Astronomy research paper

A Scientific Paper Describing Recent Research On a Specific Topic

Title

[Every paper should have a title that indicates the topic to the reader]

Use the headings below (Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion) to separate the sections of your paper.

Introduction

All scientific reports begin with an introduction of some type, no matter what structure is followed in the rest of the paper. This paper should summarize recent research on a specific scientific topic related to this course. This is where you explain your paper objectives, argue that the subject is important, and describe the recent work in the context of previous research. You can describe the state of knowledge that motivated

the research in the first place.

Methods and Materials

This section describes the methods and materials used in the research being summarized. The description should include the research setup, equipment, laboratory and/or field procedures) and how the data were analyzed. This section will vary depending on the type of research to be described. The types of calculations used, such as the laws of physics which apply and why. If you describe experiments that you’ve read about in other sources, please focus on the technical aspects and provide citations. This section is a good place to describe details of the equipment used, such as detectors or measuring instruments and their precision. If your research topic is theoretical or uses simulations, then the calculation techniques should be described.

Results and Discussion

In this section, you summarize the data from relevant experiments and indicate the important results that the data supports. What conclusions can be made from the information you have gathered? Did the information you gathered support or refute the original hypothesis? If you have any data tables, equations or phenomenological relations that support your understanding, you can refer to these and attach them in an Appendix at the end of your paper.

Present a brief summary of the decisive findings and tentative conclusions. Whereas the introduction section introduces the research question and reviews the state of knowledge in the field that motivated the question, the discussion section explains how the research broadens the knowledge. How precise are the theoretical predictions and/or the data?

How close do the theory and predictions fit with the actual data measured?

Conclusion

What research questions remain? This section could also include examination of other evidence supporting or contradicting the tentative conclusions.

References

This section documents the sources that provided you with information used in the paper. References should be listed alphabetically by last name on a separate page at the end of the paper using the APA documentation system.