Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.0513m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #05.13; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.735
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Funded by the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Teachers program, we compared single dish and interferometer data in order to facilitate the identification of regions of diffuse neutral hydrogen surrounding a pre-selected set of isolated galaxies. These galaxies are also being utilized as the focal point of a curriculum on scientific research for high school physics students.
The spectra of 31 isolated galaxies at 21 cm were previously observed with the VLA and the Green Bank Telescope. It was expected that areas of diffuse neutral hydrogen surrounding a galaxy would be manifested by a greater flux density in the GBT spectrum data than in the VLA spectrum. Twenty two of the galaxies exhibited a significant flux difference between the VLA and GBT spectrum. Of these, ten had VLA flux that was greater than the GBT flux - an unexpected result. Several of these galaxies will be re-observed with the GBT in order to determine if there was a calibration or pointing error resulting in the GBT flux being less than the VLA flux. The study of these galaxies is ongoing.
The curriculum that we have designed for physics students focuses on the nature of astronomical research. Students are traditionally instructed that scientific research is carried out according to the rigid structure of the "scientific method.” This fails to expose them to the evolutionary nature of research that occurs in astronomy and its largely descriptive nature. Students will utilize online astronomical databases to facilitate the characterization, and then categorization, of the isolated galaxies. The culmination of the unit will be student presentations and defenses of their categorization of the galaxies to an astronomer.
Maddalena Ronald J.
McCarty Amy
Pisano J. III D.
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