NASA is conducting experiments at Northern Kentucky University as part of a project to answer out-of-this-world questions about elements and matter in space.
The project is part of the NASA Astrophysics Pioneers program and to better understand which stellar processes (i.e., supernovas) produce which elements.
The Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder on the International Space Station, also known as TIGERISS, measures the abundances of the heaviest elements (hydrogen, helium and lithium) in cosmic rays, which are fast-moving nuclei of atoms from other parts of the galaxy. The relative amount of one kind of heavy element compared to another provides insight into their origins.
“I’m incredibly excited for this project and the opportunity to work with our outstanding students in such important work,” said Scott Nutter, regents professor in the Department of Physics, Geology and Engineering Technology at NKU. “A project like this affords students the opportunity to participate in cutting-edge science at a national level alongside top researchers in the field.”
Students at NKU will be responsible for overseeing the creation and use of an instrument computer simulation, led by Nutter. The simulation is used in the design phase for trade studies of various instrument configurations, and later in interpreting the data.
“The computer simulation creates a virtual version of the instrument, then throws virtual cosmic rays at it and records the virtual response,” Nutter said. “We can compare that response to what we see in the data from the space station to reduce uncertainty in our conclusions about the origin of the heaviest elements.”
TIGERISS is an evolution of the TIGER and SuperTIGER balloon-borne instruments created by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis over the past three decades. Both instruments flew multiple times on high-altitude balloons reaching heights of over 20 miles above most of Earth’s atmosphere.
Balloons can only stay up at most for a month or two, and although the balloons are very high, there remains a non-negligible amount of atmosphere that interferes with arriving cosmic rays. On the International Space Station, that “atmospheric overburden” is absent, and without that interference, the TIGERISS experiment can make higher-resolution measurements and detect heavy particles that wouldn’t be possible from a scientific balloon.
The experiment could last a year or more, longer than the length of a balloon flight, allowing researchers to measure extremely rare individual elements as heavy as lead.
Joining NKU on this project will be Howard University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland – Baltimore County, and Washington University in St. Louis. Brian Rauch, a scientist at Washington University, will lead the project.
For more information on the TIGERISS project and other NASA Astrophysics Pioneers Program Projects, click here.