Friday Flyer - January 11, 2019
Spotlight on the Colorado State University QuarkNet Center
The CSU center is located near the foothills of the northern Front Range in beautiful Fort Collins, Colorado. In August of 2018, six teachers attended a three-day teacher meeting organized by co-lead teachers Adam Pearlstein and Zach Armstrong. On the first day, teachers talked pedagogy and experimented with cosmic ray detectors, performing a flux study and even using the detector as a rough Geiger counter. Days two and three consisted of a LIGO e-Lab workshop in which teachers learned about gravitational waves, assembled an interferometer (pictured below), and explored the LIGO e-Lab.
News from QuarkNet Central
Registration for International Masterclasses via Doodle poll has closed, but groups can still register via e-mail; contact Ken and consult the IMC schedules posted or linked at the Videoconferences 2019 page. You can also check the latest IMC circular, just out today.
Mentors, please watch for an e-mail message soon with a link to the 2019 form where you will indicate your center plans for 2019. Any questions, contact Ken or Shane.
Physics Experiment Roundup
The Dark Energy Survey recently completes its six-year collection of data, though there's still much analysis to be done. The Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) notes the arrival of major components from around the world. The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL turns 19 this year. Canadian astronomers discover mysterious radio bursts from halfway across the universe.
Resources
Take a virtual tour of the LHC, thanks to the New York Times. This very cool virtual tour uses 360-degree video that allows you to explore the largest machine ever built. The LHC produces lots and lots (and lots!) of data, but guess what percentage of LHC data generated actually gets looked at? Now, moving on to topics extraterrestrial...from Quanta Magazine, the case of the missing galaxies...or not. And from CNN, check out Don Lincoln's The Snowman Orbiting the Sun on human exploration and the images recently captured of the distant Ultima Thule.
Just for Fun
Yes, we just recently celebrated the holidays, but who says it's too early to add an item to your wish list for next year? And lastly, guess who (or more accurately what) is turning 30 in 2019?
QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu