The constellations are shining brighter at the Washington State University Planetarium thanks to a new digital projection system.
“It is kind of like the Google Earth of the stars,” said Michael Allen, planetarium director and senior instructor of physics and astronomy. “There is really nothing else like this in the Inland Northwest.”
Mounted at the far end of the circular room, the system uses a high end digital projector, specially cut mirrors and Stellarium, a free open source software that projects a realistic sky in three dimensions, just like you would see standing in the backyard on a clear night.
The planetarium’s fall series kicked off Sept. 19 with “Maiden Voyage,” a show about the highlights of the fall sky and the digital projection system’s new features. The series will include four more shows, each running twice, through Dec. 7.
The number of planets in the Milky Way galaxy which could harbor complex life may be as high as 100 million, according to WSU astrobiologist Dirk Shultze-Makuch and a team of researchers from Cornell and the University of Puerto Rico. It is the first quantitative estimate of the number of worlds in our galaxy that could harbor life above the microbial level, based on objective data.
First proposed in 2006 by Philip Marstonof Washington State University and realized using light in 2010 by David Grier and colleagues at New York University, the technique involves firing two beams of ultrasonic waves upwards at a triangular-shaped target at about 51° either side from the vertical direction.
The Washington State University flag has flown in many places around the world – from ESPN Game Day to the Great Wall of China – and now more than 18 miles into the stratosphere.
A Cougar flag attached to a weather balloon recently launched from the center of the Pullman campus reached nearly 100,000 feet, presumed to be a record-breaker for the WSU banner. The flight was part of a WSU Physics and Astronomy Club student project; now the flag is up for auction.
Two members of the CAS community will receive 2013-14 President’s Employee Excellence Awards at the Celebrating Excellence Recognition Banquet, part of the WSU Showcase annual celebration of faculty, staff, and student achievement on March 28.
The awards recognize civil service and administrative professional staff for outstanding contributions in work quality, efficiency, productivity, problem solving, work relations, and community service.
Kris Boreen
Kris Boreen, budget and finance manager for the Department of Physics and Astronomy, served in a number of WSU administrative and finance manager positions before landing in physics and astronomy two years ago. Since then, she has helped the department find optimal ways to invest resources, reduce expenses, identify resource needs and manage a complex budget. She asks questions, suggests options, provides answers and hammers out solutions, sometimes working late into the night and on weekends.
Boreen brought “an infusion of positive can-do energy” that helped improve staff morale. She cares about the success of the university, department, faculty, staff and “most definitely the students,” said a nominator.
Sisouvanh Keopanapay
Sisouvanh Keopanapay, academic coordinator in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, supervises about 40 interns working in Pullman-area courts and police departments and creates other innovative ways for students and faculty to connect with each other and with the justice community. After she revamped her department’s internship program, it added 25 students in two semesters, said one nominator.
Keopanapay coordinates a variety of tasks efficiently and creatively, including institutional research. She initiated a study abroad program and mentors other advisers. She also advises about half of the department’s undergraduates and “her evaluations are always at the top of the charts,” said a nominator.
