Astronomers at in the Department of Physics are busy gearing up for this weekend's 8th annual University of Alberta Space Exploration Symposium, but they have also had an eventful summer. Here are two recent highlights.
Seeing the lightA high-school student who once thought the northern lights were boring has made a 180-degree turn on her opinion of the spectacular cosmic light show, thanks to a special science program at the University of Alberta. Victoria Hessdorfer worked with researchers studying space storms using ground stations and NASA's THEMIS satellites. "I definitely want to pursue studies in physics, maybe space studies or particle physics, but it will be physics for sure," said Hessdorfer.
Pulling in an astronomy award
Department of Physics astronomer Jeanette Gladstone won a prestigious prize for her investigation into an "oddly behaving" type of black hole. The American Astronomical Society awarded the High Energy Astrophysics Division Dissertation Prize to Gladstone to recognize her outstanding dissertation in high-energy astrophysics from among doctoral dissertations completed worldwide in the last three years.