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| Welcome to the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department
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The department of Astronomy & Astrophysics is involved in a variety of observational, experimental and theoretical activities, covering almost the entire gamut of modern astronomy and astrophysics research. These range from extra-solar planet studies, thorough investigations of stellar systems, high energy astrophysics, the most distant galaxies to the Universe as a whole. With its depth and breadth in research opportunities, Penn State offers an attractive pathway leading to a career in research and teaching in this field.
The Astronomy and Astrophysics department offers most of the graduate courses in this field, complemented by related courses in the other physical science departments. The department has twenty five faculty members, including affiliated members in Physics, and more than twenty five additional PhD level researchers. There are a further dozen faculty pursuing related activities in other Departments and Colleges; the Astrobiology program being one example. One measure of the impact and level of our activities is indicated by Penn State ranking fifth in space science citations per paper over the previous five year period, as reported recently by Thomson Scientific ISI .
Departmental facilities include the 8-meter Hobby-Eberly telescope, the Chandra ACIS experiment, the Swift multi-wavelenght GRB mission, the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics, Center for Astrostatistics, Center for Particle Astrophysics, and the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, all at Penn State, and major roles in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the IceCube neutrino detector, the Pierre Auger cosmic ray observatory, and various other space and ground-based projects.
The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics has one of largest undergraduate service course programs for non-majors in the country along with a highly competitive Astronomy & Astrophysics undergraduate majors program that regularly sends our graduates on to the top graduate programs in the country. We are particularly proud of the opportunities we offer for undergraduates to participate in front line research.
NASA's Swift Satellite Catches First "Normal" Supernova in the Act of Exploding
Thanks to a fortunate observation with NASA's Swift satellite, astronomers, for the first time, have caught a normal supernova at the moment of its birth--the first instant when an exploding star begins spewing its energy into space, transforming into a supernova that during its brief lifetime will shine brighter than billions of stars combined. Until this discovery, the only supernovae glimpsed during their first moments were the more rare kind--the ones whose birth cries are drowned out by a blindingly bright gamma-ray burst, which sometimes forms in the space surrounding a massive exploding star but is not part of the star itself. This new supernova, named SN2008D, intrigues scientists because it is closer to Earth than any type of supernova ever observed in the act of exploding and because its gamma-ray-free radiation gives them the clearest picture ever of a star at the moment its explosive death transforms it into a supernova. The discovery will be described in a paper to be published in the 22 May 2008 issue of the journal Nature. Read More
Created on 08/21/2006 09:02 AM by administrator
Updated on 05/28/2008 11:37 AM by administrator
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| Announcements
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| Pipsqueak Star Unleashes Monster Flare |
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20 May 2008 —NASA's Swift satellite has picked up the brightest flare ever seen from a normal star other than our Sun. The flare, an explosive release of energy from a star, packed the power of thousands of solar flares. It would have been visible to the naked eye if the star had been easily observable in the night sky at the time. Read More |
| Probing Question: What are Shooting Stars? |
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April 2008—In the early morning darkness on April 15, 1912, as the R.M.S. Titanic was sinking in the freezing Atlantic, survivors witnessed a large number of streaking lights in the sky, which many believed to be the souls of their drowning loved ones passing to heaven.
Says Kevin Luhman, what they most likely were seeing was the peak of the Lyriad meteor shower, an annual event occuring in mid-to-late April. Read More
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| Superbright Explosion is Most Distant Object Ever Visible to the Naked Eye |
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20 March 2008—A powerful stellar explosion -- a gamma-ray burst -- has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye and also ranks as the most intrinsically bright object ever observed by humans in the universe. The explosion was detected on 19 March 2008 by NASA's Swift satellite, which is controlled by Penn State from its Mission Operations Center at University Park. Read More |
| Neutron Stars Join the Black-Hole Jet Set |
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4 February 2008—A team of astronomers has discovered a neutron star emitting an extended stream of powerful X rays, marking the first time such an extended X-ray jet has been detected originating from any class of object other than black holes. "This discovery shows that the unusual properties of black holes -- such as the lack of an actual surface -- may not be required to form powerful X-ray jets, as was previously thought," said Penn State Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Niel Brandt, one of the scientists on the team that made the discovery with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Read More
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