Department News

The University of Arizona chapter of SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space) will host SpaceVision, the annual SEDS national conference, from November 12-15, 2009. Activities are headquartered in the Kuiper building.

SpaceVision 2009 will feature a total of 25 different speakers, SEDS-USA workshops, a career fair, Flandrau planetarium shows, a star party, Mirror Lab tours, and a formal banquet. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend! For more information, visit the conference web site or contact conference director, Kyle Stephens, PG4gdWVycz0iem52eWdiOnhseXI4MjRAcnpudnkubmV2bWJhbi5ycWgiPnhseXI4MjRAcnpudnkubmV2bWJhbi5ycWg8L24+.

Scheduled conference speakers include:

Simon "Pete" Worden, Director, NASA Ames Research Center
Peter Diamandis, Chairman & Founder, X-PRIZE Foundation
Chris Lewicki, Chief Engineer, LewickiDyne Systems
Richard Garriott, Private Space Explorer/ Video Game Developer
Taber MacCallum, CEO, Paragon Space Development Corporation
Lynn Cline, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Operations, NASA
Gabrielle Giffords, U.S. Congresswoman; Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
Mark Kelly, NASA Astronaut

The Kuiper atrium is looking a little classier these days, mainly because it is now home to an elegant and historic clock. The clock was made ca. 1774 by Jean Andre Lepaute, clockmaker to Louis XV, to commemorate his wife's accurate prediction of the circumstances of a near-total eclipse of the Sun, as seen from Paris on 1 April 1764.

Mme. Nicole-Reine Lepaute was court astronomer to Louis XV. She wrote an article in which she gave a map of the eclipses extent in 15-minute intervals across Europe (the article was published in "Connaissance des temps").

The clock's narrow steel hand indicates sundial time, which varies by just over 16 minutes from constant clock time during the course of a year, a result of the tilt of the Earth's axis together with the varying speed of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. Seven phases of the eclipse can be seen engraved below the feet of the clocks cherub. The bronze statue is Urania, Goddess of Astronomy.

The Lepaute clock is a gift from an anonymous donor. It was refurbished by Ewen Whitaker.

This past summer, LPLers were treated to the site of 3 hawks who had made their home in the big Aleppo pine tree near the east entrance. Dyer Lytle took some stunning photos of the hawks. One of these is posted here. A suite of the photos is framed and on disply in the LPL break room. It was a pleasure to take a work break and watch the hawks enjoying their "snacks" up in the tree. The LPL pigeon population was not so thrilled.

It's autumn in Tucson and that can only mean one thing: Bratfest. This year's Bratfest celebration was held on October 16, at the Gotobed home. A good time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who attended and sponsored the fest.

With expertise ranging from the furthest reaches of the realm of planetary science to the nanometer-scale world of laboratory studies, three scientists have accepted offers to become assistant professors in the Department of Planetary Sciences, beginning in 2011.

Ilaria Pascucci, currently at Space Telescope Science Institute, studies the formation of planets through astronomical observations of circumstellar disks around young stars. In particular, she has been working on finding the chemical compositions of such disks. Ilaria is a former post-doctoral fellow at Steward Observatory.

Thomas Zega, who will be moving to LPL from the Naval Research Laboratory, is an expert in the study of the very small, using tools like the Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope (FIB-SEM) and the Transmission Electron Microscope to study interplanetary dust particles and returned comet samples, as well as the finest-grained portion of meteorites.

Dániel Apai, Ilaria's husband, will be joining Steward Observatory, but will also have an appointment at LPL. He is also an astronomer by training, but has focused more on exoplanets and their potential for harboring life.

The Sun was the star of the show on June 12, 2010, as LPL and the National Solar Observatory hosted a public day dedicated to all things solar. There were many kid-friendly events, including Physics Factory and comet building.

Students for the Exploration of Space and the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association brought solar telescopes to the UA mall in front of Kuiper, and adults got to listen to science talks by Joe Giacalone, Frank Hill, Tom Schad, William Livingston. And, it's not every day you get to inspect an 18-ft inflatable model of the Sun. The event was a great success---a fun, family-friendly way to spend a Saturday.

Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) taught visitors about the scale of the solar system    

Puppet showThe Arizona Cancer Center's Skin Cancer Institute gave kids the scoop on sun safety

NSO provided a giant inflatable sun populated with sunspots
(Images courtesy: Dyer Lytle)

LPL is home to a new CAMECA SX100-Ultra electron microprobe and newly remodeled microprobe laboratory. For more detailed information on using the Electron Microprobe Laboratory, visit the Microprobe page.

There are very few U.S. universities with the electron microprobe analysis capabilities currently available at the University of Arizona. These facilities are available for use by UA researchers as well as outside users.

Read about the new microprobe on UA News.

On October 1 and 2, 2010, LPL hosted a party for friends and alumni in honor of its 50th birthday. The anniversary banquet was held at the PHOENIX Science Operations Center on October 1. Ninety guests attended and Dale Cruikshank gave a keynote address titled "Beauty and Grandeur in Planetary Science." Approximately sixty alumni, faculty, students, and friends attended the next day's symposium. In the photo above, Cruikshank (right) is shown with fellow early LPL alumnus Bill Hartmann (left), and Professor Emeritus (Geosciences) Spencer Titley, who, along with Gerard Kuiper, was a co-advisor for Cruikshank. Talks will be linked online soon (http://lpl50.arizona.edu).

The application, called Transient Events, uses real-time observational data from the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey to monitor transient objects, or objects that change in brightness or position.

Users select events that interest them, then images are downloaded from the Skyalert database, housed at Caltech. Next, users receive a reference picture and four subsequent images taken over the course of 40 minutes---images that led to the object's discovery.

"With Transient Events, amateur and professional astronomers can monitor what's happening in the night sky," said Stephen Larson, founder of the Catalina Sky Survey. "If they see something of particular interest, they can point their telescopes at the object to take a closer look."

Visit the Catalina Sky Survey for more information. Read about Transient Events on UA News.

On September 25, 2010, LPL's SPACEWATCH® program marked the 20th anniversary of the first automatic discovery of a near-Earth asteroid using computer software.

David Rabinowitz, then a UA astronomer and now a research scientist at the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, designed the software, and SPACEWATCH®, the UA asteroid-tracking team, found the asteroid. The software used to make the discovery in 1990 was called the Moving Object Detection Program, or MODP, and was modeled after the original program designed by UA astronomer Jim Scotti.

More information about SPACEWATCH® is available on the SPACEWATCH® site.
Read about the SPACEWATCH® anniversary is on UA News.