It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Why computer security advice is more confusing than it should be
If you find the computer security guidelines you get at work confusing and not very useful, you’re not alone. A new study highlights a key problem with how these guidelines are created, and outlines simple steps that would improve them – and probably make your computer safer.
At issue are the computer security guidelines that organizations like businesses and government agencies provide their employees. These guidelines are generally designed to help employees protect personal and employer data and minimize risks associated with threats such as malware and phishing scams.
“As a computer security researcher, I’ve noticed that some of the computer security advice I read online is confusing, misleading or just plain wrong,” says Brad Reaves, corresponding author of the new study and an assistant professor of computer science at North Carolina State University. “In some cases, I don’t know where the advice is coming from or what it’s based on. That was the impetus for this research. Who’s writing these guidelines? What are they basing their advice on? What’s their process? Is there any way we could do better?”
For the study, researchers conducted 21 in-depth interviews with professionals who are responsible for writing computer security guidelines for organizations including large corporations, universities and government agencies.
“The key takeaway here is that the people writing these guidelines try to give as much information as possible,” Reaves says. “That’s great, in theory. But the writers don’t prioritize the advice that’s most important. Or, more specifically, they don’t deprioritize the points that are significantly less important. And because there is so much security advice to include, the guidelines can be overwhelming – and the most important points get lost in the shuffle.”
The researchers found that one reason security guidelines can be so overwhelming is that guideline writers tend to incorporate every possible item from a wide variety of authoritative sources.
“In other words, the guideline writers are compiling security information, rather than curating security information for their readers,” Reaves says.
Drawing on what they learned from the interviews, the researchers developed two recommendations for improving future security guidelines.
First, guideline writers need a clear set of best practices on how to curate information so that security guidelines tell users both what they need to know and how to prioritize that information.
Second, writers – and the computer security community as a whole – need key messages that will make sense to audiences with varying levels of technical competence.
“Look, computer security is complicated,” Reaves says. “But medicine is even more complicated. Yet during the pandemic, public health experts were able to give the public fairly simple, concise guidelines on how to reduce our risk of contracting COVID. We need to be able to do the same thing for computer security.”
Ultimately, the researchers find that security advice writers need help.
“We need research, guidelines and communities of practice that can support these writers, because they play a key role in turning computer security discoveries into practical advice for real world application,” Reaves says.
“I also want to stress that when there’s a computer security incident, we shouldn’t blame an employee because they didn’t comply with one of a thousand security rules we expected them to follow. We need to do a better job of creating guidelines that are easy to understand and implement.”
The study, “Who Comes Up with this Stuff? Interviewing Authors to Understand How They Produce Security Advice,” will be presented at the USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, being held Aug. 6-8 in Anaheim, Calif. First author of the study is Lorenzo Neil, a Ph.D. student at NC State. The paper was co-authored by Harshini Sri Ramulu of George Washington University and by Yasemin Acar of Paderborn University and George Washington University.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Survey
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Who Comes Up with this Stuff? Interviewing Authors to Understand How They Produce Security Advice
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
8-Aug-2023
Bacterial testing in kids with sinusitis could slash antibiotic use
IMAGE: NADER SHAIKH, M.D., PEDIATRICIAN AT UPMC CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGH AND PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS AND CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINEview more
CREDIT: UPMC
In children with suspected sinusitis, a nasal swab to test for three types of bacteria can tell whether antibiotics are likely to be effective or not, according to a new JAMA study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC.
“Five million kids in the U.S. get prescribed antibiotics for sinusitis each year,” said lead author Nader Shaikh, M.D., pediatrician at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and professor of pediatrics and clinical and translational science at Pitt. “Our study suggests that only half of these kids see an improvement in symptoms with antibiotic use, so by identifying who they are, we could greatly reduce unnecessary antibiotic use.”
Sinusitis, which is an inflammation or swelling of the sinuses, can cause congestion, runny nose, discomfort and difficulty breathing. Doctors often prescribe antibiotics — which target only bacterial infections — to treat the condition, even though it may be caused by viruses.
“Sinusitis is one of the most common diseases we see in children, but it’s difficult to diagnose because it’s based on the duration of symptoms: If the child has a runny nose or congestion for more than 10 days, we suspect sinusitis,” said Shaikh. “For an ear infection, we can look inside the ear; for pneumonia, we listen to the lungs. But for sinusitis, we have nothing to go on from a physical exam. That was very unsatisfying to me.”
With the goal of developing a better tool to diagnose bacterial sinusitis, Shaikh and his team enrolled about 500 children with sinusitis symptoms from six centers across the U.S. and randomly assigned them to receive either a course of antibiotics or placebo. The researchers also took swabs from inside the nose — much like a COVID-19 test — from each child and tested for the three main types of bacteria involved in sinusitis.
Kids who tested positive for the bacteria had better resolution of symptoms with antibiotic treatment compared to those who did not have bacteria. These findings suggest that testing for bacteria could be a simple and effective way to detect children who are likely to benefit from antibiotics and avoid prescribing antibiotics to those who wouldn’t.
“If antibiotics aren’t necessary, then why use them?” said Shaikh. “These medications can have side effects, such as diarrhea, and alter the microbiome, which we still don’t understand the long-term implications of. Overuse of antibiotics can also encourage antibiotic resistance, which is an important public health threat.”
According to Shaikh, a common belief among parents and doctors is that yellow or green snot signals a bacterial infection. Although several small studies have suggested that nasal discharge color is not meaningful, Shaikh and his team formally tested this idea by asking parents to identify the hue of their child’s snot on a color card.
“If kids with green or yellow discharge benefitted more from antibiotics than those with clear-colored discharge, we would know that color is relevant for bacterial infection,” explained Shaikh. “But we found no difference, which means that color should not be used to guide medical decisions.”
The researchers are now looking at how to best roll out nasal testing in the clinic. A major challenge is that bacterial culture-based tests used in the study are not easy for most family doctors to order and can take several days to get results. A more practical approach could be commercially available molecular testing, which could return results overnight, said Shaikh.
Another possibility could be development of rapid antigen tests that work like COVID-19 at-home testing kits. The researchers also plan to delve deeper into the data from this study to see whether there could be another type of biomarker in nasal discharge indicating the presence of bacteria that would be easier to test for.
Additional authors of the study were Alejandro Hoberman, M.D., Timothy R. Shope, M.D., Jong-Hyeon Jeong, Ph.D., Marcia Kurs-Lasky, M.S., Judith M. Martin, M.D., Sonika Bhatnagar, M.D., Gysella B. Muniz, M.D., Melissa Andrasko, R.N., Matthew C. Lee, B.A., and Kumaravel Rajakumar, M.D., all of Pitt or UPMC; Stan L. Block, M.D., of Kentucky Pediatric/Adult Research; and Ellen R. Wald, M.D., of the University of Wisconsin.
This research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U01AI118506).
Nasal discharge color card
CREDIT
UPMC
JOURNAL
JAMA
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Randomized controlled/clinical trial
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Identifying Children Likely to Benefit from Antibiotics for Acute Sinusitis: A Randomized Clinical Trial
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
25-Jul-2023
Improving recyclable waste classification with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy
Coupling spectroscopy with sorting algorithms paves the way for more efficient and reliable waste segregation in the future
IMAGE: IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM FOR RECYCLABLE WASTE.view more
CREDIT: LEI YANG
WASHINGTON, July 25, 2023 – Managing and classifying waste accurately for reuse is a growing challenge in environmental protection. Addressing this issue, researchers at Hefei University of Technology in China have embarked on a quest to innovate in the realm of waste management, seeking effective methods that can simplify and improve the identification and classification of recyclable waste.
Delving into the intricacies of waste management, the researchers explored the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technology for the identification and classification of recyclable waste and discuss their work in AIP Advances, from AIP Publishing. They collected and analyzed the spectra of 80 recyclable waste samples, classifying them into paper, plastic, glass, metal, textile, and wood based on LIBS spectra. This crucial step toward waste management optimization demonstrates a significant stride toward improving environmental sustainability and promoting resource reuse.
“We have used LIBS technology for the first time to identify and classify recyclable waste,” said author Lei Yang. “This method has accurate, reliable, fast detection results, and can achieve automatic detection.”
Given the complexities of waste materials and the importance of precise classification, the researchers further subclassified metals and plastics into subcategories. With their unique properties, each subclass of waste holds a distinct potential for specific reuse and recycling practices, making accurate identification and classification a key to unlocking efficient waste management solutions.
The research methodology employed an array of machine learning models to further advance the identification process. Among the explored models, the combination of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and random forest (RF) emerged as the most optimal for classifying recyclable waste. Additionally, for subclassifying metals and plastics, a combination of principal component analysis and RF was deemed most effective.
Researchers were struck by the accuracy of the model of LDA with RF in classifying recyclable waste, achieving an accuracy of 100%. For subclassifying metals and plastics, the model of PCA(9D) + RF scored the highest accuracy. These results indicate the potential of this method in improving recycling efficiency and waste management practices.
“What surprised us the most was that by using LIBS technology for classification and recognition without any preprocessing of the waste object, the results are satisfactory,” Yang said.
Fueled by the promising outcomes of their research, the team is eager to expand their work in the future. They plan to enhance their studies by increasing the number of waste samples and incorporating other forms of waste such as kitchen waste. Furthermore, they hope to deepen the understanding of transparent glass detection with LIBS, opening new avenues for recycling and waste management.
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The article “Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy identifies and classifies recyclable waste: A crucial step toward improved waste management” is authored by Lei Yang, Yong Xiang, Yinchuan Li, Wenyi Bao, Feng Ji, Jingtao Dong, Jingjing Chen, Mengjie Xu, Rongsheng Lu. It will appear in AIP Advances on July 25, 2023 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0149329). After that date, it can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0149329.
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
AIP Advances is an open access journal publishing in all areas of physical sciences—applied, theoretical, and experimental. The inclusive scope of AIP Advances makes it an essential outlet for scientists across the physical sciences. See https://pubs.aip.org/aip/adv.
About The Study: State restrictions were associated with significantly increased estimated drive times for youths seeking gender-affirming care. With more than 1 in 4 gender clinics located in states with restrictions, it is unknown whether existing clinics may have capacity to meet the increased need of out-of-state patients.
Authors: Kevin C. Chung, M.D., M.S., of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, is the corresponding author.
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.
About The Study: The results of this study suggest that consuming a vegetarian diet may modestly but significantly improve cardiometabolic outcomes beyond standard pharmacological therapy in individuals at high risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), highlighting the potential protective and synergistic effects of vegetarian diets for the primary prevention of CVD.
Authors: Tian Wang, A.P.D., R.D., of the University of Sydney in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is the corresponding author.
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.
About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.
JOURNAL
JAMA Network Open
Robotic hand rotates objects using touch, not vision
IMAGE: INSPIRED BY THE EFFORTLESS WAY HUMANS HANDLE OBJECTS WITHOUT SEEING THEM, A TEAM LED BY ENGINEERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO HAS DEVELOPED A NEW APPROACH THAT ENABLES A ROBOTIC HAND TO ROTATE OBJECTS SOLELY THROUGH TOUCH, WITHOUT RELYING ON VISION.view more
CREDIT: BINGHAO HUANG
Inspired by the effortless way humans handle objects without seeing them, a team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego has developed a new approach that enables a robotic hand to rotate objects solely through touch, without relying on vision.
Using their technique, the researchers built a robotic hand that can smoothly rotate a wide array of objects, from small toys, cans, and even fruits and vegetables, without bruising or squishing them. The robotic hand accomplished these tasks using only information based on touch.
The work could aid in the development of robots that can manipulate objects in the dark.
To build their system, the researchers attached 16 touch sensors to the palm and fingers of a four-fingered robotic hand. Each sensor costs about $12 and serves a simple function: detect whether an object is touching it or not.
What makes this approach unique is that it relies on many low-cost, low-resolution touch sensors that use simple, binary signals—touch or no touch—to perform robotic in-hand rotation. These sensors are spread over a large area of the robotic hand.
This contrasts with a variety of other approaches that rely on a few high-cost, high-resolution touch sensors affixed to a small area of the robotic hand, primarily at the fingertips.
There are several problems with these approaches, explained Xiaolong Wang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC San Diego, who led the current study. First, having a small number of sensors on the robotic hand minimizes the chance that they will come in contact with the object. That limits the system’s sensing ability. Second, high-resolution touch sensors that provide information about texture are extremely difficult to simulate, not to mention extremely expensive. That makes it more challenging to use them in real-world experiments. Lastly, a lot of these approaches still rely on vision.
“Here, we use a very simple solution,” said Wang. “We show that we don’t need details about an object’s texture to do this task. We just need simple binary signals of whether the sensors have touched the object or not, and these are much easier to simulate and transfer to the real world.”
The researchers further note that having a large coverage of binary touch sensors gives the robotic hand enough information about the object’s 3D structure and orientation to successfully rotate it without vision.
They first trained their system by running simulations of a virtual robotic hand rotating a diverse set of objects, including ones with irregular shapes. The system assesses which sensors on the hand are being touched by the object at any given time point during the rotation. It also assesses the current positions of the hand’s joints, as well as their previous actions. Using this information, the system tells the robotic hand which joint needs to go where in the next time point.
The researchers then tested their system on the real-life robotic hand with objects that the system has not yet encountered. The robotic hand was able to rotate a variety of objects without stalling or losing its hold. The objects included a tomato, pepper, a can of peanut butter and a toy rubber duck, which was the most challenging object due to its shape. Objects with more complex shapes took longer to rotate. The robotic hand could also rotate objects around different axes.
Wang and his team are now working on extending their approach to more complex manipulation tasks. They are currently developing techniques to enable robotic hands to catch, throw and juggle, for example.
“In-hand manipulation is a very common skill that we humans have, but it is very complex for robots to master,” said Wang. “If we can give robots this skill, that will open the door to the kinds of tasks they can perform.”
Inspired by the effortless way humans handle objects without seeing them, a team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego has developed a new approach that enables a robotic hand to rotate objects solely through touch, without relying on vision.
CREDIT
Binghao Huang
Dark energy camera captures galaxies in lopsided tug of war, a prelude to merger
Haley’s Coronet and dwarf galaxy companion feel each other’s gravitational forces as they begin to coalesce
ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITIES FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY (AURA)
IMAGE: THE SPIRAL GALAXY NGC 1532, ALSO KNOWN AS HALEY’S CORONET, IS CAUGHT IN A LOPSIDED TUG OF WAR WITH ITS SMALLER NEIGHBOR, THE DWARF GALAXY NGC 1531. THE IMAGE — TAKEN BY THE US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S (DOE) DARK ENERGY CAMERA MOUNTED ON THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION’S (NSF) VÍCTOR M. BLANCO 4-METER TELESCOPE AT CERRO TOLOLO INTER-AMERICAN OBSERVATORY IN CHILE, A PROGRAM OF NSF’S NOIRLAB — CAPTURES THE MUTUAL GRAVITATIONAL INFLUENCES OF A MASSIVE- AND DWARF-GALAXY MERGER.view more
CREDIT: CTIO/NOIRLAB/DOE/NSF/AURA ROBERTO COLOMBARI, M. ZAMANI & D. DE MARTIN (NSF’S NOIRLAB)
Galaxies grow and evolve over billions of years by absorbing nearby companions and merging with other galaxies. The early stages of this galactic growth process are showcased in a new image taken with the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.
The massive barred spiral galaxyNGC 1532, also known as Haley’s Coronet, is located about 55 million light-years away in the direction of the southern constellation Eridanus (the river). Its sweeping spiral arms are seen edge-on from Earth, with the nearer arm dipping downward and the receding arm lurching upward as it tugs upon its smaller, dwarf companion galaxy NGC 1531. These gravitationally bound galaxies will eventually become one, as NGC 1532 completely consumes its smaller companion.
Despite its small stature, however, the dwarf galaxy has also been exerting a noticeable gravitational influence on its larger companion, distorting one of its spiral arms, which can be seen rising above the galactic plane. Additionally, plumes of gas and dust can be seen between the two galaxies, like a bridge of stellar matter held in place by the competing tidal forces. This interaction has also triggered bursts of star formation within both galaxies.
This lopsided cosmic tug of war is a snapshot of how large galaxies grow and evolve by devouring smaller galaxies, absorbing their stars and star-forming material. A similar process has happened in the Milky Way, possibly six times in the past, leaving vast streams of stars and other signs in the halo of the Milky Way.
The process of absorbing a smaller companion galaxy is starkly different from the cataclysmic merger of two spiral galaxies of comparable size. In the latter case, two massive galaxies collide to form an entirely distinct galaxy with its own shape and characteristics. This type of galactic merger will happen to the Milky Way when it merges with the Andromeda Galaxy four billion years from now.
DECam, with its unparalleled wide-field imaging capabilities, gives astronomers highly detailed views of these large-scale galactic interactions. It also has the remarkable sensitivity, with the help of the 4-meter Blanco telescope, needed to detect faint objects in our Solar System and to trace the influence of dark matter on galaxies across the visible Universe. Currently, DECam is used for programs covering a wide range of science.
More information
NSF’s NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory (in cooperation with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O'odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.
IMAGE: AT THE CENTRE OF THIS IMAGE IS THE YOUNG STAR V960 MON, LOCATED OVER 5000 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY IN THE CONSTELLATION MONOCEROS. DUSTY MATERIAL WITH POTENTIAL TO FORM PLANETS SURROUNDS THE STAR. OBSERVATIONS OBTAINED USING THE SPECTRO-POLARIMETRIC HIGH-CONTRAST EXOPLANET RESEARCH (SPHERE - HTTPS://WWW.ESO.ORG/PUBLIC/TELES-INSTR/PARANAL-OBSERVATORY/VLT/VLT-INSTR/SPHERE/) INSTRUMENT ON ESO’S VLT (HTTPS://WWW.ESO.ORG/PUBLIC/TELES-INSTR/PARANAL-OBSERVATORY/VLT/), REPRESENTED IN YELLOW IN THIS IMAGE, SHOW THAT THE DUSTY MATERIAL ORBITING THE YOUNG STAR IS ASSEMBLING TOGETHER IN A SERIES OF INTRICATE SPIRAL ARMS EXTENDING TO DISTANCES GREATER THAN THE ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM. MEANWHILE, THE BLUE REGIONS REPRESENT DATA OBTAINED WITH THE ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETER/SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY (ALMA - HTTPS://WWW.ESO.ORG/PUBLIC/TELES-INSTR/ALMA/), IN WHICH ESO IS A PARTNER. THE ALMA DATA PEERS DEEPER INTO THE STRUCTURE OF THE SPIRAL ARMS, REVEALING LARGE DUSTY CLUMPS THAT COULD CONTRACT AND COLLAPSE TO FORM GIANT PLANETS ROUGHLY THE SIZE OF JUPITER VIA A PROCESS KNOWN AS “GRAVITATIONAL INSTABILITY”.view more
CREDIT: ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/WEBER ET AL.
A spectacular new image released today by the European Southern Observatory gives us clues about how planets as massive as Jupiter could form. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers have detected large dusty clumps, close to a young star, that could collapse to create giant planets.
“This discovery is truly captivating as it marks the very first detection of clumps around a young star that have the potential to give rise to giant planets,” says Alice Zurlo, a researcher at the Universidad Diego Portales, Chile, involved in the observations.
The work is based on a mesmerising picture obtained with the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s VLT that features fascinating detail of the material around the star V960 Mon. This young star is located over 5000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros and attracted astronomers’ attention when it suddenly increased its brightness more than twenty times in 2014. SPHERE observations taken shortly after the onset of this brightness ‘outburst’ revealed that the material orbiting V960 Mon is assembling together in a series of intricate spiral arms extending over distances bigger than the entire Solar System.
This finding then motivated astronomers to analyse archive observations of the same system made with ALMA, in which ESO is a partner. The VLT observations probe the surface of the dusty material around the star, while ALMA can peer deeper into its structure. “With ALMA, it became apparent that the spiral arms are undergoing fragmentation, resulting in the formation of clumps with masses akin to those of planets,” says Zurlo.
Astronomers believe that giant planets form either by ‘core accretion’, when dust grains come together, or by ‘gravitational instability’, when large fragments of the material around a star contract and collapse. While researchers have previously found evidence for the first of these scenarios, support for the latter has been scant.
“No one had ever seen a real observation of gravitational instability happening at planetary scales — until now,” says Philipp Weber, a researcher at the University of Santiago, Chile, who led the study published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“Our group has been searching for signs of how planets form for over ten years, and we couldn't be more thrilled about this incredible discovery,” says team-member Sebastián Pérez from the University of Santiago, Chile.
ESO instruments will help astronomers unveil more details of this captivating planetary system in the making, and ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will play a key role. Currently under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the ELT will be able to observe the system in greater detail than ever before, collecting crucial information about it. “The ELT will enable the exploration of the chemical complexity surrounding these clumps, helping us find out more about the composition of the material from which potential planets are forming,” concludes Weber.
More information
The team behind this work comprises young researchers from diverse Chilean universities and institutes, under the Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS) research centre, funded by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) and its Millennium Science Initiative Program. The two facilities used, ALMA and VLT, are located in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
This research is presented in a paper to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ace186).
The team is composed of P. Weber (Departamento de Física, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile [USACH]; Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons, Chile [YEMS]; Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Astrophysics and Space Exploration, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile [CIRAS]), S. Pérez (USACH; YEMS; CIRAS), A. Zurlo (YEMS; Núcleo de Astronomía, Universidad Diego Portales Chile [UDP]; Escuela de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile), J. Miley (Joint ALMA Observatory, Chile; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan), A. Hales (National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA), L. Cieza (YEMS; UDP), D. Principe (MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, USA), M. Cárcamo (YEMS; CIRAS; USACH, Faculty of Engineering, Computer Engineering Department, Chile), A. Garufi (INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Italy), Á. Kóspál (Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Hungary; CSFK, MTA Centre of Excellence, Hungary; ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Physics, Hungary; Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany), M. Takami (Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, ROC), J. Kastner (School of Physics & Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA), Z. Zhu (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, USA; Nevada Center for Astrophysics, University of Nevada, USA), and J. Williams (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, USA).
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.
