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- All Subjects: Astrophysics
- All Subjects: Education
- Creators: School of Earth and Space Exploration
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Geology and its tangential studies, collectively known and referred to in this thesis as geosciences, have been paramount to the transformation and advancement of society, fundamentally changing the way we view, interact and live with the surrounding natural and built environment. It is important to recognize the value and importance of this interdisciplinary scientific field while reconciling its ties to imperial and colonizing extractive systems which have led to harmful and invasive endeavors. This intersection among geosciences, (environmental) justice studies, and decolonization is intended to promote inclusive pedagogical models through just and equitable methodologies and frameworks as to prevent further injustices and promote recognition and healing of old wounds. By utilizing decolonial frameworks and highlighting the voices of peoples from colonized and exploited landscapes, this annotated syllabus tackles the issues previously described while proposing solutions involving place-based education and the recentering of land within geoscience pedagogical models. (abstract)
star formation (Dahlem et al. 2006) by comparing maps of 120-240 MHz synchrotron emission and hydrogen alpha (Hα) emission of the tidally-interacting, edge-on, barred spiral galaxy UGC 9665. Synchrotron emission traces magnetic field strength to a rough first order, while Hα emission traces recent massive star formation. UGC 9665 was selected because it was included in the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) TwoMetre Sky Survey (LoTSS; Shimwell et al. (2017)) as well as the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA; Sanchez et al. (2012)). I generated vertical intensity profiles at several distances along the disk from the galactic center for synchrotron emission and Hα in order to measure how the intensity of each falls off with distance from the midplane. In addition to correlating the vertical profiles to see if there is a relationship between star formation and magnetic field strength, I fit the LOFAR vertical profiles to characteristic Gaussian and exponential functions given by Dumke et al. (1995). Fitting these equations have been shown to be good indicators of the main mode of cosmic ray transport, whether it is advection (exponential fit) or diffusion (Gaussian fit) (Heesen et al. 2016). Cosmic rays originate from supernova,
and core collapse supernovae occur in star forming regions, which also produce
advective winds, so I test the correlation between star-forming regions and advective regions as predicted by the Heesen et al. (2016) method. Similar studies should be conducted on different galaxies in the future in order to further test these hypotheses and how well LOFAR and CALIFA complement each other, which will be made possible by the full release of the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) (Shimwell et al. 2017).
Gardner and Dr. Jones to model the surface brightness of astrophysical jets. We attempt to accomplish this goal by modeling the astrophysical jet HH30 in the spectral emission lines [SII] 6716Å, [OI] 6300Å, and [NII] 6583Å. In order to do so, we used the jet model to simulate the temperature and density of the jet to match observational data by Hartigan and Morse (2007). From these results, we derived the emissivities in these emission lines using Cloudy by Ferland et al. (2013). Then we used the emissivities to determine the surface brightness of the jet in these lines. We found that the simulated surface brightness agreed with the observational surface brightness and we conclude that the model could successfully be extended to model the surface brightness of a jet.
Stellar mass loss has a high impact on the overall evolution of a star. The amount<br/>of mass lost during a star’s lifetime dictates which remnant will be left behind and how<br/>the circumstellar environment will be affected. Several rates of mass loss have been<br/>proposed for use in stellar evolution codes, yielding discrepant results from codes using<br/>different rates. In this paper, I compare the effect of varying the mass loss rate in the<br/>stellar evolution code TYCHO on the initial-final mass relation. I computed four sets of<br/>models with varying mass loss rates and metallicities. Due to a large number of models<br/>reaching the luminous blue variable stage, only the two lower metallicity groups were<br/>considered. Their mass loss was analyzed using Python. Luminosity, temperature, and<br/>radius were also compared. The initial-final mass relation plots showed that in the 1/10<br/>solar metallicity case, reducing the mass loss rate tended to increase the dependence of final mass on initial mass. The limited nature of these results implies a need for further study into the effects of using different mass loss rates in the code TYCHO.
The Arizona Board of Education decides the science curricula for students K-6. The standards lack an in depth knowledge of marine life, marine science, ocean conservation, and more related topics. Through interviews with teachers, faculty, and research on ocean literacy and coral reefs, My Coral Reef Booklet assembles various learning activities to cater to students from a variety of education, financial and impairment backgrounds. My Coral Reef Booklet addresses coral reef basics and how students can play their part in coral reef conservation despite their location.