Spring Break
NASA gives grant for black-hole research at UA
Taniah Tudor
Issue date: 9/12/08 Section: News
Four astronomers recently received a $1.4 million grant from NASA to conduct research on supermassive black holes. The astronomers will conduct their research on the UA campus.
"A few researchers in Arkansas were casting about for a project we could collaborate on," said Daniel Kennefick, one of the astronomers from the UA to be awarded the grant.
Kennefick, his wife Julia Kennefick and Claud Lacey are in the UA physics department, while Marc Seigar is in the physics and astronomy department at the UA-Little Rock.
All four astronomers are members of the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, and they thought the work each was doing individually could be used to research supermassive black holes.
Therefore, they formed the Arkansas Galaxy Evolution Survey and developed what they said might be a useful tool in determining the size of supermassive black holes, according to the Web site.
The group became aware of the NASA Experimental Project to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, which funds research efforts, and submitted an application, Kennefick said. The astronomers eventually won the grant after competing nationally.
The Arkansas NASA EPSCoR Office provided half of the grant money, while the other half was matched by the UA and UALR, he said.
Though many on the project have been working for months, the official start of the grant was last week. The astronomers will be working on a frontier research problem in astrophysics, the question of supermassive black holes and their role in the development of galactic structure, Kennefick said.
Supermassive black holes seem to be created when clusters of suns, maybe even millions, group together and collapse, Kennefick said. Black holes have such strong gravity that light cannot escape from them and they cannot be seen, he said.
Until now, telescopes have been used to follow the paths of objects orbiting black hole, which helps determine the size of the black hole, but because some galaxies are so far away, this is difficult to do, he said.
"A few researchers in Arkansas were casting about for a project we could collaborate on," said Daniel Kennefick, one of the astronomers from the UA to be awarded the grant.
Kennefick, his wife Julia Kennefick and Claud Lacey are in the UA physics department, while Marc Seigar is in the physics and astronomy department at the UA-Little Rock.
All four astronomers are members of the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, and they thought the work each was doing individually could be used to research supermassive black holes.
Therefore, they formed the Arkansas Galaxy Evolution Survey and developed what they said might be a useful tool in determining the size of supermassive black holes, according to the Web site.
The group became aware of the NASA Experimental Project to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, which funds research efforts, and submitted an application, Kennefick said. The astronomers eventually won the grant after competing nationally.
The Arkansas NASA EPSCoR Office provided half of the grant money, while the other half was matched by the UA and UALR, he said.
Though many on the project have been working for months, the official start of the grant was last week. The astronomers will be working on a frontier research problem in astrophysics, the question of supermassive black holes and their role in the development of galactic structure, Kennefick said.
Supermassive black holes seem to be created when clusters of suns, maybe even millions, group together and collapse, Kennefick said. Black holes have such strong gravity that light cannot escape from them and they cannot be seen, he said.
Until now, telescopes have been used to follow the paths of objects orbiting black hole, which helps determine the size of the black hole, but because some galaxies are so far away, this is difficult to do, he said.
Be the first to comment on this story