News and Events
Astronomers make surprising find. UMass Amherst astronomers Grant Wilson and Min Yun are part of an international team that has detected one of the earliest "protoclusters" of galaxies ever identified, located about 12.5 billion light years from Earth. Their findings, made possible by instrumentation produced on campus, appear in the February 10, 2011 issue of Nature.
The super-deep Orion Spitzer mosiacs that were just released to the public as part of the Spitzer Warm Mission and program on YSO variability were made by Robert Gutermuth, UMass Astronomy and Smith College Astronomer and researcher on this project. Also see Colony of Young Stars Shines in New Spitzer Image , Colony of Young Stars Shines in New Spitzer Images and Orion's Dreamy Stars - Colony of Young Stars Shines in New Spitzer Image
The sixth edition of EXPLORATIONS: INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONOMY by Thomas T. Arny and Stephen E. Schneider is published! EXPLORATIONS: INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONOMY is built on the foundation of its well known writing style, accuracy, and emphasis on current information. This new edition continues to offer the most complete technology/new media support package available. That technology/new media package includes:
~ 23 Interactives located on the Explorations companion website. Each Interactive is programmed in Flash for a strong visual appeal. Each includes an analysis tool (interactive model), a tutorial describing its function, content describing its principle themes, related exercises, and solutions to the exercises.
~ Now Available! Starry Night College Online Edition offers integrated step-by-step exercises, activities, extensions and resources that will lead your students to a solid understanding of the universe. They will, without doubt, lead your students on a voyage of discovery unlike any other.
~ McGraw-Hill Connect, instructors can access classroom presentation materials, and deliver assignments, quizzes, and tests easily online. Students can self-study with learning tools specific to illustration in the text and download "study-on-the-fly" art and audio files. Media, animation and assessments are merged with the text's narrative to engage students and improve learning and retention.
To request a complimentary copy, visit the following link: Explorations: Introduction to Astronomy
Four Mount Holyoke faculty members will be honored for outstanding teaching and scholarship on February 22, when the College community gathers to celebrate the professional accomplishments of its faculty. The recipients will give brief speeches at the awards ceremony, which will take place at 4:15 pm in McCulloch Auditorium in Pratt Hall. This year, mathematics professor Margaret Robinson and Ying Wang, associate professor of Asian studies, will receive the Mount Holyoke College Faculty Award for Teaching. Darby Dyar, associate professor of astronomy and chair of astronomy, and Robert Shilkret, Norma Cutts DaFoe Professor of Psychology, will receive the Meribeth E. Cameron Faculty Award for Scholarship. Celebration of Faculty Accomplishments Feb. 22
With this week's announcement by NASA that a "fully rejuvenated Hubble Space Telescope" is ready to begin a new decade of observations, two campus astronomers, Daniela Calzetti and Todd Tripp, with colleague Suzan Edwards at Smith College, are excited to begin using those instruments to explore the origins and evolution of galaxies and stars throughout the universe.
Astronomer Robert Gutermuth, currently of Smith College and University of Massachusetts/Amherst, and colleagues unveil ultra-high resolution view of massive embedded stellar cluster RCW 38 from ESO's adaptive optics-enhanced VLT.
