{"id":38041,"date":"2016-11-14T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=38041"},"modified":"2016-11-16T10:05:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T16:05:49","slug":"physics-students-head-australia-sake-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/physics-students-head-australia-sake-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics students head to Australia for the sake of science"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Australian Outback sits a forest of spider-like antennas, gathering data from the distant reaches of the universe. It\u2019s the Murchison Widefield Array<\/a>, a radio telescope array that uses low-frequency radio waves to detect and study things like hydrogen emissions, the ionosphere, supernovae and more.<\/p>\n

This summer, four 51ÁÔÆæ undergraduates spent a week building those antennas.<\/p>\n

Physics majors Rusty Mundorf, Kaleb Maraccini, William Fiore and Robert Bavisotto are all undergraduate researchers who work with 51ÁÔÆæ physicist David Kaplan. When Kaplan needed a crew to work on expanding the MWA, those four applied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were responsible for the hex, which is a section of the telescope,\u201d Mundorf said. \u201cWe built 576 of those little antennas and went and put them out on the field and wired them so they could be hooked up to the computers for analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small thing now, but it could generate big results later. The MWA is an international collaboration among several universities and organizations, each studying different astronomical phenomena. Kaplan\u2019s group at 51ÁÔÆæ uses the data collected from the array and other locations to search for pulsars in connection with NANOGrav, an international organization that monitors pulsars.<\/p>\n

\u201cPulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars (leftovers from supernova explosions) which emit radio waves from their poles, creating a lighthouse\u00a0effect whereby if the Earth is in the path\u00a0of the pulsar\u2019s beam of\u00a0radiation, we see a \u201cpulse\u201d of radio waves,\u201d Fiore said. \u201cPulsars are the densest objects in the universe apart from black holes, and are typically about the size of Milwaukee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometime in the future, the MWA, and the antennas built by the 51ÁÔÆæ students, might be able to use the pulsars to detect gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space-time predicted by Albert Einstein and recently proved to exist by a team from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which included scientists from 51ÁÔÆæ.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe LIGO announcement was really exciting. That was really cool thinking about all of the years that went into that project,\u201d Maraccini said. \u201cWhen NANOGrav discovers gravitational waves, it\u2019ll be really cool to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always interesting to see the practical side of science, and there is a sense of pride in seeing something that you\u2019ve built after a week of work, knowing that someone will use it to study something meaningful in the future,\u201d Fiore added.<\/p>\n

The students spent five days on the project in the Outback. The area around the MWA is a \u201cradio quiet\u201d area, meaning all radio transmissions, from car radios to microwaves to cellphone signals, must be silenced so they don\u2019t interfere with the MWA\u2019s data collection. The area itself is isolated and can be reached only by a long ride on dirt roads.<\/p>\n

The work was repetitive, so much so that Mundorf bragged he could almost assemble a dipole antenna blindfolded by the end.<\/p>\n

After the project ended, Fiore and Maraccini stayed behind in Australia for more research while Mundorf and Bavisotto returned to the United States. The project was a cool opportunity for research, and one that will look great on a resume, Maraccini said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to go to graduate school and get into research,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is a great place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

51ÁÔÆæ physics students got the chance to combine science with an adventure when they ventured to the Australian Outback recently. 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