Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Draco, Christian Ekhoff

Natural Sciences Student Research Presentations

This poster for the Natural Sciences Poster Session at Parkland College features the constellation Draco, which is positioned between the big and little dipper in the Northern sky. It is also circumpolar and contains a galaxy and a nebula in its boundaries. The student identified ten different key stars in the constellation, observed when they rose and set. He then graphed their altitudes and azimuth and identified their life spans.

Perihelion Precession In The General Theory Of Relativity, Charles G. Torre

Tutorials on... in 1 hour or less

This is a relatively quick and informal sketch of a demonstration that general relativistic corrections to the bound Kepler orbits introduce a perihelion precession. Any decent textbook on the general theory of relativity will derive this result. My analysis aligns with that found in the good old text "Introduction to General Relativity", by Adler, Bazin and Schiffer.

Ua35/3 Memoranda, Wku Provost

WKU Administration Documents

2017 memoranda issued by the WKU Provost to faculty and staff via email.

• Faculty Mentoring Award
• Undergraduae Mentoring Award Recipients
• Fall 2017 Modified Class Schedule & the Great American Eclipse
• Strategic Planning

Deconstructing A Galaxy: Colour Distributions Of Point Sources In Messier 83, A. K. Kiar, P. Barmby, A. Hidalgo

Physics and Astronomy Publications

What do we see when we look at a nearby, well-resolved galaxy? Thousands of individual sources are detected in multiband imaging observations of even a fraction of a nearby galaxy, and characterizing those sources is a complex process. This work analyses a ten-band photometric catalogue of nearly 70 000 point sources in a 7.3 square arcmin region of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 83, made as part of the Early Release Science programme with the Hubble Space Telescope'sWide Field Camera 3. Colour distributions were measured for both broad-band and broad-and-narrow-band colours; colours made from broad-bands with large wavelength differences generally …

Short-Period Mesospheric Gravity Waves And Their Sources At The South Pole, Dhvanit Mehta, Andrew J. Gerrard, Yusuke Ebihara, Allan T. Weatherwax, Louis J. Lanzerotti

Physics Faculty Publications

The sourcing locations and mechanisms for short-period, upward-propagating gravity waves at high polar latitudes remain largely unknown. Using all-sky imager data from the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, we determine the spatial and temporal characteristics of 94 observed small-scale waves in 3 austral winter months in 2003 and 2004. These data, together with background atmospheres from synoptic and/or climatological empirical models, are used to model gravity wave propagation from the polar mesosphere to each wave's source using a ray-tracing model. Our results provide a compelling case that a significant proportion of the observed waves are launched in several discrete layers in …

Disk Heating, Galactoseismology, And The Formation Of Stellar Halos, Kathryn V. Johnston, Adrian M. Price-Whelan, Maria Bergemann, Chervin F. P. Laporte, Ting S. Li, Allyson A. Sheffield, Steven R. Majewski, Rachael S. Beaton, Branimir Sesar, Sanjib Sharma

Publications and Research

Deep photometric surveys of the MilkyWay have revealed diffuse structures encircling our Galaxy far beyond the “classical” limits of the stellar disk. This paper reviews results from our own and other observational programs, which together suggest that, despite their extreme positions, the stars in these structures were formed in our Galactic disk. Mounting evidence from recent observations and simulations implies kinematic connections between several of these distinct structures. This suggests the existence of collective disk oscillations that can plausibly be traced all the way to asymmetries seen in the stellar velocity distribution around the Sun. There are multiple interesting implications …

Research At The University Of Kentucky Accelerator Laboratory, S. F. Hicks, Michael A. Kovash

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kentucky operates a 7-MV CN Van de Graaff accelerator that produces primary beams of protons, deuterons, and helium ions. An in-terminal pulsing and bunching system operates at 1.875 MHz and is capable of providing 1 ns beam bunches at an average current of several microamperes. Nearly all ongoing research programs involve secondary pulsed neutrons produced with gas cells containing deuterium or tritium, as well as with a variety of solid targets. Most experiments are performed at a target station positioned over a deep pit, so as to reduce the background …

The Space Race Piktograph, Katelyn Flanagan

West Virginia Connection

For this portion of the materials, I included two “Piktographs” for students to use as a resource for their research for the final assignment. The first is one on the contributions specifically from West Virginia to the space race. It includes specific people from West Virginia and their contributions to this portion of our nation’s history. This way students are able to make home connections to West Virginia. The second Piktograph is one specifically on The Green Bank Observatory located in Green Bank, WV. It is home to the first radio telescope, as well as being the first national astronomy …

The Green Bank Observatory Piktograph, Katelyn Flanagan

West Virginia Connection

For this portion of the materials, I included two “Piktographs” for students to use as a resource for their research for the final assignment. The first is one on the contributions specifically from West Virginia to the space race. It includes specific people from West Virginia and their contributions to this portion of our nation’s history. This way students are able to make home connections to West Virginia. The second Piktograph is one specifically on The Green Bank Observatory located in Green Bank, WV. It is home to the first radio telescope, as well as being the first national astronomy …

The Green Bank Observatory And The Space Race - Introduction, Katelyn Flanagan

West Virginia Connection

For this portion of the materials, I included two “Piktographs” for students to use as a resource for their research for the final assignment. The first is one on the contributions specifically from West Virginia to the space race. It includes specific people from West Virginia and their contributions to this portion of our nation’s history. This way students are able to make home connections to West Virginia. The second Piktograph is one specifically on The Green Bank Observatory located in Green Bank, WV. It is home to the first radio telescope, as well as being the first national astronomy …

Glass Plate Slides On Astronomy, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection consists of twenty-six glass plates slides used to teach Astronomy at Georgia Southern Teachers College, probably in the 1930s. They were produced by the Eastern Science Supply Company of Boston.

Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog.

The Role Of Black Hole And Neutron Star Interaction On The Dynamical Evolution Of Dense Stellar Systems, Michael Pajkos

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

With the recent detection of gravitational waves from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, a new realm of gravitational astrophysics has been opened. As the process of observing gravitational wave signals is still in its infancy, there is a need to provide gravitational astronomers with observable signatures in the electromagnetic spectrum. Hence, we explore the impact of solar mass black holes on the morphology of globular clusters. It has long been thought that due to high kick velocities from compact object gravitational interaction, Galactic age Globular Clusters are unable to retain black holes. Recent simulations, however, suggest that a …

Crustal Cooling In The Neutron Star Low-Mass X-Ray Binary Ks 1731−260, Rachael Lynn Merritt

Wayne State University Theses

Neutron stars in binary systems can undergo periods of accretion (outburst), where in- falling material heats the crust of the star out of thermal equilibrium with the core. When accretion stops (quiescence), we can directly observe the thermal relaxation of the crust. Crustal cooling of accretion-heated neutron stars provides insight into the stellar interior of neutron stars. The neutron star X-ray transient, KS 1731−260, was in outburst for 12.5 years before returning to quiescence in 2001. Here, we present a 150 ks Chandra observation of KS 1731−260 taken in August 2015, about 14.5 years into quiescence. We find that the …

Data Mining By Grid Computing In The Search For Extrasolar Planets, Oisin Creaner [Thesis]

Doctoral

A system is presented here to provide improved precision in ensemble differential photometry. This is achieved by using the power of grid computing to analyse astronomical catalogues. This produces new catalogues of optimised pointings for each star, which maximise the number and quality of reference stars available. Astronomical phenomena such as exoplanet transits and small-scale structure within quasars may be observed by means of millimagnitude photometric variability on the timescale of minutes to hours. Because of atmospheric distortion, ground-based observations of these phenomena require the use of differential photometry whereby the target is compared with one or more reference stars. …

Conference Review ‘’The Astronomy In Skyscapes - Archaeoastronomy Beyond Alignments’’. Full Day Session At The National Astronomy Meeting, University Of Nottingham (United Kingdom), 27th June–1st July, 2016, Frank Prendergast

Articles

The National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) was held at the University of Nottingham Jubilee Campus on 27th June–1st July, 2016. This event is the primary annual scientific conference for astronomers and space scientists drawn mainly from the UK and Ireland. It is sponsored and coordinated by RAS. NAM 2016 had eight plenary talks spanning topics from planets to cosmology. Additionally, there were 60 parallel sessions broadly split into five themes, one of which was archaeoastronomy. This was the third successive NAM conference to feature a parallel session on archaeoastronomy, and was organised and chaired by …

Alignment Of The Western And Eastern Passage Tombs At Knowth Tomb 1, Frank Prendergast, Tom Ray

Book/Book Chapter

This report presents a summary account of two surveys undertaken by the authors to determine and interpret the alignments of the western and eastern passage tombs at Knowth, Co. Meath. The findings indicate that contrary to earlier suggestions, the eastern passage and the western passage (inner and outer) are not aligned towards sunrise and sunset respectively at the period of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

Characterizing The Source Properties Of Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes, Joseph R. Dwyer, Ningyu Liu, J. Eric Grove, Hamid K. Rassoul, David M. Smith

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Monte Carlo simulations are used to determine source properties of terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) as a function of atmospheric column depth and beaming geometry. The total mass per unit area traversed by all the runaway electrons (i.e., the total grammage) during a TGF, Ξ, is introduced, defined to be the total distance traveled by all the runaway electrons along the electric field lines multiplied by the local air mass density along their paths. It is shown that key properties of TGFs may be directly calculated from Ξ and its time derivative, including the gamma ray emission rate, the current …

A Test Of The Interstellar Boundary Explorer Ribbon Formation In The Outer Heliosheath, Konstantin V. Gamayunov, Jacob Heerikhuisen, Hamid K. Rassoul

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

NASA's Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX) mission is imaging energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) propagating to Earth from the outer heliosphere and local interstellar medium (LISM). A dominant feature in all ENA maps is a ribbon of enhanced fluxes that was not predicted before IBEX. While more than a dozen models of the ribbon formation have been proposed, consensus has gathered around the so-called secondary ENA model. Two classes of secondary ENA models have been proposed; the first class assumes weak scattering of the energetic pickup protons in the LISM, and the second class assumes strong but spatially localized scattering. Here we …

Possible Pair-Instability Supernovae At Solar Motallicity From Magnetic Stellar Progenitors, Cyril Georgy, Georges Meynet, Sylvia Ekström, Gregg A. Wade, Véronique Petit, Zsolt Keszthelyi, Raphael Hirschi

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Near-solar metallicity (and low-redshift) pair-instability supernova (PISN) candidates challenge stellar evolution models. Indeed, at such a metallicity, even an initially very massive star generally loses so much mass by stellar winds that it will avoid the electron-positron pair-creation instability. We use recent results showing that a magnetic field at the surface of a massive star can significantly reduce its effective mass-loss rate to compute magnetic models of very massive stars (VMSs) at solar metallicity and explore the possibility that such stars end as PISNe. We implement the quenching of the mass loss produced by a surface dipolar magnetic field into …

The Puzzling Case Of The Radio-Loud Qso 3c 186: A Gravitational Wave Recoiling Black Hole In A Young Radio Source?, Marco Chiaberge, Eric S. Perlman

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Context. Radio-loud active galactic nuclei with powerful relativistic jets are thought to be associated with rapidly spinning black holes (BHs). BH spin-up may result from a number of processes, including accretion of matter onto the BH itself, and catastrophic events such as BH-BH mergers. Aims. We study the intriguing properties of the powerful (Lbol ∼ 1047 erg s-1) radio-loud quasar 3C 186. This object shows peculiar features both in the images and in the spectra. Methods. We utilize near-IR Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images to study the properties of the host galaxy, and HST UV and Sloan Digital Sky Survey …

Studying The Photometric And Spectroscopic Variability Of The Magnetic Hot Supergiant Ζ Orionis Aa, Bram Buysschaert, Alexandre David-Uraz

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Massive stars play a significant role in the chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies. However, much of their variability, particularly during their evolved supergiant stage, is poorly understood. To understand the variability of evolved massive stars in more detail, we present a study of the O9.2Ib supergiant ζ Ori Aa, the only currently confirmed supergiant to host a magnetic field. We have obtained two-color space-based BRIght Target Explorer photometry (BRITE) for ζ Ori Aa during two observing campaigns, as well as simultaneous ground-based, high-resolution optical CHIRON spectroscopy. We perform a detailed frequency analysis to detect and characterize the star's periodic …

A Multi-Band Study Of The Remarkable Jet In Quasar 4c+19.44, Daniel E. Harris, Eric S. Perlman

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

We present arcsecond-resolution data in the radio, IR, optical, and X-ray for 4C+19.44 (=PKS 1354+195), the longest and straightest quasar jet with deep X-ray observations. We report results from radio images with half to one arcsecond angular resolution at three frequencies, plus Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer data. The Chandra data allow us to measure the X-ray spectral index in 10 distinct regions along the 18″ jet and compare with the radio index. The radio and X-ray spectral indices of the jet regions are consistent with a value of throughout the jet, to within uncertainties. The X-ray jet structure to …

Photometric Flux In Exonest, Steven Kwun Young

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As a planet orbits its parent star, the amount of light that reaches Earth from that system is dependent on the dynamics of that star system. Known as photometric variations, these slight changes in light flux are detectable by the Kepler Space Telescope and must be fully understood in order to properly model the system. There are four main factors that contribute to the photometric flux: reflected light from the planet, thermal emissions from the planet, doppler boosting in the light being emitted by the star, and ellipsoidal variations in the star. The total observed flux from each contribution then …

A Three-Body Simulation Of Kepler-91 : A Potential Trojan System, Bryan Daniel D'Angelo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This paper presents a three-body simulation of Kepler-91 (KIC 8219268) using parameters

Cancer, Alexander M. Dani

Natural Sciences Student Research Presentations

This poster for the Natural Sciences Poster Session at Parkland College features the constellation Cancer, its ten brightest stars and Messier objects. Cancer (the crab) is a zodiac constellations located between Leo and Gemini. The student identified the ten different key stars and graphed their altitudes and azimuth to calculate their lifespans. He also described the two Messier objects and calculated how many days are in a year according to the rise times of a star in the constellation.

Gemini: The Twins Of Leda, Derek Schneider

Natural Sciences Student Research Presentations

This poster for the Natural Sciences Poster Session at Parkland College features the constellation Gemini, identifying prominent stars in the constellation and objects within the region (nebulae, clusters, galaxies), calculating the lifespans of the stars in the constellation, calculating average rise time change, and briefly touching on the associated mythology.

Canis Major, Sage A. Russell

Natural Sciences Student Research Presentations

This poster for the Natural Sciences Poster Session features the constellation Canis Major. Features of the poster include a calculation of the change in rise time to calculate the passage of a year, determining the life span of the major stars in the constellation, and identifying Messier objects within the region.

On The Redshift Distribution And Physical Properties Of Act-Selected Dsfgs, T. Su, T. A. Marriage, V. Asboth, A. J. Baker, J. R. Bond, D. Crichton, M. J. Devlin, R. Dünner, D. Farrah, D. T. Frayer, M. B. Gralla, K. Hall, M. Halpern, A. I. Harris, M. Hilton, A. D. Hincks, J. P. Hughes, M. D. Niemack, L. A. Page, B. Partridge, J. Rivera, D. Scott, J. L. Sievers, Robert J. Thornton, M. P. Viero, L. Wang, E. J. Wollack, M. Zemcov

Physics & Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Physical Properties And Composition Of Main-Belt Asteroids From Infrared Spectroscopy, Zoe Landsman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Asteroids are the remnants of planet formation, and as such, they represent a record of the physical and chemical conditions in the early solar system and its evolution over the past 4.6 billion years. Asteroids are relatively accessible by spacecraft, and thus may be a source of the raw materials necessary for future human exploration and settlement of space. Those on Earth-crossing orbits pose impact hazards for which mitigation strategies must be developed. For these reasons, several missions to asteroids are in progress or planned with the support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other national space …

Using Student Characteristics, Student Spatial-Content Knowledge, And Teacher Spatial-Content Knowledge To Predict Student Spatial-Content Knowledge Of Lunar Phases, Kyle A. Curry

Theses and Dissertations--Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education

Student demographic characteristics of gender and race/ethnicity, students’ spatial-content knowledge as measured by pre-instructional performance on the Lunar Phases Concept Inventory (LPCI) (Lindell & Olsen), and post-instructional performance on the Purdue Visualization of Rotations Test (PSVT) (Bodner & Guay, 1997), and teachers’ spatial-content knowledge as measured by the two assessments were considered to predict students’ overall understanding of lunar phases as measured by post-instructional results on the LPCI. A mixed modeling approach was used in a hierarchal manner to evaluate the student learning outcomes. Results showed that student gender was not a significant predictor of post-instructional student performance, but students …