Marc Seigar, an affiliate of the Space Center and a faculty member in the department of Physics at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, will have an article published in the upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.  The article was highlighted on the Web site NewScientist.com.  Seigar, along with his Space Center faculty members from the UA Fayetteville Physics department studied 37 spiral galaxies, including the Milky way and Andromeda galaxies, to determine if the size of a galaxy’s black hole correlates to the angle and tightness of the galaxy’s arms. 

The team of astronomers concluded that the tighter the galaxy’s arms wrapped around themselves, the larger the black hole is in the center of the galaxy.  The research may be able to clarify how galaxies evolve.  Seigar’s research team will study more distant black holes in the future, which are easier to measure.  The objective is to make sure that the relationship between the spirals and black hole mass does not change as the galaxies evolve.

The Paragould meteorite was recently transferred from the Mullins Library on campus to the Space Center.  The Paragould meteorite is 406 by 1041 mm and weighs 370 kg.  It is the third largest meteorite to fall in North America.

The meteorite fell to Earth on February 17, 1930, and was discovered a few miles south of Finch, Ark., near Paragould.  It has been on loan from the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History since 1988.

Several members of the Space Center helped relocate the Paragould meteorite to the Space Center facilities in the Old Museum Building on campus.

Photo caption - (from left) Adam Hughes, Walter Graupner (SPAC Lab Manager), Travis Altheide (SPAC Graduate student), and Rob Pilgrim (SPAC Graduate student) prepare the Paragould meteorite for transport to the Space Center

Ground Truth from Mars: Science Payoff from a Sample Return Mission
April 21-23, 2008
Albuquerque, NM

TheScience of Solar System Ices: A Cross-Disciplinary Workshop
May 5-8, 2008
Oxnard, CA

Katie Bryson, a graduate student at the Space Center, was one of the winners for best poster at the 2008 “From Abstract to Contract: Graduate Research Composium” event.  The title of her poster was “Adsorption Kinetics in Martian Regolith Analogs.”

The event consisted of three days in which students had to prepare an abstract and executive summary of their research.  They also participated in a day of professional preparation, where they learned to market themselves and took part in networking training. 

The event was also an opportunity for graduate students to practice presenting their research for conferences and meetings.  Two winners from each college were chosen to present their research at the networking component part of the event, which allowed students to meet with potential employers and other faculty members at the University.  Participation in the competition included submission of the student’s resume or curriculum vita and submission of an application.  Congrat-ulations Katie!

A troop of Girl Scouts from Lowell, Ark.,  recently visited the Space Center for a Planetarium demonstration.  As part of the requirement for their Space badge, they learned about different con-stellations, meteors and meteorites.  The demonstration was facilitated by Space Center Planetarium Board members Adam Hughes and Scott Barrows, who are also Space Center graduate students.