= 2020 = LATEST NEWS! LATEST NEWS! LATEST NEWS! LATEST NEWS! LATEST NEWS! = 2020 =

December 2020: RR Lyrae variables in Messier 53: Near-infrared Period--Luminosity relations and their calibration using Gaia Early Data Release 3, Bhardwaj A., Rejkuba M., de Grijs R., Yang S.-C., Herczeg G.J., Marconi M., Singh H.P., Kanbur S., Ngeow C.-C., 2021, ApJ, submitted; arXiv:2012.13495

December 2020: The GALAH+ Survey: A New Library of Observed Stellar Spectra Improves Radial Velocities and Reveals Motions within M67, Zwitter T., Kos J., Buder S., Čotar K., Asplund M., Bland-Hawthorn J., Casey A.R., De Silva G.M., D'Orazi V., Freeman K.C., Hayden M.R., Lewis G.F., Lin J., Lind K., Martell S.L., Schlesinger K.J., Sharma S., Simpson J.D., Stello D., Zucker D.B., Beeson K.-L., de Grijs R., Nordlander T., Traven G., Watson F., Wittenmyer R., 2021, MNRAS, submitted; arXiv:2012.12201

17 December 2020: Richard was interviewed by 2ser local radio's (107.3 FM) The Daily show on the topic, The Great Conjuction of Jupiter and Saturn

December 2020: William Dawes: Practical astronomy on the "First Fleet" from England to Australia, de Grijs R., Jacob A.P., 2021, J. Astron. Hist. Heritage, submitted

December 2020: Searching for chemical abundance variations in young star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds: NGC 411, NGC 1718 and NGC 2213, Kapse S., de Grijs R., Zucker D.B., 2021, MNRAS, submitted

7 December 2020: Complex Chang'e-5 mission on track to benefit China's spaceflight roadmap and international collaboration, Richard de Grijs, china.org.cn opinion article

December 2020: Eclipsing Binary Populations across the Northern Galactic Plane from the KISO-GP survey, Ren F.-Z., de Grijs R., Zhang H.-W., Deng L., Chen X., Matsunaga N., Liu C., Sun W., Maehara H., Ukita N., Kobayashi N., 2020, AJ, re-submitted

December 2020: The VMC survey. XLI. Stellar proper motions within the Small Magellanic Cloud, Niederhofer F., Cioni M.-R.L., Rubele S., Schmidt T., Diaz J.D., Matijevič G., Bekki K., Bell C.P.M., El Youssoufi D., de Grijs R., Ivanov V.D., Oliveira J.M., Ripepi V., Subramanian S., Sun N.-C., van Loon J.T., 2020, MNRAS, re-submitted

November 2020: The VMC Survey. XL. Three-dimensional structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from red clump stars, Tatton B.L., van Loon J.T., Cioni M.-R.L., Bekki K., Bell C., Choudhury S., de Grijs R., Groenewegen M.A.T., Ivanov V.D., Marconi M., Oliveira J.M., Ripepi V., Rubele S., Subramanian S., Sun N.-C., 2021, MNRAS, in press; arXiv:2012.12288

November 2020: Binary-driven stellar rotation evolution at the main-sequence turn-off in star clusters, Sun W., de Grijs R., Deng L., Albrow M.D., 2020, MNRAS, submitted

November 2020: The GALAH+ Survey: Third Data Release, Buder S., Sharma S., Kos J., Amarsi A.M., Nordlander T., Lind K., Martell S.L., Asplund M., Bland-Hawthorn J., Casey A.R., De Silva G.M., D'Orazi V., Freeman K.C., Hayden M.R., Lewis G.F, Lin J., Schlesinger K.J., Simpson J.D., Stello D., Zucker D.B., Zwitter T., Beeson K.L., Buck T., Casagrande L., Clark J.T., Cotar K., Da Costa G.S., de Grijs R., Feuillet D., Horner J., Khanna S., Kafle P.R., Liu F., Montet B.T., Nandakumar G., Nataf D.M., Ness M.K., Spina L., Traven G., Trepper-García T., Ting Y.-S., Vogrincic R., Wittenmyer R.A., Žerjal M., and the GALAH collaboration, 2021, MNRAS, submitted; arXiv:2011.02505

November 2020: Sydney's scientific beginnings: William Dawes' observatory in context, de Grijs R., Jacob A.P., 2021, J. Astron. Hist. Heritage, submitted

November 2020: AstroTalk: Behind the news headlines (Four-hundred-year-old stellar explosions reveal their secrets), de Grijs R., The Amateur Astronomer, February 2021, in press (in Chinese; English version)

27 October 2020: It's official! Water has been found on the Moon (small grains embedded in glassy beads, mostly). See this new video from the Australian Academy of Science, which includes a quote from me regarding the practicality of mining it for human use; Expert Reaction: Water on the moon! And it could help us head out to space; Cosmos Magazine coverage; Australian Science TV; Click Lancashire - Independent News

October 2020: Richard was invited to moderate two MOOC facilitator discussions on Research and Proposal Writing in the Sciences: 20 October and 22 October; bonus discussion: 26 October; Mental Wellbeing webinar, 17 Nov '20

October 2020: Multiple stellar populations at less evolved stages: Detection of chemical variations among main-sequence dwarfs in NGC 1978, Li C., Tang B., Milone A.P., de Grijs R., Hong J., Yang Y., Wang Y., 2020, ApJ, in press; arXiv:2010.15447

7 October 2020: Richard gave a long-delayed invited colloquium at Monash University (Melbourne), virtually: Towards an improved, self-consistent astronomical distance framework

September 2020: Gaia view of a stellar substructure in front of the Small Magellanic Cloud, Omkumar A.O., Subramanian S., Niederhofer F., Diaz J., Cioni M.-R.L., El Youssoufi D., Bekki K., de Grijs R., van Loon J.T., 2020, MNRAS, 500, 2757; arXiv:2010.02687

September 2020: European Longitude Prizes. I. Longitude Determination in the Spanish Empire, de Grijs R., 2020, J. Astron. Hist. Heritage, 23, 465; arXiv:2009.12778

24 September 2020: Ask the Community: What Would Improve Trust in Peer Review? -- the perils of responding to requests: you get quoted in full...

22 September 2020: It's Peer Review Week 2020; check out this article on Trust in Peer Review: From the Eyes of Authors, Reviewers & Editors, which includes my thoughts on the process, its problems and promises

September 2020: The intrinsic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds as traced by background galaxies. II. The Small Magellanic Cloud, Bell C.P.M., Cioni M.-R.L., Wright A.H., Rubele S., Nidever D.L., Tatton B.L., van Loon J.T., Zaritsky D., Choi Y., Choudhury S., Clementini G., de Grijs R., Ivanov V.D., Majewski S.R., Marconi M., Martínez-Delgado D., Massana P., Muñoz R.R., Niederhofer F., Noël N.E.D., Oliveira J.M., Olsen K., Pennock C.M., Ripepi V., Subramanian S., Vivas A.K., 2020, MNRAS, 499, 993; arXiv:2009.04480

8 September 2020: Unusual Astronomers, Unusual Astronomy Jobs: the latest Galactic Times podcast (US Labor Day special) features me as Maritime Museum guide on Captain Cook's replica ship in the context of my job as an astronomer

September 2020: The new Macquarie University brand campaign video is out, and I'm in it -- twice! (But you'll be hard-pressed to find the second appearance...)

August 2020: Near-infrared Census of RR Lyrae in the Messier 3 globular cluster and the Period--Luminosity Relations, Bhardwaj A., Rejkuba M., de Grijs R., Herczeg G.J., Singh H.P., Kanbur S., Ngeow C.-C., 2020, AJ, 160, 220; arXiv:2008.11745

26 August 2020: Join us for a free webinar on Maintaining Research Productivity Amid the Global Pandemic (hosted by the Enago Academy) on 26 August 08:30 New York/22:30 Sydney!

18 August 2020: Join me on 18 August, 6:30 pm AEST, on a journey to the edge of the universe; 2

August 2020: Constraining the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch phase with resolved stellar populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Pastorelli G., Marigo P., Girardi L., Aringer B., Chen Y., Rubele S., Trabucchi M., Bladh S., Boyer M.L., Bressan A., Dalcanton J.J., Groenewegen M.A.T., Lebzelter T., Mowlavi N., Chubb K.L., Cioni M.-R.L., de Grijs R., Ivanov V.D., Nanni A., van Loon J.T., Zaggia S., 2020, MNRAS, 498, 3283; arXiv:2008.08595

4 August 2020: Richard was appointed to the Steering Committee of the Astronomical Society of Australia Education and Public Outreach Chapter.

30 July 2020: Richard was asked for comments on the discovery of the oldest globular cluster in the Milky Way: Sydney Morning Herald; The Age; WAtoday; Brisbane Times; Head Topics Australia

July 2020: Blame game: Restoration quarrels and the Anglo--Dutch wars, de Grijs R., 2021, Arquebusier, in press

July 2020: A (not so) brief history of lunar distances: Lunar longitude determination at sea before the chronometer, de Grijs R., 2020, J. Astron. Hist. Heritage, 23, 495; arXiv:2007.14504

July 2020: The VMC Survey. XLII. Near-Infrared Period-Luminosity and Period-Wesenheit relations of RR Lyrae stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Cusano F., Moretti M.I., Clementini G., Ripepi V., Marconi M., Cioni M.-R.L., Rubele S., Garofalo A., de Grijs R., Groenewegen M.A.T., Oliveira J.M., Subramanian S., van Loon J.T., Sun N.-C., 2020, MNRAS, submitted

July 2020: Alexander Bruce, Scotland's accidental 'Scientific Revolutionary', de Grijs R., 2020, J. Astron. Hist. Heritage, 23, 267; arXiv:2007.12302

July 2020: The VMC Survey. XXXIX: Mapping metallicity trends in the Small Magellanic Cloud using near-infrared passbands, Choudhury S., de Grijs R., Rubele S., Bekki K., Cioni M.-R.L., Ivanov V.D., van Loon J.T., Niederhofer F., Oliveira J.M., Ripepi V., 2020, MNRAS, 497, 3746; arXiv:2007.08753

13 July 2020: Richard was appointed to the Australian Advisory Board of the Australia-ChinA ConsortiuM for Astrophysical Research (ACAMAR) for an initial two-year period.

June 2020: European Longitude Prizes. II. Astronomy, Religion and Engineering Solutions in the Dutch Republic, de Grijs R., 2020, J. Astron. Hist. Heritage, submitted

June 2020: The Zwicky Transient Facility Catalog of Periodic Variable Stars, Chen X., Wang S., Deng L., de Grijs R., Yang M., Tian H., 2020, ApJS, 249, 18; arXiv:2005.08662, data; AAS Highlight

May 2020: AstroTalk: Behind the news headlines (Iron rain and climate change on hot Jupiters), de Grijs R., The Amateur Astronomer, September 2020, 39-42 (in Chinese; English version)

May 2020: The VMC survey. XXXVIII. Proper motion of the Magellanic Bridge, Schmidt T., Cioni M.-R.L., Niederhofer F., Bekki K., Bell C.M.P., de Grijs R., Diaz J., El Youssoufi D., Emerson J., Groenewegen M.A.T., Ivanov V.D., Matijevic G., Oliveira J.M., Petr-Gotzens M.G., Queiroz A.B.A., Ripepi V., van Loon J.T., 2020, A&A, 641, A134; arXiv:2006.03163

12-14 May 2020: Lots of things happening this week! 12 May: Richard will chair a panel on the ORCID research experience, hosted by the ORCID UK Consortium through JISC; 14 May: Join my "Understanding Science" public lecture hosted by the International Space Science Institute--Beijing on Listening to the Universe. See this article or go straight to the video.

19 April 2020: Richard will talk about 17th century medical innovations: East vs West (hosted by the Royal Asiatic Society China -- Beijing) on 19 April 19:00 Beijing/21:00 Sydney; details, recording

April 2020: Life-changing drum beats, de Grijs R., 2020, The Bookends Review, 15 April 2020 issue

8 April 2020: Join us for a free webinar on Ethical Considerations in Scholarly Publishing (hosted by the Enago Academy) on 8 April 08:30 New York/22:30 Sydney!

April 2020: Christopher Wren and Blood Circulation, de Grijs R., Vuillermin D., 2020, Hektoen Int'l, Spring 2020 | Blood (Honorable mention in their "Blood" essay competition)

April 2020: Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? VII. A distance framework out to 100 Mpc, de Grijs R., Bono G., 2020, ApJS, 248, 6; arXiv:2004.00114

30 March 2020: Richard was interviewed by 2ser local radio's (107.3 FM) The Daily show on the topic, Are we alone?

17 March 2020: Richard delivered a public lecture to the Macquarie University Physics & Astronomy Student Society: Is Bigger Always Better? -- probably their last face-to-face lecture for a while...; video, slides

March 2020: The MALATANG Survey: Dense Gas and Star Formation from High-Transition HCN and HCO+ Maps of NGC 253, Jiang X.-J., Greve T.R., Gao Y., Zhang Z.-Y., Tan Q., de Grijs R., Ho L.C., Michałowski M.J., Currie M.J., Wilson C.D., Brinks E., Ao Y.-P., Zhao Y.-H., He J.-H., Harada N., Yang C.-T., Jiao Q., Chung A., Lee B., Smith M.W.L., Papadopoulos P.P., Matsushita S., Shi Y., Imanishi M., Rawlings M.G., Zhu M., Eden D., Davis T., Li X.-H., 2020, MNRAS, 494, 1276; arXiv:2003.06595

March 2020: Stellar rotation bifurcation caused by tidal locking in the open cluster NGC 2287?, Sun W., Li C., Deng L., de Grijs R., 2019, Proc. IAU Symp. 351, 228; arXiv:1908.06531

March 2020: Modern maps and the development of oceanic navigation in East Asia, de Grijs R., 2020, All Hands (Australian National Maritime Museum volunteers' magazine), Vol. 110, p. 33

March 2020: The VMC Survey. XXXVII. Pulsation periods of dust enshrouded AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds, Groenewegen M.A.T., Nanni A., Cioni M.-R.L., Girardi L., de Grijs R., Ivanov V.D., Marconi M., Moretti M.-I., Oliveira J.M., Petr-Gotzens M.G., Ripepi V., van Loon J.T., 2020, A&A, 636, A48; arXiv:2003.04025

25 February 2020: Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2020: IAU announcement; AAS announcement (21-25 September 2020, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia)

February 2020: The VMC survey. XXXVI. Young stellar variability in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Zivkov V., Oliveira J.M., Petr-Gotzens M.G., Rubele S., Cioni M.-R.L., van Loon J.T., de Grijs R., Emerson J., Ivanov V.D., Marconi M., Moretti M.I., Ripepi V., Niederhofer F., Sun N.-C., 2020, MNRAS, 494, 458; arXiv:2002.12291

February 2020: Physical Parameters of Late-type Contact Binaries in the Northern Catalina Sky Survey, Sun W., Chen X., Deng L., de Grijs R., 2019, ApJS, 247, 50; arXiv:2002.08001

February 2020: Sustained cartographic innovations in nascent French Canada: the life and times of Jean Deshayes, de Grijs R., 2020, J. Astron. Hist. Heritage, 23, 100; arXiv:2002.07438

31 January 2020: The website is live: Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2020; Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia -- 21-25 September 2020

January 2020: AstroTalk: Behind the news headlines (Explosions galore!), de Grijs R., The Amateur Astronomer, April 2020, p. 17 (in Chinese; English version)

24 January 2020: Richard was interviewed by Jamie Carter (at Forbes) for an explainer about Chinese New Year 2020: Year Of The 'Gold' Rat: How Chinese New Year Is Explained By The Moon And Jupiter

January 2020: Richard was invited to join the AAL Science Advisory Committee (ASAC), the Physics World Advisory Board (PWAB), and the AuthorAID Stewards

11 January 2020: Speaking of Space, Public Outreach Seminar 2020 at Beijing Planetarium: Navigation At Sea In The 17th Century; 2

January 2020: The HASHTAG project I. A Survey of CO(3--2) Emission from the Star Forming Disk of M31, Li Z.-N., Li Z.-Y., Smith M.W.L., Wilson C.D., Gao Y., Eales S.A., Ao Y.-P., Bureau M., Chung A., Davis T.A., de Grijs R., Eden D.J., He J.-H., Hughes T.M., Jiang X.-J., Kemper C., Lamperti I., Lee B., Lee C.-H., Michałowski M.J., Parsons H., Ragan S., Scicluna P., Shi Y., Tang X., Toimci N., 2020, MNRAS, 492, 195; arXiv:1912.02403

3 January 2020: "Science and Humanities" Lecture No. 15 -- Towards an improved, self-consistent local distance framework; announcement of my colloquium at Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai (Guangdong), China

January 2020: Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? VI. Extending to Virgo cluster distances, de Grijs R., Bono G., 2020, ApJS, 246, 3; arXiv:1911.04312

News from previous years: 2019; 2018; 2017; 2016; 2015; 2014; 2013