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A High-energy Life

A High-energy Life. Professor Lynn Cominsky Department of Physics and Astronomy Sonoma State University. My Mom and the Stars. I first learned about the stars from my Mom She taught me the constellations on camping trips with our girl scout troop

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A High-energy Life

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  1. A High-energy Life Professor Lynn Cominsky Department of Physics and Astronomy Sonoma State University

  2. My Mom and the Stars • I first learned about the stars from my Mom • She taught me the constellations on camping trips with our girl scout troop • And so I started looking up at the night sky in wonder…

  3. Home, Sweet Home? • Growing up in Buffalo, we didn’t see the sky too often – too much snow! My childhood Sweet Home High School

  4. College at Brandeis U. (1971-1975) • I was a physical chemist, with a double major in physics • I studied the Belusov-Zhabotinsky oscillating reaction Non-linear chemical dyamics Prof. Irv Epstein

  5. Harvard -Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1975-1977) • Analyzed data from Uhuru – first x-ray satellite 60 Garden Street Cambridge, MA Drs. Bill Forman and Christine Jones

  6. Fourth Uhuru Catalog of X-ray Sources (197x) • 350 known sources in entire Universe

  7. The X-ray Sky circa 197x • Black holes • Neutron stars • Galaxies • Clusters of galaxies • Lots of unknowns

  8. What are X-rays and Gamma rays?

  9. VLAWMAPSpitzerEUVEUhuruGLAST HST/GORT Going into Space to See the Light

  10. The Lives of Stars • Stars like the Sun go gentle into that good night • More massive stars rage, rage against the dying of the light

  11. Accreting X-ray Binaries • After the supernova explosion white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes in binary systems • Accretion = transfer of matter from less dense to more dense star • Matter heats up as it falls in, making X-rays 3D Simulation by John Blondin,

  12. Neutron Star Pulsars • Stellar corpses - size of a city, mass of the Sun, spinning up to 1000 times per second

  13. Grad School at MIT (1977-1981) • Discovered a pulsar  rotating NS • Solved for the binary orbit • NY Times! Cominsky et al. 1978 Rappaport et al. 1979

  14. MIT experiences • SAS-3 Satellite Re-entered in 1979 Picture of Garrett goes here Prof. Walter Lewin

  15. Ph.D. Thesis – X-ray Burst Sources • Accreted matter piles up on surface of neutron star • Bursts are due to thermo-nuclear explosions on the surfaces of neutron stars  H-bombs in space!

  16. Movin’ to California (1981)

  17. UCB Space Sciences Lab (1981 – 1986) • Worked on Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite project Prof. C. Stuart Bowyer UCB SSL EUVE

  18. Discovered first eclipses in X-ray burst source (1984) • First direct proof that bursters were in binaries (Cominsky and Wood 1984) • Dips from gas stream confused with grazing eclipses by companion star Need figure here

  19. Space Shuttle Challenger 1/28/86 • EUVE launch delayed for many years • Was offered SSU Associate Professor position • “Cosmic Sign?”

  20. Sonoma State University(1986 – present) • Worked on Very Small Array radio telescope on roof of Darwin Hall • Taught electronics, various physics & astronomy courses • Many NASA research grants with undergrads • Tenure in 1990 • Full professor in 1991 One VSA dish

  21. radio eclipse Ginga ASCA obs5 ASCA obs4 ASCA obs3 ROSAT obs1 ASCA obs6 ASCA obs2 OSSE obsA OSSE obsB ROSAT obs2 ASCA obs1 ROSAT obs3 Closest approach Furthest approach 500 lt-sec P = 47.7 msec Porb = 3.4 y e = 0.85 Be star Discovered first X-rays from radio pulsar (1994) • Pulsar wind shocks on stellar wind (Cominsky, Roberts and Johnston 1994) Hirayama, Cominsky et al. 1998

  22. Astronomy press (1996 -) • High Energy Astrophysics Division -1st press officer (1996-2002) • American Astronomical Society Deputy Press Officer (1997 – present) Presiding over a press conference at AAS

  23. Education and Public Outreach at SSU (1999 -) • >$5 M in funding to date • NASA High-energy missions • GLAST (to be launched in 2007) • Swift (launched 11/20/04) • XMM-Newton (12/10/99) • North Bay Science Project • 2000-2005 • Trained elementary teachers

  24. SSU E/PO staff Sarah Silva ‘02 Dr. Phil Plait Prof. Gordon Spear Aurore Simonnet Tim Graves ‘01 Dr. Kevin McLin

  25. NASA’s Swift Gamma-ray Burst Mission • Studies Gamma-Ray Bursts with a “swift” response • Launched 11/20/04

  26. Gamma-ray Bursts • Discovered in 1967 while looking for nuclear test explosions - a 30+ year old mystery!

  27. Hypernovae • A billion trillion times the power from the Sun Credit: Dana Berry

  28. Catastrophic Mergers • Death spiral of 2 neutron stars or black holes Credit: Aurore Simonnet Credit: Dana Berry

  29. When you’ve seen one GRB…. • You’ve seen ONE gamma-ray burst!

  30. Starquakes on a pulsar • Rapidly spinning neutron stars • Tremendous magnetic fields • Extreme energies in starquake flares • Huge flare 12/27/04 seen by >20 satellites including Swift

  31. Changed our ionosphere • It took 45 minutes for the ionosphere to recover from the blast • Pulsar is 50,000 light years away!

  32. Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) • GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM) • Large Area Telescope (LAT)

  33. Simulated GLAST view of the Universe • Will study blazars, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, pulsars and more!

  34. NASA’s GLAST Mission • First space-based collaboration between astrophysics and particle physics communities • Launch expected in 2007 • Expected duration 5-10 years • Over 3000 gamma-ray sources will be seen

  35. Monstrous black holes • At the heart of every galaxy lies a black hole, millions to billions times the mass of our Sun HST/NGC 4261

  36. Blazing Galaxies • Gravity is so strong inside its “event horizon” that not even light can escape Credit: Dana Berry

  37. Jet Mysteries • So, how do black holes emit jets of particles and light? • And, how do the particles in the jets accelerate to near light speed? HST/ M87

  38. Gamma-ray Jets • Jets flare dramatically in gamma rays • Galaxies that point their jets at us are called “blazars” Credit: Aurore Simonnet

  39. Explaining the High-energy Universe • Formal education for grades 7-12 • Informal education through museums, planetaria, web-based activities • Public Outreach through web, television, printed materials, games, etc.

  40. Curriculum guides • Invisible Universe (GEMS) • Active Galaxies • Gamma-ray Bursts • Supernovae • TOPS • Far Out Math • Scale the Universe • Pi in the Sky

  41. Teacher Training • Educator Ambassador workshops • Over 34,500 teachers trained in 4 years • Exhibit booth Cookie cutter Astrophysics

  42. The Black Hole Project • Planetarium show – premieres 1/31/06 • PBS NOVA show – coming summer ’06 • Directed by Tom Lucas

  43. Computer activities • Space Mysteries (more coming soon!) • Dying Stars and the Birth of the Elements • GLAST LAT Simulator

  44. GLAST Optical Robotic Telescope (GORT) • Located at California Academy of Sciences’ Pepperwood Natural Preserve • Next door to Hume Observatory • Partnership between SSU, NASA and Cal Academy Hume Observatory

  45. Global Telescope Network • Ground-based observations of GRBs and active galaxies • Coordinated with Swift and GLAST satellite data • http://gtn.sonoma.edu GORT

  46. Fly the High-energy Skies • Follow GRBs on http://grb.sonoma.edu • Join the Global Telescope Network and monitor GRBs and blazars over the Internet

  47. For more information: • http://epo.sonoma.edu • http://glast.sonoma.edu • http://swift.sonoma.edu • http://grb.sonoma.edu • http://gtn.sonoma.edu • http://mystery.sonoma.edu • http://xmm.sonoma.edu • http://nustar.sonoma.edu Photo Credit: Rory McNamara

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