HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 19, 2015 – NASA has tapped into the expertise of a High Point University professor for one of its space telescope science missions.
Dr. Brad Barlow, assistant professor of astrophysics at HPU, was selected to serve on a team of astrophysicists who reviewed and recommended science proposals for future space missions. The proposals were submitted by astronomers who detailed what they see as important to study and why. Over the next couple of years, NASA facilities will obtain data for the science proposals selected by the team on which Barlow served.
Specific details about the project can’t be released due to NASA’s policy to maintain confidentiality of science proposal reviews. But the opportunity allowed Barlow to assist NASA in a way that influences the type of data it will collect from space telescopes in the coming years.
“As an astronomer, it’s generally quite difficult to obtain observing time on NASA’s space-based facilities, as there aren’t many of them, and they all provide some of the highest-quality data attainable,” Barlow says. “So NASA has to choose carefully what it wants each facility to observe. Our team reviewed proposals from astronomers around the country about what they want to observe and study. We reviewed a lot of potentially transformative science in four days and made some exciting recommendations.”
Barlow was invited to join the team after its organizers read his research on pulsating stars and binary systems.
“The fact that they saw my research and selected me to be a part of this is an honor,” he says. “It keeps me connected to state-of-the-art science in my area, which I can pass onto students. As with most NASA facilities, the data will also be made available to the public, which is beneficial to my students and everyone in the field.”