Physics & Astronomy Open House coming to UH Mānoa campus on November 20

A presentation on heliophysics will be a new offering at UH Mānoa’s annual Physics and Astronomy Open House from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, November 20. Heliophysics is the study of the system composed of the sun’s heliosphere and the objects that interact with it—including planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres, the solar corona, and the interstellar medium.

 

Eleven sites—including Watanabe Hall and the Physical Science Building—will feature physics and astronomy research and applications presented by faculty and students.

 

High school students, their teachers, and the public are invited to attend the open house. There will be physics demonstrations, hands-on activities, digital machining, and presentations on nanophysics, anti-matter, free electron laser, and astrobiology. Many of the Physics faculty and students will describe new and fascinating aspects of their research, such as the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) project, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and efforts to develop small neutrino detectors. 

 

The UH Mānoa Physics graduate program also recently received a high ranking in the latest National Research Council rankings (http://manoa.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=3929.)

 

A welcome and overview will take place in the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics auditorium at 8:30 a.m., with sites open from 9:00-11:00 a.m. for group visits, and 11:00 a.m. to noon for informal visits. 

 

“This is an opportunity to learn what is happening in physics and astronomy in Hawai‘i and elsewhere,” said Michael Jones, an associate physicist in the UH Mānoa Department of Physics and Astronomy. “People found previous events interesting, informative, and enjoyable.”