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AUI Sponsors Student Outreach Event at 232nd AAS Meeting

Recent News

NSF VLA Contributes Crucial Puzzle Piece to ‘Peculiar’ High Energy Transient

High-energy transient signals are most often determined to be gamma-ray burst events, but the recently-launched Einstein Probe has expanded astronomers’ ability to quickly respond to similar signals occurring at X-ray wavelengths. Now, a multi-wavelength study of EP240408a concludes that while many of the signal’s characteristics might lead to the conclusion that it is a gamma-ray burst, the non-detection at radio wavelengths precludes that possibility.

Students Contribute to New Understanding of ‘Twinkling’ Pulsars

The flexible observing setup of the Green Bank Observatory’s 20-meter telescope enabled frequent, long-duration observations of eight pulsars, spanning two and a half years for a student-driven study carried out by students in the Pulsar Science Collaboratory program.

Double the Disks, Double the Discovery: New Insights into Planet Formation in DF Tau

Tucked away in a star-forming region in the Taurus constellation, a pair of circling stars are displaying some unexpected differences in the circumstellar disks of dust and gas that surround them. A new study led by researchers at Lowell Observatory, combining data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Keck Observatory, has unveiled intriguing findings about planet formation in this binary star system, known as DF Tau, along with other systems in this region.

AUI Sponsors Student Outreach Event at 232nd AAS Meeting

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) sponsored the American Astronomical Society (AAS) local student outreach event at the AAS 232nd summer meeting held this June in Denver, CO.

As part of AUI’s role in serving as ambassadors of science and encouraging the next generation the next generation of scientists and engineers, the event provides middle and high school students in underserved populations an opportunity to spend a day learning about STEM.

The society welcomes local student groups, STEM program participants, home schooled students, and families for an interactive afternoon of science.
Students had the opportunity to participate in hands-on demonstrations and speak with world famous scientists and engineers at the forefront of astronomy research.

At the 232nd AAS meeting, the students received a welcome talk by Dr. Keivan Guadalupe Stassun, Professor of Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, and were chaperoned into the AAS Exhibit Hall to meet with several exhibitors for exciting hands-on activities covering topics such as discovering exoplanets, building an interferometer, dark matter, infrared cameras, light spectrum, radio astronomy, and more.

As the students departed, they received an AUI backpack full of resource materials from numerous exhibitors to further their exploration. There were more than 150 students in attendance from the Denver area.

AAS Press Release

Recent News

NSF VLA Contributes Crucial Puzzle Piece to ‘Peculiar’ High Energy Transient

High-energy transient signals are most often determined to be gamma-ray burst events, but the recently-launched Einstein Probe has expanded astronomers’ ability to quickly respond to similar signals occurring at X-ray wavelengths. Now, a multi-wavelength study of EP240408a concludes that while many of the signal’s characteristics might lead to the conclusion that it is a gamma-ray burst, the non-detection at radio wavelengths precludes that possibility.

Students Contribute to New Understanding of ‘Twinkling’ Pulsars

The flexible observing setup of the Green Bank Observatory’s 20-meter telescope enabled frequent, long-duration observations of eight pulsars, spanning two and a half years for a student-driven study carried out by students in the Pulsar Science Collaboratory program.

Double the Disks, Double the Discovery: New Insights into Planet Formation in DF Tau

Tucked away in a star-forming region in the Taurus constellation, a pair of circling stars are displaying some unexpected differences in the circumstellar disks of dust and gas that surround them. A new study led by researchers at Lowell Observatory, combining data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Keck Observatory, has unveiled intriguing findings about planet formation in this binary star system, known as DF Tau, along with other systems in this region.