Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

The Planets, Reimagined: Translating Science Into Music, Kaitlyn Wincup

Honors Projects

Inspired by Gustav Holst’s The Planets, this project analyzed the qualitative properties of the planets in our Solar System and translated them into a composition, created by Connor Gibbs, to represent an overall aural depiction of each planet. Where Holst created an astrological depiction of each of the planets, this piece is an astronomical depiction that broadens the perspectives of its listeners.

A New Wave Of “Space Nationalism” In The United States: Why Are Evangelicals Good With It?, Andrea Molle

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Despite evidence that shows how the support for space programs correlates with liberal political views and a lower level of religiosity, recent data suggest that more conservative positions may have an even more substantial effect under the appropriate conditions. Using the available data from Pew's American Trends Panel, we seek to clarify this interactional effect of political and religious preferences on the level of interest in the space programs and commitment to space politics support among Evangelicals as it changed during Trump's presidency. Our research hypothesizes that during this time, the simultaneous presence of nationalist views in both accounts of …

The Total Solar Eclipse Of 1869 In Iowa: What Remains Today, Jacob P. Baskin

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

On August 7th, 1869, a total solar eclipse was visible in the United States. It carved a path through the heartland, nearly bisecting the state of Iowa as it ran from the northwest corner of the state, through Des Moines, and down through the southeast. As the scientists of the day flocked from universities and observatories on the east coast to the Midwest for a chance to make observations and measurements, many of the teams chose to set up in Iowa. Along the path of the eclipse, the parties built temporary observatories to house their telescopes, or simply picked buildings …

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works: Abstracts, Emma Aggeler, Elena Arroway, Daisy T. Booker, Justin Bravo, Kyle Bucholtz, Megan Burnham, Nicole Choi, Spencer Cockerell, Rosie Contino, Jackson Garske, Kaitlyn Glover, Caroline Hamilton, Haley Hartmann, Madalyne Heiken, Colin Holter, Leah Huzjak, Alyssa Jeng, Cole Jernigan, Chad Kashiwa, Adelaide Kerenick, Emily King, Abigail Langeberg, Maddie Leake, Meredith Lemons, Alec Mackay, Greer Mckinley, Ori Miller, Guy Milliman, Katherine Miromonti, Audrey Mitchell, Lauren Moak, Megan Morrell, Gelella Nebiyu, Zdenek Otruba, Toni V. Panzera, Kassidy Patarino, Sneha Patil, Alexandra Penney, Kevin Persky, Caitlin Pham, Gabriela Recinos, Mary Ringgenberg, Chase Routt, Olivia Schneider, Roman Shrestha, Arlo Simmerman, Alec Smith, Tessa Smith, Nhi-Lac Thai, Kyle Thurmann, Casey Tindall, Amelia Trembath, Maria Trubetskaya, Zachary Vangelisti, Peter Vo, Abby Walker, David Winter, Grayden Wolfe, Leah York

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Abstracts from the DU Undergraduate Showcase.

The World As We Know It: Maps And Atlases From Special Collections, Archives And Special Collections, Luke Meagher

Library Exhibits

Selections of maps and atlases from Sandor Teszler Library’s Special Collections are presented in this exhibit to show how, over time, cartographers have represented the world as we know it.

The Meaning Of Dark, Light And Shadows: Inferences In Art, Materiality And Cultural Practices, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

Our visual awareness relies on light acting on the eye to perceive materiality and colour. Medieval thought wrestled to articulate and comprehend its nature. The notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, for example, included his descriptions to define light and make comparisons so as to differentiate between light and shadow. His focus was on the illumination of surfaces from the perspective of a painter, seeing shadows as ‘the diminution of light by the intervention of an opaque body’ and ‘the counterpart of luminous rays’. In his mind, a shadow ‘stood between light and darkness’, with darkness being ‘the absence of light’. …

All I Want For Christmas..., Channon Visscher

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"JWST [the James Webb Space Telescope] will let us see clearer and further into the ancient and beautiful story of creation."

Posting about new developments in spacecraft from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/all-i-want-for-christmas/

The Temple Of Immensity: For Choir And Electronics, Steven Naylor

Honors Projects

the temple of immensity is a composition for 16-part choir and fixed media electronics composed by Steven Naylor using astronomical data concerning the stars nearest to Earth and their properties. “The temple of immensity” is an archaic and rarely used term, defined as “the universe or the complete overhead expanse of the heavens, especially as conceived as an object of religious reverence.” This piece seeks to convey feelings of wonder and awe for outer space through the setting of an original self-composed poem and through the use of star data to determine musical aspects. The resulting 28-minute composition blends voices …

Aztlán Del Sol, Marcus Zúñiga

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

An artistic writing developed from the themes and concepts of an of art installation made by a visual artist of Mexican-American descent from New Mexico. The work references the relationship of Aztec mythology to the American Southwest, art theoretical discourse in object oriented ontology and aesthetics, and key ideas in astronomy. Additionally interwoven is an expanded sense for interpreting ancestry and history under the constructs of multicultural conceptions of time, specifically cultures with notable spiritual rituals of Sun worship and observation.

Distant Stars Become Future Homes: The Close Relationship Of Interstellar Between Hard Science-Fiction And Spectacle, Gabriel Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hard Science-fiction shares a close relationship with the element of spectacle. This is especially apparent in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), a film based in realistic science and emotional appeal. Nolan makes use of creating a team comprised of creative minds with different backgrounds. This includes theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, co-writer Jonathan Nolan, and composer Hans Zimmer. Together, the four develop a film that focuses on three main facets of science: time dilation, black holes, and dimensions. Incorporating these elements based in the historical world gives Interstellar its classification as hard science-fiction, a genre based more solidly in realistic science than …

Journal Of Big History (Volume 4, Number 2, David R. Blanks, Nicoló Antonietti

Faculty Publications - History & Political Science

Big History and the Search for Intelligent Life

Kinds Of Science And Exploring The Past, Channon Visscher

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Working alongside experimental and observational work, historical science helps us continue to learn the unfolding story of how a beautiful universe, created by a loving God, came to be as we see it today."

Posting about scientific methods from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/kinds-of-science-and-exploring-the-past/

An Analysis Of The Debate Over Creation, Evolution, And The Timeline Of The Universe At An Ecumenical Christian University, Mason Pohlman

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

Throughout a significant portion of history and within modern culture, the fields of science and religion appear to be competing for the same holds in a person’s belief system. Universities are where academics and the sciences are the prevailing held truth, while in churches, the Bible reigns as supreme authority. However, in a Christian academic setting, the predominate school of thought in belief systems might turn into a little more of a melting pot. By analyzing gathered personal data (via surveys and interviews), one can begin to piece together the predominate thoughts on the apparent conflict between religion and science …

Fenderson, Julia Katharine (Squires), 1905-1989 (Sc 3500), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3500. “The Viewing of Halley’s Comet: 1910-1986, A Personal Remembrance by Julia Squires Fenderson as told to Charles Arterburn,” a reminiscence by Mrs. Fenderson, of Culver City, California, of her viewings of Halley’s Comet: first with her father in 1910 at a Catholic mission in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and again in 1986, at the Santa Monica (California) College Planetarium. Includes an explanatory e-mail from Charles Arterburn.

Indigenous Astronomy As Told By The Haudenosaunee, Sasha Doxtator

Head and Heart Posters 2019

Colonization has greatly reduced the extent to which Indigenous astronomy is presently known and shared. Much sky lore has become lost or fragmented, and the connections between stories, night sky observations, and their relevance is not as obvious as it once was. A detrimental spiral has ensued with many Western-trained scientists being reluctant to share sky lore out of fear of being misunderstood, disrespected, and dismissed.

Indigenous Astronomy As Told By The Haudenosaunee, Sasha Doxtator

Learning with your Head & Heart

Colonization has greatly reduced the extent to which Indigenous astronomy is presently known and shared. Much sky lore has become lost or fragmented, and the connections between stories, night sky observations, and their relevance is not as obvious as it once was. A detrimental spiral has ensued with many Western-trained scientists being reluctant to share sky lore out of fear of being misunderstood, disrespected, and dismissed.

Indigenous Astronomy As Told By The Haudenosaunee, Sasha Doxtator

2019 Cohort

Colonization has greatly reduced the extent to which Indigenous astronomy is presently known and shared. Much sky lore has become lost or fragmented, and the connections between stories, night sky observations, and their relevance is not as obvious as it once was. A detrimental spiral has ensued with many Western-trained scientists being reluctant to share sky lore out of fear of being misunderstood, disrespected, and dismissed.

Is Theistic Belief Rational In A Scientific Age? (Research Materials), Holy Cross Libraries

Library Resources for Campus Events

A bibliography of resources available through the Holy Cross Libraries which provide additional information related to "Is Theistic Belief Rational in a Scientific Age," a dialogue between William Lane Craig and Jeff Hester on theism, atheism and science. Craig is research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology and professor of philosophy at Houston Baptist University. Hester is an astrophysicist known for his work with the Hubble Space Telescope and professor emeritus in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.

This event was one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity held at …

Cosmology, Craig W. Steele

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Louisiana Tech University Department Of Physics Astronomical Observatory Collection, University Archives And Special Collections, Prescott Memorial Library, Louisiana Tech University

Manuscript Finding Aids

Correspondence relating to establishing an astronomical observatory at Louisiana Tech University, 1963-1970, and undated constitution of the Louisiana Tech Astronomical Society.

Ua1c2/36 Hardin Planetarium Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of Hardin Planetarium

Ua1c2/86 Bell Observatory Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of the Bell Observatory.

The Search For Microbial Martian Life And American Buddhist Ethics, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Multiple searches hunt for extraterrestrial life, yet the ethics of such searches in terms of fossil and possible extant life on Mars have not been sufficiently delineated. In response, in this essay I propose a tripartite ethic for searches for microbial Martian life that consists of default nonharm toward potential living beings, default nonharm to the habitats of potential living beings, but also responsible, restrained scientific harvesting of some microbes in limited transgression of these default nonharm modes. Although this multifaceted ethic remains secular and hence adaptable to space research settings, it arises from both a qualitative analysis of authoritative …

Reason In Motion, Luke Francis

Student Works

This essay will explain the historical models of the solar system, which was the known universe for most of human history. There is far more to each model than simply positioning different celestial bodies at the center of the system, and the stories of the astronomers who derived the controversial theories are not discussed often enough. The creation of these theories is part of a much broader revolution in scientific thought and marked the start of a series of observational discoveries that would change the the philosophy of science for centuries to come.

Totality In Carbondale, Grant Haynes

The Hilltop Review

August 21 was one of the high points of 2017. That day a total solar eclipse tracked over much of the continental U.S. An early morning train ride brought me to Carbondale Illinois, the location of the eclipses longest duration. As totality neared clouds obscured this amazing celestial wonder, but they soon parted, and I was able to get a few spectacular photos of the eclipse, this one with the clouds that almost ruined it, is my favorite.

Against Common Sense, Channon Visscher

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Scientific inquiry... allows for the exploration of phenomena that would otherwise remain beyond human intuition."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­beauty and truth in creation from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/against-common-sense/

The Prospect Of Human Spiritual Unity Through The Cosmic Story, Philip Novak

Collected Faculty Scholarship

Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have noted that, “we seem to be moving beyond any religious expression so far known to the human into a meta-religious age that seems to be a new comprehensive context for all religions.” That “new comprehensive context” is of course now known as Big History -- a.k.a. the Evolutionary Epic, Universe Story, or New Cosmic Story—the astonishing contemporary synthesis of modern sciences that tells a coherent story of the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago to the present.

Yet with the notable exception of the writings of Berry and …

Solar Eclipse, 2017 (Sc 3152), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3152. Materials relating to the 2017 solar eclipse as experienced primarily in Bowling Green and Hopkinsville, Kentucky and vicinity. Includes viewing glasses, first day stamped covers, stickers, art work, photographs (in digital format), promotional materials, and impressions of the eclipse contributed as part of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections’ “Tell Us About Your Eclipse Day” project. Also includes wristbands, handouts and volunteer information relating to an eclipse viewing event for schoolchildren held at WKU’s Smith-Houchens Stadium. Digital photographs are stored in the Photo Archives.

Pathways To The Cosmos:The Alignment Of Megalithic Tombs In Ireland And Atlantic Europe, Frank Prendergast, Gabriel Cooney

Articles

Gabriel Cooney and Frank Prendergast present the context of and outline the approach to this one-day conference organised by Archaeology Ireland on behalf of the National Monuments Service at the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Office of Public Works to mark the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. The event will take place at Dublin Castle on 15 September 2018.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 93, No. 2, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Kast, Monica. Total Solar Eclipse Lowers Temperatures
• Collins, Emma. Students Receive a Gouda Opportunity – Hilltopper Creamery
• DeLetter, Emily. Dean of College of Education to Retire After 28 Years – Sam Evans
• Ziege, Nicole. Student Government Association Has First Meeting of New School Year
• Alvey, Rebekah. New Program Supports First-generation Students – Intercultural Student Engagement Center
• Collins, Emma. Advertising & Public Relations Officially Change Departments
• Gibson, Helen. Hello from the WKU Talisman
• King, Jennifer. Editorial Cartoon re: Donald Trump
• Leonard, Nicole. Your Opinion, Not Theirs …