Cindy Blaha is looking for two students to join her extragalactic research group working on an emission-line survey of nine galaxies in our Local Group – M31, M33 and seven dwarf galaxies. The project seeks to understand how massive stars affect the evolution of a galaxy by conducting a galaxy-wide census of emission-line regions to identify star forming HII regions, planetary nebulae and supernova remnants. Students will use IDL and IRAF to search for emission-line regions, complete the metallicity analysis for all galaxies and combine optical and UV/infrared survey results to determine extinction due to dust within these regions. Students will gain extensive programming experience with IDL and learn about astronomical image data reduction and analysis by using IRAF and on-line tools to reduce archival space-based data.
Students who work with Cindy will also serve as teachers and mentors in our two week Young Astronomer’s Summer Experience (YASE) program for middle school students. Student YASE leaders will also gain a great deal of hands-on observing experience using new CCD imaging cameras, complete with emission-line filters, on Goodsell Observatory telescopes. Email Cindy at cblaha@carleton.edu if you are interested in working with her this summer.