Who we are

The Dead Stars Society is a vibrant student focused research group in the metro-Detroit area of Michigan. The group started in early 2023 as a collaboration between astronomer Kristen Dage and instructor Jesse Mason to provide cross-institutional research opportunities to students in the area. It started off with a small group of three students at Henry Ford College learning how to do X-ray astronomy with the Chandra X-ray Observatory to hunt for candidate intermediate mass black holes in clusters of stars. After doubling in size, processing 150 X-ray observations, identifying 30.000 X-ray sources and performing detailed follow-up of 300 of the most interesting sources, the group pivoted to preparatory science with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. 

In Fall 2023, thanks to support from the LSST-Discovery Alliance Inclusive Collaboration Initiative, the team was able to obtain training in python, pandas, data-base management and astronomy-specific software, as well as professional development opportunities. The group is learning how to access preview data from the Rubin Science Platform, and perform time-series analysis on optical light curves. They will write student-oriented manuals to be shared widely with the community, which will be available at this site upon completion. 

Analysis skills

• X-ray point source detection with ciao

• X-ray spectroscopy with XSPEC

• Radio point source detection with pybdsf

• Gamma-ray binned likelihood analysis with fermitools

• Accessing the Rubin Science Platform through the portal and command line aspect

• Optical light curve analysis 

• Database management

• Image handling