Listening to the Stars/Feb2009
From I2U2
Welcome to Listening to the Stars, LIGO Hanford Observatory's electronic newsletter. Please reach us through the contacts below if you need additional information on items from this edition.
Contents |
[edit] Welcome to the International Year of Astronomy!
he International Year is here! 400 years ago, on January 7, 1609, Galileo made the first known observations of three of Jupiter's moons with his 3x telescope. On January 10 he noticed that one of the moons had disappeared; he surmised that it had moved behind Jupiter. Galileo's conclusion that these small bodies were orbiting the larger one was the first fruit in a 400-year quest that has applied progressively better (and progressively diverse) technology to the task of studying the heavens. Astronomy organizations around the world will mark the significance of Galileo's work with a year-long festival of public astronomy activities in 2009. Check the IYA Web site for more information about the worldwide initiative.
LIGO Hanford will share in the International Year through a special series of public events now listed on the LHO Web site. A press release provides additional information on LIGO's IYA effort. Our event schedule offers something of interest for all ages and levels of astronomy expertise. The first LHO IYA activity, Astronomy for the Very Young, will target families with preschool and elementary-age children. Dozens of hands-on astronomy and physics stations, customized for youngsters, will fill the Observatory on March 21, 2009, starting at 1:30 PM. We'll invite families to undertake these in an informal, child-directed fashion. Do them all, or make waves on the 30-foot Slinky for hours; the choice will be yours (or your five-year old's). All of LIGO's IYA events are brought to you free of charge through our support from the National Science Foundation.
Early in April LIGO will collaborate with observatories around the world for a 24-hour Web cast as part of 100 Hours of Astronomy. The Web cast will provide a unique opportunity for the public to take an online look at cutting-edge at professional astronomy research in real time. Scheduling a program that involves sites in multiple time zones around the globe turns out to be a challenge and the IYA staff is still working out the details. Check back at the LHO Web site for specific Web cast information as April draws near.
[edit] LIGO Tours Continue in 2009
LHO will continue to offer free no-reservation monthly site tours in 2009. These are always on the second Saturday of the month at 1:30 PM. Check our tour schedule for specific dates. The next tour will occur on Saturday, March 14. Remember that private weekday tours of LIGO can be scheduled for groups of fifteen or larger.
[edit] Gaming with Gravitational Waves
Try your hand at searching for simulated gravitational waves in noisy data by playing Black Hole Hunter. Developed by GEO600 scientists, Black Hole Hunter requires only a connection to a browser and speakers. The game provides a small taste of the challenge faced by data analysts as they comb through interferometer data looking for the faint imprint of gravitational waves. The students and students at heart can find additional interactive resources at LHO’s new Kids’ Corner link.
[edit] Resources for Teachers
LHO has added several resources to our Teachers' Corner that may be of interest to educators. The Observatory now hosts fifteen permanently mounted field trip exhibits and activities, always available for hands-on student explorations. We've added several options to our [http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/class_visit.html classroom visit menu], including a careers presentation focusing on pathways to a future in physical sciences research. You'll also see a sequel to our popular round-robin set of wave activity stations, "Waves II." Remember that the 20-minute LIGO documentary, Einstein's Messengers, can be streamed from the NSF Web site. The companion Web site, einsteinsmessengers.org, contains links to Messengers resources and high school classroom activities related to gravitational wave astronomy.
LHO's set of classroom activities has been expanded and streamlined. All the activities now appear as PDF files with links to MS Word versions. One key addition is the LIGO Cyberspace Explorer, a virtual companion to a LIGO field trip. The Cyber Explorer's links to Web applets invite students to do further exploration on basic LIGO science concepts using only a browser and an Internet connection. Another new activity designed to address Earth-Moon-Sun content standards is the Moon Phase Movie. Classes of students can work together to make a flip-book of an entire year of Moon phases, then film the phases in sequence.
Science teachers are invited to consider applying for a LIGO summer teacher internship. Two six-week internships will be offered for the summer of 2009. Contact the Observatory at outreach@ligo-wa.caltech.edu for more information and an application.
[edit] Science News of Note
LIGO technical publications are well known for their author lists that include the hundreds of members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. A recent article in Physical Review D in a sense has an author list of a hundred thousand contributors, including a number of our readers. We speak, of course, of the users of Einstein@Home, whose generous donations of computing time have facilitated Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data. Yes, Einstein@Home is alive and well and remains an indispensable tool in LIGO's search for gravitational waves from neutron star pulsars. Not a user yet? Sign on and become part of LIGO's S6 data run, scheduled to begin later in the spring
The Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope, launched in June, 2008, now makes regular startling findings that continue to challenge the astronomy/astrophysics community's imagination. Fermi has gathered signals from exotic processes such as enormous gamma-ray bursts, gamma-ray pulsars and soft gamma-ray repeaters. Each of these types of sources bears the possibility of a connection to gravitational waves. If Galileo could only see these results, 400 years after his first breakthrough steps began charting the course we now follow!
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