- Kurt Two powerpoints presented at 8th AAVSO Conference - Nov. 2009 Download from http://www.aavso.org/aavso/meetings/fall09/fall09_papers.shtml ============ Hawaii Student/Teacher Astronomy Research (HI STAR) Outcomes (presentation in pdf) Support grade 7-11 students in Hawaii to conduct authentic astronomy research projects worthy of Science Fair entry. 2. Provide HI STAR alumni pursuing science and mathematics majors in college with summer research opportunities. 3. Establish an astronomy mentoring program to support the students undertaking Science Fair projects. We will discuss how we have been able to realize these goals due to having passionate, motivated 12-16 year old students, dedicated astronomer mentors, committed parents and teachers and other supporters for our program. Our major grant funding is over, but we will continue HI STAR. We continue to expand our program. We will have our HI STAR alumnus, Mimi Hang, now a sophomore at Mt. Holyoke College, discuss her research on Debris Disks in the AB Doradus Moving Group. She was fortunate enough to work at the Space Telescope Science Institute operated for AURA for NASA as an undergraduate researcher this past summer. Below is the abstract of her talk: The field of planetary science is quickly developing due to our appetite to learn more about the formation of our solar system and about planets around other stars. After the Jovian planets formed in our own solar system, it is believed that our solar system underwent a period of high dust production. For example, our terrestrial planets are thought to have formed from collisions between planetary embryos which includes the large collision that formed our moon when our solar system was ~50 Myr. These collisions formed more dust which swirled around our sun to become a debris disk. We can apply the model here to other star systems. Collisions between planetary embryos of other star systems must also produce high dust production and the dust grains are warmed by stellar light. These dust grains emit thermal infrared radiation which can be detected using space-based infrared telescopes such as the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST). However, it is important to note that the majority of these debris disks are not spatially resolved with current telescopes. The goal of this project was to figure out if there were any debris disks around the stars in the AB Dor moving group. In this project, the moving group AB Doradus was chosen because at 50 Myr and only 20 pc away from Earth, the stars in this association make for an extraordinary laboratory for inquiry of the end-stages of planetary formation. Data was obtained from the Spitzer Space TelescopeÕs FEPS Legacy MIPS observations. The approach was to (1.) reduce Spitzer data to measure the brightness of the stars at 24 and 70 microns, (2.) estimate the brightness of the stellar photosphere at those wavelengths and finally, (3.) to look for an excess in the infrared emission which would indicate thermal radiation from dust grains. The study revealed that about 21% of the stars measured in AB Dor have debris disks. However, only the star system of HIP 18859 had an excess at both 24 and 70 microns. Therefore, only HIP 18859 is guaranteed to have a debris disk based on the result of this study. =============== Also of background reading interest for Utah Astros for dealing with the upcoming 2012 hysteria - Kristine Larsen 20 min "Scientists Look at 2012": Carrying on Margaret Mayall's Legacy of Debunking Pseudoscience presentation in pdf In 1941 Margaret Mayall, the future director of the AAVSO, and Harvard colleague Bart Bok authored a critical study of astrology and its impact on society entitled "Scientists Look at Astrology." They chastised the scientific community for thinking the debunking of astrology to be "below the dignity of scientists." In contrast, they opined that it is one of the duties of scientists to "inform the public about the nature and background of a current fad, such as astrology, even though to do so may be unpleasant." Fast-forward 68 years in the future, and the astronomical community now faces a pseudoscientific enemy just as insidious as astrology, yet just as ignored by the general professional and amateur community as astrology had been when Mayall and Bok took up the charge in 1941. The pseudoscience in question is the well-publicized "prediction" that the Mayan calendar will end on December 21, 2012, causing the end of civilization in concert with one of a number of possible astronomical calamities, including (but not limited to) the gravitational pull of the center of the Milky Way (somehow enhanced by an "alignment" with our solar system), the near-approach by a mythical 10th planet (often named Nibiru), large-scale damage to the planet by solar flares larger than those ever recorded, or the shifting of the earth’s axis of rotation (often confused with a proposed sudden and catastrophic reversal of the earth’s magnetic polarity). As a scientific and educational organization, the AAVSO and its members have a responsibility to follow in Mayall’s footsteps, shining the light of reason and knowledge on the dark corners of ignorance which far too often permeate the Internet, radio and television programming, and recent films, most notably 2012. This talk will highlight some of the basic premises of the 2012 hysteria and suggest ways that the AAVSO and its members can use variable stars and the history of the AAVSO to counteract some of the astronomical misinformation which is increasingly promulgated by proponents of the 2012 pseudoscience.