Project Description: This Legacy Hubble Space Telescope program (HCNS; The Hubble Census of Nearby Satellites) will study all of the known satellite galaxies associated with Milky Way analogs within ~10 Mpc, comprising new data on 149 dwarf galaxies, along with 111 targets that already have HST archival observations. This data on 260 dwarf galaxies in total will be the definitive data set for comparing the satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way to those in other systems, and ultimately to our model for how the halos of normal-sized galaxies form.
The goal of the intern(s) will be to take up a component of this analysis. Our team will take the Hubble stellar catalogs from our new data, and fit the structure of each dwarf, so we know its size, shape and ultimately its luminosity. This will fit in with other components of the analysis (such as the star formation history and precision distance measurements) to give a full picture of the dwarf galaxy sample.
NASA Relevance: The data from this project is directly from the Hubble Space Telescope, a premier NASA facility.
Work Description: The intern will have to be organized in order to keep track of the data of 260 Hubble data sets. They will then have to run a specialized computer program to measure the structure of each dwarf, and run quality assurance tests to make sure the results are robust. In the end, they will synthesize all of this data and compare it with our own Milky Way's satellite system, and with what is seen in simulations.
Open or Reserved Project: Open, 2 positions.