NJIT in the News

NJIT President Robert A. Altenkirch has asked the university community to consider responding to the epic devastation caused by the tsunami disaster through support of a fund that has been created for rescue and recovery efforts. Those who choose to contribute should send or bring funds to the Dean of Students Office. Checks should be made out to “NJIT Tsunami Relief Fund.”  These funds will be sent to the American Red Cross, which is assisting with the rescue and recovery efforts.

CyberExtruder, a 3-D biometrics company, has developed a computer software program that will allow cell phone users to pass a cyber baton through their mobile telephones. The baton will feature a 3-D animated photograph of them.   Samsung Electronics Europe will employ the technology in a cell phone relay race running May 17 to July 31, 2004, in tandem with the Summer Olympics in Greece.  Cell phone users in England, Germany, France, Spain, Greece and Italy will have access to the fun.

If you’ve ever wanted to know more about the sun’s 10-billion year life cycle, don’t miss “Solar Fireworks,” an easy-to-understand new science exhibit about the sun and solar system,  on view May 15, 2004, through May 29, 2005, at the Newark Museum.    The exhibit is a collaborative effort between astronomers at the museum and Haimin Wang and Carsten Denker, professors of physics, at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).  Wang and Denker designed and wrote the easy-to-understand display that includes installations, computer animations and even a touch-and-tell plasma globe.  Wang obtained the show’s funding -- a $30,000 grant from NASA’s Office of Space Science Education/Public Outreach Program.  The exhibit is open Wednesdays through Sundays, noon-5 p.m., in the Prudential Foundation Gallery of the Victoria Hall of Science at the museum.

When the Voyager I space craft was launched more than 26 years ago, it carried an instrument designed to analyze the charged particles it encountered in space. That included particles around the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto as well as those in the interplanetary medium.

Newark, N.J.--The "weather" in space may have just gotten a bit more predictable. Using new digital equipment, a team of NJIT researchers has gotten a better look at the surface of the sun and what happens to it both before and during solar flares. Working at NJIT's Big Bear Solar Observatory in California, a team led by physics professor Haimin Wang, Ph.D., produced a series of new images. They show for the first time that rapid changes in the magnetic fields emanating from the sun's surface are associated with flares and mass ejections of energy from the sun's corona. These eruptions are typically near areas known as "sunspots", which appear dark through telescopes because they have a lower surface temperature than that of their surrounding surface. "This is good news for the researchers of space weather, because our information will enable scientists in industry and government to better understand and predict the likelihood of flares and prepare for and mitigate adverse consequences," says Wang. Wang is scheduled to present the findings this week at the American Astronomical Society's solar physics division meeting at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Solar flares are violent eruptions that send electromagnetic radiation into space, ultimately causing problems on earth by disrupting the atmosphere. The flare-ups can interfere with satellite-based communications and television and radio broadcasts. That can mean disruptions in cell-phone service and flight communications. Wang and colleagues produced images showing how the sun's surface changed during an after a flare. The research should enable scientists to predict when solar flares will erupt, how disruptive they will be, and how long they will last, he says. Crucial to producing the images was a new imaging system known as a "digital magnetograph system" built by NJIT doctoral student Tom Spirock. The team's work was also supported by grants from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.

A solar research team from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has discovered new information about the sun’s surface, known as the photosphere. Haimin Wang, Ph.D., professor of physics at NJIT, who led this team, detected rapid changes last July in magnetic fields on the sun’s surface. Such rapid changes are associated with flares and coronal mass ejections (CME).