Philae lander data

Here is an announcement of the results from the Philae lander from last November.

A little particle physics today

Time for a little particle physics today. I have been concentrating on Pluto lately, for darned good reasons, but I actually do have some other interests (see older posts.)

In the summer of 2014, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to study particle physics at CERN, outside of Geneva, Switzerland. I took part in a High School Teacher program that invited 50 teachers from across the globe (32 countries I believe). It was a fantastic experience and one I will never forget.

(Come to think about it, I should have blogged about it at the time...)

Here are a few of the reasons it was so spectacular.  I made friends from different countries that I never would have otherwise met. One of those friends is coming to visit me soon. The other teachers were some of the most thoughtful, interesting people I have met. Also, as my first true international experience, I was thrilled to meet people with different ideas and different ways of doing things. I love those kinds of experiences and seek them out.

After three weeks, we had really become our own little community. We have our own Facebook group and have managed to stay in touch. A few of us even did an equinox activity and measured the length of shadows on the spring equinox. (With a small amount of math, you can determine the latitude of your location from the shadow. Pretty nice.)

Another aspect about the CERN scientists that impressed was not actually the incredible technology or the fact that they had found the Higgs boson two years prior (although it is pretty darned cool). What impressed me most was that they were so giving of their time. When they answered our questions (and there were many questions) no one was ever peeking at their watch, or saying "Oh, I'd love to stay and talk more, but..." A couple of them even came back for a second talk, or simply another question and answer session. They were giving of themselves and their time and showed how invested they are in their work.

Along those lines, I found some wonderful links from PHD comics, about the Higgs boson, dark matter and extra dimensions. Enjoy!


Okay, I can't help it, here is something cool about Pluto.

The icy plains of Pluto

More of the data from New Horizons is on its way to APL and Earth.  I am not even sure what to write about what has been found. Instead of a cold, dead, icy world, we have found a mysterious little world with very few craters, and well as flowing Nitrogen glaciers. Pluto's atmosphere has also finally had a close-up investigation.

I'll collect some of my thoughts about this new information, but I think it really shows how well prepared the New Horizons team was for the encounter, and it also validates the entire mission.

"The Frozen Plans of Pluto"

"Unofficially naming Pluto"

Good bye to the week of Pluto, but hello data

Things are only looking more exciting, as more and more data will be made available from New Horizons in the coming days and week.

News from BBC "What have we learned so far?"


With the incredible images that have already been made public, I am looking forward to seeing even more soon. I am guessing that we will get to see many close up images of both Pluto and Charon.

And on top of that, I am scheduled to teach astronomy at school (for the very first time I might add).  I told my teaching partner back in June that we should begin the year with Pluto.  Now, in June, I had no idea what we would find, but I knew that it would be wonderful.  I feel vindicated.

Next week I will be helping to manage the annual QuarkNet cosmic ray teachers workshop at Johns Hopkins University.  I have been involved with QuarkNet for 13 years now, and have taken part in all sorts of activities.  It is a regular event for me now. I'll write more about QuarkNet next week.

Now for a little bit with Charon

I think you could call much of this week "and now for something completely different..."


While many of us (including me) thought that we would find a little snowball without many surface features, we have, of course, been proven wrong. Mother Nature has a way of doing that, and that is one of the principal reasons that I find science so exciting.

To give you a little recap and maybe pique your curiosity, Pluto has a variety of surface features, and they appear to be geologically new.  That's really surprising. Its really far from the sun (duh) and really small, so what could cause geologic activity? WE DON"T KNOW.

Add to that a serious lack of cratering, and you have to think that something is remaking the surface. (Impact craters tend to disappear on Earth due to activity, and remain on our moon, due to lack of activity).


Another good article from Smithsonian (which is showing terrific scientific coverage of the flyby without being too technical).

New Horizon +1

I am still excited about Pluto.  It was tremendous to share the thrill yesterday.  I tuned in at 8 am as well as later in the day to see the news.  Around 9 pm on Tuesday, New Horizons communicated with scientists back on Earth and verified that all was well. The big show is yet to come, as it will be a few days until the data really starts to flow.

As someone who thinks that Pluto is a planet (and I will always consider it to be one) I found it particularly rewarding to see glimpses of a complicated world with varied terrain. Pluto, it turns out, is not such a dull place.  Move over Mars, there is another Red Planet.


Good article from Smithsonian.com about the mission

I am just going to turn this into Pluto week. Come back tomorrow!

We have made it to Pluto!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful day! I have been thinking about all of the things that had to go right to make this happen.

More information will be coming from the spacecraft tonight and in the days to come.

Link from BBC news

Best images of Pluto from before.

Best image from today.

The wait for Pluto is almost over!

I can say that tomorrow is a long-awaited day. I am sure that is true for many as we finally see New Horizons reach its encounter with Pluto.

(Oh, how I wish that New Horizons would settle in an orbit and remain around Pluto for a while).

I have very vivid memories of checking on the countdown clock for New Horizons, when it was at the level of multiple years.  And yet I have maintained my enthusiasm for the mission. Ok, it wasn't that hard to keep my enthusiasm. This has been something that I have wanted to see since I was about 9.  Some ideas don't get old.

Here is a link from Sky and Telescope "Countdown to New Horizons Encounter with Pluto".

And also some excellent views of Pluto and its never-before-seen topography.

Pluto close-up


And a more comprehensive sit for news and images (including the whale and the donut)



I can't wait for tomorrow!

Update from NIST

This may be a short post from today.

I am undertaking a crash course in neutron scattering methods.  Neutrons are excellent tools to use to investigate the atomic nucleus.  Neutrons are neutral and don't interact with electrons, so they go straight to the nucleus and scatter, just like light scatters through a small opening.  So I have been able to use my background knowledge of waves and scattering which has been useful, to a point.

For the past few days I have analyzed data from my mentor's recent experiment. Much of what they analyze deals with intensity and scattering distances.  The raw data looks very much like scattered light from a star, and that 2d data is then mapped and transferred to a 1d graph.  There is something very much like magic going on with a stop called "data reduction" that I have been trying to learn. Very curious stuff.

So I have generated a lot of intensity vs length graphs in a software package called IGOR. The data is also graphed according to the particular model that is being used. A different-shaped molecule will scatter that light differently (much like a pinhole and a thin slit will scatter light differently), so different models are used according to what type of molecule you are investigating. (This group investigates a lot of soft matter; polymers and so forth).

So I have been reading the software manual, journal articles and "how to" papers from NIST to learn how to deal with all of this information. I am on a bit of an overload right now and will get back to it tomorrow.

News bytes

Some new (and not so new) releases from the world of science:

Forbidden atomic transitions: Controlling matter 1,000 times more precisely using high-resolution spectroscopy


A nano-generator from the power of rolling tires


How many meteorite craters are out there?



Aside from my news bites (bytes?) I have begun my internship at NIST (The National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  If you don't know much about NIST, you should. As a lab, NIST is comparable to Los Alamos and Oak Ridge.  My internship is part of a project called an RET, or Research Experience for Teachers, funded through the University of Maryland.

At NIST, I have joined the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) and will have the opportunity to use neutron diffraction to explore the nature of various materials.  A lot of their work (at least in this section) falls under what you would call "soft matter" as they experiment on materials such as polymers, metals, ceramics, magnetic materials, fluids and biological molecules.

As it happens when you join a new lab, the first few days are all about getting acquainted to the place and learning what is going on.  My mentors, Boualem and Cedric, (who have been incredibly friendly and accommodating) were finishing an experiment in which they measured the differences in neutron scattering on a biological sample as they changed the pressure on the sample.  One of my first tasks is to analyze the data from that experiment. So I am learning all about a software package known as IGOR to perform the analysis.

It is an exciting time, and I look forward to learning so much more.  I love to get outside of the classroom and the summer is the perfect time to do something like this.  I am not thinking about school or classes at all and just about the science.

I will be back often this summer to write about what is happening at NIST.