How old are each of the stars in our roughly 13-billion-year-old galaxy? A new technique for understanding the star-forming history of the Milky Way in unprecedented detail makes it possible to determine the ages of stars at least two times more precisely than conventional methods, Embry-Riddle researchers reported this week at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting. Current star-dating techniques, based on assessments of stars in the prime or main sequence of their lives that have begun to die after exhausting their hydrogen, offer a 20-percent, or at best a 10-percent margin of error, explained Embry-Riddle Physics and Astronomy Professor Dr. Ted von Hippel. Embry-Riddle’s approach, leveraging burnt-out remnants called white dwarf stars, reduces the margin of error to 5 percent or even 3 percent, he said.

Helping pilots swiftly recognize and respond to the first signs of deadly oxygen deficiency, or hypoxia, is the focus of two Embry-Riddle research projects that contributed to a U.S. Navy project that won a 2018 Innovation Award from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCTSD).

A self-directed spacecraft rotates on a platform inside a glass enclosed test chamber in the Engineering Physics Propulsion Lab in the College of Arts & Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Nearby, a student wearing a virtual reality headset maneuvers a 3D digital version of the spacecraft through a simulated Martian atmosphere.

As Uber plans to debut small, electric air taxis by 2023 and a host of aircraft manufacturers are working toward reduced-emission propulsion, Embry-Riddle – the world’s premier aviation and aerospace institution – has launched what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind graduate engineering course in hybrid aircraft propulsion and urban air mobility aircraft.

Research by Embry-Riddle’s Dr. Hugo Castillo that challenges conventional thinking about the impacts of low-level radiation exposure has drawn international attention from other scientists — and from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Five undergraduate Space Physics students were selected to assist in conducting experiments with the CCM (Coherent Captain Mills) neutrino detector at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), N.M. The experiment is designed to search for “sterile” neutrinos, a possible source of dark matter.  

After ten years of leadership at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott Campus, Chancellor Dr. Frank Ayers and his wife Debbie have announced their decision to return to Florida to be closer to family at the end of the Spring 2019 semester. Ayers will transition to a full-time faculty role in the College of Aviation at the University’s Daytona Beach, Fla. Campus.

A shaky pilot on her first solo flight radios for help after three unsuccessful landing attempts. Thanks to a veteran air traffic controller and a skilled Embry-Riddle flight instructor, the story has a happy ending.

For Embry-Riddle student-pilot Adlynn Lay, taking his 91-year-old great-grandmother, “Grammy Cracker” (Anna Duncan), for a recent airplane ride was an honor that allowed him to combine two of his greatest passions: aviation and family.

A commencement ceremony on Dec. 1 at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas, this year honored a record 120 graduates from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Worldwide Campus. The students earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from eight Worldwide campuses in Texas and Louisiana, representing Embry-Riddle Worldwide locations in Fort Worth-Alliance, Fort Worth (NAS Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth), Wichita Falls (Sheppard Air Force Base), Abilene (Dyess Air Force Base), San Antonio (Randolph Air Force Base), Houston, Corpus Christi (NAS Corpus Christi),  Louisiana (Barksdale Air Force Base) and the Online Campus.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s graduate students Karen Brun and Heidi Hammerstein recently joined other Scientist-Astronaut candidates at the National Research Council of Canada’s Flight Research Laboratory in Ottawa, Ontario to participate in parabolic microgravity flights, which provided an opportunity for them to perform unique testing in a weightless environment simulating that of space. Hammerstein and Brun are members of Project PoSSUM, a non-profit research and education organization that conducts upper-atmospheric and space technology research and communicates the science through various educational outreach programs. This is the fourth time Project PoSSUM, which stands for Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesophere, has partnered with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) at their Flight Research Laboratory to conduct microgravity flights.

A new Broadcast Meteorology study track for Communication majors at the Daytona Beach Campus will offer exciting career options for students, according to new Assistant Professor of Meteorology Rob Eicher.

After nearly 10 years in the TV weather business, meteorologist and environmental reporter Vicki Graf (’07) has grown used to the bright lights and cameras of broadcast news. When she’s on the air, she likes to believe that she’s presenting to just the handful of crew members in the studio with her, rather than the thousands of people watching at home. That’s how she beats the nerves, she said, and it works. That’s how she feels comfortable and even natural in front of the camera — but it wasn’t always like this.