Horizons Fall 2016

45 NSU HORIZONS research opportunity, and simultaneously use my students’ data for my research. It’s a teaching and research tool.” Computer science major Lennox Francis is working with Kautsch to improve the app. “I got involved with this project because I was inherently fascinated by astronomy and astrophysics and with what Dr. Kautsch was doing,” said Francis, who got hooked after taking Introduction to Astronomy. “The way Dr. Kautsch talked about the stars, galaxies, and planets and how they relate to each other in the universe inspired me to want to contribute to the field,” said Francis, a junior in the NSU College of Engineering and Computing. “I see astronomy as a study of the history of everything. Astronomy has a remarkable ability to unite all of the other fields of science.” Earlier this year, Kautsch received the Lunar and Meteorite Certification presented by the National Aero- nautics and Space Administration (NASA). This may one day enable him to “borrow’’ moon rock and meteorite samples from NASA’s historic Apollo missions, which he hopes to incorporate into his classes. Celestial objects are yet another way to engage students in the science of astronomy and the mysteries of the moon, said Kautsch, whose research revolves around dark matter and galaxy morphology. “Dark matter is the biggest mys- tery in the universe,” he said. “Space is filled with dark matter. It has gravitational traction; we all know it’s there. But we cannot see it, and no one knows the nature of it.” The mass of dark matter is what gives galaxies their different types of shapes, known as morphology. “Dark matter is responsible for shaping the morphology of galaxies, and this is what I study with my students and in my international collaboration,” Kautsch said. Recently, Kautsch presented research in Munich, Germany, at the Discs in Galaxies 2016 conference of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), an intergovernmental and technology organization in astronomy. With advanced technology and research techniques, the study of astronomy, space exploration, and the search for undiscovered planets remains pivotal, Kautsch said. “Astronomy is in a golden age,” he said. “And, it is an essential component of STEM education, because it highly engages students and the public. This is why many univer- sities nationwide invest in astrophysical research and education, or start astronomy programs, because it is so important.” The National Science Foundation (NSF) has declared astrophysics as one of its major “research frontiers” for “increased support in order to answer pressing chal- lenges of our civilization,” he added, quoting the May 2016 issue of Science magazine. “Astronomy is considered the oldest science of human kind. We use the stars to navigate—that’s applied astron- omy. We use astronomy in agriculture; because without understanding the concepts of the seasons, it would be impossible to know when to plant or harvest—that’s applied astronomy,” Kautsch pointed out. “It’s important to understand that all astronomical research—even research that seems to be far away—has been converted pretty quickly into applications,’’ he added. “Whenever there was a big discovery in astronomy, there was a link to a big step in the progress of human society.” Stefan Kautsch discusses research on galaxy data with NSU students (from left, Hoang [Gwen] Bui, Lennox Francis, and Stephanie Hamilton) who are looking at the photograph archive of the European Southern Observatory.