The U physics department is contributing $900,000 to join about 20 research colleges and universities around the world in a project to map outer space in an attempt to find new planets and better understand the universe.
The Willard L. Eccles Charitable Foundation contributed $450,000 to the department for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which uses a 2.5-meter telescope in New Mexico to survey the skies. The department matched the sum to join the survey, which maps out the stars and processes the information for astronomy researchers to review and look for anomalies or any unexpected data.
The Eccles foundation gave the U $680,000 to build the Southern Utah Observatory, which will cover a portion of the $800,000 project. The observatory will be located west of Milford, Utah on Frisco Peak. Before the U can build the observatory, it must receive approvals from Beaver County and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The Southern Utah Observatory will have of a 32-inch telescope that will be installed in July 2009. The telescope might be run electronically so faculty and students can use the telescope from campus, said Paul Ricketts, a senior physics major.
Unprocessed data from the third phase of the Sloan survey will be available next month, and more technical data available at the start of Spring Semester.
“This (survey) is more accessible than most data,” said Dave Kieda, a physics professor and chairman of the physics department. “It brings us into an international consultation. As soon as we have our faculty on board, they’ll be able to design the curriculum (and) we’ll have undergraduates, graduates and postdoctoral fellows using the data.”
The U signed the contract to use the survey Aug. 15. The survey is also part of the department’s attempt to grow an astronomy program. The physics department received initial funding in the late 1990s to start working on an astronomy program, which gained an astronomy minor a couple of yeas ago and is working on undergraduate and graduate degrees.
“We’re the flagship university in the state and we don’t have an astronomy major,” said Paolo Gondolo, a physics professor. “(And) there’s a student interest in astronomy.”
Kieda said the department has been in the process of hiring six new faculty members, and many of them were interested in the Sloan survey. He said the department first requested money to join the survey about a year ago, while it was in the midst of hiring new faculty to open full undergraduate and graduate programs.
“The nice thing is, as an institution, any new and existing faculty can use the data,” he said. “If anyone sees anything unusual in the data, (they will) be able to use the Southern Utah Observatory to review it.”
Kieda said the new faculty would start teaching during Fall 2009, right after the Southern Utah Observatory’s new telescope is up and running.
Gondolo said they hope to reach out to younger students and encourage an interest in science.
“(We already have) a successful outreach program with the Utah Museum of Natural History,” he said.
Until the new telescope or data are available, interested students can visit the observatory in the South Physics Building Wednesday nights after dark.