Topic: Penn State University

NASA’s Fermi Telescope, Swift Observatory capture highest-energy light every recorded from Gamma Ray Burst

November 23, 2019 |

Greenbelt, MD – A pair of distant explosions discovered by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have produced the highest-energy light yet seen from these events, called gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The record-setting detections, made by two different ground-based observatories, provide new insights into the mechanisms driving gamma-ray bursts.

Astronomers first recognized the GRB phenomenon 46 years ago. The blasts appear at random locations in the sky about once a day, on average.

On Jan. 14, 2019, the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) observatory in the Canary Islands captured the highest-energy light every recorded from a gamma-ray burst. MAGIC began observing the fading burst just 50 seconds after it was detected thanks to positions provided by NASA’s Fermi and Swift spacecraft (top left and right, respectively, in this illustration). (NASA/Fermi and Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University)

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APSU’s Zone 3 Fall 2017 Reading Series to feature Fiction, Poetry and Film

August 22, 2017 |

Clarksville, TN – Zone 3, the Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts’ literary journal, welcomes a diverse group of writers, filmmakers and creative minds for its Fall 2017 Zone 3 Reading Series.

Steven Sherrill will travel to campus on September 19th, at 4:00pm to give a reading of his fiction.

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope discovers three runaway Stars from same Multiple Star System

March 18, 2017 |

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Baltimore, MD – As British royal families fought the War of the Roses in the 1400s for control of England’s throne, a grouping of stars was waging its own contentious skirmish — a star war far away in the Orion Nebula.

The stars were battling each other in a gravitational tussle, which ended with the system breaking apart and at least three stars being ejected in different directions. The speedy, wayward stars went unnoticed for hundreds of years until, over the past few decades, two of them were spotted in infrared and radio observations, which could penetrate the thick dust in the Orion Nebula.

This three-frame illustration shows how a grouping of stars can break apart, flinging the members into space. Panel 1: members of a multiple-star system orbiting each other. Panel 2: two of the stars move closer together in their orbits. Panel 3: the closely orbiting stars eventually either merge or form a tight binary. This event releases enough gravitational energy to propel all of the stars in the system outward, as shown in the third panel. (NASA, ESA, and Z. Levy (STScI))

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Austin Peay State University’s Phi Alpha Theta wins eighth Best Chapter Award

October 3, 2016 |

Clarksville, TN – While much of America focused on each word said during the recent first presidential debate, something else was gnawing at the back of the mind of Austin Peay State University professor of history, Dr. Minoa Uffelman.

For the last seven years, the University’s Phi Alpha Theta National Honor Society (PAT), which Uffelman advises, has been recognized each fall with the national Best Chapter Award, but September was drawing to a close without word on a possible eighth consecutive award.

Austin Peay President Dr. Alisa White with the University’s Phi Alpha Theta National Honor Society (PAT).

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APSU names Florida State College administrator Lynne Sponaugle Crosby as assistant VP of Academic Affairs

September 22, 2015 |

Clarksville, TN – Dr. Lynne Sponaugle Crosby, a high-level administrator at Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ), was recently named assistant provost and assistant vice president of Academic Affairs at Austin Peay State University.

Brian Johnson, now president of Tuskegee University, previously served as assistant provost until August 2013, when he was named vice president of APSU’s Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Research. «Read the rest of this article»

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory watches as Pulsar Punches Hole in Disk of Gas

July 23, 2015 |

Written by Janet Anderson
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Huntsville, AL – A fast-moving pulsar appears to have punched a hole in a disk of gas around its companion star and launched a fragment of the disk outward at a speed of about 4 million miles per hour. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is tracking this cosmic clump, which appears to be picking up speed as it moves out.

The double star system PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 – or B1259 for short – contains a star about 30 times as massive as the Sun and a pulsar, an ultra-dense neutron star left behind when an even more massive star underwent a supernova explosion.

This trio of images contains evidence from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory that a clump of stellar material has been jettisoned away from a double star system at incredibly high speeds. This system, known as PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 – or B1259 for short – is comprised of two objects in orbit around one another. The first is a star about 30 times as massive as the Sun that has a disk of material swirling around it. The other is a pulsar, an ultra-dense neutron star left behind when an even more massive star underwent a supernova explosion. (NASA/CXC/PSU/G.Pavlov et al)

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NASA observatory, telescopes reveal new information on how Stars are Formed

May 10, 2014 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared telescopes, astronomers have made an important advance in the understanding of how clusters of stars come into being.

The data show early notions of how star clusters are formed cannot be correct. The simplest idea is stars form into clusters when a giant cloud of gas and dust condenses.

Stars are often born in clusters, in giant clouds of gas and dust.

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NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) scans the sky for Planet X, but comes up empty

March 10, 2014 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – After searching hundreds of millions of objects across our sky, NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has turned up no evidence of the hypothesized celestial body in our solar system commonly dubbed “Planet X.”

Researchers previously had theorized about the existence of this large, but unseen celestial body, suspected to lie somewhere beyond the orbit of Pluto. In addition to “Planet X,” the body had garnered other nicknames, including “Nemesis” and “Tyche.”

Data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has found no evidence for a hypothesized body sometimes referred to as “Planet X.” (Penn State University)

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Tennessee Titans on the road Sunday to face the Oakland Raiders

November 22, 2013 |

Tennessee Titans (4-6) vs. Oakland Raiders (4-6)

Sunday, November 24th, 2013 | 3:05pm CST
O.co Coliseum | Oakland, CA | TV: CBS

Nashville, TN – The Tennessee Titans (4-6) play their first of three consecutive road games this week, traveling to Oakland to face the Raiders (4-6) in a late afternoon matchup. Kickoff at O.co Coliseum (capacity 53,286) is scheduled for 3:05pm CST on Sunday, November 24th.

The Titans have not played at Oakland since the 2004 season and have not won at O.co Coliseum since 2001. They have taken the two most recent battles in Tennessee (2007 and 2010), although the Raiders hold a 27-19 overall series lead, including playoffs.

Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson (28). (Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports)

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NASA Scientists explain how they Search for Habitable Planets

July 18, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – There is only one planet we know of, so far, that is drenched with life. That planet is Earth, as you may have guessed, and it has all the right conditions for critters to thrive on its surface. Do other planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, also host life forms?

Astronomers still don’t know the answer, but they search for potentially habitable planets using a handful of criteria. Ideally, they want to find planets just like Earth, since we know without a doubt that life took root here. The hunt is on for planets about the size of Earth that orbit at just the right distance from their star – in a region termed the habitable zone.

This artist’s concept shows a Super Venus planet on the left, and a Super Earth on the right. Researchers use a concept known as the habitable zone to distinguish between these two types of planets, which exist beyond our solar system. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ames)

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