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VU News - Grant Awarded for Star Research

December 07, 2009

A Valparaiso University professor has received a $10,000 grant supporting his research about the end stages in the life cycle of stars, which could help explain what will happen to the sun at the end of its life.

Dr. Todd Hillwig, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is the recipient of this year’s Philip and Miriam Kapfer Endowed Faculty Research Award. He was selected for the award by the University’s Creative Work and Research Committee.

Dr. Hillwig will use the grant to study the end stages of a star’s life, looking closer at a process in which the star loses its outer layers, leaving behind a small, hot inner core, called a “white dwarf star.”

“Currently we teach that the white dwarf star will illuminate the ejected gas that surrounds it, making the gas glow – what we refer to as a planetary nebula,” Dr. Hillwig said. “Through observing the shapes of planetary nebulae, recent research has revealed that the process may in fact not be typical.”

Dr. Hillwig and several undergraduate students are currently involved in a search for the types of binary stars that can help scientists determine why and when stars go through the planetary nebula stage, and this award will help Valpo researchers continue with more in-depth studies.

The Kapfer Award will allow the student research team to work full-time over one summer, and they will also likely co-author an article for a professional publication during that time. Dr. Hillwig says their study could lead to more information about the sun’s life cycle, and a better understanding of the universe.

“Understanding how binary stars affect one another will also help us to understand how a single star like the sun changes as the nuclear reactions in its core progress,” Dr. Hillwig said. “We are positioned now to make a significant contribution to a larger research effort that will help us understand how stars change over the course of their lifetimes, and potentially have indirect benefits to our understanding of the size of the universe and how much of the universe is dark energy as opposed to dark matter and normal matter.”

Dr. Hillwig hopes to pursue additional funding to send the students to a major astronomy conference where they can present their work, and he says the award will help advance Valpo’s astronomy program by providing more research opportunities to students and national exposure for Valpo’s Department of Astronomy and Physics (http://www.valpo.edu/physics).

The Kapfer Research Award, funded with an endowment established by the Kapfer family, gives financial assistance to one faculty member annually in the College of Arts and Sciences for research in the faculty member’s area of expertise.