Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Astr 204: Introduction To Astronomy And Astrophysics, Shawn Langan

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Syllabi

Syllabus for ASTR 204 Introduction to Astronomy and Astrophysics for Fall 2015 semester.

Cosmic Ray Air Shower Lateral Coincidences, Gordon C. Mcintosh

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

At the University of Minnesota, Morris, my students and I have begun to investigate the time and altitude dependence of air showers. Air showers are cosmic ray secondaries that spread out laterally around the primary cosmic ray direction. To investigate the air showers we have been measuring the lateral coincidences among three Aware RM60 Geiger counters located at 0 cm, 15 cm, and 40 cm. Most of these measurements have been carried out at the surface. The rate of lateral, triple coincidences of Geiger counter with this configuration is 0.053 ±0.013 hr^-1 at the surface. On 4 April 2015 …

To Apply Or Not To Apply: A Survey Analysis Of Grant Writing Costs And Benefits, Ted Von Hippel, Courtney Von Hippel

Publications

We surveyed 113 astronomers and 82 psychologists active in applying for federally funded research on their grant-­‐writing history between January, 2009 and November, 2012. We collected demographic data, effort levels, success rates, and perceived non-­‐financial benefits from writing grant proposals. We find that the average proposal takes 116 PI hours and 55 CI hours to write; although time spent writing was not related to whether the grant was funded. Effort did translate into success, however, as academics who wrote more grants received more funding. Participants indicated modest non-­‐monetary benefits from grant writing, with psychologists reporting a somewhat greater benefit overall …

Interdisciplinary Connections Between Science & Theatre, Jessica N. Dotson

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SCIENCE & THEATRE

Jessica Nicole Dotson

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015.

Major Director: Dr. Noreen C. Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor of Theatre

In the 1990s, astronomer Peter Usher was searching for new ways to teach his introductory astronomy class at Pennsylvania State University. He began to engage his students by searching for astronomical connections from other disciplines. His focus was turned to the arts, especially the works of William Shakespeare. Usher found, while …

Teaching Threshold 6: The Rise Of Homo Sapiens, Richard Simon, Mojgan Behmand, Thomas Burke, Esther Quaedackers, Seohyung Kim, Kiowa Bower, Neal Wolfe, James Cunningham, Cynthia Taylor, Martin Anderson, J. May, Philip Novak, Debbie Daunt, Jaime Castner, Ethan Annis, Amy Gilbert, Anne Reid, Suzanne Roybal, Alan Schut, Cynthia Brown, Harlan Stelmach

Cynthia Taylor

Teaching Big History, Richard B. Simon, Mojgan Behmand, Thomas Burke, Esther Quaedackers, Seohyung Kim, Kiowa Bower, Neal Wolfe, James B. Cunningham, Cynthia Taylor, Martin Anderson, J. Daniel May, Philip Novak, Debbie Daunt, Jaime Castner, Ethan Annis, Amy E. Gilbert, Anne Reid, Suzanne Roybal, Alan Schut, Cynthia Brown, Harlan Stelmach

Mojgan Behmand

Teaching Big History Or Teaching About Big History? Big History And Religion, Harlan Stelmach

Harlan Stelmach

An Inventory Of Student Recollections Of Their Past Misconceptions As A Tool For Improved Classroom Astronomy Instruction, Andrej Favia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My Ph.D. research is about examining the persistence of 215 common misconceptions in astronomy. Each misconception is based on an often commonlyheld incorrect belief by college students taking introductory astronomy. At the University of Maine, the course is taught in alternating semesters by Prof. Neil F. Comins and Prof. David J. Batuski.

In this dissertation, I examine the persistence of common astronomy misconceptions by the administration of a retrospective survey. The survey is a new instrument in that it permits the student to indicate either endorsement or rejection of each misconception at various stages in the student’s life. I analyze …

The Experiences Of Women In Post Graduate Physics And Astronomy Programs: The Roles Of Support, Career Goals, And Gendered Experiences, Ramón S. Barthelemy

Dissertations

In physics and astronomy the low representation of women is obvious at every stage of the educational pathway from undergraduate students to full professors. These low numbers perpetuate themselves by failing to create new mentors to foster the next generation of women. Women and men also have different experiences as they traverse into physics and astronomy careers. Women often experience chilly climates, discrimination, and challenges coordinating the demands of young families with their careers. In the literature exploring this topic, little focus is put on the experiences of women graduate students in physics and no focus is put on women …

The Magnetopause: Bringing Space Physics Into A Junior Lab, Jim Crumley, Ari Palczewski,, Stephen Kaster

MapCores Faculty Publications

Undergraduate students often have minimal exposure to many subfields
of physics which are active areas of research. Space physics
is an area that is particularly difficult to expose students to since
it builds off of another area that most undergraduates see little of,
plasma physics. The magnetopause is convenient entry point
into space physics, since it can be modeled as a pressure balance, which is
a concept familiar from introductory physics. We use the Earth's
magnetopause as the basis for a lab for junior physics majors. In
the lab students analyze results from a NASA MHD simulation and
data from …

Session B-5: Planetary Science And The Ngss, Eric Hawker

Professional Learning Day

The goal of this session is to use what we understand about other planets and moons in our Solar System in order to get a better understanding of the Earth.

An Integrated Multidisciplinary Nanoscience Concentration Certificate Program For Stem Education, Karen S. Martirosyan, Mikhail M. Bouniaev, Malik Rakhmanov, Ahmed Touhami, Nazmul Islam, Davood Askari, Tarek Trad, Dmitri Litvinov, Sergey E. Lyshevski

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Integration of nanoscience and nanotechnology curricula into the College of Science, Mathematics, and Technology (CSMT) at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) is reported. The rationale for the established multidisciplinary Nanoscience Concentration Certificate Program (NCCP) is to: (i) develop nanotechnology-relevant courses within a comprehensive Science, Engineering and Technology curriculum, and, to offer students an opportunity to graduate with a certificate in nanoscience and nanotechnology; (ii) to contribute to students' success in achieving student outcomes across all college's majors, and, improve the breath, depth and quality of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates' education; (iii) through NCCP, recruit certificate- …

Using Open Datasets And Simulations In Laboratories, Jim Crumley

Physics Faculty Publications

While advances in instrumentation physics have made many areas more accessible to undergraduate physics laboratories, other areas are still beyond reach. Open data sets and simulations can open up some other frontiers of physics, such as Space Physics and Astronomy. In this talk, I will give an overview of some resources for open data and simulations, and then describe my experiences using these tools in both introductory and advanced labs in our curriculum.

Wesleyan's Mark Evans Observatory Designated Official Site, Kim Hill

News and Events

No abstract provided.

Astr 407: Physics Of The Interstellar Medium, Edward Schmidt

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Syllabi

Syllabus for ASTR 407: Physics of the Interstellar Medium syllabus for Fall 2013 semester.

Nsf Funds Study Of Cosmic Dust, Kim Hill

News and Events

No abstract provided.

Disability History Month: John Goodricke The Deaf Astronomer, Linda French

Linda French

No abstract provided.

Astronomy Talk, Sherry Wallace

News and Events

No abstract provided.

Measurements Of Nh3 Linestrengths And Collisional Broadening Coefficients In N2, O2, Co2, And H2o Near 1103.46 Cm−1, Kyle Owen, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Laser-based ammonia gas sensors have useful applications in many fields including combustion, atmospheric monitoring, and medical diagnostics. Calibration-free trace gas sensors require the spectroscopic parameters including linestrengths and collisional broadening coefficients to be known. Ammonia's strong ν2 vibrational band between View the MathML source has the high absorption strength needed for sensing small concentrations. Within this band, the 1103.46 cm−1 feature is one of the strongest and has minimal interference from CO2 and H2O. However, the six rotational transitions that make up this feature have not been studied previously with absorption spectroscopy due to their small line spacing ranging from …

Effects Of N2o And O2 Addition To Nitrogen Townsend Dielectric Barrier Discharges At Atmospheric Pressure On The Absolute Ground-State Atomic Nitrogen Density, Et. Es-Sebbar, N. Gherardi, F. Massines

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Absolute ground-state density of nitrogen atoms N (2p3 4S3/2) in non-equilibrium Townsend dielectric barrier discharges (TDBDs) at atmospheric pressure sustained in N2/N2O and N2/O2 gas mixtures has been measured using Two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) spectroscopy. The quantitative measurements have been obtained by TALIF calibration using krypton as a reference gas. We previously reported that the maximum of N (2p3 4S3/2) atom density is around 3 × 1014 cm−3 in pure nitrogen TDBD, and that this maximum depends strongly on the mean energy dissipated in the gas. In the two gas mixtures studied here, results show that the absolute N …

Temperature-Dependent Absorption Cross-Section Measurements Of 1-Butene (1-C4h8) In Vuv And Ir, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Yves Benilan, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and infrared (IR) absorption cross-section measurements of 1-butene (1-C4H8; CH2=CHCH2CH3; Butylene) are reported over the temperature range of 296–529 K. The VUV measurements are performed between 115 and 205 nm using synchrotron radiation as a tunable VUV light source. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is employed to measure absorption cross-section and band strengths in the IR region between 1.54 and 25 μm (∼6500–400 cm−1). The measured room-temperature VUV and IR absorption cross-sections are compared with available literature data and are found to be in good agreement. The oscillator strength for the electronic transition (A1A′→X1A′) around 150–205 nm …

Student-Teacher Interactions For Bringing Out Student Ideas About Energy, Benedikt W. Harrer, Michael Wittmann, Rachel Scherr

Faculty Publications

Modern middle school science curricula use group activities to help students express their thinking and enable them to work together like scientists. We are studying rural 8th grade science classrooms using materials on energy. Even after spending several months with the same curriculum on other physics topics, students' engagement in group activities seems to be restricted to creating lists of words that are associated with energy. Though research suggests that children have rich and potentially valuable ideas about energy, our students don't seem to spontaneously use and express their ideas in the classroom. Only within or after certain interactions with …

Capacitively Coupled Radio-Frequency Discharges In Nitrogen At Low Pressures, L. L Alves, L. Marques, C. D Pintassilgo, W. Wattieaux, Et. Es-Sebbar, J. Berndt, E. Kovačević, N. Carrasco, L. Boufendi, G. Cernogora

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

This paper uses experiments and modelling to study capacitively coupled radio-frequency (rf) discharges in pure nitrogen, at 13.56 MHz frequency, 0.1–1 mbar pressures and 2–30 W coupled powers. Experiments performed on two similar (not twin) setups, existing in the LATMOS and the GREMI laboratories, include electrical and optical emission spectroscopy (OES) measurements. Electrical measurements give the rf-applied and the direct-current-self-bias voltages, the effective power coupled to the plasma and the average electron density. OES diagnostics measure the intensities of radiative transitions with the nitrogen second-positive and first-negative systems, and with the 811.5 nm atomic line of argon (present as an …

Ionization Photophysics And Rydberg Spectroscopy Of Diacetylene, M. Schwell, Y. Benilan, N.. Fray, M.-C. Gazeau, Et. Es-Sebbar, F.-G. Levrel, N. Campion, S. Leach

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Photoionization of diacetylene was studied using synchrotron radiation over the range 8–24 eV, with photoelectron-photoion coincidence (PEPICO) and threshold photoelectron–photoion coincidence (TPEPICO) techniques. Mass spectra, ion yields, total and partial ionization cross-sections were measured. The adiabatic ionization energy of diacetylene was determined as IEad = (10.17 ± 0.01) eV, and the appearance energy of the principal fragment ion C4H+ as AE = (16.15 ± 0.03) eV. Calculated appearance energies of other fragment ions were used to infer aspects of dissociation pathways forming the weaker fragment ions , C3H+, and C2H+. Structured autoionization features observed in the PEPICO spectrum of diacetylene …

Volatile Products Controlling Titan’S Tholins Production, N. Carrasco, T. Gautier, Et. Es-Sebbar, P. Pernot, G. Cernogora

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

A quantitative agreement between nitrile relative abundances and Titan’s atmospheric composition was recently shown with a reactor simulating the global chemistry occurring in Titan’s atmosphere [Gautier et al. (2011) Icarus, 213: 625]. Here we present a complementary study on the same reactor using an in-situ diagnostic of the gas phase composition. Various initial N2-CH4 gas mixtures (methane varying from 1 to 10%) are studied, with a monitoring of the methane consumption and of the stable gas neutrals by in-situ mass spectrometry. Atomic hydrogen is also measured by optical emission spectroscopy. A positive correlation is found between atomic hydrogen abundance and …

Vuv Photoionization Of Acetamide Studied By Electron / Ion Coincidence Spectroscopy In The 8-24 Ev Photon Energy Range, M. Schwell, Y. Bénilan, N. Fray, M.-C Gazeau, Et. Es-Sebbar, Gustavo A. Garcia, L. Nahon, N. Champion, S. Leach

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

A VUV photoionization study of acetamide was carried out over the 8-24 eV photon energy range using synchrotron radiation and photoelectron/photoion coincidence (PEPICO) spectroscopy. Threshold photoelectron photoion coincidence (TPEPICO) measurements were also made. Photoion yield curves and branching ratios were measured for the parent ion and six fragment ions. The adiabatic ionization energy of acetamide was determined as I.E (12A’) = (9.71±0.02) eV, in agreement with an earlier reported photoionization mass spectrometry (PIMS) value. The adiabatic energy of the first excited state of the ion, 12A”, was determined to be ≈ 10.1 eV. Assignments of the fragment ions and the …

Environmental Research With Undergraduates In East Asia: Collaborations In China And Japan, Gary A. Morris, Jon Schoer

Gary A. Morris

China: From 2007-2008 as part of a collaborative research project funded by the ASIANetwork, VU and the VLACD, 5 VU students (2 chemistry, 1 biology, 1 environmental science, and 1 civil engineering) spent 3 weeks in Zhejiang province, China and 7 additional weeks in northwest Indiana comparing and contrasting water quality issues and attitudes in the two regions. While in China, the students interacted with one another and graduate students, faculty, and staff from Zhejiang University and Zhejiang A &F University, and with multiple local & regional officials and residents to collect water quality data and opinions about key water …

Astr 403: Galactic And Extragalactic Astronomy, Edward Schmidt

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Syllabi

Syllabus for ASTR 403 Galactic and Extragalactic Astronomy for Fall 2011 semester.

Vuv Absorption Cross Section Of Benzene, Relevance For Titan’S Atmosphere, F-J. Capalbo, Y. Bénilan, N. Fray, M. Schwell, Et. Es-Sebbar, N. Champion, T. Koskinen, R. Yelle

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, is the only one in the Solar System known to have a thick N2/CH4, planet like atmosphere. The dissociation of these principal components and the recombination of the products make this atmosphere to be rich in organic compounds of high interest for astrobiology. Solar and stellar occultations observed by the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) on board the Cassini spacecraft can be used to characterize the composition of Titan’s upper atmosphere (400 – 1400 km). The results depend strongly on the knowledge of the molecular absorption cross sections of the atmospheric constituents (Ferradaz et al. 2009). This …

Stereoscopic Visualization As A Tool For Learning Astronomy Concepts, Norman M. Joseph

Department of Computer Graphics Technology Degree Theses

Three-dimensional (3D) visualization is becoming an extensively used educational tool. 3D visualization tends to be most useful when demonstrating concepts involving the very large – such as astronomy, or the very small – such as nanotechnology. Stereo visualization allows students to familiarize and immerse themselves in worlds which are difficult or impossible to experience in real life. This study will evaluate the educational benefit of teaching lessons involving a highly spatially-oriented topic (astronomy) using stereoscopic visualization technology.

We have used a stereoscopic visualization system, installed in a classroom, to deploy 3D simulation packages for use in classroom instruction. This educational …