Gravitational Wave Astronomy

The American Astronomical Society’s 235th meeting took place January 4-8, at the Hawai’i Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. This meeting was the largest in the history of the AAS, attended by more than 3,500 scientists. Several UWB GWA research faculty and students were in attendance, presenting research and engaging in student outreach.

Christine Ye, a high-school student and member of the Pulsar Search Collaboratory, presented a poster on the results of her research, Characterizing RFI in Pulsar Search Data.

Space Public Outreach Team student manager Wynter Broussard, along with Dr. Joey Key, lead groups of middle- and high-school students in a hands-on gravitational wave activity as part of the NANOGrav/LIGO/LISA booth.

To learn more about the Pulsar Search Collaboratory, click here. For more information about SPOT, click here.

A new article published by the Young Minds division of Frontiers (an Open Access science publication) explains the significance of the neutron-star merger GW170817, which was observed by both gravitational waves and light in the summer of 2017. The article was written by Dr. Joey Key, and reviewed by Jonah, age 12, from California. You can read the article here, and make sure to share it with the young scientists in your life!

The ABC’s of LIGO, a picture book which introduces an alphabet of terms relating to black holes, gravitational waves, and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration,  is now available for free download. Hard copies can be purchased at LIGO Hanford Observatory and the Caltech Bookstore, with proceeds going to LIGO’s international teacher program. Written by Amber Strunk, with gorgeous illustrations and layout by Bella Lopez, Hannah Preisinger, and Aurore Simonnet. Learn more about this book here.

Several UWB students from the gravitational wave astronomy research group (in collaboration with the UWB Office of Research) staffed a table at the Pacific Science Center’s Curiosity Expo throughout the weekend of August 17-18. In keeping with the event’s theme of “games,” several laptops were set up with GWA-themed activities that attendees could explore while the students offered explanations of the science behind the activities and answered questions.

Over 5,000 guests attended the high-energy weekend at PacSci, and there are more to come! There are five more Curiosity Expo events scheduled for the coming months; for more information see the Pacific Science Center’s website.

Hannah Preisinger (your humble blogger) has had a researched editorial on the subject of cosmic strings published in UW Bothell’s Campus Research and Observational Writings (CROW), the university’s peer-reviewed research journal. This is the first astronomy-related piece of research that the CROW has published, and has since led to Hannah conducting additional research on cosmic strings via the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium.

Read the full paper here or find out more about the CROW here.

July 5th marked the annual International Day of LGBTQ+ People in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths! Our research wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of many diverse peoples. Find out more about Pride in STEM and check out LIGO’s Twitter post from the day itself!

UWB Physics and Chemistry students received end of year awards to commemorate academic achievement on June 7, including a GWA research group student who received the Physical Science Division Chair’s Summer Undergraduate Research Award to fund ongoing research over the summer. Congratulations! Read more about the awards here.

A new article published by the Young Minds division of Frontiers (an Open Access science publication) explains gravitational waves and NANOGrav science for younger audiences. Dr. Key edited the article, which was written by Stephen R. Taylor of CalTech. Read the article here – and don’t forget to share it with the budding scientists in your life!

Kyle Gersbach, Andrew Clark, Steven Lusby, and Wynter Broussard are the newest certified members of NANOGrav’s SPOT (Space Public Outreach Team)! They will join other members of the research group and beyond in educating the public on the wonders of gravitational wave astronomy, particularly K-12 audiences. Congratulations!