ABSTRACTS

Open clusters are important in understanding the Galaxy due to all the stars coming out of the same giant molecular cloud. In NGC 6253, there was a lack of lower main sequence stars in Bragaglia et al. and in Anthony-Twarog et al. the age was determined to be ~3.0 Gyr. The main purpose of this research is to determine the age and distance of NGC 6253. The research was done by use of three days of data collected in Baader SLOAN/SDSS ugriz' filters of g,r,and i. The data was then filtered for verified stars and placed in a color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) to determine the stars in the open cluster. Based on the CMDs for the first night, showcase mostly lower main sequence stars. This showcases that NGC 6253 have low main sequence stars than previously shown. Overall, further data is needed in the search of these lower main sequence stars in NGC 6253.

Eclipsing binary star systems are sets of two stars orbiting one another, that in our plane of vision from Earth, eclipse each other. This causes variation in the brightness observed over time, creating a very distinctive light curve. The observation and analysis of eclipsing binary star systems is one of a few ways to measure basic properties of high mass stars with high precision, something that is both necessary as a foundation for astrophysics and yet severely under researched. A collection of identified eclipsing binary targets have been observed as part of an on-going research project at the Thomas More Observatory, specifically DR Vul and LS III +62 12. The images obtained from this observation have been analyzed using the AIP4WIN program and compounded to create graphs representative of the systems’ light curves. This project is still ongoing, with the data to be exported into a modelling software, PHOEBE, and used to determine the properties of each analyzed eclipsing binary star system.

With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the realm of the earliest galaxies has now opened up for observations. Webb is ideal for spectroscopic follow-up of known distant galaxies and therefore the challenge for astronomy in the coming two decades is to find suitable early Universe targets. The SuperBorg collection of Hubble pure-parallel observations with the infrared Wide Field Camera 3 are a good place to start the automation of this process. With the imminent launch of the Euclid Space Observatory, it is critical that a new approach is tried to identify high-redshift (z>6) candidate galaxies.

Here I will discuss the expanded feature space, the machine learning algorithms to be considered and the challenges that lie ahead.

The Epoch of Reionization is an important phase change in the history of the Universe however the forces that drive it are still unknown to us. While previous studies have suggested that faint, low mass galaxies drive reionization, to understand reionization completely, similar investigations of the bright, high mass galaxies at these redshifts are required. Using data from the Hubble Frontier Fields, we detect the brightest galaxies between redshifts 6 and 9 in Abell 2744’s parallel field. We aim to complement the work of Bhatawdekar et al. (2019) by providing measurements for the galaxy stellar mass function and ultraviolet luminosity function for the brightest galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization to provide a more complete picture of the early Universe.

Jupiter holds many secrets within its deep atmosphere, including clues which can point to formation mechanisms for our Solar System. However, the intense temperatures and pressures within its atmosphere have prohibited direct measurements of Jupiter’s deep interior. Instead, we rely on gravitational measurements from orbiting spacecraft and careful feature-tracking of the Jovian clouds to provide information on the internal structure and dynamics. Doppler measurement of these cloud decks provides a direct route to collect information on the true particle velocities of the clouds, and can be extended to seismology to probe the deep interior of the planet by measuring global modes of oscillation. To conduct these measurements, we developed a novel instrument suite containing a multi-channel Doppler imager, and collected 24 consecutive nights of Jovian data on the 3.6m AEOS telescope atop Mt. Haleakala, HI. From this data, we obtained an independent Doppler measurement of the Jovian zonal wind profile, which shows profound structural similarities to cloud-tracking measurements, but substantial differences from the sole previous Doppler measurement. Interestingly, comparisons with Voyager data imply that these two sets of Doppler measurements are probing different atmospheric components, and a combination of the two would likely reproduce the zonal wind measurements obtained through feature-tracking, confirming that the true particle velocity within the Jovian clouds matches the large-scale velocity. We note the serendipitous outbreak of a new storm during these observations, and discuss future plans to analyze the temporal variations of the zonal wind profile. Our dataset provides the highest sensitivity Doppler imaging measurements of Jupiter to date, and our independent detection of the well-studied zonal wind profile allows us to place constraints on amplitudes of--and possible excitation mechanisms for--the global modes of Jupiter.

"I will report on the Multiwavelength Observations and Modelling of OJ 287 project (MOMO) including Swift, Fermi, Effelsberg, and SMA data. OJ 287 is a Blazar that is most likely a Supermassive binary black hole in which a 150 Million solar mass black hole orbits an 18 Billion solar mass black hole - one of the largest black holes in the Universe. Governed by strong general relativistic effects we see a flare every 12 years in the observed frame which is caused by the impact of the secondary black hole traversing through the accretion disk of the primary black hole. These impact flares are followed by "after-flares" which are caused when the disturbance caused by the impact reaches the inner part of the accreting disc and triggers enhanced jet activity. The last impact flare was seen in 2016/17 and the last after-flare in April 2020. "

Blazars are extreme examples of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) phenomenon. An AGN is composed of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) surrounded by a disk of material falling onto the blackhole. Clouds of gas are present above and below the disk, in orbit around the SMBH. Beams of material moving at nearly the speed of light (relativistic jets) emanate from above and below the SMBH. The blazar class of AGN are those oriented such that we are looking nearly down the throat of the relativistic jet, resulting in the observed emission being dominated by processes at work in the jet. The defining observational characteristics of blazars are a featureless or nearly featureless optical continuum, large amplitude and highly variable polarization, and large amplitude continuum variability at all wavelengths and on timescales ranging from minutes to decades. In this presentation, I show the results of the analysis of precise, time resolved optical brightness measurements by the NASA Kepler/K2 mission of a sample of blazars, with the primary goal of determining the optical variability characteristics of blazars on the most rapid timescales that can be sampled. I will discuss the selection of the objects, the process used to of create light curves (plot of brightness vs time) from the K2 observations, and my preliminary characterization of the sources by determining and fitting the Power Density Spectrum (PSD).

RV Mensa is the 14th variable discovered in the constellation. In spite of this, there is scant data for this star available in the AAVSO archive. We present results of our data obtained September 2019.

"Major mergers are an important step in galaxy evolution often accompanied by high star formation rates and AGN activity resulting in (ultra)luminous infrared galaxies ((U)LIRGs). The product of major mergers is usually an elliptical galaxy. Therefore, star formation has to be quenched within a short time span at the end of the merger sequence requiring efficient feedback mechanisms.

Local major mergers also provide a unique insight into the structure of highly starforming galaxies comparable to the prevalent galaxies in the high-redshift universe.

To investigate these processes, I analyze and compare the properties of two (U)LIRG systems: the merging system ESO148-2 that is in the final stage of merging with a projected core separation of 4.9 kpc and the galaxies ESO297-11 and ESO297-12 that are in an early interacting phase with a projected distance of 25 kpc. The data is based on optical integral-field spectra taken with MUSE at the VLT.

I am investigating the morphology and kinematics of the stellar absorption component providing information on the degree to which the galaxies are gravitationally settled. In addition, emission line maps give us information on the disturbed kinematics as well as the ionization structure dominating the systems and powering outflows."

Blazars are extreme examples of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) phenomenon. The blazar class of radio loud AGN are those oriented such that we are looking nearly down the throat of the relativistic jet, resulting in the observed emission being dominated by processes at work in the jet and being both amplified and time-compressed in our frame. The defining characteristics of blazars are a featureless or nearly featureless optical continuum, large amplitude and highly variable polarization, and large amplitude continuum variability at all wavelengths and on timescales ranging from minutes to decades. The lack of discrete features in their spectra leaves us with only continuum variability and/or polarization variability as a diagnostic of the emission mechanisms at work in many of these objects. In this presentation, I will discuss the results of the analysis of Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) of 84 blazars, with the primary goal of determining the optical variability characteristics of blazars on the most rapid timescales that can be sampled. I will discuss the selection of the objects, creation of the light curves (plot of brightness vs time) from the TESS observations, our preliminary conclusions concerning blazar variability on rapid timescales and future directions for this project.

I will give detailed updates on the progress on Euclid and LSST/Rubin, which will make complementary wide-field surveys in the 2020s. This will include the hardware and software status for Euclid and its change of launcher, the construction state of LSST/Rubin, a summary of the science groups and recent activities from LSST Corp, in relation to the Kentucky Association for Research with LSST.

The recently discovered star cluster Archinal-1 has not been heavily observed. We have collected several nights of imaging for this cluster and we present the early results of our SDSS-ugriz photometry. We verify it is a sparse, but real, cluster.

We extend the UV continuum size measurement of Lyman-α emitters (LAEs) to low redshifts using Green Pea (GP) galaxies which are excellent local analogues to high-redshift LAEs. GPs provide unique opportunities to study the detailed morphology of LAEs and the related Lyman-α escape mechanisms, which is unavailable for high-redshift LAEs. We made the most accurate size measurements for Lyman-α galaxies thus far by using the exquisitely high-resolution (0.047", 250 parsec) UV images of GPs. The major finding is that the typical size of GPs is consistent with that of high-redshift LAEs, but remarkably smaller than that of star-forming galaxies without Lyα emission at similar redshifts. Also, the size of GPs shows significant anti-correlations with the Lyα equivalent width and the Lyα escape fraction, suggesting that the small UV-continuum size is crucial for Lyα emission. Thus, a compact physical size is vital for escape of Lyα photons, and Lyα emitters show a constant characteristic size independent of their redshift.

NASA's Swift mission provides deep ultraviolet observations of the Chandra Deep Field-South which can be used to understand the star formation rates in galaxies. Combining this with the HI data from the LADUMA survey will lead to a greater understanding of how a galaxies gas reservoir and star formation rate are linked. This talk will focus on the background and motivation for this study and present initial findings from the Swift catalogue.

Data taken from a three-night observation of BK And in 2019 was analyzed to determine the magnitudes of the variable star. The magnitudes from that night calculated to be in a range of 14.1697 - 15.029 V with a period of 8.6 hours. This data varies enough from previously recorded values to justify further research to prove the star's status as a Blazhko star.

The goal of this project is to focus on pulsating variables, stars unstable as a result of their interior evolution. As a result of this, these stars can fluctuate in terms of size and luminosity over time periods ranging from hours to weeks. A series of identified pulsating variable targets have been observed, and data has been taken across different segments of the period for each target. The images taken have been analyzed for the change in luminosity, and the period at each set of images has been calculated. The data for the luminosity and the period of each target has been compiled into a single graph revealing the shape of its light curve. Pulsating variable stars are known to have a relationship between their period and luminosity. The expectation is for this relationship to show a positive correlation, where a target with a greater period will be more luminous. The results from this project will be incorporated into an interactive undergraduate laboratory experience for non-science majors.

"We present an analysis of spatially resolved metallicity relations in five dwarf galaxies from the FIRE-2 (Feedback in Realistic Environments) cosmological zoom-in simulation suite near z ≈0, over a period of 1.5 Gyr, and compare our findings with observations. While these dwarf galaxies represent a diverse sample, we find that all simulated galaxies match the observed mass-metallicity (MZR) and mass-metallicity gradient (MZGR) relations. We note that in all five galaxies, the metallicities are effectively identical between phases of the interstellar medium (ISM), with 95% being within ±.1 dex between various ISM phases, including the cold and dense gas (T < 500 K and n_H > 1 cm−3), ionized gas (near the Halpha T ≈10^4 K ridge-line), and nebular regions (ionized gas pixels where the 10 Myr averaged star formation rate is non-zero). We find that most of the scatter in relative metallicity between cold and dense gas and ionized gas/nebular regions can be attributed

to either local starburst events or metal-poor inflows. We also note the presence of a major merger in one of our galaxies, m11e, finding that metal enrichment and mixing of the outer ionized gas halos between the primary and companion galaxies occurs relatively quickly and triggers a starburst in the main galaxy"

The era of Gaia has brought in a revolution in understanding how star forming complexes form and evolve over time. It is now possible to assemble a comprehensive census of members of young associations spanning all ages, and to not only compare younger populations with their more evolved counterparts, but also to directly observe their current dynamical state. This makes it possible to make a model of their 3d structure, to determine what physical processes were responsible for shaping their morphology, as well as to analyze their eventual fate. I will present an overview of some of the efforts of disentangling the star forming history in some of the individual nearby associations as well as in the Solar Neighborhood as a whole.

Star-planet interactions are important to astrophysics because they would inform us about exoplanet magnetism and interior structure, stellar activity and evolution, exoplanetary system formation and evolution, and the prospects for habitability. While signatures of these interactions may have been detected at optical and UV wavelengths, the reproducible, unambiguous detection of their radio emissions remains elusive. I will present the results of our ROME survey that targeted 17 nearby systems that host exoplanet, brown dwarf, and low-mass stellar companions conducted with the Arecibo radio telescope at ~5 GHz. This survey has the greatest frequency coverage of any to date, while providing mJy-level sensitivity over <1 s integration times. Neither exoplanet-induced stellar radio bursts, nor auroral radio emissions from the substellar targets were detected. These results, together with those from potentially planet-hosting brown dwarf systems, allow us to investigate the evolution of the magnetic properties and related activity that stretches from the magnetized Solar System planets to the Sun.

The fifth incarnation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V) began taking data in 2020 and is now using a robotic positioning system. The SDSS-V Milky Way Mapper program is composed sub-programs called cartons. These cartons include a large carton to do a galactic survey of 6 million stars and several smaller cartons that cover a wide variety of stellar candidates including white dwarfs, binary stars, young stellar objects, planet hosts, asteroseismology targets and x-ray binaries. In this talk, I will specifically focus on the cartons associated with stellar companions (binaries, brown dwarfs, and exoplanets). As part of this, the technological upgrades of the APOGEE spectrograph to improve radial velocity precision will be discussed. I will give updates on the current progress of the survey, and lay out our plans for the future.

"Lunar Ice Cube Mission. Pamela E. Clark1,2, Ben Malphrus1, Nate Fite1, Cliff Brambora3, David Folta3, Tilak Hewagama3, Deepak Patel3, 1 Space Science Center, Morehead State University (pclark@moreheadstate.edu), 2Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 3NASA/GSFC.

Lunar Ice Cube, to be deployed from Artemis I in June of 2022, is a deep space cubesat mission with the goals of demonstrating 1) a cubesat-scale instrument capable of addressing NASA HEOMD Strategic Knowledge Gaps related to lunar volatile distribution (abundance, location, and transportation physics of water ice) via BIRCHES [1] (Broadband IR Compact High-resolution Exploration Spectrometer to measure water related absorption features in 1 to 4 micron reflectance spectra), and 2) cubesat propulsion, via the Busek BIT 3 RF Ion engine. We will also demonstrate for the first time in deep space an inexpensive radiation-tolerant flight computer (Space Micro Proton 400K), the GSFC Core Flight Executive Operating System, the AIM/IRIS microcryocooler, and, along with several other Artemis 1 cubesats, the JPL IRIS Version 2.1 ranging transceiver and the BCT XACT attitude control sys-tem. We will be delivering science data from BIRCHES to the Planetary Data System.

Science data-taking with the BIRCHES payload will occur during the science orbit (100 km x 5000 km, equato-rial periapsis, nearly polar) with a repeating coverage pattern that provides overlapping coverage at different luna-tions (times of day). Science orbit data-taking will occur over several months, allowing for sufficient collection of systematic measurements as a function of time of day to allow derivation of volatile cycle models.

References: [1] Clark P.E. et al. (2019) SPIE Proceedings 11131, 1113108, doi:10.1117/12.2529323."

The process of the reionization of the universe remains poorly understood. In the local universe, insufficient ionizing radiation escapes source galaxies to explain the amount of ionized gas observed. It is not clear what escape mechanism permitted reionization by the earliest stars and galaxies, and why this is no longer common. In light of this, we present rest-frame ultraviolet spectra of the Sunburst Arc, a z~2.4 strongly lensed galaxy which shows strong LyC leakage. We use the resonant Lyɑ emission line as a probe of the distribution of neutral hydrogen due to its complex radiative transfer, which encodes significant physical information about its scattering environment. Many of the lines of sight feature a triple-peaked Lyɑ spectral feature, which we attribute to an expanding shell of neutral hydrogen with optically thin channels which allow some direct escape. The strong lensing effect allows us to isolate the Lyɑ emission from physically distinct regions of the galaxy, across which we see significant spatial variations. Likewise, we also measure other spatially resolved, physically relevant quantities such as the UV slope, star formation rate, and parameters of various ISM absorption lines to further characterize the conditions of the LyC-leaking environment. Spatial variations in the Lyɑ profiles indicate large changes in the properties of the neutral hydrogen along different lines of sight into the galaxy. The extreme ionizing radiation and leaking LyC photons the Sunburst Arc emits are both properties associated with the galaxies responsible for re-ionizing the universe. So, though the epoch of reionization predates the age of the Sunburst Arc, this is suggestive that highly anisotropic neutral hydrogen column densities in the first generation of galaxies is likely an important factor in explaining how the universe reionized.

Recently, our team discovered an unusual gravitational lens--an entire cluster of galaxies that has distorted our view of a spiral galaxy so much that it has created a butterfly-like pattern, showing three images of the same galaxy. We see the galaxy as it looked seven billion years ago, when the universe was half its current age. The extreme magnification of this lens lets us probe the clumping of "dark matter" down of a few thousand light years. Over time, we may be able to see individual stars in the galaxy as they rotate across the distorted part of the lens.

Measuring distances in space is important to many fields of astronomical studies. Parallax – the fundamental method of measuring distance – is most reliable but is limited to measuring the distances to nearby stars with ground-based telescopes. RR Lyrae variable stars are one kind of object that can be used to measure larger distances. This method measures the star’s period (usually between a few hours to a day) from which its intrinsic brightness can be found. We compare this with apparent brightness to calculate the distance. This method was tested on the star RX Fornacis (RX For). Observations were made from the Las Cumbres Observatory every five hours for three weeks. Each observation obtained images in four color filters (B, V, ip, and zs). The light curve and period were found for each filter. The distance was calculated for the V, ip, and zs filters and compared to the parallax distance measured by the GAIA space telescope. The calculated distances for the ip and zs filters both agree with GAIA’s, while the V filter does not. This indicates that the theoretical relationship of intrinsic brightness and period in V is not as well understood as in other filters.

Astronomy has been a part of Vanderbilt University since its founding in 1873. One of the first structures on the main university campus was an observatory that stood until 1952. In 1953, Dyer Observatory was officially given to Vanderbilt University and remains today as a key educational outreach facility. One of the iconic figures of Vanderbilt University's astronomical history is Edward Emerson Barnard, who, despite very humble beginnings, would earn a reputation as a world-class observational astronomer from the latter half of the nineteenth century until his passing in 1923. In this presentation I will discuss the start of astronomy at Vanderbilt University, move to an overview of Barnard's life and work in Nashville and elsewhere, and close with a brief history of Dyer Observatory including our current mission and outreach.

One usually measures the optical part of the nebular attenuation curve using Balmer lines due to their roughly fixed intrinsic ratios. This approach, however, relies on measurements of several weak high-order Balmer lines and only covers a limited range in wavelength. We propose a new method to measure the nebular attenuation curve using strong forbidden lines. This method, which bins a statistically large sample of extra-galactic HII regions in a carefully chosen line-ratio space, constrains the variations of nebular parameters other than the magnitude of the attenuation within each bin. As a result, the variations of forbidden line ratios in each bin are mainly driven by the nebular attenuation, which allows us to measure the nebular attenuation with good accuracy. With this method, we extend the measurement of the nebular attenuation curve towards higher and lower wavelengths of the Balmer series. Surprisingly, we find the low ionization lines seem to follow a greyer attenuation curve compared to other lines, which might be due to the diffuse ionized gas around HII regions. Our preliminary results challenge the standard practice of attenuation correction, implying different attenuation laws for different lines in unresolved HII regions. For the next step, we will focus on nearby well-resolved HII regions and construct physical models to calibrate nebular attenuation for distant HII regions.