Published: December 15, 2007
Dr. Loughran made a presentation to some 1000 elementary and middle school students and family members at the Science Spooktacular!, sponsored by Ethos. The presentation introduced multi-wavelength astronomy and the Spitzer Space Telescope using an IR camera on loan from Indiana University's astronomy group. Face painting with ice was a big hit. Science teachers attending the event took away a Spitzer DVD. Kevin Johnson of the Joint Institute of Nuclear Astrophysics also participated in the event, offering some insight into stellar formation as well as providing a range of follow-up programs, including the Sensing Our World program for middle school students.
Seniors Matt Pellegrino and Vinay Patel have succeeded in providing star formation rate (SFR) estimates for galaxy clusters cl 1227 and cl 1232 of the Blackwell, et al. "Star Formation in High Redshift Clusters with Spitzer" proposal, adding these to the cl 1037 estimates worked out last July at the SSC. They have plotted these SFRs (normalized to cluster mass) as a function of red shift together with other galaxies from the EDisCS survey, and have otherwise characterized the clusters (plotting SFR as functions of galaxy type and of projected-2-d distance normalized to the virial radius; and plotting galaxy type as a function of that same normalized distance.) Matt and Vinay are preparing an entry for the Northern Indiana Science and Engineering Fair, part of the Intel SEF program.
