AstroBigné seminars season 2015-2016
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28/06/2016
Fabrizio Massi (stars)
The meeting of Macroarea 2
I will report on the main results of the meeting of MA2 held in Bologna on 15 and 16 June 2016.
Sperello di Serego Alighieri (extragalactic)
The meeting of Macroarea 1
I will report on the main results of the meeting of MA1 held in Bologna on 16 and 17 June 2016.
Luca Fini (technology)
The meeting on Information and Communication Technology
I will report on the main results of the workshop on "What about computing @ INAF?", held in Roma on 20 and 21 June 2016.
14/06/2016
Antonio Pili (high energy)
Quark deconfinement and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts
We investigate the possible implications of quark deconfinement on the phenomenology of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts focusing on the possibility to describe multiple prompt emission phases in the context of the proto-magnetar model. In particular we will discuss the case of the double burst GRB 110709B.
Elena Pancino (Gaia)
Gaia appetizers
I will describe the kind of data that Gaia can provide, and make a few examples of the possibilities that they offer in various areas of astrophysics. This astrobigné is an appetizer for the 'Gaia days' that are being organized by Germano Sacco in September, when the first official Gaia data release is scheduled.
31/05/2016
Francesca Bacciotti (star formation)
The feedback of protostellar jets on planet formation
Our recent results from HST and the incoming ALMA images show that jets are launched in the same region and at the same time in which planets are forming. Thus it is mandatory to investigate if, beyond the extraction of excess angular momentum from the accretion disk, jets have a direct feedback on planet formation. In this framework, I will illustrate a new study which shows how the launch of jets may generate dust traps in the disks, where grains can have the time to aggregate in larger bodies.
Nicoletta Sanna (technology)
GIARPS (GIAno & haRPS-n): the new facility at TNG
GIARPS@TNG is the new system that will allow in 2017 to acquire high-resolution spectra from 0.38 to 2.5 microns simultaneously, combining for the first time two instruments already in use. I will present the project from the GIANO point of view, that in this new configuration will be finally as originally designed: with direct light feeding from the telescope, removing all the problems due to the fibers, like the modal noise and the low efficiency.
Niccolò Bucciantini (high energy)
Polarimetry of pulsar wind nebulae: what X-rays can tell us that Radio and Optical cannot
Synchrotron X-ray emission, due to relativistic charges in strong magnetic field, is the typical electromagnetic signature of high-energy astrophysics. However intensity alone is not very sensitive to the geometry of the magnetic field, hiding us a fundamental information to understand the dynamics of these sources. Yet X-ray polarimetry is still not available today. I will show how, in the specific case of PWNe, it can help us to understand the dynamics, and the role of turbulence in these systems.
17/05/2016
Sara Faggi (solar system)
First spectrally complete survey of water emission at near-IR wavelengths in comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy
We acquired the first comprehensive high resolution spectral survey of comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy in the 0.9-2.5 µm range, by observing with GIANO at the TNG. Our observations establish the feasibility of astrobiology-related investigations with future high resolution IR spectrographs on 30-m class telescopes, e.g., the HIRES spectrograph on the E-ELT telescope.
Simone Esposito (technology)
Call for observing proposals (adaptive and non-adaptive) with LBT, deadline 25 May 2016
This year the LUCI instrument is offered in AO mode. This short talk aims to alert people on such an opportunity and possibly organize offline meetings with the AO group to support applications to LBT within the very short deadline. Observations in commissioning mode with ARGOS (4x4 arcmin FoV) will be discussed as well.
Leslie Hunt (ALMA)
Scientific perspectives for ALMA in Italy
This presentation is an abridged version of an invited review for the SAIt 2016 in Rome that attempts to summarize the INAF perspective of ALMA: where we started, where we are now, and where we want to go.
03/05/2016
Marco Xompero (technology)
The LATT (Large Aperture Telescope Technology) project
The LATT project takes advantage of two decades of adaptive optics development to demonstrate the concept of a low-weight active primary mirror for space. We developed under ESA contract a 40 cm spherical mirror prototype, with an areal density lower than 22 kg/m2, with 19 contactless voice coil actuators and co-located capacitive position sensors. It was subjected to thermo-vacuum, vibration and optical tests. We present the background and outcomes of the LATT to explore the concept of lightweight active primary mirrors as building blocks for very large segmented deployable apertures.
David Graham (solar physics)
Spectral clues to the nature of chromospheric condensation in solar flares
I will show how IRIS observations of strongly red-shifted UV line profiles are providing new insights into the nature of energy deposition in solar flares.
Luciano Miglietta (logistics)
New labs in Arcetri for new instruments
The present mechanical workshop in Arcetri is more than 20 years old and is becoming inadequate for the new generation instruments, in which many teams of the Observatory are involved in. The project to transform the current mechanical workshop in a new laboratory will be presented.
19/04/2016
Elena Amato (history of science)
The Nobel stolen to women
Since 1901, 573 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to a total of 900 Laureates. Only 49 of these are women: 4.5%. If we focus on Physics, out of 200 Nobel prize winners only 2 are women: 1%. Is it particularly difficult for women to reach levels of excellence in Physics? In reality among the Physics laureates there should probably be at least 6-7 more Nobelwomen...
Mauro Focardi (exoplanets)
Towards a statistical description of planets and exoplanetary atmospheres: the ARIEL space mission
ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanets Large-survey) has been proposed as a medium-class mission competing for the ESA M4 launch opportunity in the context of the 2015-2025 Cosmic Vision program. It has been conceived by an European Consortium as the first space mission to extensively perform remote-sensing on the atmospheres of a well defined set of warm and hot exoplanets.. ARIEL will observe a large number (~500) of gas giants, Neptunes and super-Earths around a variety of host stars exploiting transit spectroscopy in the 2-8 μm spectral range and broad-band optical photometry. Its Payload design is based on the successful study of the M3 EChO (Exoplanets Characterisation Observatory) mission with several simplifications and mass reductions.
Alessio Turchi (technology)
Operational forecast of atmospheric parameters at Mt. Graham: ongoing validation of model performances
We present an ongoing validation of the Astro-Meso-NH model performances in order to show the accuracy of the forecasts of atmospheric parameters at the ground level (dome) of LBT telescope site.
05/04/2016
Simone Bianchi (history of astronomy)
Tempel the astronomer meets Nietzsche the philosopher
An account of the few known facts about the visit to Arcetri of the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche in November 1885.
Elisabeta Lusso (extragalactic)
A universal physical relation for quasars
I will discuss our current knowledge of the relation between the soft X-ray and the optical/ultraviolet emission in AGN from an observational perspective. Such relation is of fundamental importance in understanding the structure of AGN accretion discs and their interplay with the mysterious X-ray corona.
Elena Masciadri (technology)
ALTA Center: Advanced LBT Turbulence and Atmosphere Center
The ALTA project aims to set-up an automatic operational system for the forecast of the atmospherical parameters relevant for the ground-based astronomy and the optical turbulence to support AO observations at LBT. Commissioning is scheduled in June and December 2016.
15/03/2016
Germano Sacco (galactic)
Structure and age of the young cluster NGC 2264 from the Gaia-ESO Survey
The mechanism leading to the formation of star clusters from the contraction and fragmentation of molecular clouds is the subject of much debate. One of the goal of the Gaia-ESO Survey is to analyse the spatial structure, the kinematics and the star formation history of star clusters younger than 10 Myr to address this debate. I will present some results from the analysis of the Gaia-ESO observations of the young cluster NGC2264, which show that we are able to reconstruct important details on the star formation process of this cluster and fulfil our original goal.
Linda Podio (astrochemistry)
The workshop on "Astronomical Complex Organic Molecules in different environments"
I will report on the first Italian workshop on astrochemistry held at Palazzo Strozzi on 10 and 11 March 2016 and organized jointly by the Arcetri Observatory and the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
Sperello di Serego Alighieri (polarimetry)
The conventions for the polarization angle
The IAU/IEEE convention is that the polarization angle increases counter-clockwise, looking at the source. After WMAP the CMB polarimetrists use the opposite convention, causing problems and misunderstandings. Should we all stick to the same convention?
01/03/2016
Vasaant Krishnan (star formation)
Mapping the Milky Way with the Australian Long Baseline Array
For the first time, we have used the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA) to measure the parallax distances to 6.7 GHz methanol masers in the Milky Way Galaxy. I will be discussing how these inaugural results from the only Southern hemisphere VLBI instrument are being incorporated into the Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy (BeSSeL) survey to map the Milky Way galaxy.
Rino Bandiera (high energy)
Synchrotron emission with a partly random field & models of Radio Supernova Remnants
We present an extension of the classical synchrotron theory, for the combination of an ordered magnetic field plus a random component. Exact analytical formulae are obtained for a power-law distribution of particles. These results are then applied to model structure and polarization of the radio emission from shell-type Supernova Remnants.
Pietro Bolli (technology)
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-based system for the characterization/calibration of Low Frequency Aperture Arrays
I will give an overview of the technical characteristics of the Low Frequency Aperture Array (LFAA) of SKA. Then, I will describe the two Italian demonstrators, called Medicina and Sardinia Array Demonstrators, designed for testing new devices and concepts developed by INAF for a possible installation in SKA-LFAA. One of these systems is a custom hexacopter equipped with RF instrumentation able to characterize the antenna/array far-field pattern and to calibrate the array in the real operative environment.
09/02/2016
Davide Fedele (star formation)
Reservoirs of Water in Planet Forming Disks
Water is a key species for the physical and chemical evolution of protoplanetary disks. I will briefly review our current understanding of the water formation and abundance distribution in disks and the connection to the delivery of water on Earth.
Paolo Tozzi (extragalactic)
Waiting for Astro-H: bulk motions in the Intra Cluster Medium of massive clusters observed with Chandra
In February 2016, the Japanese satellite Astro-H will be launched. Astro-H is expected to provide, for the first time, high resolution X-ray spectra from an X-ray bolometer, allowing one to measure the dynamic status of the Intra Cluster Medium (ICM), including bulk motions and the turbulent velocity field. In the meanwhile, we investigated the ICM dynamics with CCD, X-ray spectra exploiting the exquisite angular resolution of Chandra, finding evidence for bulk motions of the order of few thousands of km/s in a few massive, merging clusters.
Renzo Nesti (technology)
On the development of the passive front-end for the SRT focal plane array Q-Band receiver
I will describe design aspects concerning the passive devices of the receiver front-end of the 19-pixels Q-band focal-plane-array for SRT. While the receiver is still under development, the passive front-end part of that receiver has been recently completed and I'll be able to show results about Electromagnetic modeling, fabrication and tests.
26/01/2016
Claudia Toci (star formation)
Gravitational collapse: Magnetohydrodynamics and turbulence
I will discuss preliminary results of the accelerated contracting box model, a possible tool to study the evolution of turbulence in a gravitational collapse.
Mirko Curti (extragalactic)
New empirical calibrations for strong line metallicity indicators
I will discuss a method aimed at providing new calibrations for some of the most widely used strong-line metallicity diagnostics, based on the uniform application of the direct method for abundances estimation.
Eleonora Bianchi (planet & star formation)
H2CO and CH3OH deuteration towards SVS 13 A
I will report the detection of highly deuterated formaldehyde and methanol around the Class I protostar SVS 13 A, in the framework of the ASAI 30 m large program.
15/12/2015
Francesca Brunetti (library)
Want articles anywhere and anytime? IDEM can help you!
Arcetri Library provides its users the possibility to access subscribed scientific information anywhere and anytime. Through IDEM (Identity Management per l'accesso federato), it is possible. We will show you how to get an IDEM account and then how to access our subscribed journal articles outside of the Observatory anytime using the IDEM credentials.
Daniele Galli (history of astronomy)
The first spectrum of a comet
I will illustrate some historical documents and instruments that will be on display at the exhibition "Starlight: the birth of astrophysics in Florence" (March 21 - June 21, 2016). In particular, I will show that the birth of astrophysics in Florence is due to an astronomer from Pisa.
24/11/2015
Giacomo Venturi (extragalactic)
MAGNUM survey: investigating 10 local active galaxies with the integral field eye of MUSE
I will give an overview of the MAGNUM survey, a collection of ten local active galaxies observed with the integral field spectrograph MUSE at VLT, presenting the results of the analysis performed up to now, which is limited to two objects: NGC 5643 and NGC 1365
Greta Guidi (planet & star formation)
Dust properties across the CO snowline in the HD 163296 disk from ALMA and VLA observations
Looking for evidence of grain growth by ice condensation around the young intermediate-mass star HD 163296.
Simone Bianchi (history of science)
Meet the gang!
After a brief introduction to the new collection of busts in the Library, I will narrate the story of the bust of Giovan Battista Donati (1826-1873), founder of the Arcetri Observatory.
17/11/2015
Paolo Tozzi (SciFi)
Aliens and Dyson spheres or How to publish funny things and end up on the front page
Francesco Palla (stars & star formation)
A close look at pulsating stars in Upper Scorpius with Kepler-2
Antonella Gasperini (history of science)
Starlight: la nascita dell'astrofisica in Italia
"Starlight" is a national historical exhibition located in five Italian observatories which will be inaugurated next March.
27/10/2015
Aldo Dell'Oro (solar system)
Minor Planets from the Gaia point of view
Gaia is not just about stars and galaxies, but also a great deal of new data about Minor Bodies of our Solar System.
Luca Fini (technology)
Improving Performances of Parallel Programs. I.e.: How to Avoid Performance Degradation
While measuring performances of parallel programs on multicore servers we noticed a large variability in execution time of both a real-world application and a simple parallel oriented benchmark. We discuss the effects of the optimization strategies implemented in the Linux kernel to exploit the capabilities of multi-cpu/multi-core architectures and their penalizing effect on the performances of some typical cpu-intensive parallel applications. And we also suggest some simple solutions to obtain full performances on such applications.
Tino Oliva (technology)
Updates on the MOONS instrument for the VLT
13/10/2015
Francesco Palla (outreach)
Astronomy from Four Perspectives - The Heraeus project
Con il corso su "The Birth of Stars and Planetary Systems" che si terrà a Firenze nel mese di agosto 2016 si conclude il primo ciclo del progetto finanziato dalla Fondazione Heraeus destinato a studenti di fisica e docenti del liceo che coinvolge, oltre l'Osservatorio di Arcetri, le Università di Firenze, Heidelberg e Jena. Farò un breve resoconto di quanto fatto sinora e quello che si potrebbe fare in futuro.
Niccolò Bucciantini (high energy)
The Secret life of the Snail
With two long structures protruding from its head, and a large structured body resulting from its long evolutionary history, the Snail is a unique "best" that allows us to investigate a peculiar stage in the evolution of its class. I will present the recent result of a multi-wavelength observational campaign.
Luca Carbonaro (outreach)
Behind the scenes of a peculiar outreach night - Astronomy for visual impaired people
29/09/2015
Luca Olmi (technology)
Can we beat the diffraction limit? (or can we achieve super-resolution?)
I will briefly introduce the so-called super-resolution techniques, which could in principle overcome the classical diffraction limit. In particular, I will describe optical techniques based on the "Toraldo Pupils", introduced by Prof. Giuliano Toraldo di Francia in the early '50s.
Sperello di Serego Alighieri (extragalactic)
The workshop on "Cosmic Polarization Rotation - from Galilean Principles to Cosmology"
I will briefly report on the workshop held at Villa Il Gioiello on 7-8 September 2015.
Paolo Tozzi (outreach)
Outreach in Arcetri: "Notti d'Estate 2015
