An international team of astronomers, which includes Duncan Lorimer, West Virginia University professor of physics and astronomy, has tested Einstein’s theory using three stars orbiting each other: a neutron star and two white dwarfs. Their findings, published in “Nature”, prove that Einstein’s theory still passes the test in such extreme conditions.
Weichao Tu, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at West Virginia University, has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to support her research in developing the first comprehensive model to simulate the mysterious dropout of the radiation belt electrons
Maura McLaughlin and Duncan Lorimer, professors of physics and astronomy at West Virginia University, have discovered a new pair of pulsars and have followed up on characteristics of another new duo. Their research will bring insights into the understanding of the how many of these systems exist and the rate in which they merge in our galaxy.
Scientists pause each afternoon at Kirtland Air Force Base in Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, awaiting the daily lightning flash and unmistakable floor jolt that accompanies a Z shot. West Virginia University physics professor Mark Koepke and his students are often among them, taking advantage of approximately 20 of the more than 200 Z shots per year to examine the physical principles that govern extreme astrophysical environments through the study of high energy density physics.
Five students from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University have been awarded undergraduate fellowships from the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium. Each student will receive a $1,000 award – $500 from the Eberly College and $500 from the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-sponsored organization. The recipients are Ryan Culp, Ben Gregg, Andrew McGrady, Holly Pettus and Emma Sherfinski.
For the first time, scientists have directly detected gravitational waves—ripples in space and time—from the spectacular collision of two neutron stars. Light from the collision was also observed by telescopes, marking the first time that a cosmic event has been viewed in both gravitational waves and light.
The West Virginia University community, having witnessed devastating flooding in the state more than a year ago, has mobilized efforts to provide support and resources for those now working to repair hurricane damage in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.
A three-year National Science Foundation grant totaling nearly $1 million will let West Virginia University develop its next-generation High Performance Computing, or HPC, cluster to advance computationally intensive research in a wide array of fields, from drug delivery to genomics and astrophysics.
Since the early 1900s scientists have known that the Universe is expanding but recent studies have shown that the rate of expansion is accelerating. The reason for this is currently unknown; however, Kevin Bandura, an assistant professor in the Lane Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering at West Virginia University, has been working on the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME, for the past several years to solve the mystery.
West Virginia University professors Sean McWilliams and Zach Etienne and a group of WVU graduate students are part of a global team of scientists who have detected gravitational waves for the third time, demonstrating that a new window in astronomy has been firmly opened.