James Stockton
|
| Research Assistant |
| Entered: | 2004 |
| Office: | 213 Astronomy |
| Phone: | (575)646-2566 |
| Fax: | (575)646-1602 |
| |
| E-mail: | stockton |
| (append "@nmsu.edu") |
| |
|
|
| M.S. | New Mexico State University, | 2008 |
| B.A. | Drury University, | 2004 |
|
Research
I have previously worked on robotics problems with applications to satellite
operations (producing net rotations without net angular momentum, which would
affect vibration-free satellite orientation in space), and completed an
undergraduate thesis on imaging and human color perception.
I am currently working with Dr. Nicole Vogt, investigating
problems in galaxy evolution.
In one project, we are looking at the effects of ram-pressure stripping. As
field spirals fall into massive clusters they encounter a diffuse dissociated
gas component, the intra-cluster gas. This gas acts like a wind blowing on the
spiral galaxy and tends to strip away the gas reserves located in the
disk. This serves to truncate star formation in the galaxy and can produce
many observable effects such as asymmetric rotation curves. We have observed
several such galaxies in the Coma Cluster on the 3.5m telescope at Apache
Point Observatory. The detailed spectra from these observations will be used
to determine the rate at which ram-pressure stripping is affecting the
galaxies as well as to narrow down the possible stellar populations existing
inside the spirals, based on Bruzual-Charlot models.
I have recently begun a new project, combining observations of both local and
distant disk galaxies with the latest sets of models of galaxy evolution to
better understand disk formation and evolution.
I am pleased to thank the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) for supporting
this research.
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