Astronomy Department

Four members of the Class of 2021 are recipients of NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium awards. Kimberly Paragas '21, Ben Martinez '21, Molly Watstein '21, and Mason Tea '21 each received a $5,000 Undergraduate Research Fellowship for their ongoing research. They're among only seven students statewide to receive the honor. "I have never seen an institution be so successful at these very competitive grants, and was so proud and impressed by the student applicants," said Seth Redfield, associate professor of astronomy. Paragras is working with Redfield on her project titled "Gas Giant Atmospheric Mass Loss." According to the abstract, "Atmospheric mass…

Four Wesleyan faculty, nine undergraduate students, one graduate student, and one postdoctoral researcher attended the 237th American Astronomical Society meeting virtually Jan. 10–15. Wesleyan faculty attendees included Ed Moran, chair and professor of astronomy; Seth Redfield, associate professor of astronomy; Meredith Hughes, associate professor of astronomy; and Roy Kilgard, associate professor of the practice in astronomy. Poster presentations included: Kimberly Paragas '21, who is working with Redfield, presented "Metastable Helium Reveals Ongoing Mass Loss for the Gas Giant HAT-P-18b." Molly Watstein '21, who is working with Moran, presented "New Insights into AGN Unification from NuSTAR Observations of Nearby Seyfert 2 Galaxies."…

On July 20, the Astronomy Department's Van Vleck Observatory acquired a state-of-the-art 24-inch telescope that can view galactic objects remotely and autonomously. "When fully operational, the system will be able to determine if the weather is favorable for observing, open the dome, take calibration observations from a queue, and close down in the morning, all on its own," explained Roy Kilgard, associate professor of the practice in astronomy. "We'll be able to conduct remote observations in real time, with a human operator at home or in their office, and make those images available to our students or researchers immediately." The…

If a spacecraft were to quickly travel outside the solar system—potentially en route to a nearby exoplanetary system—it would need to pass through an atmosphere unfamiliar to scientists on Earth. As a recipient of a $415,000 grant from NASA, Seth Redfield, chair and associate professor of astronomy, hopes to learn more about the mysterious makeup of this "outer space." "There are several very early designs for an interstellar probe, but first, we need to understand the properties of the space in between the stars if you are traveling through it, especially at high speed," Redfield said. "Given the vastness of…

Several Wesleyan undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and alumni attended the 235th American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan. 4–8, 2020. "The meeting was a huge success, and we were thrilled to have such a large contingent of Wesleyan students able to attend and present their research," said Seth Redfield, associate professor and chair of astronomy. Wesleyan McNair Fellow Rachel Marino presented a poster titled “HD106906 Debris Disk Morphology and Origin of an External Perturber." Her advisor is Meredith Hughes, associate professor of astronomy. Hunter Vannier '20 shared his research titled “Mapping the Local Interstellar Medium: Using Hubble to…

For only the seventh time since Wesleyan’s founding, the planet Mercury passed directly in front of the sun, from the perspective of Earth—and Wesleyan served as a gathering place from which to learn about and observe the event. Faculty and students from Wesleyan’s astronomy department, as well as others from the University and the greater Middletown community, gathered outside the Van Vleck Observatory on Nov. 11 to witness the transit through three telescopes. The mild weather and partly cloudy conditions—particularly at the beginning and end of the transit (which lasted from 7:35 a.m. to 1:04 p.m.)—made for good viewings through…

Eight Wesleyan undergraduates presented results of their summer research to the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium sponsored by the Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium (KNAC) on Oct. 5. This year’s symposium was held at Vassar College and attended by 125 astronomy students and faculty, primarily from the consortium colleges (Bryn Mawr, Colgate, Haverford, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan, and Williams). Astronomy majors Mason Tea '21 and Rachel Marino '20 and sophomores Alex Henton '22 and Ava Nederlander '22 gave oral presentations of their projects conducted on campus this summer. In addition, astronomy majors Fallon Konow '20, Hunter Vannier '20, Gil Garcia '20,…

Wesleyan faculty frequently publish articles based on their scholarship in The Conversation US, a nonprofit news organization with the tagline, “Academic rigor, journalistic flair.” In a new article, John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy Bill Herbst and Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences James Greenwood write about the model they've proposed for how the most common kind of meteorites form—a mystery that has dogged scientists for decades. The tell-tale clue to how meteorites were made, at the birth of the solar system April 26, 1803 was an unusual day in the small town of L’Aigle in Normandy, France – it…

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A paper by John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy William Herbst and Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences James Greenwood will be published in the September 2019 issue of Icarus, published by Elsevier. The paper is available online. The paper, titled "Radiative Heating Model for Chondrule and Chondrite Formation," presents a new theory of how chondrules and chondrites (the most common meteorites) formed. It suggests a new approach to thinking about these rocks that populate the meteorite collections on Earth. It includes both theory and experiments (completed in Greenwood's lab in Exley Science Center). These laboratory experiments demonstrate that porphyritic olivine…

Several Wesleyan students, faculty, and alumni attended the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) March 18-22 in The Woodlands, Texas. Members of the Wesleyan Planetary Sciences Group presented their research on a range of planetary bodies. This annual conference brings together international specialists in petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, geology, and astronomy to present the latest results of research in planetary science. Earth and environmental studies major Emmy Hughes '20 presented a poster titled “Observations of Transverse Aeolian Ridges in Digital Terrain Models" during a session on “Planetary Aeolian Processes.” Earth and environmental science graduate student Reid Perkins MA '19 presented a…

After a star forms, a dusty ring of space debris may begin orbiting around a star. These circumstellar disks are composed of asteroids or collision fragments, cosmic dust grains, and gasses. Astronomy graduate student Jessica Klusmeyer is interested in understanding the molecular composition of the debris disk gas. "It has important implications not only for our knowledge of debris disks but also for planet formation," she said. Klusmeyer joined more than 25 Wesleyan affiliates and shared her research during the 233rd American Astronomical Society Meeting Jan. 6-10 in Seattle, Wash. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) awarded Klusmeyer a Chambliss medal for her poster presentation…

4 Seniors Receive NASA Undergraduate Research Fellowship Awards

Several Wesleyan Faculty, Students Participate in Annual American Astronomical Society Meeting

New 24″ Telescope to Provide Better Research Opportunities for Astronomy Students, Faculty

Redfield Receives NASA Grant to Study the Properties of Outer Space

Students, Alumni Attend Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Hawaii

Students, Faculty, Community Observe Rare Complete Transit of Mercury

8 Students Present Research at Northeast Astronomy Consortium

Herbst and Greenwood in The Conversation: The Tell-Tale Clue to How Meteorites Were Made

Natural Sciences and Mathematics Division Hosts Celebration of Science Theses

Study by Herbst, Greenwood Presents New Theory on How Meteorites Formed

Students, Faculty, Alumni Present Research at 50th Annual Planetary Science Conference

Klusmeyer Receives a Chambliss Award for Astronomy Research