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New astronomy instrument to be discussed at museum talk tonight

The fourth in the Bradbury Science Museum's Astronomy Days lecture series is at 6:30 this evening. Bill Junor of Space and Atmospheric Sciences (NIS-1) talks about the new interferometric radio astronomy instrument, or LOFAR, of which the Laboratory is partnering with several universities.

The talks are free and open to the public. The Bradbury Science Museum is part of the Laboratory's Community Relations (CRO) Office.

The scheduled talks help introduce Earthwatch students visiting the Laboratory to the field of astrophysics. The high-school-age students accepted into the Earthwatch Student Challenge Awards Program participate in a variety of activities coordinated and designed by Los Alamos technical staff members. The evening talks also provide an opportunity to discuss the nature of scientific research and how understanding the process for that research is crucial to planning one's career and training as a scientist.

The Laboratory is part of the Southwest Consortium, which along with the University of New Mexico, is leading an effort to propose a new low frequency radio astronomy observatory be built in a region covering New Mexico and west Texas. The Southwest Consortium, also includes New Mexico Institute of Mining and Techology, New Mexico State University, the Applied Research Laboratory of the University of Texas and the University of Colorado. The group will work together to advocate a site for the planned Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope. LOFAR will be similar to the Very Large Array telescope near Socorro, N.M. but will be more widely distributed across the region and will operate at longer wavelengths.

Junor will talk about the kinds of science that LOFAR will do and how the instrument will be designed and operated. For more information about LOFAR, see the June 12 Daily Newsbulletin.

On Wednesday, Galen Gisler of Thermonuclear Applications (X-2) is scheduled to talk about scientific research modeling the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs.

The series concludes Thursday evening when Katrin Heitmann of Elementary Particles and Field Theory (T-8) speaks on cosmology.

The Bradbury Science Museum is located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in Los Alamos. Museum hours, apart from the special events listed above, are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

For more information, contact Berger at 5-0896.

-- Steve Sandoval

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