{"id":118613,"date":"2020-05-15T13:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T23:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=118613"},"modified":"2024-03-15T14:54:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T00:54:54","slug":"avallone-aas-popular-writing-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/15\/avallone-aas-popular-writing-award\/","title":{"rendered":"ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> astronomy grad student wins science writing award"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

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A graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa Institute for Astronomy<\/a> (IfA<\/abbr>) has received the 2020 American Astronomical Society (AAS<\/abbr>) Solar Physics Division Popular Writing Award. Ellis Avallone<\/strong>, a second-year graduate student studying solar physics, explained the role of the Sun\u2019s rotation rate during the formation of the solar system. Studies connect the speed of our Sun\u2019s rotation to the composition of the inner planets of our solar system, using clues gathered from the Earth\u2019s moon.<\/p>\n

“The Moon is a surprisingly ideal place (to) study past solar activity due to the cataclysmic event that formed the Earth-Moon system,” said Avallone in her essay, A Lunar Time Machine: Secrets to our Sun\u2019s Active Past<\/a>. “The lack of a thick atmosphere causes solar eruptions that reach the Moon to strip material from its surface, leaving behind an imprint that can be used to understand the Sun\u2019s tumultuous past.”<\/p>\n

\"moon\"
Avallone\u2019s essay highlighted a study that linked the Sun\u2019s rotation speed to the loss of elements on the moon. (Photo credit: NASA\/JPL\/USGS<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
\"solar
An active region of the sun erupts, producing a solar flare. (Photo credit: NASA\/SDO<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n

Avallone\u2019s award is based on the article, “Was the Sun a Slow Rotator? – Sodium and Potassium Constraints from the Lunar Regolith” (Prabal Saxena, Rosemary M. Killen, et al.), published in June 2019. The AAS<\/abbr> grants prizes to outstanding science writing in various astronomical disciplines each year. In addition, Avallone\u2019s writing prompted James Paul Mason, AAS<\/abbr>\/Solar Physics Division Popular Media Award Committee Chair to note, “You\u2019ve even inspired us to consider creating a whole new category of the award, something along the lines of ‘students writing for students’. It\u2019s great work you\u2019re doing.”<\/p>\n

The study compared the amount of sodium and potassium on the Moon and the Earth. Models show that the faster the Sun rotates, the more of these elements are lost due to increased solar activity, or coronal mass ejections. Moon rocks have significantly less of these elements compared to Earth, which has a thicker atmosphere and a magnetic field, allowing our planet to hold on to the elements during energetic outbursts from the Sun.<\/p>\n

The Earth and Moon have similar compositions, according to a widely accepted theory that the Moon was born from Earth after a cataclysmic collision with a Mars-sized planet called Theia<\/a>. Since sodium and potassium are more abundant on present day Earth, the authors conclude that the early Sun was a slowly rotating star, completing one revolution every 10 Earth-days. Today, the rotation of the Sun is even slower, taking a placid 27 days.<\/p>\n

Besides contributing more information on the evolution of our solar system, understanding the causes and frequency of the Sun\u2019s eruptive events can further augment predictive capabilities for our planet\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> M\u0101noa grad\u2019s essay received an AAS<\/abbr> Solar Physics Division award focused on the role the Sun\u2019s rotation played in the formation of the solar system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[34,35,124,9,1626],"class_list":["post-118613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-astronomy","tag-institute-for-astronomy","tag-physics","tag-uh-manoa","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118613"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118670,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118613\/revisions\/118670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}