Since it's been so long, you might be wondering what I've been up to. (Even if you aren't, I'm going to tell you anyway. And besides, if you aren't interested, why are you reading this blog??) I decided to try something new (and stupid) this semester and take five classes -- Irish, Folklore Theory, Electromagnetism, and two astronomy research classes. I don't want to burden you with a post that takes two hours to read, so if you want to read about one of the research projects, just jump on over to this beautiful page. The project is on hold for winter break, but it will pick back up.
Now, about my other research project.
This semester, I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Belinda Wilkes, the Director of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. One of the many projects she's working on right now is quantifying the orientation dependence of our Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) observations. As a part of that, I was working with a single high-redshift quasar and trying to determine whether or not there was a galaxy cluster surrounding it.
(Professionally made) photo of the quasar I was studying this semester.
One of my first questions was, "Why do we care if there's a galaxy cluster there?" Well, actually, I asked that question pretty far into the semester. At first, I was kind of busy asking myself things like "How do I open this file in ds9?" (but with a lot more expletives).
But, when I got to the point where I wanted to know more about galaxy clusters, the whole project kind of wrapped itself together for me. Galaxy clusters are really rare at high redshifts (z > 1) because they correspond to relatively young universes (about 4 Gyrs). Such a young universe shouldn't have had enough time to let fully-formed clusters develop, but some still manage to exist. Learning more about those young-universe galaxy clusters could lead to discoveries about cluster and galaxy formation. But before we can learn about them, we have to find them, and quasars -- which tend to exist in really dense regions of space -- are good galaxy cluster homing beacons.
To figure out if my quasar (I say "my," but I should make it very clear that I don't exactly own any objects in space...yet), 3C 270.1, is an effective homing beacon, I analyzed both radio and X-Ray data.
EVLA Radio data (left) and Chandra X-Ray data (right)
If I had to wrap an entire semester of research into as few steps as possible, I guess I'd do it like this...
- Define region
- Extract counts
- Fit Spectra
Huh, it seemed like a lot more work at the time.... Oh well, it was enough to keep me busy, and it was fun!
Following those steps (more than once), I found the number of counts in the quasar's extended structure that we assumed to come from the possible galaxy cluster. I turned that count value into a luminosity and determined..... nothing conclusive.
Basically, I spent 3 months trying to answer this simple yes-or-no question, and couldn't, but that's science for you. And I really don't mind it =)
Now that I'm on winter break, I'll have more time to actually write posts as often as I know I should. The next post I write will include a reunion with the best co-interns I ever could have asked for this past summer and my first AAS meeting!
And, as a farewell gift, I give you this
It has absolutely nothing to do with my science (although, I'm sure someone, somewhere would be happy to work through all the physics of what she does), but she's a BAMF. And everyone deserves a little BAMF-ness in their day. Enjoy!
