Thomas Jordan, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, recently traveled to Flagstaff, Ariz., as an adviser for a group of students who are collecting data related to the red stars that make up 80% of the mass of the Milky Way.
The information will be incorporated into a catalog that will be published later this year.
This work is being sponsored through a grant from Indiana Space Grant Consortium. The student-run project is being conducted in connection with the National Undergraduate Research Observatory. Ball State has belonged to this organization for six years and is able to share time with other colleges and universities at the observatory in Flagstaff.
"The project uses cameras equipped with special filters that identify shades of red,"Jordan said."This information assists in identifying the brightness of red stars."
The data collected is part of an ongoing project that started in 1984. According to Jordan, the red stars, identified as small red dwarfs and red giants, look much the same when viewed through a telescope. Collecting data through the use of infrared filters allows stars with the hottest temperatures to be more easily identified.
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