McLaughlin is co-director of the North American Nanohertz Observatory
for Gravitational Waves Physics Frontiers Center, or NANOGrav, which
recently announced evidence for gravitational waves
with periods of years to decades that had never previously been
observed. The Green Bank Telescope in Pocahontas County is the primary
telescope used for this work.
Riggs will graduate in May with a B.S. in Physics and minors in Applied Mathematics and Secondary STEM Education. “My research interests are in space plasma physics, specifically at collisionless shock boundaries like the Earth’s bow shock,” he said. “My past work has focused a lot on satellite observations of this location to work towards understanding how the energy changes as it moves from interplanetary space into Earth’s magnetosphere.”
Five West Virginia University students have joined an elite group of researchers who’ve been awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
The Society of Physics Students (SPS) exists to encourage community interest in physics and to enable creative ideas in students of all ages. Interested students met every other week to organize a variety of outreach activities to promote science to future generations.
Research Corporation for Science Advancement has named three exemplary
Cottrell Scholars as recipients of its 2024 STAR and IMPACT Awards. CS 1997 Mark
Moldwin, Physics, University of Michigan, has won the STAR award, and CS 2009 Maura
McLaughlin, Physics, West Virginia University, and CS 2009 Rory Waterman,
Chemistry, University of Vermont, have won IMPACT awards.
While the very first detection of gravitational radiation occurred in 2015, a different, longer gravitational wavelength is needed to locate black holes. Burke-Spolaor is a leading member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), which uses a network of stars called “pulsars” distributed throughout our galaxy to detect small ripples in the fabric of spacetime caused by the distant gravitational waves of SBHBs. Burke-Spolaor’s research in the field of low-frequency gravitational wave astrophysics has laid the foundation for the next generation of progress in pulsar timing array science and is paving the road to find the first....
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are one of the most exciting recent discoveries in the field of radio astronomy, and they were discovered by astronomers right here in West Virginia. Most FRBs happen faster than you can blink an eye, and in that time they blast out more energy than our sun produces in several days. In spite of this spectacular behavior, we still don’t know what they are.
For more than 30 years, the planetarium has given Morgantown and the surrounding
communities a glimpse into worlds beyond our own with the support of the
Department of Physics and Astronomy and the
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University.
She created the first three-dimensional diffusion model that
reproduces the strong enhancement of outer belt electrons during a
geomagnetic storm. The model is the first of its kind to incorporate
real-time information on the physical processes and thus accurately
model the radiation belt enhancement. In addition, Tu has developed the
first model to account for radiation belt dropouts and newly discovered
loss processes due to anomalous geometrics of Earth’s magnetic fields.
Understanding these electrons and processes are crucial in reducing the
hazardous radiative environment within which spacecrafts and
communication satellites currently operate.
