newton. Staff Scientist Murray Brightman lent his expertise in X-ray astronomy, and appeared in a short video explaining where X-ray emission in M74 comes from. See some of the standout entries here!
Nov 9 HEX-P papers make a splash on arXiv! More than 15 science white papers have been written in support of the High Energy X-ray Probe (HEX-P) concept lead by NuSTAR project scientist Daniel Stern. They all appeared on the arXiv this week, detailing all the great science HEX-P will do. Several HEA group members were involved including Asia, Amruta, Dan, Murray and Peter. Find out more about HEX-P here and read the papers here
Nov 15 NuSTAR observes GRB 231115A NASA’s Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor announced the detection of a Gamma-ray Burst named GRB 231115A. The event was of specific interest due to its position, given by ESA’s INTEGRAL observatory, being coincident with the nearby galaxy M82 (aka the “Cigar Galaxy”). NuSTAR initiated a Target of Opportunity observation requested by NuSTAR scientist Brian Grefenstette in order to study the prompt afterglow and was on target only 4 hours after the request was approved, and only 7 hours after the event itself, both records for NuSTAR. Brian posted the results of the observation via a GCN circular.
Nov 20 Ed gets NICER time The list of successful NICER Cycle 6 proposals was posted this week. Postdoc Ed Nathan's proposal to study the black hole X-ray binary GRS 1915+105 was among them. He aims to use NICER and NuSTAR to study the source's quasi-periodic oscillation in order to study the corona. Congratulations Ed!
Dec 11 Murray gets XMM-Newton time The results of XMM-Newton's Cycle 23 proposals have been released. Among the successful proposals were two of Staff Scientist Murray Brightman's, both target of opportunity observations to study ultraluminous X-ray sources. One to study the 8.56 keV absorption line in NGC 4045 ULX in more detail, the other to observe a newly discovered transient ULX. Congratulations Murray!
Dec 15 Come and do summer research in the HEA group next summer! The HEA group is offering up to 8 SURF opportunities for the summer of 2024. The SURF projects on offer will be in all group research areas and be mentored by the staff scientists and postdocs of the group. Caltech students will be prioritized, however we welcome applications from other universities and will consider them once Caltech students have been taken care of. Interested students should email heag[at]caltech[dot]edu listing which areas of HEAG research they are most interested in and/or which mentors they are most interested in working with, preferably listed by preference, and a CV. We expect to carry out interviews with prospective candidates by the end of January/beginning of February in preparation for the SURF application deadline on February 22, 2024. The HEAG also welcomes WAVE students which has a separate application procedure. These are due January 9, 2024.
Dec 20 Brian is appointed to the PhysPAG Executive Committee Staff Scientist Brian Grefenstette has been appointed to the Physics of the Cosmos Program Analysis Group (PhysPAG) Executive Committee. The PhysPAG serves as a community-based, interdisciplinary forum for soliciting and coordinating community analysis and input in support of Physics of the Cosmos objectives and of their implications for architecture planning and activity prioritization and for future exploration. The Executive Committee's responsibilities include organizing meetings and collecting and summarizing community input with subsequent reporting to the Astrophysics Division Director. Congratulations Brian!
Dec 24 NuSTAR observes 4U 1630-472 for Shina 4U 1630-472 is a transient black hole candidate that has been known to go into regular outbursts since its discovery in 1969. Recently it has been showing signs of increased activity again and postdoc Shina Adegoke requested a directors discretionary time observation with NuSTAR in order to investigate the source. He reported on his results in an ATel this week. Well done Shina!
2022
Date Title Details
Jan 10 Yuhan Presents at AAS Press Conference Graduate student Yuhan Yao presents her work on source AT2020mrf via a AAS press conference! Here is a link to a recording of her presentation!
Jan 24 Myles Rotates Out of HEAG As part of his rotational grad program, Myles Sherman has rotated out of our group. We wish him the best of luck in his new position with Professor Vikram Ravi and his research group!
Jan 27 Renee's Paper is Accepted for Publication! Postdoc Renee Ludlam's new paper, Radius Constraints from Reflection Modeling of Cygnus X-2 with NuSTAR and NICER, has been accepted for publication by ApJ. Hooray!
Jan 28 NuSTAR Cycle 8 proposals due This is a guide for NuSTAR Cycle 8 Proposers!
Feb 6 Sean's Paper is Accepted for Publication! Grad student Sean Pike's new paper, MAXI and NuSTAR observations of the faint X-ray transient MAXI J1848-015 in the GLIMPSE-C01 Cluster, has been accepted for publication by ApJ! Sean says "We used NuSTAR to study the spectrum of a newly discovered X-ray source in the GLIMPSE-C01 cluster and found that despite being relatively dim, the source is a black hole accreting material at very high temperatures — around 10 million Kelvin. By looking at radiation reflected off of the accretion disk, we were able to probe the region near the black hole. We found evidence that the innermost edge of the disk moved outward as the source got dimmer. We also found that the black hole has a very high spin parameter, meaning that it drags the space around it in a circular motion."
Feb 9 Hannah's Paper is Published! Staff Scientist Hannah Earnshaw's new paper, Reconstruction of the NuSTAR point spread function using single-laser metrology, details a contingency method for calculating the NuSTAR mast aspect solution in the potential event of the loss of one of the metrology lasers. Always great to be prepared!
Feb 10 JPL Press Release about NuSTAR's Observations of Jupiter! Observations from NuSTAR have revealed the highest-energy light ever detected from Jupiter!
Mar 1 McKinley's paper gets a JPL Press Release! Postdoc McKinley Brumback's paper on monitoring long term behaviors in the accreting pulsar SMC X-1 with NuSTAR's Stray Light has been published in ApJ. This paper got both a JPL Press Release and an Astrobites write-up! Congratulations McKinley!
Mar 6 Hannah wins Best Paper in Track! Staff Scientist Hannah Earnshaw presented their work on contingencies for the NuSTAR metrology laser system at the IEEE Aerospace Conference on 6 March 2022, and won a Best Paper In Track award for the Observation Systems and Technologies Track.
Mar 15 Thomas wins a poster competition! Congratulations to Thomas Connor, who received an award for Best Astrophysics Poster at the 2021 JPL Postdoc Poster contest. At today's ceremony, he presented his work to an audience including Interim Director General Larry James and JPL Chief Scientist Mark Simons. Photos and a recording of the event are available online. Excellent work, Thomas, and congratulations!
Mar 24 Murray's paper is Accepted for Publication! Staff scientist Murray Brightman's paper on absorption lines in a hyperluminous X-ray source in NGC 4045 was accepted for publication in ApJ. You can read the accepted version on arXiv here. Congratulations Murray!
Apr 6 Labani's paper is Accepted for Publication! Postdoc Labani Mallick's new paper on high-density reflection in low mass AGN was accepted for publication in MNRAS. The paper was written up on ScienceX and was featured on the XMM Newton Home Page. Congratulations Labani!
April 15 NuSTAR 2022 Conference - Early Registration Deadline Click here for information about our upcoming NuSTAR Science Conference in Sardinia! Register by April 15 for early-bird registration rates.
May 10 McKinley gets a job! Postdoc McKinley Brumback has accepted an offer for a postdoctoral position at the University of Michigan, starting in September 2022. Congratulations McKinley!
May 15 Riley gets a job! Postdoc Riley Connors has accepted an offer for a postdoctoral position at Villanova University with Prof. Joey Neilsen. Congratulations Riley!
May 26 Brian gives von Kármán Lecture Mission Scientist Brian Grefenstette spoke as part of JPL's von Kármán lecture series about NuSTAR and its contributions to high energy astronomy. Watch the recording of the lecture here. Well done Brian!
Jun 13 Happy 10th Birthday NuSTAR! Ten years ago today, NuSTAR successfully launched into orbit and became the first observatory to focus high energy X-rays, opening the door to new exploration of high energy phenomena. We are so proud of NuSTAR's spectacular performance and look forward to more exciting science in the years to come. Learn more about NuSTAR by reading this JPL press release and download a beautiful poster made to commemorate the occasion.
Jun 14 Welcome Summer Students! Summer truly begins with the arrival of our SURF and WAVE summer students. This group of undergraduates, both from Caltech and from schools around the world, will work with postdocs and staff scientists on exciting astrophysics research projects.
Jun 16 Hannah's paper is accepted for publication! Staff Scientist Hannah Earnshaw's paper, titled "The variability behavior of NGC 925 ULX-3," has been accepted for publication in ApJ. You can read the full paper here. Congratulations Hannah!
Jun 20 Ten Years of NuSTAR Conference Our Caltech group is helping to organize the "Ten Years of NuSTAR" conference in Cagliari, Italy. We cannot wait to see you in beautiful Cagliari and hear about your recent NuSTAR science.
Jul 7 Renee's paper is accepted for publication! Postdoc Renee Ludlam's paper, titled " StrayCats II: An Updated Catalog of NuSTAR Stray Light Observations," has been accepted for publication in ApJ. You can read the full paper here, and learn more about the StrayCats project on their website! Congratulations Renee!
Jul 8 Margaret's paper is accepted for publication! Postdoc Margaret Lazzarini's paper on measuring the star formation history in the Triangulum Galaxy has been accepted for publication in ApJ. You can read the full paper here, or check out the awesome Astrobites article on the paper instead! Congratulations Margaret!
Jul 14 Riley's paper is accepted for publication! Postdoc Riley Connors' paper, titled "The long-stable hard state of XTE J1752-223 and the disk truncation dilemma," has been accepted for publication in ApJ. You can read the full paper here. Congratulations Riley!
Jul 18 Sean successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis! Graduate student Sean Pike successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations Dr. Pike!
Jul 20 Brian gives public lecture Staff scientist Brian Grefenstette gave a public lecture to the Night Sky Network about NuSTAR and the exciting X-ray science it has covered in its 10 years of operation. Read more about the talk and watch the recording here!
Aug 4 Amruta does virtual science outreach Postdoc Amruta Jaodand is passionate about promoting science with a focus on inspiring students from diverse, traditionally under-represented background. She has presented many public lectures, organised star gazing nights and for the last two years has been dedicating time to visit schools virtually or in person through Skype a Scientist Initiative. This week she 'visited' a school in Wandin, Australia to talk about various topics such as pulsars, space telescopes such as NuSTAR and growing need for coding and computational resources in astronomy analysis. There were 2 classroom of very excited students in age groups of 10-14. The virtual Q&A after talk lasted almost an hour, and ended with the students giving the 'Live Long and Prosper' sign.
Aug 18 Summer Seminar Day Summer Seminar Day marks the end of the project for most of our Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows. Our SURFs gave excellent poster and oral presentations of their final projects. Thank you for a wonderful summer of science, SURFs, and best of luck with your next year of school!
Aug 24 Gullo's paper is accepted for publication! Postdoc Gullo Mastroserio's paper on the high energy X-ray spectrum of Cyg X-1 with NuSTAR stray light and INTEGRAL has been accepted for publication in ApJ. Congratulations Gullo!
Aug 31 Dr. Oluwashina (Shina) Adegoke joins the HEA Group Shina joins us from Afe Babalola University in Nigeria as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Shina!
Sep 26 Murray finds an X-ray transient in a nearby galaxy Staff Scientist Murray Brightman found a new X-ray source in the galaxy NGC 7793 that had never been detected before. He reported on it in an Astronomer's Telegram.
Oct 6 Hannah gives a talk to science educators Staff Scientist Hannah Earnshaw gave a talk about NuSTAR to NASA's Universe of Learning to celebrate 10 years of NuSTAR!
Oct 14 Dr. Peter Boorman joins the HEA Group Peter joins us from Czech Academy of Sciences in Czechia as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Peter!
Oct 31 Dr. Ed Nathan joins the HEA Group Ed joins us from Oxford University in the UK as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Ed!
Nov 2 Murray gets follow-up observations of the X-ray transient he found Staff Scientist Murray Brightman got observations of the new X-ray source he found in the galaxy NGC 7793 with Swift, NuSTAR and Chandra which revealed it to be a new ultraluminous X-ray source. He reported on it in an Astronomer's Telegram.
Nov 14 Margaret goes observing to Keck on the Big Island of Hawaii This week postdoc Margaret Lazzarini went to Hawaii to observe on the Keck Telescopes. She used the DEIMOS spectrograph on Keck II to get optical spectra of companion stars in high mass X-ray binary systems in nearby galaxies Andromeda (M31) and Triangulum (M33).
Nov 14 Amruta travels to Texas and Michigan to talk about her work This week postdoc Amruta Jaodand presented her latest work on the discovery of UV millisecond pulsations in transitional millisecond pulsars in a colloquium at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and a seminar at Wayne State University. She also spoke with PhD and undergraduate students and advised them on applying for postdocs including in the HEA group.
Nov 30 Yuhan's work is published in Nature Graduate student Yuhan Yao was involved in a study of the tidal disruption event AT 2022cmc that was published in Nature this week. Congratulations Yuhan!
Dec 2 The HEA Group gets a visit from Dr. Mike Koss of Eurika Scientific Friend of the HEA Group Mike Koss visited this week and have a presentation on his work on NuSTAR observations of Swift/BAT selected AGN.
Dec 6 Brian and Hiro's paper is published NuSTAR Scientists Brian Grefenstette and Hiro Miyasaka have a new paper out in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS) describing the NuSTAR background.
Dec 7 Fiona gives a talk at the University of Michigan NuSTAR PI and HEA Group leader Professor Fiona Harrison traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan this week to give the Mohler Prize lecture on The Science of NuSTAR.
Dec 14 Yuhan gets NICER Cycle 5 observations Graduate student Yuhan Yao has been awarded observations with NASA's Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer Mission (NICER) in their Cycle 5 call for proposals. She proposed for NICER+NuSTAR observations of two tidal disruption events. Congratulations Yuhan!
Dec 15 Peter gives a talk at the Torus 2022 workshop Postdoc Peter Boorman gave a talk on the NuSTAR Local AGN NH Distribution Survey (NuLANDS) at the TORUS 2022 workshop in Leiden in the Netherlands. The conference discussed the latest in modelling and observations of the circum-nuclear region surrounding AGN, as well as plans for future ground-and space-based missions.
Dec 20 Yuhan's work is highlighted in a JPL press release Graduate student Yuhan Yao’s results on the tidal disruption event AT2021ehb were highlighted in a JPL press release. Congratulations Yuhan!
2021
Date Title Details
April 26 NuSTAR Cycle 7 targets announced Congratulations to all whose proposals were successful. Read the full target list here.
May 19 Yanjun's PhD defense Probing the Inner Accretion Flow Properties Around Black Holes with X-ray Observations
Aug 30 Sean publishes a paper! Photospheric Radius Expansion and a Double-peaked Type-I X-Ray Burst from GRS 1741.9–2853
Sept 16 Nikita's PhD defense Probing the Corona in Active Galactic Nuclei using Broadband X-ray Spectroscopy
Oct 23 Hannah goes to Hawaii! Hannah Earnshaw is off to Hawaii for few days, where they are using the Keck telescope to observe the companion stars to some ULXs in the infrared. Wish them good weather for observing!
Oct 25 Javier's project receives NASA ADAP (Astrophysics Data Analysis Program) Grant "Bridging the gap between X-ray and UV/optical disk reverberation mapping in Active Galactic Nuclei" is a project that Javier is a Co-Investigator on in tandem with MIT scientists, seeking to study supermassive black holes in AGN using new timing techniques to analyze UV and X-ray observations.
Nov 4 Decadal Survey release The National Academies' Decadal Survey (co-chaired by our own Fiona Harrison) is released and discussed in a public webinar on Thursday, November 4th. More details can be found here.
Nov 7 NuSTAR's 1000th published paper! Today (Sunday, November 7th) the NASA HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center) bibliography site posted the 1000th published science paper from NuSTAR. Also, the 1001st and 1002nd papers.
Nov 9 Murray's paper accepted into The Astrophysical Journal Evolution of the spin, spectrum and super-orbital period of the ultraluminous X-ray pulsar M51 ULX7
Nov 15 Labani Mallick joins the team! New Postdoc Labani Mallick joins the HEAG! Check out her profile on the People page!
Nov 23 Thomas, Daniel, and friends get a new paper accepted into The Astrophysical Journal Letters X-Ray Evidence Against the Hypothesis that the Hyper-Luminous z=6.3 Quasar J0100+2802 is Lensed
Nov 23 Nikita's Virtual lecture presentation The Enigmatic Corona: Powerhouse of Accreting Black Holes. You can watch it on YouTube Live here!
Nov 30 Javier's Paper Is Accepted to ApJ Javier Garcia's paper, Relativistic X-ray Reflection Models for Accreting Neutron Stars, is published on ApJ. Co-authors include HEAG members Renee Ludlam and Fiona Harrison, among others.
Dec 1 Fiona Testifies Before Congress Grad student Yuhan Yao submitted a new paper to ApJ presenting AT2020mrf, the fifth member of a new class of engine-driven massive star explosions!
Dec 1 Yuhan Submits to ApJ December 1st, at 11:00 am EST, Fiona provides A Review of the Decadal Survey for Astronomy and Astrophysics in the 2020s before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Dec 8 NuSTAR Cycle 8 Now Accepting Proposals The due date for NuSTAR Cycle 8 proposal submissions is January 28th, 2022. Proposals should be submitted via the HEASARC's ARK Remote Proposal System (RPS). For more information about this cycle, please visit the NuSTAR Proposal Page.
Dec 9 XMM-Newton Cycle 21 Results Released! The list of accepted observations for XMM-Newton AO-21 is released! The list can be found here, and features multiple HEAG members including Murray, Javier, Daniel, Yuhan, Labani, and Thomas!