E/PO PROPOSAL: "A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN NASA SCIENTIST: AN INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE FOR THE GODDARD VISTOR CENTER "

3D Model of Time Projection Chamber

+ MPEG Animation     + QuickTime Animation

Goals of the E/PO Proposal:

We propose to create an interactive experience for the Goddard Visitor Center that will inform, inspire, and engage visitors by providing a portal into the daily lives of scientists at GSFC. Through a hands-on experiment visitors will engage in an authentic experience of the work of the Principal Investigators of the science proposal and, as a result, they will experience the excitement that scientists go through in order to make new discoveries.

An Existing Exhibit at the Goddard Visitor Center

The exhibit will be based on the design of the Time-Projection Chamber polarimeter being developed within the scope of the two parent APRA projects. The exhibit will be used to provide a "hands-on" activity to demonstrate the interaction of radiation with matter by displaying real-time particle tracks resulting from alpha-particle, beta-particle and X-ray interactions within the detector.

Through the exhibition of a real instrument development effort we hope to demonstrate the fundamental principles that are utilised to build instruments to both monitor the environment in space and to observe the universe in which we live.

Exhibition Outline

Working on the Detector

The proposed interactive exhibit will introduce the properties of different types of radiation by allowing the student to select the type of radiation; the length and the linearity of the track will be dependent on the selection. In addition, various types of material will be available for the student to move into and out of the radiation path, demonstrating the stopping power of various matter, e.g. paper and lead.

The exhibit will provide an opportunity to share the excitement of a real instrument development effort for space applications, and show how scientists detect astronomical sources. The demonstration of the interactions of different types and energy of the incident radiation will provide a basis to explain spectroscopy. We will use the absorption of the radiation by different materials to draw a direct parallel to the spectroscopy of an astronomical source and determining from the spectrum what kind of absorbing materials exist between the observer and the source, e.g. dust clouds.

Running a Lab Test

During the first year of the award, we plan to focus primarily on the building of the detector and then in the second year we will adjust the efforts towards the implementation of the exhibit in the visitor center and the development of the supporting educational materials.

This endeavour will provide a direct link between OSS scientists and student groups visiting the GSFC visitor center. The PI of one of the parent APRA projects will oversee the EPO program, the development of the detector will be lead by the APRA instrument team and the implementation of the exhibit and educational materials will be lead by the EPO PI who is responsible for the visitor center.

Why Polarimetry is Important

Polarization probes both the emission geometry, typically from regions too small to be imaged without interferometry, and the emission mechanism of exotic processes characterized by high temperature and magnetic field. X-ray polarimetry will be a tool to study, for example, the origin of cosmic rays in the universe, the nature of black holes, the role of black holes in the evolution of galaxies, and the interaction of matter with the highest physically possible magnetic fields.

As X-ray imagery reveals structural details, X-ray polarimetry probes the emission geometries and emission mechanisms.

Polarization signatures are imprinted by most microphysical processes affecting X-rays, including scattering and magnetic emission processes. X-ray polarization is also sensitive to exotic physical processes occurring in regions of very strong gravitational and magnetic fields. Observations of X-ray polarization can test our understanding of these fundamental physical processes. Polarization provides a measure of the geometrical distribution of gas and magnetic fields, and X-ray polarization is essentially free of the foreground depolarization that affects longer wavelengths.