Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., August 26, 2003 –Karen Kwitter, the Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Astronomy and chair of the department at Williams College, and her colleagues have been awarded a $77,000 grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute to support their use of the Hubble Space Telescope.
They will study glowing gas clouds in our galaxy and in other galaxies in space.
Kwitter, along with Reginald Dufour of Rice University and Richard Henry of the University of Oklahoma, will undertake an observing program to obtain images of glowing gas clouds with a filter that allows only the ultraviolet light emitted by carbon atoms to pass through. The project is titled “C III] Imagery of Planetary Nebulae and HII Regions.”
The Hubble telescope is required because this light is absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and cannot be detected by telescopes on the ground. Analyzing the distribution of this light will allow the investigators to calculate the amount of carbon in the gas clouds, which represent material that has been ejected by previous generations of stars and is forming new stars.
Essential for life on Earth, carbon is forged deep within stars as they undergo nuclear fusion, producing the radiant energy that makes them shine. Measuring the amount of carbon and other elements produced by stars provides an important check of theories that describe the buildup of heavier elements as the universe evolves.
Kwitter’s group has been studying the chemical abundances in gas clouds for many years; they have received several previous grants in support of this work, have published over a dozen papers in the past few years, and have been invited speakers at scientific meetings. Kwitter received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
END
Published August 26, 2003
Megamenu Social