Cosmology short courses offer teachers insights into the latest research advances and tools to bring modern science to their home institutions. Pictured is John Carlstrom and planetarium staffers conducting an experiment to measure the 3K Cosmic Microwave Background as part of a 3 day short course.

Submitted by: Randall Landsberg, Education and Outreach Manager

"COUPP (Chicago Observatory for Underground Particle Physics): violent

vaporization induced by a nuclear recoil in a heavy-liquid bubble chamber

(1 frame per ms). The installation in the Soudan mine (MN) of a 2-kg CF3I

chamber for WIMP detection is planned for 2004."

Professor Juan I. Collar

CAPMAP measures the cosmic microwave background

polarization for insights on the dynamics of the early universe.

Shown are the telescope in New Jersey (left), the receivers

(middle, bottom) and jupiter as

seen by the array (top).

The image shows dark matter distribution in a simulation

of galaxy cluster comparable in mass to the Virgo cluster, the nearest

cluster to the Milky Way. The simulations followed evolution of the

cluster in the concordance Cold Dark Matter model with dark energy

using nearly ten million particles. The particles are color-coded according

to the local matter density on a logarithmic scale such that the highest density

regions are the brighest. The numerous dense clumps of matter is where

we expect galaxies to be located. The smallest mass of these clumps is

comparable to the masses of dwarf galaxies seen in the Virgo cluster.

Professor Andrey Kravtsov

Photo of SZA scopes and mountains out in California taken by Erik Leitch.

An artist's impression of VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System). A new major ground-based gamma-ray observatory with an array of four 12m optical reflectors for gamma-ray astronomy in the GeV - TeV energy range .It will consist of an array of imaging telescopes which will be deployed such that they will permit the maximum versatility and will give the highest sensitivity in the 50 GeV - 50 TeV band (with maximum sensitivity from 100 GeV to 10 TeV). In this band critical measurements of SNRs and AGNs will be made. This VHE observatory will effectively complement GLAST well into the next millennium.

Submitted by: Professor Simon Swordy