Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2021 Virtual Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics
Friday–Sunday, January 22–24, 2021; Virtual
Session U15: Astrophysics and Cosmology IXInteractive Live
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Chair: Addie Dove, University of Central Florida |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:00PM - 12:10PM |
U15.00001: New Heavily Embedded Protostellar Outflows in the NGC 1333 Cloud Amanda Broadmeadow, Dan Watson NGC 1333 is a prime example of a star-forming region in the early stages of star formation, when the young stellar objects are still accreting material and producing outflows. NGC 1333 has numerous protostars and thus many prominent outflows, notably HH 7-11. This has led NGC 1333 to be one of the most well-studied star-forming regions. The outflows that these forming stars produce are visible in the near-infrared and infrared wavelengths. Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations have revealed two new outflows in the southern region of NGC 1333, which are the subject of this project. Using Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope data, along with simulations from the MAPPINGS V code, the physical conditions of the outflows can be found. The extinction values for each knot in the outflows give an understanding of the spatial distribution of these two outflows within the cloud. The simulation data can give us the velocity of the shock and the preshock density. These conditions can then be used to understand the rates of mass, momentum, and energy that are lost by the protostar and injected into the surrounding cloud. In this presentation, I will discuss recent results for these newly discovered outflows and conclusions that can be drawn about impacts on the cloud. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:10PM - 12:20PM |
U15.00002: Weighing the Most Massive Binary Star Known: An Archival Study of NGC 3603-A1 Sarah Bodansky, Philip Massey, Laura Penny NGC 3603-A1 is likely the most massive binary star ever ``weighed" through its orbital mass. The system is hard to observe, as it is found in the dense core of NGC 3603, with other massive stars within an arcsecond. Analysis of VLT spectroscopy in 2008 found a mass of 116 $\pm$ 31 M$_{\odot}$ for the primary and 89 $\pm$ 16 M$_{\odot}$ for secondary (Schnurr et al. 2008, MNRAS 389, L38). As an extremely massive, double-lined eclipsing binary, this system provides unique insight into the accuracy of model-dependent methods of determining stellar masses for very high mass stars. We use previously unanalyzed archival spectra and imaging from HST to test the accuracy of the ground-based results and to increase the precision of these masses. From these spectroscopic data, we found a mass ratio of 0.72 $\pm$ 0.03, which agrees with the VLT mass ratio of 0.75 $\pm$ 0.3. We have also produced a light curve for A1 using HST photometry, which provides a more accurate measurement of the system's inclination. Ultimately we hope to refine the masses of A1 with new observations. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:20PM - 12:30PM |
U15.00003: Recognizing Trends and Patterns in DESI Data using Unsupervised Machine Learning Madalyn Johnson, J. Xavier Prochaska Astronomical sky surveys have made a great contribution to astronomy by gathering larger datasets in yet shorter amounts of time than ever before. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) produces sky surveys of distant astronomical objects, such as galaxies, stars, and quasars, and is designed to take tens of millions of observations within its five-year lifetime. With such a large amount of data, it would be impossible for observers to examine and interpret each spectrum DESI will produce. For this reason, we are developing a portal that will use unsupervised machine learning techniques to recognize trends and patterns and allow scientists to efficiently examine these DESI data. This portal will use a dimension reduction algorithm called UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection) to create a two-dimensional embedding of the data that allows objects to be interactively selected and inspected. In addition, this will allow searches for objects that are anomalous and even classes of objects that have never been discovered before. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:30PM - 12:40PM |
U15.00004: The seasonal variability of Titan's global wind field Siobhan Light, Mark Gurwell, Conor Nixon, Alexander Thelen Spatially resolved observations of the gas acetonitrile (CH3CN) on Titan lends insight into the dynamics, chemistry and seasonal variation of its stratosphere. In particular, the distribution of the molecule as a function of altitude and latitude are strongly influenced by chemistry and climate, while detailed spectral measurements of the central frequencies of rotational lines reveal zonal wind speed via the Doppler effect. Longer-term seasonal differences in wind speed and distribution remain mostly unconstrained. In this study, interferometric observations of Titan obtained with the extended SMA in 2009 and 2010 were analyzed in order to extend the existing time series of CH3CN observations on Titan. Initial data analysis found prograde zonal winds of similar magnitude in both years consistent with previous results. New wind speed measurements are found and compared to previous work. These results can be used to improve vertical abundance profiles of this molecule and general atmospheric circulation models of Titan. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:40PM - 12:50PM |
U15.00005: Modeling Line Emission During the Epoch of Reionization Dariannette Valentin, Nicholas Battaglia, Anirban Roy, Alexander Van Engelen We simulate various emission lines in the large-scale structure (LSS) of the universe during the late stages of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) to trace galaxy formation. The chosen emission lines are tied to star-formation activity, including CII, OIII, and various transitions of CO utilizing the UNIVERSEMACHINE halo catalogues. We compare the emission lines halo masses in a base-10 logarithmic scale for 80 x 80 Mpc scale patches for specific redshifts. If the simulations are correct, we aim to perform cross-correlations with the kSZ effect and other complementary tracers as well as power spectra analysis. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 12:50PM - 1:00PM |
U15.00006: Analyzing Observations of NGC 7662 Taken with the University of Maryland Observatory 14-inch Celestron Telescope in the i' and g' Filters Morgan Craver, Austen Fourkas, Connor Churko, Rachel Scrandis NGC 7662, informally known as the ``Blue Snowball Nebula'', is a planetary nebula located in the Andromeda constellation.~ It was observed at the University of Maryland Observatory with the 14-inch Celestron telescope through Sloan i' and g' filters, with the intent of comparing the nebula in the images for size and brightness.~ The images were collected and calibrated to correct for both additive and multiplicative noise, which could originate from the night sky or the CCD itself.~ The calibrated images were then analyzed for brightness in two ways: through direct ADU counts and by using a function to determine the flux of the nebula.~ The size was determined through pixel measurements.~ It was found that NGC 7662 was brighter in the g' filter, with the flux being7.61 \textpm 0.03 *10$^{\mathrm{8}}$ e/px in the g' filter and 2.75 \textpm 0.05 *10$^{\mathrm{7}}$ e/px in the i' filter.~ As well, the nebula appeared larger in the g' filter, with measurements of 118x111 pixels in the g' filter and 99x107 pixels in the i' filter. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 1:00PM - 1:10PM |
U15.00007: Quantifying quantum chaos: improving the accuracy of approximations of the Earth Mover's Distance with an adaptive grid Jessica Jiang, Gary Felder This lightning talk presents an overview of the ongoing research with Gary Felder at Smith College in quantum chaos. Quantum chaos describes the behavior of a system where two of its wavefunctions will diverge from each other at an exponential rate given an infinitesimally small difference in their initial conditions. One quantifier of the ``distance'' between two wavefunctions is what is known as their Earth Mover's Distance (EMD). A calculation of the EMD treats the starting and initial functions as two sand piles and finds the least cost method of moving sand from the initial pile to the final pile. A Mathematica program was previously written to approximate the EMD using a finite set of boxes. However, the program yielded results that strayed quite far from the analytical answers. As a part of the effort of members of this research group to increase the accuracy of this calculation, I've worked on replacing the uniform grid currently used by the Mathematica program with an adaptively subdivided grid produced by a C$++$ program I wrote-- QuadTree. The ultimate goal of QuadTree is to obtain answers for the EMD with increased accuracy and less computational power. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, January 24, 2021 1:10PM - 1:20PM |
U15.00008: Interdisciplinarity in the Search for Life Searra Foote The search for life is an interdisciplinary effort that requires a better understanding of life on Earth. When searching for life, it is necessary to define life and understand characteristics of habitability and signs life produces. Biosignatures and technosignatures, for example, are useful signs that are possible indicators for detecting both primitive and intelligent life. Biosignatures are signs of a biological life process taking place. Technosignatures are overall more specific because they narrow down the search to complex, intelligent life. These two indicators are not necessarily mutually exclusive or even a smoking gun, but they can still be helpful in the possibility of finding life. Furthermore, learning more about the origin of life and abiogenesis can help to understand how life might arise elsewhere in the universe. Determining the probability of certain signs of life through Bayesian methods can also inform the search for life. These methods can help to determine how common life in the universe is in general and can be applied to specific biosignatures. The search for life is an effort that must continue as more ideas are discovered, especially since astrobiology is a developing field that requires collaboration and building ideas between fields. [Preview Abstract] |
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