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Astronomer Receives NASA Grant for Study of Pluto and Beyond
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Nov. 1, 2008 -- NASA has announced the award of a three-year grant of $196,584 to Williams College professor Jay Pasachoff for a study of Pluto and of some of the newly discovered bodies beyond it in our solar system.
Pasachoff and his Williams College colleagues Bryce Babcock, Steven Souza, and some of their students have studied lineups of Earth, distant Pluto, and even more distant stars in a study of Pluto's atmosphere. They have also set limits on the size and atmosphere of Pluto's largest moon, Charon.
The Williams team is collaborating with scientists from MIT, led by professor James Elliot. Elliot is a pioneer in the use of occultations (the hiding of one object by another) who leads worldwide efforts in researching the atmospheres of planets, their rings, and their moons. His team discovered the rings of Uranus. Pasachoff and Elliot began their occultation collaboration in 1983. Besides Babcock and Souza at Williams, the collaboration currently also involves Michael Person of MIT and Amanda Gulbis of MIT and the South African Astronomical Observatory.
The Williams scientists were most recently involved in occultations of stars by Pluto on June 22 in Australia and on August 25 in the American Southwest. Dr. Souza, Observatory Supervisor at Williams College, and Pasachoff were in Australia to attempt the June events and Souza worked with Dr. William Ryan of New Mexico Tech to use a Williams College camera at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory for the August event (as well as subsequent events.) Adam McKay '08 discussed prior occultations of Pluto in his senior thesis; he is now a graduate student in astronomy at New Mexico State University. The August event will be reported to the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences at Cornell next week, in a collaboration led by Leslie Young of the Southwest Research Institute.
A detailed paper about the results of a joint Williams-MIT 2007 observation of Pluto's atmosphere, reporting the discovery of atmospheric waves, has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.
Pasachoff is now on sabbatical leave at the California Institute of Technology, working with Michael Brown, who has discovered dwarf planets Eris, Makemake, and Haumea, which are similar to Pluto but farther than Pluto from the sun. He and Brown are now coordinating some observations similar to the occultation observations but involving mutual occultations of Haumea and its two known moons, Hi'iaka and Namaka. They were named by the International Astronomical Union last week.
The discovery of Eris, similar to Pluto but slightly larger, led to the reclassification of Pluto as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. Pluto, more recently, has been honored by using the term plutoid for objects of its type in the outer solar system.
The hope is that during this new grant, the Williams-MIT team will be able not only to monitor any changes in Pluto's atmosphere but also attempt to discover atmospheres around the other dwarf planets.
Pasachoff, Babcock, and Souza have also used their NASA-supplied electronic cameras to study other astronomical events. Most recently, Pasachoff, Babcock, visiting professor Marek Demianski, and students Katie DuPre '10 and Marcus Freeman '10 observed last August's total solar eclipse, when the Sun, the moon, and the Earth were in line for observers in Siberia.
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Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college's 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student's financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted. To visit the college on the Internet:www.williams.edu
Pasachoff and his Williams College colleagues Bryce Babcock, Steven Souza, and some of their students have studied lineups of Earth, distant Pluto, and even more distant stars in a study of Pluto's atmosphere. They have also set limits on the size and atmosphere of Pluto's largest moon, Charon.
The Williams team is collaborating with scientists from MIT, led by professor James Elliot. Elliot is a pioneer in the use of occultations (the hiding of one object by another) who leads worldwide efforts in researching the atmospheres of planets, their rings, and their moons. His team discovered the rings of Uranus. Pasachoff and Elliot began their occultation collaboration in 1983. Besides Babcock and Souza at Williams, the collaboration currently also involves Michael Person of MIT and Amanda Gulbis of MIT and the South African Astronomical Observatory.
The Williams scientists were most recently involved in occultations of stars by Pluto on June 22 in Australia and on August 25 in the American Southwest. Dr. Souza, Observatory Supervisor at Williams College, and Pasachoff were in Australia to attempt the June events and Souza worked with Dr. William Ryan of New Mexico Tech to use a Williams College camera at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory for the August event (as well as subsequent events.) Adam McKay '08 discussed prior occultations of Pluto in his senior thesis; he is now a graduate student in astronomy at New Mexico State University. The August event will be reported to the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences at Cornell next week, in a collaboration led by Leslie Young of the Southwest Research Institute.
A detailed paper about the results of a joint Williams-MIT 2007 observation of Pluto's atmosphere, reporting the discovery of atmospheric waves, has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.
Pasachoff is now on sabbatical leave at the California Institute of Technology, working with Michael Brown, who has discovered dwarf planets Eris, Makemake, and Haumea, which are similar to Pluto but farther than Pluto from the sun. He and Brown are now coordinating some observations similar to the occultation observations but involving mutual occultations of Haumea and its two known moons, Hi'iaka and Namaka. They were named by the International Astronomical Union last week.
The discovery of Eris, similar to Pluto but slightly larger, led to the reclassification of Pluto as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. Pluto, more recently, has been honored by using the term plutoid for objects of its type in the outer solar system.
The hope is that during this new grant, the Williams-MIT team will be able not only to monitor any changes in Pluto's atmosphere but also attempt to discover atmospheres around the other dwarf planets.
Pasachoff, Babcock, and Souza have also used their NASA-supplied electronic cameras to study other astronomical events. Most recently, Pasachoff, Babcock, visiting professor Marek Demianski, and students Katie DuPre '10 and Marcus Freeman '10 observed last August's total solar eclipse, when the Sun, the moon, and the Earth were in line for observers in Siberia.
END
Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college's 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student's financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted. To visit the college on the Internet:www.williams.edu
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