Ryan's Blog

My research with my supervisor, Kristen, involves analyzing the radiogenic age and paleomagnetism of lunar rocks retrieved from the Apollo missions. I have learned brand new units revolving around magnetism, such as oersteds, equal to a 100th of a Tesla aka microteslas. Paleomagnetism or paleointensity is essentially the remanence magnetization of an object.

Using official and scholar reports, I began documenting every rock Kristen has obtained. I have also been introduced to paleointensity measurement methods. The Thellier-Thellier method is preferred over sIRM's and REM's.

My current computational goal is to convert the ages and paleointensities of each rock into new decay constants, using Kristen's modified converter. The converter produces more reliable results as opposed to old and outdated data. In addition to computational documenting, we are attempting to make acrylic molds to hold the lunar rocks. Kristen's proposed method is to use 1 inch and 1 1/4 PVC pipes to cut out a rubber mold, which would hold both the acrylic and lunar rock. We will test this method on Thursday.

Trials of mold making — Jul 27, 2012 10:02:56 PM