6 TOWER | FALL 2024 Reed says that astronomers from other institutions also travel to KU to utilize the space. And the planetarium, located on the first floor of Grim Science Building, hosts a series of public events each semester that allows the local community to experience an interactive show. Campus visitors typically include school field trips, Cub Scout groups, senior living programs and more. “What’s amazing is that we’ve never advertised the planetarium shows to schools. These community organizations have always signed up through word of mouth,” Reed says. Reed also says that these planetarium visits are a recruitment tool for prospective college students interested in becoming researchers. “It’s a great opportunity for middle and high school students to see our own research here on campus, which is why it’s important that we keep these facilities up to date.” New equipment and renovations Because of the planetarium’s importance to the community, it was time for it to get a facelift, as well, Reed says. Chambliss again contributed toward the $250,000 needed for new equipment. The project includes the installation of a high-resolution, multiprojector digital planetarium system called the Digitalis AEthos, and is expected to be completed in late summer and fall 2024. With its high brightness, vivid color, and excellent projection quality, the planetarium will give future audience members a fully immersive planetarium experience, even more than it already does. The new equipment will also provide high-resolution data sets of the Earth and solar system with incredible detail. These data sets will be invaluable information for student and faculty researchers to use in their studies. “One of the most important aspects of KU’s planetarium is that it directly supports the research in the observatory,” Reed says. The planetarium supports the broader impact of observatory research programs, which helps KU get funding from the National Science Foundation. “The NSF prioritizes two things for a grant – scientific merit as well as the broader impact, which ranges from things like training students and professional development, to the project’s potential impact on society,” he says. Research in Australia Because the observatory and planetarium present viable research opportunities and have had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the community, Reed secured a $244,000 grant from the NSF to conduct a three-year student research project in Australia in 2021, which comes to an end in 2024. Throughout the program, Reed selected four undergraduate students each year from his exoplanet course to directly support NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a space observatory designed to look for exoplanets in orbit around 200,000 bright stars. When planets are first discovered, they go through a vetting process. So, before students embarked on their journey to Australia, they were trained to use the observatory and planetarium to verify potential planet candidates in the sky, in support of TESS. Then, once the students’ data passed an initial screening process for potential planet discovery, they were invited to travel to the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, for 10 weeks in the summer. At the world-renowned MINERVA-Australis facility, located at Mount Kent Observatory, students observed and participated in planetary confirmation as well as the characterization process of TESS, which are two steps that help verify whether their original data presented the actual discovery of an exoplanet. “This was an amazing research opportunity for our students, to help find exoplanets with our on-campus observatory, and to then spend the summer in Australia working with cuttingedge astronomical instrumentation,” Reed says. STUDENT IMPACT: A CLOSER LOOK Zack Raup ’22 Major: Physics/Astronomy Joined research group in Fall 2021; traveled to Australia in Summer 2022 Proudest moment: The Chambliss Student Academic Achievement Award Ceremony in 2023. I won the silver medal alongside two of my friends and fellow peers within Dr. Reed’s research group, Lauren Murphy and Emelly Tiburcio. I was very grateful and happy to share that moment with my friends and their success, as well as to feel the hard work and time be recognized and validated. Biggest challenge: The biggest challenge but blessing for me was trying to learn so much new information in what felt like a short amount of time. I took the exoplanets course in my second semester and was able to go to Australia after my third semester. In order to have a successful research experience, I had a lot to learn in the classroom as well as develop new computer skills through repetition and working with friends and peers. Impact of research experience: It guided me through life lessons of problem solving, adaptability, and focusing on your passions, which have helped me both professionally and personally become a better person. Where are you now? I currently work as a Manufacturing Technician II at dsm-firmenich. FEATURE
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