Sullivan South High School teacher Thomas Rutherford attended the January 6-9 meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Long Beach, CA. Mr. Rutherford attended as part of a program called NITARP, which stands for NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Project. This program allows teachers and their students, under the direction of a professional astronomer, to be involved with NASA research using archived (untouched) data from various air and/or space-born observatories. Mr. Rutherford's group project will involve trying to establish a way to use active galactic nuclei (AGN's) as standard candles for determining distances to very distant objects. AGN's are exteremely bright and can be seen from enormous distances (billions of light years). The group will be holding weekly virtual meetings during the rest of the school year, then flying to Cal Tech this summer for additional work on the project. The group will also attend the 2014 meeting of the AAS in Washington, D.C. to present their paper.
NASA/Infrared Processing and Analysis Center Teacher Archive Research Program participants at the 221st American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, CA, Jan. 7.
The new group of educators to begin NITARP faced the most competition for their positions since the program began because there were five applicants for every spot in the program. 2013 Team working with Dr. Luisa Rebull(SSC/IPAC) - John Gibbs, Glencoe High School, Hillsboro, OR
- Wendi Laurence, NASA Aerospace Education Services Project, Penn State, Park City, UT
- Robert Marshall, Carnegie Science Center's Planetarium & Observatory, Pittsburgh, PA
- Michael Murphy, Ravanscroft School, Raleigh, NC
- Laura Orr, Ukiah High School, Ukiah, OR
- Christi Whitworth, Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, Rosman, NC
2013 Team working with Dr. Varoujan Gorjian(SSC/JPL) - John Blackwell (Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH) - teacher mentor for team
- Nicole Granucci, Oxford High School, Oxford, CT
- Theresa Paulsen, Mellen High School, Mellen, WI
- Thomas Rutherford, Sullivan South High School, Kingsport, TN
2013 Team working with Dr. David Ciardi(NExScI/IPAC) and Dr. Steve Howell(NASA/Ames) - Sally Seebode (San Mateo High School, San Mateo, CA) - teacher mentor for team
- Holly Bensel, St. Mary's School, Medford, OR
- Fred Donelson, Gahanna Lincoln High School, Gahanna, OH
- Danielle Miller, University High School, Orlando, FL
2013 Team working with Dr. Babar Ali (NASA Herschel Science Center, IPAC, Caltech) - Peggy Piper, Lincoln-Way High School, New Lenox, IL - teacher mentor for team
- Melissa Booker, Robinson Secondary School, Fairfax, VA
- Carol Ivers, Foran High School, Milford, CT
- Lynn Powers, Bozeman High School, Bozeman, MT
The NASA Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), based at Caltech, in Pasadena, CA, is leading this program. These teams use archival data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (part of the Spitzer Heritage Archive, SHA), the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), the NASA Exoplanet Archive, the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), all of which are based at IPAC, and other NASA archive holdings. Funding comes from the NASA Astrophysics Data Program (which is where professional astronomers go for Spitzer archival research), and the other archives at IPAC. |
