A Faint Flux-Limited LAE Sample at z = 0.3
Isak Wold, UT Austin
Observational surveys of Lya emitters (LAEs) have proven to be an efficient method to identify and study large numbers of galaxies over a wide redshift range. To understand what types of galaxies are selected in LAE surveys – and how this evolves with redshift – it is important to establish a low-redshift reference sample that can be directly compared to high-redshift samples. The lowest redshift where a direct Lya survey is currently possible is at a redshift of z~0.3 via the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX ) FUV grism data. Using the z~0.3 GALEX sample as an anchor point, it has been suggested that at low redshifts high equivalent width (EW) LAEs become less prevalent and that the amount of escaping Lya emission declines rapidly. A number of explanations for these trends have been suggested including increasing dust content, increasing neutral column density, and/or increasing metallicity of star-forming galaxies at lower redshifts. However, the published z~0.3 GALEX sample is pre-selected from bright NUV objects. Thus, objects with strong Lya emission but faint continuum (high-EW LAEs) could be missed. In this talk, I will present my efforts to re-reduce the deepest archival GALEX FUV grism data and obtain a sample that is not biased against high-EW LAEs. I will discuss the implications of this new sample on the evolutionary trends listed above.
Life at Apache Point Observatory
Colloquium Title
Sten Hasselquist, NMSU
Abstract
The Sunspot Solar Observatory Visitor Center
Heidi Sanchez, Sunspot Solar Observatory, NMSU
The AAVSO Program: A Resource for Variable Star Research
Stella Kafka, AAVSO
The AAVSO was formed in 1911 as a group of US-based amateur observers obtaining data in support of professional astronomy projects. Now, it has evolved into an International Organization with members and observers from both the professional and non-professional astronomical community, contributing photometry to a public photometric database of about 25,000 variable objects, and using it for research projects. As such, the AAVSO’s main claim to fame is that it successfully engages backyard Astronomers, educators, students and professional astronomers in astronomical research. I will present the main aspects of the association and how it has evolved with time to become a premium resource for variable star researchers. I will also discuss the various means that the AAVSO is using to support cutting-edge variable star science, and how it engages its members in projects building a stronger international astronomical community.
Dr. Stella Kafka, is the Director of the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers). Before her tenure at the AAVSO, Dr Kafka held positions at CTIO, Spitzer Science center/Caltech, Carnegie Institution of Washington/DTM and AIP Publishing. The AAVSO is an international non-profit organization of variable star observers whose mission is to enable anyone, anywhere, to participate in scientific discovery through variable star astronomy.
Galaxy Evolution in a Computer Box, or “How to turn a PhD on Theoretical Galaxy Evolution into a Scientific Programming Career with NASA”
Jacob Vander Vliet, NASA/SOFIA
I graduated from NMSU in 2017 with a PhD entitled “Observing the Baryon Cycle in Hydrodynamic Cosmological Simulations”. I am happy to discuss the journey I took from primarily scientific interest in this problem to a primarily programming and computational interest in this problem. One of the major outcomes of my dissertation was to build pipeline software for analysis of the hydrodynamic simulations using the “quasar absorption line technique from which we study the circumgalactic medium in the simulations in order to learn about the so-called baryon cycle. Following graduation, I continued on as a “research assistant” at NMSU, and then landed a job with NASA at Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) and a scientific programmer. I will discuss the type of science done at SOFIA and the virtues and differences of a non-academic position out of graduate school.
Revealing reionization with the thermal history of the intergalactic medium
Elisa Boera, SISSA Trieste
APO Open House Info
Candace Gray