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Donald Walter, Ph.D. (Summer 2004)
Donald Walter is an Associate Professor of Physics in the Department of Physical Sciences at South Carolina State University (SCSU), where he has been since 1994. He received his PhD in astrophysics from Rice University in 1993 while carrying out a study of the physical diagnostics and chemical abundances of the interstellar medium. He held a postdoctoral research position at Rice University in 1993-94 where he concentrated on a study of the Orion Nebula using ground and space-based imagery and spectroscopic data. More recently, his research has included a study of the wind-blown bubble nebula NGC 7635, for which he was the principal investigator on a Hubble Space Telescope program during Cycle 7. He is also co-investigator on a Cycle 8 Hubble program that is examining the starburst galaxy NGC 1569. He has over 20 years of experience in higher education as a teacher and researcher as well as serving as a planetarium director in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, and at SCSU. Since 1995, he has served as the principal investigator on grants from NASA that have been funded for a total of 7.99 million dollars. He currently manages several NASA projects at SCSU that include research, education and outreach components. Walter was awarded a NASA Faculty Fellowship in 2004 to conduct research in the Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) In Greenbelt, Maryland, during the summer of 2004. This work includes the study of comets that is part of the research conducted by the GSFC Center for Astrobiology.
2004 Project Description
Dr. Donald Walter from South Carolina State University is part of the Summer 2004 NASA Faculty Fellowship Program at the Goddard Space Flight Center. He is working with a NASA colleague, Dr. Michael DiSanti, in the Planetary Systems Branch, Code 693, of the Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics. This summer's research is part of a larger team effort in Code 690 and is conducted as part of the mission of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology led by Dr. Michael Mumma.
Walter's work includes analysis of infrared spectra of one or more comets taken from the ground at the NASA Infrared Telescope Faculty and the Keck Observatory, both located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Emission lines from molecules contained as ices in the nucleus will be measured and the resultant fluxes used to calculate rotational temperatures and production rates. These ices include water (the most abundant volatile in comets) and several carbon-bearing molecules including carbon monoxide, ethane, methane, hydrogen cyanide, methyl alcohol, acetylene, ammonia and formaldehyde. The distribution of emission intensity along the spectrograph's slit will be used to search for sources of production or release in the cometary coma.
This work is part of an overall effort to better understand the formation and evolution of organics in the early history of the solar system. From an astrobiological standpoint, it also addresses questions related to the delivery of water and organic material to the early Earth.
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