Carthage Physics and Astronomy
Physics/Astronomy at Carthage is a great opportunity to expand your horizons and develop talents and skills for any career. In addition to exciting introductory courses, you may select more advanced courses in a variety of active fields. Research facilities, equipment, and opportunities abound, and you also have the opportunity to use the telescopes at Yerkes Observatory. Carthage students and faculty are involved in forefront activities, including the new NSF Center for Adaptive Optics– a cutting edge research program that will probe the depths of the Universe and the structure of your eyes! Carthage Physics students are also involved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at Fermilab– an international effort that will image one million galaxies and probe the depths of the Universe! From research in computational modeling of nano-scale materials to studying the most distant objects in the universe, Carthage physics students have ample opportunity to participate in a range of contemporary research activities.
Carthage Physics recently participated in the NASA Microgravity University Systems Engineering Student Flight Campaign. Five Carthage physics majors and Professor Crosby were selected to fly an experiment aboard Weightless Wonder, a modified C-9 aircraft that executes parabolic maneuvers to achieve periods of microgravity. Read more about this exciting story here.
Department News
- Professor Doug Arion has been chosen to lead the telescope design team of the International Year of Astronomy Galileoscope Project. This project will distribute more than a million telescope kits to schoolchildren throughout the world. The kits will be simple, accessible, and easy-to-assemble. The ambitious plan to put telescopes into the hands of millions of children around the world will provide many people with their first glimpse of the moons of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn. The IYA is an international effort to commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope to study the skies, and Kepler’s publication of Astronomia Nova.
- The City of Kenosha and Carthage College have entered into an
agreement that will completely renovate and refurbish the historic observatory atop the south tower at Kemper Center, two miles south of campus. This newly renovated facility will provide the College with astronomical research and teaching facilities, and will be used by College faculty to conduct public outreach activities such as star parties and observing sessions in support of the astronomy program at Carthage.
