What are your answers to this question:

What is the first question you should ask when designing a space mission?

#iau2024 #Astrodon

H/t Center of Excellence in Planetary and Space Science in Africa

The International Astronomical Union has been making all of their talks availabile via YouTube.

One of the points of a conference is to share the scientific results and findings! Making the talks available publicly after the event is such a great way to increase accessibility to the results.

#OpenScience #iau2024

https://m.youtube.com/@IAUGeneralAssembly2024

Listening to the HI session at IAU, and a seemingly ‘easy’ question on what the HI mass is of the Milky Way turns out to have not a simple answer.

Measuring something from the inside is hard!

#iau2024

Another very cool (literally) talk at #IAU2024 #Astronomy2024 today (I think by Amri Wandel) was the idea that the habitable zone could be extended for tidally locked planets if life could exist Europa-style under the ice on the frozen nightside.

My query is whether such life would produce a strong enough atmospheric signature to be detected by transmission spectroscopy.

Non-oxygenic photosynthesis (anoxic photosynthesis) uses photons at longer wavelengths to split molecules such as hydrogen sulphides rather than water, and is far more suited to the light from red dwarfs.

So life on Trappist-1? Likely no Great Oxidation Event, but instead anoxygen photosynthetic bacteria would dominate over oxygen-producing cyanobacteria. Without oxygen, complex animal life may not exist! -- William Welsh at #IAU2024 #Astronomy2024

I’m attending the International Astronomical Union this week. Along with making the talks available on YouTube, all of the posters have a zoom session associated with them.

I was able to ask questions to a poster presenter as I was in Cape Town and he was in India as the digital poster had a mic and a zoom window. It was a really good experience and shows what can be done.

#iau2024 #OpenScience

Note to self: Time to start closely following hashtags #IAU2024 #IAUGA2024 #Astronomy2024 - the first IAU General Assembly in Africa, happening now

https://astronomy2024.org/

Everyone, we're expecting... a VR experience at the International Astronomical Union GA Exhibition Hall!

If you're in Cape Town for the #IAU2024, you can try a VR headset and step fully into the virtual venue for the conference, chat with online attendees, check out the virtual exhibits and sit on the IAU sign (the VIRTUAL sign. Do not sit on the physical sign!).

Remember, if you're registered for the conference, you can also join the virtual space from anywhere on your laptop or smartphone.