Month: August 2011

Hello, I am Tonima Tasnim Ananna, a Bryn Mawr Physics and still undeclared Haverford Astronomy major. A week ago, my internship at STScI ended. Too many amazing things happened that I am grateful for, and here are some (non-project related) highlights of my summer:
– Met John Grunsfeld in person, he serviced the HST three times, and is a prominent cast member of the Hubble IMAX movie. He sent his application for the Deputy Director position (of STScI) from outer space, and of course he was hired. He is a really fun speaker too.
– Met Adam Reiss, the co-discoverer of Dark Energy. We worked on a problem set (Problem set # 4, Modern Galactic) at Haverford based on his historic 1998 paper.
– I met Alberto Conti, the person who proposed the Google Sky project to Google. He is Italian, as was my mentor Massimo Robberto. There are a lot of Italians working at STScI. It’s nice to see Galileo’s legacy being carried on.
– Took a trip to Goddard Space Flight Center. We saw the gold mirrors of JWST being assembled! Our tour guide was the ‘Stock Ops’ (who sends out the final command to the astronauts) of the 2009 HST servicing mission, and he told us details of the mission. While we visited Goddard, on account of being a non-citizen, they gave some of us a shiny ID badges, but sadly took them away when we were leaving 
– My mentor co-wrote the script for the Hubble Imax movie (because he is the Orion Nebula guy at STScI), and he told me that Leonardo DiCaprio left out the part about the trapezium of stars because apparently he couldn’t see a trapezium.
– Met a Bryn Mawr alumna, Jennifer Lotz, at STScI. She remembers Steve Boughn! =D
– Lisa Frattare, SASP organizer, said we have a lifetime supply of HST lithographs and posters, we just need to ask them and they will mail it to us. Some interns were planning to start an ebay account selling HST posters, but I don’t think they will actually do it.

There are a couple of cool things that I am missing, but I should move on to my project. I think I was able to make a significant amount of progress on making the Orion catalogs this summer. When I started out, there were so many problems with the magnitudes of the sources, the images of sources in the catalog, monster error bars etc. As I have mentioned in a previous post, there were 5 detectors in which the Orion was imaged, and my mentor Massimo pointed out some problem in the ACS catalog and got me started. After that, I found problems and made changes in the other catalogs by myself, and in the end he told me he was very happy with the catalogs and the Atlas. I added more comments and changed the layout of the final Atlas so a lot of details about the sources and the images appear in the Atlas as well. There are some isolated problems that I left for him because I only had a finite amount of time, but I have flagged all that I could find and didn’t have time to solve, and the data should be ready for publication after he checks these. Massimo says a catalog with more than 8000 sources would never be 100% error free, but if we can hit 95%, he’d be happy.

If it’s not clear what I mean by the Atlas and catalog, this presentation might help clarify: http://prezi.com/gl45yozphnf4/final-the-hst-treasury-program-on-the-orion-nebula-cluster/
More specifics about the changes I made also appear in the presentation. I hope everyone had as wonderful a summer as I did!

Hi Astronoblog readers! Maya Barlev here, Haverford astrophysics major, and member of the class of 2012.

This summer, I’m working with Universe Awareness, (UNAWE), an international non-profit organization that aims to “inspire every child with our wonderful cosmos.” UNAWE works in 40 countries around the world, primarily in disadvantaged communities. With the support from Haverford’s Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, (CPGC), I’ve been working as an intern at UNAWE’s headquarters in Leiden, the Netherlands.

As an intern, I’ve designed a board game about light and the solar system, written a “how-to” guide for people wanting to start their own local UNAWE program, developed ideas for a UNAWE program in the United States, written updates for the website, and much more. While I haven’t been working directly with children, I have been spending a lot of time thinking and writing about how to successfully communicate science with young kids.

One of UNAWE’s main goals is to connect science and social justice by teaching children “unity under one sky.” Despite location or circumstance, children all belong to the same globe, and observe the same Universe. This aspect of UNAWE is what sets it apart from any other astronomy outreach organization, and what drew me to it in the first place.

Through working with UNAWE, I have gained a greater idea of what I’d like to do with my astrophysics major in the future. I love astronomy, and have loved doing research, but what I enjoy most is giving and sharing what I know. I would love to work with organizations like UNAWE in the future to share my knowledge of astronomy with those who may not be able learn about our amazing Universe otherwise.

The UNAWE office is located within the Leiden University Sterrewacht, or astronomy department. Leiden is world-renowned for its astronomy, with such famous scientists as Ehrenfest, Lorentz, (for which my building is named after), Snell and Oort as alumni and faculty, and Einstein as a regular visiting faculty member. There’s a wall in the department signed by important physicists and astronomers, and it was really amazing to see the handwriting up close of N. Bohr, A. Einstein, etc. :

Currently, the department is still kickin’, with about 40 faculty members, and over 60 PhD students. Earlier in the summer (before people went on vacation), I regularly attended astronomy talks and colloquia. Also, I have made some great friends with PhD students, and have learned a lot about what it’s like to pursue a degree in astronomy.

So, all in all, it has been an amazing summer. I feel grateful for the opportunity to travel abroad, and learn about astronomy and outreach in a new way!

For more about my time in Leiden, you can visit my blog. For more about UNAWE, check out their website.