1/9/2024 0 Comments Observatory in hawaii![]() She fondly recalls one day in March 1984, when she spent the morning working atop the erupting Mauna Loa and the afternoon collecting lava samples from the active Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō vent on Kīlauea. ![]() Her work included monitoring Kīlauea Volcano during the early years of its ongoing East Rift Zone eruption, as well as Mauna Loa during its 1984 eruption. After so many years in the land of the midnight sun, swapping snowshoes for ‘slippahs’ (flip-flops) might seem a drastic change, but she’s no stranger to the aloha state-or HVO.įrom 1983 to 1989, Neal lived in Volcano, and worked on the staff at HVO. Neal comes to Hawai‘i from Alaska, where she spent almost 25 years working as a USGS geologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory. I was thrilled when she accepted the position, because I knew that both HVO and the communities that it serves will be in good hands going forward,” said Tom Murray, Director of the USGS Volcano Science Center, which oversees all five U.S. “Tina brings to the HVO Scientist-in-Charge position the required breadth of scientific background, strong communication skills, and eruption response experience, including much work with various communities at risk. It is a fitting coincidence that Neal, only the second woman to lead USGS HVO in its 103-year-long history, takes the helm on March 8, International Women’s Day, a day established to celebrate the achievements of women around the world. Neal succeeds Jim Kauahikaua, who served in the position for the past ten years. Geological Survey is pleased to announce the selection of Christina (Tina) Neal to serve as the new Scientist-in-Charge of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. COMPLETE was a collaboration between astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and other universities around the world.Christina (Tina) Neal, new Scientist-in-Charge of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.Public domain During the survey’s data-collecting period, each of these observatories provided a different type of observation on three star-forming regions in the Milky Way, across the infrared, microwave, and radio part of the spectrum of light. While most researchers focus on certain aspects of these systems, the COordinated Molecular Probe Line Extinction Thermal Emission (COMPLETE) Survey of Star Forming Regions was an ambitious project designed to capture as much information as possible, using data from multiple observatories to accomplish the task. Studying that process requires many different types of astronomical observations to capture the composition, dynamics, and other properties of star-forming regions. Star formation is a complex process, beginning from cold clouds of gas and dust and ending with the diverse population of stars we observe in our galaxy and beyond. The SMA is also a key telescope in the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an Earth-sized interferometer which created the first images of a supermassive black hole: specifically, the black hole at the center of the nearby galaxy M87. Many molecules have unique spectral emission and absorption fingerprints at submillimeter wavelengths, allowing the SMA to identify them and measure their motions using the Doppler effect.įor these reasons, the SMA is a powerful tool for studying the birth of planets, stars, galaxies, and the complex molecules essential for life as we know it. In addition, this light pierces through the dust that shrouds many objects, hiding them from view at visible light wavelengths. This type of light is emitted by the interstellar clouds that provide the raw materials for star formation. The observatory is designed to take images in light of wavelengths of about a millimeter, which lies at the boundary between infrared and radio wavelengths. ![]() For that reason, the eight-antenna interferometer behaves like a single telescope as much as 500 meters (one-third of a mile) across. Combining the light measured by all the dishes produces an interference pattern, which results in a sharper image than could be made by any of the individual antennas. The eight antennas observe the same astronomical object simultaneously. The SMA is a type of multiple-antenna observatory known as an interferometer, in this case consisting of eight radio dishes, each 6 meters in diameter.
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