Thursday, January 30, 2025

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Cincinnati Observatory (3489 Observatory Place, Cincinnati, Ohio 45208)

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Details

How is it that an astroparticle physicist from NKU found himself in Ellesmere Island, the northernmost island of Canada – home of far more musk ox and polar bears than people – to oversee retrieval of a three ton scientific instrument via helicopter, clutching the data disk in his hands? It is part of ongoing efforts to learn about the galactic matter cycle, which is the source of heavy elements in the universe. Elements heavier than hydrogen are created in massive stars of the galaxy and are spread into interstellar space when the star goes supernova. Eons later, the gas and dust can gather back together to form new stars, enriched in heavier elements, and the process starts again. We are made of this stardust, as the song says, and understanding this cycle is important to understanding how newly minted solar systems compare in composition to ours. Piecing together the details of this process requires information from multiple sources. NKU is involved in two NASA-sponsored experiments that each obtain a different piece of this puzzle through the study of cosmic rays (cosmic = beyond earth, rays = charged particles). Both make these measurements from space. One, TIGERISS, is planned to launch to the International Space Station in a few years, while the other, HELIX, flew on a high altitude balloon -- 20 miles up -- from Sweden to Canada this past spring, spending six days collecting data about some of these cosmic rays. To retrieve HELIX after the flight, I traveled to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, and then onwards by NASA planes and charter flights to the the northernmost community in Canada on Ellesmere Island, the northernmost island in the Canadian archipelago, in the far north of Nunavut Territory. The community of Grise Fiord served as the staging area for helicopter journeys to the HELIX landing site on the Prince of Wales Icefield glacier. Over the course of two days, I and a few colleagues disassembled the instrument into parts small enough to fit inside the helicopter, or be slung beneath it. A chopsaw was our primary tool of choice. Dodging fog and high winds, we and the instrument parts leap-frogged through Grise Fiord, Resolute, and Cambridge Bay to return to Yellowknife. Today, HELIX lies in pieces in a lab at the University of Chicago, while the science team examines the data. Long term, we intend to rebuild HELIX, with improvements, and fly it again.

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Speaker