Dr. Bethany Cobb is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of California-Berkeley. Dr. Cobb will make progress toward understanding gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitors by examining GRB afterglows, GRB-related supernovae (SNe) and the host galaxies of dark bursts. GRBs have the potential to serve as powerful tools in many areas of astronomical research because they probe regions of the universe that are otherwise hidden from view. However, exactly how and why GRBs form is still not understood. This investigation will make use of the 1.3-m Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (SMARTS) in Chile and the 1.3-m robotic Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope (PAIRITEL) in Arizona for rapid and long-term follow-up of GRB afterglow and GRB-related SNe, as well as the WIYN and Keck observatories for deep imaging of GRB host galaxies.
Dr. Cobb will also develop and teach a series of 6-week courses through the UC Berkeley Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the Berkeley Adult School to promote life-long learning and to bring the excitement of astronomy to adults 50+. These centers focus on helping seniors develop skills and interests that will enrich and enhance their quality of life. Dr. Cobb will make the materials produced for these classes publicly available and extensively document the challenges and rewards of teaching astronomy to mature students.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the universe, each one likely signaling the formation of a new black hole in a distant galaxy. Despite the wealth of GRB detections provided by the Swift and Fermi satellites (which are both orbiting telescopes dedicated to gamma-ray studies), the exact nature of GRB progenitors remains elusive. I worked with a large number of collaborators, including individuals around the globe, to use a suite of telescopes, including the SMARTS 1.3m and Gemini North and South 8 meter telescopes, to run a campaign dedicated to obtaining rapid, multi-wavelength observations of GRB afterglows (the lower energy light that follows the initial gamma-rays) in order to model their spectral and temporal behavior to shed light on GRB physical properties and GRB formation environments. In particular, I worked to detect and characterize supernovae (stellar explosions) associated with GRBs in order to shed light on the formation mechanism for long-duration GRBs. The most interesting outcome of my work was the discovery of SN 2009nz associated with GRB 091127. My work resulted in the first detection of this GRB-SN, and the only published optical light curve for this GRB-SN (Cobb et al. "Discovery of SN 2009nz Associated with GRB 091127," ApJ Letters, 2010, 718, L150). Interestingly, this GRB-SN has an optical light curve that is extremely similar to SN 1998bw (which was associated with GRB 980425 and is considered the "prototypical" GRB-SN) despite the fact that this GRB had very different high-energy characteristics. The discovery of SN 2009nz provides strong support for the hypothesis that most long-duration GRBs are formed by the core collapse of massive stars. My education and outreach activities have included several different initiatives, including developing and teaching classes in modern astronomy for adults who are 50+, as this is a segment of the population that is generally underserved by the professional astronomical community. These classes, taught at the UC Berkeley arm of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, exposed mature adults to the wonders of the universe to help them to develop interests that enrich and enhance their quality of life. I was also involved in a collaboration that linked astronomy and dance. In this collaboration, we presented modern astronomical topics to various audiences (including adult and children audiences) through performances that combined lecture and dance. Finally, I developed and taught astronomy/physics material to undergraduate students at the George Washington University. Classes were conducted in a student-centered mode, and experimented heavily with "inquiry-based" laboratory exercises. The material developed for these classes has been shared with the astronomy education community.
