| NSF Org: |
AST Division Of Astronomical Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 8, 2007 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 17, 2012 |
| Award Number: | 0642991 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Daniel Evans
AST Division Of Astronomical Sciences MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | May 15, 2007 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2013 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $488,559.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $509,874.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2008 = $143,740.00 FY 2009 = $21,315.00 FY 2010 = $69,927.00 FY 2011 = $70,398.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
121 UNIVERSITY HALL COLUMBIA MO US 65211-3020 (573)882-7560 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
121 UNIVERSITY HALL COLUMBIA MO US 65211-3020 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
CAREER: FACULTY EARLY CAR DEV, SPECIAL PROGRAMS IN ASTRONOMY |
| Primary Program Source: |
01000809DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001112DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
CAREER: A multi-faceted investigation of the astromineralogy and evolution of dust
around low- and intermediate mass evolved stars
Abstract
AST-0642991
PI: Angela K Speck
Dr. Speck will study the precise nature of dust grains around low- and
intermediate-mass stars (LIMS) because (1) this is where the dust originates
before being expelled into the interstellar medium (ISM) and participating in
many other astrophysical processes, and thus knowing its initial states will
allow for a more accurate prediction of its fate in and effect on the ISM and
beyond and (2) the environment around most of these LIMS is relatively benign
and thus has simplified chemistry, which facilitates the understanding of the
processes in play. Dr. Speck will use a range of techniques including
spectroscopy, imaging and modeling, incorporating new laboratory data and taking
into account theoretical models and meteoritic studies to provide knowledge of
the nature of dust forming around LIMS. This study will also assess
how dust formation changes with stellar evolution. In this way, the effect of
chemistry and density on dust formation can be determined, allowing testing
and refinement of existing models for dust formation and evolution and which
can be applied to many astrophysical environments.
One of the major problems in investigating circumstellar dust is that it
incorporates so many apparently disparate aspects of the physical sciences
(physics, astronomy, geology, and chemistry). In order to provide a background
and framework for such knowledge, Dr. Speck will introduce an
upper level/graduate astrophysics course in cosmochemistry that will be open to
students from other departments as well. Dr. Speck's research is specifically
designed to involve students at all levels (undergraduate, masters and doctoral)
and therefore breaks down into modular chunks. In this way the research
undertaken also allows for training of students at these various levels.
Dr. Speck will continue her effort to recruit and mentor female graduate
students as well as students from other underrepresented groups.
This award is funded by the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The overarching goal of this NSF CAREER project was to improve our understanding of dust in space (cosmic dust) and its impact on the surrounding environment, while simultaneously training the next generation of scientists to be critical thinkers as well as excellent researchers, teachers and public outreachers.
Cosmic dust pertains to basic questions of galactic processes; dust needs to be well understood in its own right, if we are to understand its contribution to many aspects of astrophysics. Even a small quantity of dust has a profound impact on energy flow. For example, in 1991 Mt
Pinatubo ejected enough dust into our atmosphere to cause global cooling by ~0.1K, but we did not perceive the dust to be dulling our skies. In space, the interaction of light with dust has profound consequences for evolution of its environment. For instance, the formation of new planets depends on dust in a collapsing cloud. Furthermore, my cosmic dust studies have direct relevance to issues of climate change we are currently facing on Earth.
This research project research was intrinsically multidisciplinary; the study of cosmic dust requires a combination of chemistry, mineralogy, isotope geochemistry and physical optics, as well as IR astronomy and stellar evolution
We have successfully challenged many aspects of the conventional wisdom regarding dust in space especially with respect to chemistry and astromineralogy (i.e. composition, crystal structure, grain size and shape). In particular, we have shown that assumptions about stardust are not consistent with observations. This work also spawned two new projects in Laboratory Astrophysics and led to several new collaborations.
This project has funded 14 undergraduate research students and five graduate RAs (including one completed PhD dissertation and one completed Masters thesis). It has led to 37 conference presentations (mostly by students) and helped to fund all the research students to attend at least one conference. Five graduate students were able to attend a big international conference in Germany, thus promoting US astrophysics in Europe. There are eight refereed publications from this project with three manuscripts in preparation at this time.
In addition to student training and basic science research, this grant has provided many opportunities for working with the general public. PI Speck instigated a highly successful public talk series called Cosmic Conversations (http://stardust.missouri.edu/CosmicConversations/ -started in September 2007), aimed at both outreach and training of students to give public talks. The development of training of graduate students in public outreach has since been transferred to training graduate student in the local NSF IGERT program and has been presented at a Science Communication conference. In addition, PI Speck developed a multi-disciplinary upper level undergraduate/graduate course on Cosmochemistry.
My biggest achievements have been a combination of archival research in space telescope observations and overturning conventional wisdom about cosmic dust. Much astronomical data is publicly available but most if it still hasn’t been mined to its fullest extent. I have found unusual objects whose properties do not fit within current paradigms and force us to rethink our hypotheses on dust formation and processing
Last Modified: 08/08/2013
Modified by: Angela K Speck
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