O.C. Science Notebook

By Gary Robbins

March 31, 2003

Like the universe itself, Orange County's astronomy community is expanding.

Irvine Valley College physicist Roy McCord is going to place an observatory atop Physical Sciences Building B-200. "We hope to eventually have telescopes devoted to the sun, the moon and the planets, and maybe one that'll just make measurements," says McCord, who has been busy handling growing interest in IVC's astronomy courses. McCord says he'll probably start assembling the observatory over the summer if he gets the money he needs. If you'd like to make a donation, give him a call (949) 451-5100.

A few miles away, the University of California, Irvine, is trying to hire three cosmologists to broaden the school's research in astrophysics. "One of the things we'd like to do more of is study the early universe," said Ron Stern, dean of the School of Physical Sciences. UCI's exploration of the cosmos has never been large, but it has long been respected. The late Frederick Reines shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics for detecting subatomic particles known as neutrinos.

Astrophysicist Gregory Benford continues to attract attention for his proposals to use solar sails to propel spacecraft into deep space. Jonathan Feng, a theoretical particle physicist, was just awarded a $450,000 National Science Foundation Early Career Award to expand his studies of cosmic matter. And federal funding agencies continue to support physicist Steve Barwick, who recently spent about a month at the South Pole conducting neutrino research. He will give two talks about his work next week at the American Physical Society in Philadelphia.

Astronomy also is thriving at Cypress College, says Ron Armale, chair of the physical sciences department Students use campus computers to remotely operate telescopes at Mount Wilson Observatory. "We use a 14-inch and a 24-inch telescope. We plan to beta test another 14-inch telescope in Chile, which may come online in fall 2003. This will open to us the Southern Hemisphere sky." Astronomy also will get a boost - quite literally - from Boeing-Huntington Beach.

In mid-April, a Boeing Delta II rocket will launch the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, the last eyepiece in NASA's Great Observatories Program. Watch this space for a firm launch date. By the way, a different Boeing Delta II is scheduled to launch a Global Positioning System satellite from Cape Canaveral, Fla, at 1:54 p.m. PST today.