Chao-Chin Yang, Zhaohuan Zhu, Stephen Lepp, and Xiao Hu receive NASA Astrophysics Theory Program grant

Chao-Chin Yang, Zhaohuan Zhu, Stephen Lepp, and Xiao Hu just were awarded a $474,315 research grant by NASA through the Astrophysics Theory Program. They will conduct state-of-the-art computer simulations to model a circumstellar disk around a young star and study the dust-gas dynamics in the disk. The investigation will help us understand the variety of morphological features such as rings and gaps in nearby circumstellar disks detected recently by high-resolution, high-contrast observations. It will also improve the understanding of the process of planet formation. Zhu and Lepp are co-investigators on the project, and Hu is a collaborator.

The text courtesy an original announcement in UNLV Today.

Chao-Chin Yang, Zhaohuan Zhu and Stephen Lepp receive NASA Emerging Worlds Program grant

Chao-Chin Yang, Zhaohuan Zhu and Stephen Lepp just were awarded a $456,315 research grant by NASA through the Emerging Worlds Program. They will investigate one of the most difficult stages in the course of planet formation, for example, how kilometer-scale planetesimals can be built from pebble-sized materials around a young star before a planet can be fully assembled. By conducting state-of-the-art computer simulations and comparing the results with the properties of the Kuiper Belt objects observed in our own solar system, they will be able to test the leading theory of planetesimal formation at unprecedentedly high resolutions. The investigation will further improve our understanding of the origins of the solar system as well as the thousands of the extrasolar planetary systems. Zhu and Lepp are co-investigators on the project.

The text courtesy an original announcement in UNLV Today.

Ashkan Salamat Earns Early Career Award from U.S. Department of Energy

UNLV physicist Ashkan Salamat was one of just 46 university professors nationwide – and the first from UNLV – to earn an Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science.

Read the UNLV News and Publications article here.

Dr. Woddy Fischer. The rise of oxygen; a planetary revolution. BPB-102 7:30PM Thursday September 19, 2019.

The Russell Frank Astronomy Lecture Series
UNLV Physics and Astronomy Department
7:30PM Thursday September 19, 2019
Bigelow Physics Building 102

The rise of dioxygen is arguably the most important environmental change in our planet’s four-and-a-half billion-year history. This revolution occurred approximately 2.3 billion years ago, roughly at the mid-way point in Earth’s history. It was ultimately driven by a biological innovation: the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Oxygen rewrote life’s recipe book, facilitating evolution of the richness we associate with our modern biosphere.

We will present observations from a range of perspectives including genomes, chemistry, and the ancient sedimentary rock record to show how this process emerged two-and-a-half billion years ago. We will also compare and contrast the geological records of Earth and Mars to generate expectations for the occurrence of oxygen (and perhaps life) on planets outside our solar system.

UNLV Physics & Astronomy Host the Athena++ 2019 Workshop

Asst. Astronomy Professor Zhaohuan Zhu, along with Professors Jim Stone of Princeton University and Kengo Tomida of Osaka University, have organized the first ever developer and user meeting for the popular and publicly available general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GR-MHD) code Athena++. Over 60 scientists from around the world joined the meeting, which was hosted in UNLV's new Hospitality Hall. The local organizing committee (LOC) consisted of Drs. Zhaohuan Zhu and Daniel Proga, as well as post-doc Dr. Chao-Chin Yang and UNLV alum Dr. Tim Waters (PhD 2017). It is hoped that this is the first of many successful meetings to come. Movies of state-of-the-art simulations presented at the workshop will be hosted on the meeting website.