Neil Gehrels, an adjunct professor of astronomy and astrophysics at both the University of Maryland and at Penn State University, and chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will present the Russell Marker Lectures in Astronomy and Astrophysics on March 21 and 22, at the Penn State University Park campus.
The lecture series includes a presentation intended for a general audience, "Black Holes: From Einstein to Gamma Ray Bursts," which will be held at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21, in 102 Thomas Building. In the lecture, Gehrels will describe Einstein's theory of general relativity, published in 1916. Gehrels will explain how Einstein's equations predicted that space-time is warped by mass in the universe. Gehrels also will discuss how X-ray telescopes have found strong evidence that black holes exist and are important components of the cosmos. In addition to the public lecture, Gehrels will give two specialized lectures on March 21 and 22. The Marker Lectures are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science. (more)
Detectable for only a few seconds but possessing enormous energy, gamma-ray bursts are difficult to capture because their energy does not penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. Now, thanks to an orbiting telescope, astrophysicists are filling in the unknowns surrounding these bursts and uncovering new questions. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, formerly called the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, launched on June 11, 2008. As part of its mission, the telescope records any gamma-ray bursts within its viewing area. (more)
This year will be a very good year for amateur astronomers, so much so that Darren Williams, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will offer a preview of its unique viewing opportunities at his next Open House Night in Astronomy. "2012: Year of the Planets" will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14, in Room 101 of the Otto Behrend Science Building. The nontechnical presentation is free and open to the public and will be followed by astronomical viewing from the college's Mehalso Observatory, weather permitting. (more)
Ronald L. Gilliland, an adjunct professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, has been honored with the Beatrice M. Tinsley Award from the American Astronomical Society. The Tinsley Prize recognizes outstanding, exceptionally creative, and innovative research contributions to the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Gilliland is being honored for his innovative work on the study of ultra-high signal-to-noise observations related to time-domain photometry -- a technique of measuring an astronomical object's changes in electromagnetic radiation over time. (more)
The scientists of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), including astronomers at Penn State, have produced a new map of the universe that is in full color, covers more than one quarter of the entire sky, and is full of so much detail that you would need five-hundred-thousand high-definition TVs to view it all. The map consists of more than one-trillion pixels measured by meticulously scanning the sky with a special-purpose telescope located in New Mexico. This week, at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas, the SDSS scientists announced results of four separate studies of this new map that, taken together, provide a history of the universe over the last six-billion years. (more)
New evidence that will help to answer long-standing questions about the history of stars in the disk of our galaxy is being released this week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society by a team that includes a Penn State astronomer. The research reveals some stars with orbits that take them to interesting places and that reveal interesting stories about how these stars were formed.
Donald Schneider, Head of Penn State's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, is one of the coauthors of the study. The study uses data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which has been mapping the stars in our galaxy for more than a decade. "The SDSS results are providing another window into the structure and history of our galaxy," said Schneider, who is the SDSS Survey Coordinator. More information is online at www.science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2012-news/Schneider1-2012. (more)
The nature of a peculiar cosmic explosion detected on Dec. 25, 2010, remains an intriguing question without a clear answer. The cause of the explosion, a gamma-ray burst that first was detected by NASA's Swift observatory, either was a novel type of supernova located billions of light-years from Earth or an unusual collision much closer to home inside our own galaxy, report astronomers in papers published in the Dec. 1 issue of Nature. "It is nice to find that the universe can still surprise us, after seven years and 600 bursts since Swift was launched," said Michael Siegel, a research associate in astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and the lead scientist for Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT). Siegel analyzed the UVOT data as it came down to Penn State's Mission Operations Center from the spacecraft, and he also coordinated Swift's follow-up observations. (more)
Our Milky Way Galaxy continues to devour its small neighboring dwarf galaxies, reports a research team that includes a Penn State astronomer. The scientists have found evidence of the stellar snacking spread out across the sky. "Our study gives further striking evidence that we live in a galaxy that is constantly changing its structure via cannibalism of its smaller neighbors," said Donald Schneider, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and a coauthor of the paper describing the discovery. (more)
As an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier streaked past Earth during the early-morning hours last week, a team of astronomers at Penn State University and other institutions using NASA's Swift satellite monitored the fast-moving space rock, as did other professional and amateur astronomers using other instruments around the globe. The Swift satellite was the only observatory that captured the asteroid's ultraviolet emissions. Scientists now can use these ultraviolet data to understand the asteroid's surface composition and to more precisely predict the path of its future fly-bys near Earth. (more)
Three planets -- each orbiting its own giant, dying star -- have been discovered by an international research team led by Alexander Wolszczan, Evan Pugh Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State and the discoverer of the first planets ever found outside our solar system. Using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, astronomers observed the planets' parent stars, which are tens of light years away from our solar system. One of the massive, dying stars has an additional mystery object orbiting it. The new research is expected to shed light on the evolution of planetary systems around dying stars. It also will help astronomers to understand how metal content influences the behavior of dying stars.
The research will be published in December in the Astrophysical Journal. The first author of the paper is Sara Gettel, a graduate student from Penn State's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and the paper is co-authored by three graduate students from Poland. (more)
