Olivia DrakeApril 6, 20101min
Bill Herbst, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, and Seth Redfield, assistant professor astronomy, are co-authors of the article, "Gas Absorption in the KH 15D System: Further Evidence for Dust Settling in the Circumbinary Disk," published in The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 711, Issue 2, pp. 1297-1305 in March 2010. Their data supports a picture of a particular circumbinary disk as being composed of a very thin particulate grain layer composed of millimeter-sized or larger objects that are settled within whatever remaining gas may be present. Herbst also is the author of "Periodic variability in the emission spectrum of…

Olivia DrakeFebruary 8, 20101min
Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, received a grant from NASA on Jan. 28 for his research titled "Probing the Atomic  & Molecular Inventory of the Beta-PicAnalog, the Young Edge –On Debris Disk of HD32297rp." The $48,334 grant, will be applied over two years.

David PesciSeptember 22, 20092min
5 Questions is a new feature in The Wesleyan Connection that will ask faculty members - surprise! - five questions about their work and activities. This issue, the questions go to Edward Moran, chair and associate professor of astronomy and director of the Van Vleck Observatory. His primary area of study is black holes. This summer he received a major National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for an extensive study on “intermediate mass” black holes. Q: Everyone thinks they know, but once and for all: what is a black hole? EM: Technically, black holes are places where matter has been crushed down…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 3, 20091min
Edward Moran, chair and associate professor of astronomy, director of the Van Vleck Observatory, received a grant from the National Science Foundation for his research titled "Black Holes in the Milky Way's Backyard." The grant, worth $275,164, will be applied over three years. The award, presented on Aug. 26, is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Olivia DrakeJuly 14, 20091min
Extra-solar planets was the theme of StarConn, an all-day convention and astronomy celebration held at Wesleyan on June 4. The event was an outreach effort presented by the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford with the help of the university. The event featured lectures and a two-hour observing session with the 20-inch Clark refractor at Wesleyan's Van Vleck Observatory. Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, was one of the speakers at the event. He is featured in a June 4 Meriden Record Journal article about StarConn. The article is online here.

Olivia DrakeMarch 25, 20091min
Seth Redfield, assistant professor of astronomy, has received funding from NASA for three research grants. From the Space Telescope Science Institute a grant of $138,639 for his research "A SNAPSHOT Survey of the Local Interstellar Medium: New NUV Observations of Stars with Archived FUV Observations", and $50,766 for his research "Probing the Atomic & Molecular Inventory of the Beta-Pic Analog, the young, Edge-On Debris Disk of HD32297." Both awards include new observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. From the JPL Spitzer Program $41,213 for his research of "Interactions of the Cold and Hot ISM: Imaging the Nearest Molecular Clouds in…