The
positions provide an opportunity for students to conduct
independent research supervised by the senior staff of the
MMO and qualified visiting scientists. The Maria Mitchell
Association (MMA), of which the MMO is one department, has
been supervising undergraduate research in astronomy for
more than forty years, including twelve years within the
NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program.
One of the MMA's objectives is to pass on Maria Mitchell's
legacy of learning by doing - we teach our students science
by having them accomplish significant research projects.
The current research areas for supervised individual student
projects include elements of cosmology, active galaxies,
forming stars and planetary systems, variable stars, astrophysical
masers and lasers, and the physics of comets. In addition
to each student's individual project in one of these fields,
she or he participates in a team project which is currently
a long-term monitoring of the "lasing star" MWC349 at radio
and optical wavelengths.
All students participate in at least one observing trip
--- to use the CCD-equipped 31-inch reflector of the Lowell
Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, the 12-m millimeter-wave radio
telescope on Kitt Peak, AZ, and the 37-m centimeter-wave
telescope at Haystack, MA. The two radio telescopes are
used by MMO/REU students for remote observations as well.
Data for research are also obtained from the Very Large
Array (VLA) and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) of the NRAO,
and occasionally from space missions. Students have access
to the photographic plate collections of the MMO and the
Harvard College Observatory, which are used to reconstruct
the long-term light curves of unusual variable objects.
The research emphasizes state-of-the-art data reduction
techniques and thoughtful physical interpretation.
