Peter Dawson Hangs with Cool Stars While the rest of us prepared to watch the Canadians take gold in Olympic hockey during the last weekend in February, Professor Peter Dawson's mind was practically on another planet-or at least on some very interesting stars. Professor Dawson was in Hawaii on the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope studying some of the coolest stars residing in a cluster within the halo of the Milky Way called ngc 2420. But why cool stars? Because, to Prof. Dawson, cool stars provide the most information about their chemical composition. Through an infrared camera, he recorded the colours of specific stars and will bring the information back to Trent University to compare it with the best theoretical models available to determine the metalicity of the stars. Some of the cool stars under observation were the size of Jupiter and larger. Prof. Dawson's research will help determine whether or not the models predicting the chemical makeup of stars are correct, information which can eventually help trace the chemical evolution of the universe. Back to the Trent Report main page

---

Return to Trent Home
Maintained by the Communications Department.
Last updated March 1, 2002