Two students have joined the graduate program in space and planetary science and we welcome them both.

	Brendon Chastain is a graduate of Northern Kentucky University with a bachelor’s degree in Biology/Physics.  He is interested in biological investigations of life on Mars.
	Jonathan Craig is a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a bachelor’s degree in Physics/Geology.  He is a space center REU 2004 alumnus and is interested in studying water on Mars.

Big advances have occurred in the field of astronomy in the last several years due to the coming on-line of many large imaging and spectroscopy surveys.  Most of these data sets are publicly available to the astronomy community through the National Virtual Observatory (NVO), allowing astronomers the opportunity to utilize the highest quality data available.

Dr. Julia Kennefick, a member of the space center and a faculty member in the department of Physics, has recently received a grant from the NVO Science Steering Committee (SSC).  Out of the 42 proposals submitted, Dr. Kennefick’s proposal was one of the 15 selected and it will provide $25,000 for student support and other initiatives.

The first visiting researcher to be hosted at the space center, Dr. Larry Lebofsky of the University of Arizona, will be visiting for the spring semester and summer of 2006.  Dr. Lebofsky is a noted planetary astronomer, best known for his spectroscopic work on the detection of water on asteroids. 

He will be collaborating with Dr. Claud Lacy, a member of the space center and a faculty member in the department of Physics, on the spectroscopic characterization of asteroids, especially in connection with the identification and characterization of target asteroids for the Hera mission.  He will work with Dr. Derek Sears, the director of the space center and a faculty member in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, on the spectroscopic properties of meteorites.  Dr. Lebofsky is also well-known for his activities in education and public outreach and was a recent recipient of the American Astronomical Society’s Carl Sagan Award.  He also serves as the education officer for the AAS (Division for Planetary Science), and is the EPO lead on the Hera mission.  Dr. Lebofsky and his wife Nancy serve as the editors of Meteorite magazine, which recently moved to the University of Arkansas.

The Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences is collaborating with Hannover House, an independent producer of feature films and documentaries, in the production of a video about the Hera mission and the people and science behind it.  The video will be filmed in Fayetteville, Washington, D.C., Tokyo, Houston, Hawaii, Tucson and Los Angeles and will feature the science team members including several faculty members at the University of Arkansas.  About one-third of the filming has now been completed and it is hoped that the video will be released in early summer.  The profits from the video will be donated to the Northwest Arkansas Museum Foundation that seeks to open and operate a natural history museum in northwest Arkansas.

In November 2005, Shelly Bursick, a space center graduate student, and Mike Aguirre, a graduate student in the department of Physics, traveled to La Serena, Chile to observe at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO).  CTIO, a division of the National Optical Astronomical Observatory (NOAO) houses six telescopes including the 4m Blanco used during their observing run.

The observing trip was the second of two, with Shelly attending both trips, and Mike training on the second trip.  Using the 4m Blanco telescope equipped with the Infrared Side Port Imager (ISPI), they took J-band imaging of quasar candidates as a part of the BTC40 survey.  The survey, previously conducted in part by Dr. Julia Kennefick, a member of the space center and a faculty member in the department of Physics, is a search for z>4.8 quasars.  Quasars, the very bright centers of active galaxies, date back near the formation of the universe.  Shelly and Mike’s observations will provide information that can be used to help describe quasar evolution.

Free - Poultry Science Auditorium - 7:00 pm

“Human and Natural Influences on Climate Change: Who’s Doing What?
Dr. Rick Ulrich, UArk
Chemical Engineering Dept.
February 22, 2006

“Life on Mars”
Dr. Tim Kral, UArk
Biological Sciences Department
April 12, 2006