Greetings from Palmia Observatory
I finally decided to at least attend on day of the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, CA.
First thing at the Pasadena Convention Center is to get badged up and find your way around. Now I had been to the convention center many times in the past but now that was like 4-5 years ago and it took me a while to find which corner of the facility held the Starbucks for some morning coffee.
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| Resident Astronomer gets his AAS248 Badge (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
The Kavli plenary session was given by Richard Teague on Revealing the Dynamics of Planet Formation.
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| Richard Teague is first plenary session on planet formation (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
One of Teague's slides showed this iconic diagram of how planets are the byproduct of start formation.
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| Planets are the byproduct of star formation (Source: R. Teague, AAS248) |
After the first plenary session was over it was time to head to the exhibit hall and get some coffee. Notice here now how the poster sessions are all now made on large electronic displays. Quite different from the time many years ago now, when I made an engineering project poster display and we had to pin all of our paper printouts on the poster board by hand and had to hurry to be ready in time.
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| In the AAS248 Exhibit Hall and Poster Session (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
A very interesting afternoon plenary session was this one by Professor Marlo Juric titled "Early Results from the Rubin Observatory: Mapping the Solar System and Beyond."
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| Professor Marlo Juric discusses early results from Rubin Observatory (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
As a way of introducing the astronomy changing nature of the Rubin Observatory, he reminds us of how the Sload Digital Sky Survey changed the big picture view we had of the universe.
Previously, I had visited the Apache Point Observatory and interested readers ca check out my blog post of the visit there in October, 2019: http://www.palmiaobservatory.com/2019/10/aavso-108th-meeting-concluded-hooray.html
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| Professor Juric introduces the SDSS as astronomy changing telescope (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
It is convenient to remind us of large mirror and large camera at the Rubin Observatory. In this Google search we see the primary mirror is 8.4 meter in diameter the camera, one of the largest ever built, weighs 3 toes and captures 3.2 gigapixel images.
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| Google search shows Rubin Observatory mirror and camera size (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Here is a screenshot of the presentation showing the Vera C Rubin Observatory near the city of La Serena in Chile.
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| Professor Juric shows slide view of Rubin Observatory (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Now, at this point, Professor Juric describes how the telescope and large camera can generate very large amounts of data. In this case on the order of 100 Terabytes per year of operation. He said that there are not enough graduate students anywhere to analyze all of these images and data and a new approach incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) is needed.
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| Juric say Rubin Observatory can collect 100 TB of data every year (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Professor Juric gave an example of how he was able to create and use some AI agents in just a few hours to perform an analysis of Rubin data that he estimated would take more than 3 years by a vary accomplished team using previous non-AI development methods.
Wow, as he says this new AI approach will be "transformational."
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| Professor Juric says use of AI is transformational (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Well with that phenomenal plenary session completed, I was exhausted and chose to skip the last plenary of the day and retreat to the Westin Hotel. I was just too tired to do more at the AAS248 that evening and just managed to walk back to the hetel and have dinner and a refreshing martini.
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| Excellent salmon dinner and martin at the Westin (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Sadly, I wasn't able to attend the next days of the AAS248.
So clear skies, keep dry Until next time,
Resident Astronomer George
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