This experience has been extremely valuable to me. Nowhere else have I been able to find such in-depth research opportunities that are so open. All I had to do was go to my mentor and say, ‘I’d like to do this.’
Maxfield Capron, ’27, transferred to BSU specifically for its astrophysics program. Now deeply involved in research, they have the unique opportunity to be among the first to use BSU’s new telescope.
Housed in a large dome atop the Dana Mohler-Faria Science and Mathematics Center, the telescope helps Maxfield study exoplanets, which are planets located outside of our solar system.
“This experience has been extremely valuable to me,” said Maxfield, a physics major (astrophysics concentration) from Sandwich. “Nowhere else have I been able to find such in-depth research opportunities that are so open. All I had to do was go to my mentor and say, ‘I’d like to do this.’”
With funding from a NASA Massachusetts Space Grant, Maxfield is studying TrES-5b, an exoplanet that orbits a star in the constellation of Cygnus. They are studying how light from the star dims as the planet passes between it and Earth. BSU observers conducted measurements on the planet in 2015, and Maxfield wants to understand how much better the new telescope performs.
The telescope, purchased with start-up funding that BSU provided to new assistant professor Jennifer Winters, features a 16-inch aperture, up from 14 inches on the old one that dates to the opening of the science and math center in 2011. The aperture is a telescope’s primary light-gathering mirror. A wider aperture collects more light, allowing astronomers to see clearer views of the sky.
“That is a huge difference,” said Jamie Kern, the observatory manager and Maxfield’s mentor. “We don’t need to have as long of an exposure time in order to see the same level of signal. It’s easier and faster for us to do our measurements.”
The telescope also allows researchers to see wider views of the sky.
Maxfield, who hopes to continue researching and studying astrophysics in graduate school and beyond, is a member of the BSU Experimental Astrophysics Research Team. They are also an observatory outreach assistant, which lets Maxfield share their passion with members of the public who come to the observatory to peer into telescopes.
“It’s one thing to see it on a phone screen or through a computer. It’s another thing to get a telescope out and move it around,” they said. “Seeing something with your own eyes is a magical experience.”
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