Welcome to the Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC) – West! NRAO University Wisconsin – Milwaukee West Virginia University Yerkes Observatory University of Chicago

A few words of welcome by... Dr. Kyle Cudworth Mr...(Sherry’s principal) Vivian Hoette

Pretests The NSF grant likes to have data of before and after – so we have two(?) more short tests to take before we start!

Let’s introduce ourselves to each other...

Intro to project...

Citizen Scientists So much of scientific research today relies on the analysis of incredible amounts of data. Scientists cannot possibly look at it all – Computers do most, but human element is an essential ingredient, as it always will be We already see some “citizen scientists” at work – Galaxy Zoo – Einstein at Home – Other “Zoo” type things

Educational outreach is also an important part of any scientist’s request for grant money – Involving high school, and even middle school students is highly desirable Can undo stereotypes Can ignite the interest in science Can make science accessible to underserved students (and to under achievers) – Involving science teachers is also a plus!

This opportunity... National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia (NRAO) University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM) West Virginia University (Morgantown)

Some of the people involved.. Sue Ann Heatherly Education Director, NRAO Rachel Rosen Astronomer, Program Director of PSC Maura McLughlin, Astronomer, WVU Duncan Lorimer Astronomer, WVU

From UWM Xavier Siemens, Physicist, UWM Larry Price, postdoc, UWM Jean Creighton, Planetarium Director

research program ARCC stands for Arecibo Remote Command Center UWM can also remotely control the GBT More about this next time!

The group of teachers Sherry and I worked with summer 2009

Students at last May’s Capstone at WVU

So let’s see how you can get your students involved...

Astronomy! It can really grab the interest of kids, They like to ask the big questions: – What’s out there? – How do we know? – Are there Aliens? Here is a way you can involve a student of any ability. -Sherry and Kathy’s stories

NRAO/AUI/NSF16 What is radio astronomy?

NRAO/AUI/NSF20 The Visible Sky, Sagittarius Region

NRAO/AUI/NSF21 The Radio Sky

Radio Astronomy is a relatively young science

Pioneer of Radio Astronomy Karl Jansky 1928: Karl Jansky, working for Bell Laboratories discovers radio waves coming from space.

Chart recordings from Reber's telescope made in First Surveys of the Radio Sky Pioneer of Radio Astronomy Grote Reber

In 1967, Cambridge graduate student Jocelyn Bell was using a radio array to study interplanetary scintillation – SURPRISE!

For this project.. Radio data is collected from the telescopes The data is screened by a computer to a certain point – Then a human must look at it to see if it is worth a follow up This is where students come in!

The data is being looked at to find pulsars – spinning, neutron stars

– Pulsars signals are used to find gravitational waves. – Pulsars are used to study interstellar space. – Pulsars are inherently interesting in themselves!

First, some background information... The pulsar story will be told by our astronomers next time We will look at and review the electromagnetic spectrum, frequency, period, etc.

Everything we know about the universe comes to us in the form of electromagnetic waves. Visible wavelengths are a very small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. How do we know about the Universe?

But there is so much more to “see”!

The electromagnetic spectrum provides much information

NRAO/AUI/NSF34 Electromagnetic radiation  A traveling, massless packet of energy --OR an oscillating electric and magnetic field  Also known as: radiation, light wave, photon Animation from Nick Strobel’s Astronomy Notes ( Travels at the speed of light (by definition). Remarkably, all radiation travels at this speed, regardless of whether is carries a lot of energy or only a little

NRAO/AUI/NSF35 A light wave is a light wave, no matter how long...

Frequency: How fast something must oscillate to produce the wave The range of radio frequency is What is audio frequency? How is it different from radio frequencies?

NRAO/AUI/NSF37 Radio Waves are NOT sound!

Activity Time! (Stations set up with different em things to do) (or should we do frequency versus period type activity? Or both?)

The different parts of the spectrum provide us with more information

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NRAO/AUI/NSF41 Jupiter in visible light... Can you imagine “seeing” it in radio?

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NRAO/AUI/NSF43 Optical and Radio can be done from the ground!

Radio waves can be detected night or day They also can travel through dust and gas So we can see further into our galaxy with radio waves than with light waves.

Let’s look at a radio telescope

NRAO/AUI/NSF46 Radio Telescope Optical Telescope Nowadays, there are more similarities between optical and radio telescopes than ever before.

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At 100 m, the GBT is the largest fully steerable telescope (and the largest movable structure) in the world..

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The Advantage of Unblocked Optics

Arecibo Telescope

We will look at a smaller version! Itty Bitty telescope Radio Jove Let’s go outside....

NRAO/AUI/NSF53 Next: What emits radio waves?

NRAO/AUI/NSF54 Recipe for Radio Waves 1. Hot Gases

NRAO/AUI/NSF55 Electron accelerates as it passes near a proton. EM waves are released

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NRAO/AUI/NSF57 2. Atomic and molecular transitions (spectral lines) Recipe for Radio Waves

NRAO/AUI/NSF58 Gas Spectra Neon Sodium Hydrogen 656 nm 486 nm 434 nm

NRAO/AUI/NSF59 Electron accelerates to a lower energy state

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NRAO/AUI/NSF62 Doppler Shift

NRAO/AUI/NSF63 3. Electrons and magnetic fields Recipe for Radio Waves

NRAO/AUI/NSF64 Electrons accelerate around magnetic field lines

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The radio telescope and a pulsar

A pulsar is the collapsed core of a massive star It is like taking the mass of the sun and making it into a ball the size of Milwaukee. It spins very fast, like an ice skater who has brought their arms in.

Why do they pulse? Pulsars sweep their beam of radio (electromagnetic) waves across the face of the earth at a very periodic rate. beam of radio waves magnetic field rotation axis

What do the telescopes “see”?

Back to the telescopes:

The basic question: Is it a Pulsar? – Or is it Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)?

Process... A computer program analyzes the data for possible candidates A “viewer” page is produced Ratings are made and submitted Potential pulsars are followed up with additional observations This is what we will learn next time!

Let’s visit the GBT control room..