NASA Press Release: "Cosmic Crash"
A team of astronomers that includes Prof. Rose Finn of Siena College discovered a pileup of cosmic proportions! This collision involves four galaxies that are slamming into each other and kicking up billions of stars in one of the largest cosmic smash-ups ever observed. These clashing galaxies, spotted by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, will eventually merge into a single, behemoth galaxy up to 10 times as massive as our own Milky Way. This rare sighting provides an unprecedented look at how the most massive galaxies in the universe form. To learn more, please visit: Caltech - Spitzer Space Telescope or NASA - Spitzer Space Telescope.
Original Source: NASA News Release
Citation: Astrophysical Journal Letters 665:L9-L13
Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission
Siena College was awarded a $655,000 NASA grant to work on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. MMS is a Solar-Terrestrial Probe mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth's magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence. These processes occur in all astrophysical plasma systems but can be studied in situ only in our solar system and most efficiently only in Earth's magnetosphere, where they control the dynamics of the geospace environment and play an important role in the processes known as "space weather." Siena College engineer, Joe Kujawski, is working on the design of the Dual Electron Spectrometer. His work involves undergraduate students and is being conducted in the Space Sciences Lab at Siena College.
Read more...Why Physics? Why Siena?
Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Feynman, Hawking
Some of the greatest intellects in human history have devoted their lives to the study of physics. Why? Because they had an strong desire to understand how the physical world works, and then to understand why.The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible. -Albert Einstein
Physics Majors Patti Carroll, Clare Boothe Luce Scholar, and Trevor Quirk at Kitt Peak National Observatory. -Photo by Dave Harvey
One Student at a Time...
The Department of Physics aims to develop in its students a comprehensive grasp of the principles of physics. The program emphasizes the concepts and techniques that have led to our present state of understanding of the physical universe. The department offers a flexible and comprehensive program. Placed in the context of a liberal arts environment, the generality and applicability of Physics grant the major three broad options upon graduation. He or she is well prepared to pursue graduate study in Physics or an allied field, to embark immediately upon a professional career in science, or to enter one of the numerous careers which require or are enhanced by a broad knowledge of science in today's technological society.
A Community...
Family-like department in a small liberal arts college where students are encouraged to be well-rounded academically and socially.
Meet the members of our department ...
Undergraduate Research
8 full-time faculty specializing in astronomy, atomic physics, biophysics, space science, and more.
A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.
-Niels Bohr
