E-Comet Newsletter of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association |
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Dear Friends of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association:
It’s February, the season of love. It is human nature to bond and seek a companion. Life mates like sandhill cranes, dolphins, seahorses, and barn owls find their best fit and go the distance. When we make a commitment to a person, it is, just like in the animal kingdom, because they are helping us survive.
What about commitment to an organization? We see you, our loyal members year after year, committing to the Maria Mitchell Association because we are committed to our mission. Your loyalty to the MMA takes shape in many forms. Maybe your children or grandchildren look forward to our award-winning Discovery Camps, or you have taken part in our adult programming. With the MMA, your commitment can be as a Citizen Scientist assisting in our research, as a learner observing the night sky at an Open Night, and in so many other ways.
Whether it be through membership, as a donation to our year-end appeal, or visits to our properties, we value your commitment to the MMA. We are looking forward to this upcoming year with our in-person camp programs and family programming, ongoing scientific research, and continued commitment to the land, sea, and sky. I would love you to join us!
Warm Regards,
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Jason Bridges
Interim Executive Director
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One of our favorite parts of summer at the Maria Mitchell Association is our Discovery Camps and Naturalist Leadership Programs. We are gearing up for camp registration, which launches on February 13 at 8am for Members and on February 16 at 8am for all. Save the date and keep your eyes peeled for upcoming emails! |
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American Astronomical Society Meeting
by Dr. Regina Jorgenson, Director of Astronomy
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The Maria Mitchell Association is proud to recognize and congratulate its six summer 2020 National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) interns (virtual in 2020) for their amazing job presenting their research at the recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The 237th meeting of the AAS took place on January 11-15, 2021 and in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the meeting was held virtually. Over 3,000 astronomers from around the world came together to network and share the news of their latest discoveries. As is customary, the Maria Mitchell Observatory (MMO) brought its six NSF-REU interns to the meeting to present their summer research findings. In a continuation of the long tradition of excellence in research and mentoring at the Maria Mitchell Observatory, each intern presented their work, covering a range of topics from exoplanets and X-ray studies of stars, to seeking out the missing matter in the Universe and understanding how black holes devour stars that wander too close. Each intern presented their research in the format of an iPoster (interactive poster), as well as a five-minute talk followed by questions. The interns did an exceptional job and the Maria Mitchell Association is proud to be represented by such an astounding group of young researchers! A complete list of all of the MMO intern presentations follows below.
Other highlights from the meeting included: a new exoplanet confirmed orbiting around a triple star system; a rocky planet found orbiting a very old star; the discovery that the disk of our own Milky Way Galaxy is warped; a new effort to use distant pulsars as ultra-precise clocks to measure the generalized gravitational wave background; and the discovery of the most distant quasar yet observed. For more on this last story, listen to Dr. Jorgenson’s interview on WCAI’s Looking Skyward (https://www.capeandislands.org/post/looking-skyward-most-distant-quasar). In addition, there were multiple interesting panels and discussions on equity, inclusion, and diversity efforts, many of them emphasizing and demonstrating the impact that programs such as the MMO’s NSF-REU and post-bac fellowship programs are having on increasing, supporting, and retaining underrepresented groups in astronomy.
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A complete list of the MMO’s REU intern presentations is here:
Sharpening NuSTAR X-ray Images of Pulsar Wind Nebula G21.5-0.9
- Devon Barros (Bridgewater State University)
First Millimeter Flares Detected From Epsilon Eridani With ALMA
- Kiana Burton (Temple University)
Search for X-rays from RV Tau Variable Stars
- Sarah Graber (Columbia University)
Using TESS Data to Search for Transiting Exoplanets Around White Dwarfs
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Alex Granados (Wellesley University)
Untangling the Cosmic Web: VLT/MUSE Observations of FRB Host Galaxy 180924
- Andrea Mejia (CUNY- Hunter College)
Systematic Classification of Tidal Disruption Event Light Curves from the Zwicky Transient Facility
- Natalia Villanueva (Harvard University)
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Winter Science Speaker Series |
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Join the Maria Mitchell Association this winter as we welcome back some of our amazing intern alumni to discuss their fascinating research and projects. Topics will include open science, terrestrial biology, astronomy, and more!
Our FREE speaker series is scheduled for alternating Wednesdays between now and March 24th, 7– 8PM EST via Zoom. To register for a talk, please visit our website:
Read more below about our upcoming speakers!
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Unraveling the Universe with Spectroscopy and Big Data
with Tanveer Karim
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10
7-8PM | ZOOM
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is an upcoming cosmological survey and experiment that will create the most precise 3D map of the Universe to-date by mapping the positions of 30 million galaxies spanning the past 11 billion years. By precisely measuring the position of these galaxies, DESI will try to shed light on the mysterious Dark Energy, the leading explanation for the accelerated expansion of the Universe, as well as test Einstein’s Theory of Relativity at the largest scales. In this talk, Karim will be discussing what dark energy is, how DESI works, how we plan to measure distances of such a large number galaxies, and what interesting sciences we can expect over the next ten years. In particular, Karim will be discussing how he is using DESI data along with cosmic microwave background (the earliest relic light of the Universe) data to figure out how matter is distributed in our Universe.
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From Near to Far: Exploring How Stars Form and Galaxies Evolve
with Abby Mintz
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24
7-8PM | ZOOM
How do stars and galaxies form? Surprisingly, there is a lot about these processes that is still unknown! To shed some light on these mysteries, we will take a look at star clusters in our local neighborhood and then travel to distant galaxies billions of lightyears away. We will learn about how massive stars’ turbulent shockwaves impact star formation in their environments and locate the missing matter in faraway galaxies to see what it can tell us about their pasts and futures. How did our Universe get to its current state? Let’s find out together!
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“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews
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Keep Calm and Bird On
By Ginger Andrews
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Although it might seem too soon for birds to be thinking about nesting in February, Red-tailed Hawks begin pairing up early. Migrants may go their separate ways over the winter but often re-unite when they return. When staying on the same territory year-round they may never split up.
Often, they will sit together on a branch or rooftop, surveying the scene. Courtship or re-bonding also involves soaring high, circling in updrafts—known as thermals—on sunny days. Or, they may take a more acrobatic approach, climbing, diving, or swooping in a display of strength and agility that’s hardly a lazy circle.
They sometimes re-use their old nests. Both male and female—the larger of the two—bring new building material. Watch for them flying overhead carrying a stick—sometimes a quite large stick—heading for home. They may add material to more than one old nest, or start new before deciding where to lay their eggs. Although they often prefer conifers, they can use a variety of spots. The famous New York City pair “Pale male and Lola” nested high on a Fifth Avenue apartment building. Their story is recounted in “Redtails in Love” by Marie Wynn, a good winter read. Even the course of hawk love never does run smooth.
Both birds incubate the eggs, which take a little under a month to hatch. The young are brooded for four to five weeks but are still fed by parents for some weeks or even months after they leave the nest. They can be heard begging sometimes well into the fall. Their raspy scream is a call beloved of movie sound designers, perhaps the most often-heard bird sound on TV.
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Did you hear about the mysterious signals coming from Proxima Centauri, a nearby star? Aliens? Not quite...
Check out WCAI's podcast, "Looking Skyward" featuring MMO Director, Dr. Regina Jorgenson to hear what she has to say.
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If you missed the first Winter Science Speaker Series presentation, you can find the recording of Andrew Mckenna-Foster's talk entitled Sharing is Caring: Data Sharing for Scientists and Citizens on our YouTube channel.
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Watch the most recent Winter Science Speaker Series lecture with Sara Schoen on Splitting Up a Complex Mess: Integrating Statistics to Understand the Limnonectes kuhlii Complex on our YouTube channel.
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MARIA MITCHELL ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Helene Weld, President
Judy MacLeod, First Vice President
Frances Symes, Second Vice President
Curt Burwell, Treasurer
Joseph E. Santucci Jr., Clerk
MEMBERS
Richard Bard
Beverly Barlow
Margaret Falk
Chris Griffiths
John Hartner
Carolyn Holt
Toni McKerrow
Michael Nelson
Molly Paiement
Mary Archibald (Bebe) Poor, D.V.M., M.S.
Katherine Rhode, Ph.D.
Brian Sullivan
Jane Tausig
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HONORARY MEMBERS
Howard Blitman†
Sally Charpie
John Daniels
Daniel Drake
Joan Gulley
Judith Lee
Malcolm MacNab, M.D., Ph.D.
Eileen McGrath
Nathaniel Philbrick
Anne P. Strain
Edward Symes, III
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The Maria Mitchell Association creates opportunities for all to develop a life-long passion for science through education, research, and first-hand exploration of the sky, land, and sea of Nantucket Island. |
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