 | Tuesday, June 27, 2006 |
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Tuesday, June 27
Wednesday, June 28 Announcement: Heartland Blood Centers will be here for the Fermilab Blood Drive on June 27 and 28, from 8:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. in the Wilson Hall Ground Floor NE Training Room. Appointments can be scheduled on the web or by calling Diana at x3771.
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 Chance of Showers 79º/59º
Extended Forecast |
Secon Level 3 |
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Tuesday, June 27 -Golden Broccoli & Cheese -Cheesy Greek Squeeze -Coconut Crusted Tilapia -Spaghetti with Meatballs -Toasted Almond Chicken Salad on Croissant -Assorted Slice Pizza -Chicken Fajitas |
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Wednesday, June 28
Thursday, June 29
Chez Leon Menu |
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| Sloan says cosmic leftovers point finger at dark matter | ||
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Leftovers from a cosmic meal may teach scientists about the shape and consistency of the dark matter thought to engulf the Milky Way galaxy. The Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration, part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, has found streams of stars left in the wake of smaller galaxies that were ripped apart and consumed by the tidal forces of the dark matter. "The dark matter is what's driving the motion of the stream out there, far away from the other stellar disks of the Milky Way," said astrophysicist Brian Yanny. Since 2000, SEGUE has found five streams in all.
Dark matter emits no light at any wavelength. The best way to get a handle on dark matter behavior, Yanny says, is through the effects of its gravity on visible matter. The stellar streams show the path the mini-galaxy took as it began its death spiral, a hundred thousand light years away from the galactic disk. "What's really nice about these stellar tails is that they trace out the orbit of the stars around the halo," Yanny said.
Astrophysicists hope to use the streams to tell the shape of the dark matter distribution, and possibly its lumpiness. The Sagittarius stream in particular may provide evidence that the orbit of an eaten galaxy "precessed" as it spiraled around, its orbit shifting slightly with each revolution like the design in a Spirograph. Its tail is forked, leading some scientists to speculate whether it is in fact two streams of stars ripped from the same galaxy, leaving a new stream of stars with every pass. The precessions of the galaxy's path could tell us whether we live in a flattened or spherical halo of dark matter. Knowing whether dark matter is spherical or flattened can show how galaxies, and the surrounding dark matter, might have formed in the early universe.
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The Daily Herald, June 25, 2006: Clash of the titans Amid the gentle sway of grasses in a Batavia prairie, the reign of a champion is coming to an end. The Tevatron particle accelerator - the muscle that pumped the blood of scientific discovery through the veins of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the region's scientific community for 22 years - is about to become obsolete. But don't count the champ out yet. Last year, Fermilab officials cranked up the Tevatron for one last proton-smashing flourish before its European replacement steals the stage. They're hoping one of history's greatest scientific devices ends with a big bang and not a whimper. Read More |
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Daily Herald,
June 25, 2006: Disappearing gravitons, strings, theory of everything You know a lot, if you're Joe Lykken. How the universe works, from the way gravity pulls the largest stars to the way gluons hold quarks together inside sub-atomic protons, you know it cold.
"It's basic mathematics," you tell graduate students attending a lecture you're giving at Fermilab, where you're on staff, among the top theorists in particle physics.
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During this season it is hard not to comment on the World Cup, especially for one who grew up in Latin America playing soccer. At Fermilab, more than most places in the U.S., a large contingent of both our staff and our users are absorbed every four years by the fantastic international competition that the FIFA World Cup represents. Many of my friends and colleagues look a bit more bedraggled than normal--and I am no exception--as we try to keep up with the intense ups and downs of the Cup while carrying out our normal responsibilities. The World Cup is truly the world's party.
The many flags flying in front of Wilson Hall announce that Fermilab is an international institution. But one can sense it more deeply in the conversations about the World Cup and when the scores are the subject of sneak announcements during business meetings. Some would maintain that nothing is more serious than a World Cup score. For DZero, thirteen of their collaborating countries qualified for the World Cup, and five are still in the running to win it. The CDF collaboration is a close second to DZero with eight countries qualifying for the World Cup and only four surviving at this point. In almost every other scientific activity in the laboratory we touch other countries, and with all of them soccer is something that we can understand in common and share with enthusiasm as we build our scientific collaborations. |
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June 23 - 26
- Three stores provided 58 hours and 55 minutes of luminosity
Read the Current Accelerator Update |
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Women's sports league at Fermilab
Chicago sight-seeing
International Folk Dancing |
