Astronomy Journal Club

On Wednesday mornings, once a fortnight, we meet at 11:30 (unless otherwise stated) for a journal club. The location for each meeting will be announced beforehand.

Attendees bring interesting papers, and a brief introduction is given to the Journal Club. Each paper presentation is then followed by discussion. The entire event should take one hour. The papers could be anything published in the last year in astrophysics, related science and relevant to astronomy.

We encourage MSSL astronomers and astrophysicists to come to Journal Club for a discussion on recent research. Please contact Megan Whewell with suggested papers, or for other JC queries. Links to suggested and discussed papers will be added below.

Calendar 2015
Date	Title
21 Jan Common Room	A spin-down clock for cool stars from observations of a 2.5-billion-year-old cluster (Meiborn et al, 2015, Nature accepted, doi:10.1038/nature14118) The Rich Are Different: Evidence from the RAVE Survey for Stellar Radial Migration (Kordopatis et al, 2014, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1412.5649) Searching for intermediate mass black holes: understanding the data first (Bianchini et al, 2015, Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 312, arxiv.org:1501.04114)
4 Feb Library	Integral manoeuvres for the future (ESA news article) Radio-far infrared correlation in "Blue Cloud" galaxies with 0 < Z < 1.2 (Basu et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv.org:1502.00330) The companion candidate near Fomalhaut - a background neutron star? (Neuhauser et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1501.07083) Characterizing the Star Formation of the Low-Mass SHIELD Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Imaging (McQuinn et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv.org:1501.07313)
18 Feb Library	25 year anniversary of Pale Blue Dot photo Gravitational Lensing by Spinning Black Holes in Astrophysics, and in the Movie Interstellar (James et al, 2015, Classical and Quantum Gravity accepted, arxiv.org:1502.03808) A glitch and an anti-glitch in the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1841-045 (Sasmaz Mus et al, 2014, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1411.5274) Looking for Population III stars with He II line intensity mapping (Visbal et al, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv.org:1501.03177) Made-to-measure models of the Galactic box/peanut bulge: stellar and total mass in the bulge region (Portail et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1502.00633) Far-infrared observations of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray burst host galaxies (Kohn et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1501.01004)
4 Mar Stable Block, Room A	Observation of Comet Lovejoy by the Dark Energy Survey BBC News story: Bright spotlight on Dawn mission to Ceres BBC News story: Rosetta catches its own shadow A dusty, normal galaxy in the epoch of reionization (Watson et al, 2015, Nature accepted, arxiv.org:1503.00002) "Spoon-feeding" an AGN (Mainetti et al, 2015 "Swift:10 years of Discovery", arxiv.org:1502.07835) Three-dimensional Tomography of the Galactic and Extragalactic Magnetoionic Medium with the SKA (Han et al, 2015 "Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array", arxiv.org:1412.8749)
18 Mar Library	Recent solar storm and resulting Aurorae Space as never seen before - Space centres seen through the eyes of photographer Edgar Martins (partnered with ESA) Upcoming partial solar eclipse (from the UK) - MET Office news story Explosive lithium production in the classical nova V339 Del (Nova Delphini 2013) (Tajitsu et al, 2015, Nature accepted, arxiv.org:1502.05598) The Effects of Boxy/Peanut Bulges on Galaxy Models (Fragkoudi et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv.org:1503.03068) A New Merging Double Degenerate Binary in the Solar Neighborhood (Debes et al, 2015, AJ accepted, arxiv.org:1503.00349) Mapping high-velocity H-alpha and Lyman-alpha emission from Supernova 1987A (France et al, 2015, ApJL accepted, arxiv.org:1502.05403)
1 Apr NA	~~~~ Easter break ~~~~
15 Apr Library	45 year anniversary of Apollo 13 mission The Swift GRB Host Galaxy Legacy Survey — II. Rest-frame NIR Luminosity Distribution and Evidence for a Near-Solar Metallicity Threshold (Perley et al. 2015, ApJ submitted, arxiv.org:1504.02479) Identifying the source of perytons at the Parkes radio telescope (Petroff et al, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv.org:1504.02165)
29 Apr Library	25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope launch Protests in Hawaii about the Thirty Meter Telescope project The abundance of satellites depends strongly on the morphology of the host galaxy (Ruiz et al, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv.org:1504.02777) Coevolution Between Supermassive Black Holes and Bulges Is Not Via Internal Feedback Regulation But By Rationed Gas Supply Due To Angular Momentum Distribution (Cen, 2015, ApJL accepted, arxiv.org:1504.07248)
13 May Stable Block A	ESO News Release: The Dark Side of Star Clusters Telescope clash deeply rooted in Hawaii’s past UK General Election result: What will a Conservative government mean for UK science? UK researchers fret about downgrading of science minister role A Periodically Varying Luminous Quasar at z=2 from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey: A Candidate Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Gravitational Wave-Driven Regime (Liu et al, 2015, ApJ published, arxiv:1503.02083) Beasts of the Southern Wild: Discovery of nine Ultra Faint satellites in the vicinity of the Magellanic Clouds (Koposov et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv:1503.02079) Stellar Kinematics and Metallicities in the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II (Simon et al, 2015, ApJ submitted, arxiv:1504.02889)
27 May Library	ESA News: Four decades of tracking European spacecraft Hawaiian telescope fight prompts new rules for Mauna Kea "The Brightest Galaxy Ever Discovered Shines Like 300 Trillion Suns" Active galactic nuclei flicker: an observational estimate of the duration of black hole growth phases of ~1e5 years (Schawinsky et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv:1505.06733) Neutrino and Cosmic-Ray Emission from Multiple Internal Shocks In Gamma-Ray Bursts (Bustamante et al, 2015, Nature published, arxiv:1409.2874)
10 June Library	Mimicking gamma-ray bursts Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory press release Sharpest View Ever of Star Formation in the Distant Universe ESO Press release ALMA long baseline observations of the strongly lensed submillimeter galaxy Hatlas J090311.6+003906 at z=3.042 (ALMA Partnership et al, 2015, ApJ Letters accepted, arxiv:1503.02652) Finding gas-rich dwarf galaxies betayed by their ultraviolet emission (Meyer et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv:1506.00044) Supercritical accretion disks in ultraluminous X-ray sources and SS 433 (Fabrika et al, 2015, Nature published, Nature website)
24 June Library	Astronomers explain why a star is so hot right now ANU press release NASA Simulation Suggests Black Holes May Make Ideal Dark Matter Labs NASA press release ALMA Precisely Measures Black Hole Mass ALMA press release The X-ray outburst of the Galactic Centre magnetar SGR J1745-2900 during the first 1.5 year (Coti Zelati et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv:1503.01307, Chandra press release) The Mass and Spin of The Extreme Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy 1H0707-495 and Its Implications for The Trigger for Relativistic Jets (Done and Jin, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv:1506.04547)
8 July Library	NASA’s New Horizons on Track for Pluto Flyby NASA press release Counting Stars with Gaia ESA press release Discussion on SMBH and galaxy interaction (Slides were emailed around, contact Megan for copies)
22 July Library	Views of Pluto Through the Years NASA press release Rosetta and Philae status update ESA blog update Prof Stephen Hawking backs venture to listen for aliens BBC News article A very luminous magnetar-powered supernova associated with an ultra-long γ-ray burst (Greiner et al, 2015, Nature published, Nature article) Total eclipse of the heart: The AM CVn Gaia14aae / ASSASN-14cn (Campbell et al, 2015, MNRAS accepted, arxiv:1507.04663)
August NA	~~~~ Summer break ~~~~
23 Sept Library	Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015 Winners: BBC article E-ELT: UK signs on for Harmoni telescope instrument: BBC article Advanced Ligo: Labs 'open their ears' to the cosmos: BBC article Fastest ever neutrino among slew of fresh findings: BBC article New images from Pluto: NASA blog post The Stellar Population of the Galactic Disk (Bovy et al, 2015, ApJ submitted, arxiv:1509.05796) Spectral Decline of PeV Neutrinos from Starburst Galaxies (Bartos and Marka, 2015, arxiv:1509.00983) Observational Signatures of Self-Destructive Civilisations (Stevens et al, 2015, International Journal of Astrobiology accepted, arxiv:1507.08530)
4 Nov Library	Saturn's Geyser Moon Shines in Close Flyby Views: NASA article 15 Years of Station Told in 15 Gifs: NASA article Final Kiss of Two Stars Heading for Catastrophe: ESO article Using SKA Rotation Measures to Reveal the Mysteries of the Magnetised Universe (Johnston-Hollitt et al, 2014, PoS AASKA14 Proceedings, PoS(AASKA14)092)
18 Nov Library	NASA's Fermi Mission Finds Hints of Gamma-ray Cycle in an Active Galaxy: NASA article A letter on concerns about the UK science budget from 121 early career scientists: Blog post Swift's 1,000th!: Slate article Rosette and Philae: One year since landing on a comet: ESA article Extremely metal-poor stars from the cosmic dawn in the bulge of the Milky Way (Howes et al, 2015, Nature, Nature 15747) Resolving the Extragalactic gamma-ray Background above 50 GeV with Fermi-LAT (Ackermann et al, 2015, Nature, arxiv:1511.00693)
2 Dec Library	LISA Pathfinder Launch Timeline: ESA article LISA Parthfinder VV06 Launch Postponed: ESA Press Release Astronaut Tim Peake: ESA article The NuSTAR Extragalactic Survey: First Direct Measurements of the 10 KeV X-Ray Luminosity Function for AGN at Z above 0.1 (Aird et al, 2015, ApJ accepted, arxiv:1511.04184) Examination of the scientific review process: Ten "Best Practice" suggestions for an improved process (I. Harrus, arxiv article, arxiv:1511.03694) NuSTAR catches the unveiling nucleus of NGC 1068 (Marinucci et al, 2015, MNRAS submitted, arxiv:1511.03503)

Journal club schedules in other years: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.