Databases And Inter-Connectivity In Ground-Based Astronomy, 2023 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Databases And Inter-Connectivity In Ground-Based Astronomy, Ted Von Hippel, C. M. Mountain
Publications
Optical and infrared ground-based astronomy is undergoing a renaissance. Advances in material technology, system modeling, and the ability to correct atmospheric distortions in real time have produced a new generation of powerful, large telescopes. An equally profound revolution stems from the availability of large observational databases that span the electromagnetic spectrum. The increased use of such databases as well as the need to operate the new telescopes efficiently requires the development of a National or International Virtual Observatory to set standards for astronomical database formats, data quality assurance, and access protocols, and also to provide all-inclusive centers for data products.
Improvements To Isru For Rocket Fuel Generation, 2023 James Madison University
Improvements To Isru For Rocket Fuel Generation, Justin Sharp
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
The development of efficient in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies is crucial for the establishment of an extraterrestrial, self-sustaining colony. The generation of rocket fuel at potential colony locations is necessary to provide the transportation of people and cargo to and from these locations.Three processes are discussed for the improvement of ISRU methods to generate rocket fuel: electrolysis and electrochemical improvements to the process of crude fuel production, physical and chemical methods for separation of gaseous H2 and O2, and materials and cryogenics engineering for storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX). Storage and transportation of cryogenics …
Optimal Method For Reconstructing Polychromatic Maps From Broadband Observations With An Aysmmetric Antenna Pattern, 2023 University of Richmond
Optimal Method For Reconstructing Polychromatic Maps From Broadband Observations With An Aysmmetric Antenna Pattern, Brianna Cantrall, Emory F. Bunn, Solomon Quinn
Honors Theses
Broadband time-ordered data obtained from telescopes with a wavelength-dependent, asymmetric beam pattern can be used to extract maps at multiple wavelengths from a single scan. This technique is especially useful when collecting data on cosmic phenomena such as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, as it provides the ability to separate the CMB signal from foreground contaminants. We develop a method to determine the optimal linear combinations of wavelengths (“colors”) that can be reconstructed for a given telescope design and the number of colors that are measurable with high signal-to-noise ratio. The optimal colors are found as eigenvectors of a …
Acceptable Title Pending: Probing The Limits Of Precision Measurement And Academic Assessment, 2023 Bard College
Acceptable Title Pending: Probing The Limits Of Precision Measurement And Academic Assessment, Bobby King
Senior Projects Spring 2023
This is a project in two parts. The first is an attempt to impart onto the reader the necessary mental models required to understand a scientific experiment related to the improvement of gravitational wave detectors. Part one is illustrated in collaboration with Simone River Wilding, Sohpie Foley, Roma Taitwood, and Cam Goldberg.
Part two is a technical description of efforts made to reduce speckle in measurements of scattered light. Gravitational wave detection requires extremely high precision measurement, and one source of noise in the detectors is scattering off of defects and surface roughness in optical coatings. Research into the development …
Applications Of Digital Filters In Radio Astronomy, 2023 West Virginia University
Applications Of Digital Filters In Radio Astronomy, Joseph William Kania
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
The radio sky spans tens of orders of magnitude in length, density, and time.
In this thesis, using novel filtering techniques and two different telescopes,
we investigate two tracers of cosmic structure: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
(BAOs) and Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). BAOs formed as the universe cooled
after the Big Bang. BAOs provide a fiducial length scale of the universe
throughout cosmic time and thus can be used to understand how the universe
is evolving. FRBs are very bright, short timescale, bursts of as-yet unknown
origin which occur uniformly on the sky at a rate of a few thousand per …
The Analysis Of Radio And X-Ray Energetics Of Fast Radio Bursts, 2022 University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The Analysis Of Radio And X-Ray Energetics Of Fast Radio Bursts, Emily Huerta
Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters
Here, we analyze the graphs and figures presented in Laha et al. (2022) and compare their slopes to our figures. Laha et al. (2022) includes two graphs, one that shows a comparison between radio fluence vs. x-ray fluence and radio energy vs. x-ray energy. In these graphs, the slopes are anywhere from 3.3e-14 to 2e-5, which are much less than unity. Our figures are consistent with these values, also providing slopes anywhere between the same range. Strong limits on this ratio between radio and x-ray energetics can either support the magnetar progenitor model, or completely dismiss it. Since we found …
3-D Visualizations Of Terrestial Exoplanet Interiors Generated With Magrathea In Blender, 2022 University of Nevada, Las Vegas
3-D Visualizations Of Terrestial Exoplanet Interiors Generated With Magrathea In Blender, Tristan Benally, David Rice
Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters
There has been significant progress in simulating exoplanet interiors in the past decade. With the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 system in the last few years, there have been many publications presenting models to best characterize specific aspects of exoplanets in study. However, with more parameters and considerations for different characteristics of an exoplanet there will be a need to represent many findings into a comprehensive model in the future. We extend the capabilities of MAGRATHEA from a planet interior solver to start incorporating multi-faceted functions starting with generating 3-D terrestrial planetary visualizations using a 3-D open-source computer graphic software called …
A Method For Exploring The Habitability Of Earth-Like Exoplanets: Applications To Tess Objects Of Interest 203 B, 256 B, And 700 D, 2022 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
A Method For Exploring The Habitability Of Earth-Like Exoplanets: Applications To Tess Objects Of Interest 203 B, 256 B, And 700 D, Paul Bonney
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has and is continuing to discover a multitude of potentially habitable planet candidates. As more planets are detected and confirmed, it becomes increasingly important to strategically search for signs of habitability with which to differentiate and prioritize them for further observation, in particular with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). To facilitate this, I have created a method for prioritizing TESS planet candidates based on parameters derived from their light curves and have applied the method to the TESS Candidate Target List (CTL). This data set uses preliminary fits to transit modeling which can …
Using Neural Network To Search For Isolated Hα Clouds In The Virgo Cluster, 2022 University of Alabama in Huntsville
Using Neural Network To Search For Isolated Hα Clouds In The Virgo Cluster, Audra Carver
Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)
No abstract provided.
Mining The Data Cubes In Sub-Mm And Optical Astronomy, 2022 University of Alabama in Huntsville
Mining The Data Cubes In Sub-Mm And Optical Astronomy, Nathanael Pichette
Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)
No abstract provided.
Development Of High-Resolution Meteor Spectra Analysis, 2022 Western University
Development Of High-Resolution Meteor Spectra Analysis, Zhangqing Yang
Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference
Meteoroids are often billions of years old and as they ablate and ionize in the atmosphere, they give off light leaving us clues to the history of our solar system. In addition, their presence imposes serious risks to our equipment and astronauts in space. My research deals with analyzing High-Resolution Meteor Spectra, which are obtained by separating the light Meteors give off through a Diffraction Grating. Firstly, as the Meteor’s speed during ablation affects its spectrum, the position, speed, and trajectory of 40 well-tracked Meteors (picked from over 500) were determined using the programs Metal and Mirfit. Then, the spectra …
The Cosmic History Of X-Ray Binary Evolution, 2022 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
The Cosmic History Of X-Ray Binary Evolution, Woodrow Gilbertson
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The Chandra Deep Fields provide an extraordinary window into the high-energy history of the cosmos. Observations of non-active galaxies within the deep fields can be leveraged to extract information about the formation and evolution of X-ray binaries (XRBs). Previous studies have suggested that the evolution of XRB luminosity can be expressed a function of physical parameters such as star formation rate, stellar mass, stellar age, and metallicity. The goal of this work is to develop and implement a complete physical parameterization for the luminosity of XRB populations, which can be utilized for a variety of further studies.
Chapter 1 provides …
Climatology Of Deep O+ Dropouts In The Night-Time F-Region In Solar Minimum Measured By A Langmuir Probe Onboard The International Space Station, 2022 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Climatology Of Deep O+ Dropouts In The Night-Time F-Region In Solar Minimum Measured By A Langmuir Probe Onboard The International Space Station, Shantanab Debchoudhury, Aroh Barjatya, Joseh I. Minow, Victoria N. Coffey, Linda N. Parker
Publications
The Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) onboard the International Space Station includes a Wide sweeping Langmuir Probe (WLP) that has been operating in the F-region of the ionosphere at ∼400 km since 2006. While traditional Langmuir probe estimates include critical plasma parameters like electron density and temperature, we have also extracted the O+ percentage from the total ion constituents. This O+ composition dataset from the recent minimum in the Solar Cycle 24 reveals orbits with dropouts in O+ to below 80% of the total background ion density at ISS orbital altitudes. The observed O+ percentages during these dropouts are much …
Probing The Inner Structure Of Active Galactic Nuclei Through Reverberation Mapping, 2022 The University of Western Ontario
Probing The Inner Structure Of Active Galactic Nuclei Through Reverberation Mapping, Viraja Chandrashekhar Khatu
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
In the centres of massive galaxies, active galactic nuclei (AGN) are supermassive black holes, surrounded by an accretion disk of ionized gas, that release tremendous energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Because AGN are unresolved through telescopes, we employ reverberation mapping (RM) to study their structure. RM capitalizes on the fact that AGN are variable – the continuum emission from the accretion disk varies, and surrounding gas (in the broad-line region, BLR) responds to those variations with a positive time lag. RM translates the measured time lag into a size of the BLR. Combined with gas velocities (measured from …
Tesing Cababilities Of Proposed Telescope Lynx Through Simulated Bubbles In The Intracluster Medium, 2022 University of Alabama in Huntsville
Tesing Cababilities Of Proposed Telescope Lynx Through Simulated Bubbles In The Intracluster Medium, Sierra Rose Hauck
Honors Capstone Projects and Theses
No abstract provided.
Cepheid Variable Light Curve Analysis On The Embry-Riddle 1-Meter Telescope, 2022 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Cepheid Variable Light Curve Analysis On The Embry-Riddle 1-Meter Telescope, Kayla Taylor
Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal
This report details light curve analysis for four Cepheid variable stars (Polaris, RT Aurigae, RX Aurigae, and Zeta Geminorum) using Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's 1-meter reflecting telescope and a SBIG-STX 16803 camera with a g filter. Observations were conducted once per week during the Spring 2021 semester; at least one three-hour shift was allotted per week according to the Observational Astronomy Telescope Allocation Committee (TAC). Individual light curves for each target Cepheid were then compared to published data to analyze evidence of evolution on the Instability Strip. Although the light curves showed the sinusoidal nature of brightness oscillations, amplitudes of the …
Constraining The Star Formation Histories Of Galaxies In The Swift/Uvot + Manga (Swim) Value-Added Catalog, 2022 University of Kentucky
Constraining The Star Formation Histories Of Galaxies In The Swift/Uvot + Manga (Swim) Value-Added Catalog, Nikhil Ajgaonkar
Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy
Although our understanding about galaxy evolution has improved in the past few
decades, we still do not understand how galaxies suddenly stop forming stars and move towards a quiescent phase. In order to do that, we must derive the Star Formation Histories (SFHs) of galaxies, that trace the change in Star Formation (SF) inside the galaxy over the cosmic timescale. This is achieved by using a set of spatially resolved near-ultraviolet (NUV) and optical spectroscopic images of the galaxies. We generate the Swift/UVOT + MaNGA value added catalog (SwiM VAC; Molina et al., 2020b) which comprises 150 galaxies having a …
Development Of A Fluxgate Magnetometer Model, 2022 University of New Hampshire, Durham
Development Of A Fluxgate Magnetometer Model, Eleonora Olsmats
Honors Theses and Capstones
As a part of the UNH SWFO-L1 mission to monitor space weather and the sun’s behavior, the fluxgate magnetometer is an important component to measure external magnetic fields. The basic principle of a fluxgate magnetometer is to detect changes in the ambient magnetic field by inducing a magnetic field in a ferromagnetic material via a drive winding. Each magnetometer is unique due to the ferromagnetic properties of the core material which can be seen in the hysteresis loop which is a relationship between the magnetic field strength (H) and the induced magnetic field (B). Measuring the hysteresis of a fluxgate …
Preliminary Studies Of Background Rejection Capabilities For The Southern Wide−Field Gamma−Ray Observatory, 2022 Michigan Technological University
Preliminary Studies Of Background Rejection Capabilities For The Southern Wide−Field Gamma−Ray Observatory, Sonali Mohan
Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports
The Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO), is a next-generation
gamma-ray observatory to be constructed in the Southern Hemisphere that will com-
plement current and future instruments by providing a wide-field coverage of a large
portion of the southern sky and a better sensitivity to the 100 GeVs to few PeVs
photon band to understand extreme astrophysical phenomena throughout the uni-
verse. Air shower events initiated by gamma rays will be recorded by the detector
and reconstructed to extract shower properties. The challenge for air-shower arrays
in the observation of gamma-ray sources is the large background of hadronic cos-
mic rays. …
Searching For Anomalous Extensive Air Showers Using The Pierre Auger Observatory Fluorescence Detector, 2022 Michigan Technological University
Searching For Anomalous Extensive Air Showers Using The Pierre Auger Observatory Fluorescence Detector, Andrew Puyleart
Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports
Anomalous extensive air showers have yet to be detected by cosmic ray observatories. Fluorescence detectors provide a way to view the air showers created by cosmic rays with primary energies reaching up to hundreds of EeV . The resulting air showers produced by these highly energetic collisions can contain features that deviate from average air showers. Detection of these anomalous events may provide information into unknown regions of particle physics, and place constraints on cross-sectional interaction lengths of protons. In this dissertation, I propose measurements of extensive air shower profiles that are used in a machine learning pipeline to distinguish …