Ask A Physicist... On Undergraduate Astronomy/Astrophysics Research
Dr. Britt Lundgren, a NSF postdoctoral fellow in Astronomy and Astrophysics, specializes in quasar absorption lines, cosmology, and galaxy evolution (to mention a few). She has worked at Yale University as well as the University of Wisconson-Madison.
Image from http://www.astro.yale.edu
Dr. Lundgren often touts the importance of research for undergraduates, and she stresses the important contributions these students can make to the vast fields encompassing astronomy. In a recent interview with EXPANDING OPPORTUNITY, she details some advice for students interested in astronomy and astrophysics research, useful and available data, and choosing a relevant research topic!
Question: What do you think are the most up and coming data available for an undergraduate physics major interested in astronomy research?
In my opinion (and I may be biased, as I’m a long-time member of the collaboration!), the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has one of the largest and most accessible online databases for astronomy research. The SDSS has a fantastic website, which provides a wealth of information about the survey and acts as a gateway to accessing all of the publicly available data.
In its more than 15 years of active observing with the dedicated 2.5m Sloan Telescope in Apache Point Observatory (New Mexico), the SDSS has mapped one third of the night sky in color images, and produced spectra for more than 3 million stars, galaxies, and quasars. These data have produced the most expansive and detailed 3D map of the observable universe to date. Most of the SDSS images and spectra are already available through the website.
I think the most fun way to start perusing the data is to use the “SDSS Skyserver” interface, which allows you to scroll through and zoom into the SDSS imaging of the night sky!
It may look daunting at first, but there’s a nice tutorial that demonstrates how to use the Skyserver to navigate through the images and find more information about particular objects of interest.
Question: What are a few examples of research ideas that undergraduates might forge from the information available on SDSS?
The SDSS has a great website for anyone interested in getting started playing around with data from the survey.
If you’re looking to quickly dive into some research with minimal overhead, I’d suggest starting with Galaxy Zoo. This fun project was launched in 2007 to request help from the public in classifying the shapes and types of the more than 1 million galaxies imaged in the SDSS. Spiral patterns are particularly difficult for a computer to identify, but our human brains are remarkably fast and reliable at pattern recognition. With the help of 150,000 citizen scientists, the enormous effort of classifying SDSS galaxies was made possible in a short time. Having human eyes on every inch of the SDSS imaging also resulted in the discovery of a new class of object! The Galaxy Zoo project has now broadened to include images from the Hubble Space Telescope and UKIRT (a UK-operated infra-red telescope located in Hawaii). If you’re interested in helping to classify galaxies and contribute to this project, I’d recommend checking it out!
In addition, Galaxy Zoo’s success led to the production of a broader citizen science portal called Zooniverse, where you can contribute to all kinds of research beyond astronomy that require similar crowd-sourcing human brain power to wade through vast datasets. I’d highly recommend checking it out, too!
If you want to delve into the SDSS data in a higher-level and more individualized research project, I’d recommend first checking out SDSS Voyages. This brand new branch of the SDSS website contains a fantastic collection of tutorials and projects, which will take your understanding of both astronomy and the SDSS data to the next level. While the “expedition” projects on the site are aimed slightly below the level of an advanced undergraduate student, they provide a solid basis for understanding, which I would recommend covering before launching into a more sophisticated project with the SDSS data. Skyserver Voyages is still under development, so I’d also recommend checking back periodically to see what’s new!
The SDSS has also just launched a 3-year Faculty and Student Team (FAST) initiative, which partners researchers from the SDSS Collaboration with students and faculty at undergraduate institutions with a strong track record of serving minority students. The SDSS collaborators will work with the students and faculty partners on new or existing research projects. For students at qualifying institutions, this is a great way of getting involved with cutting edge SDSS research. Any faculty or undergraduates who think they may qualify for this program are encouraged to contact the FAST program lead, Kelly Holley-Bockleman (k.holley@vanderbilt.edu).
Question: How often is the data on SDSS updated, and do you need permission to use the data?
While the SDSS is actively taking data, the most recent observations tend to remain proprietary for a length of time (typically 1-2 years). Periodically, the SDSS will produce a public data release, which makes all of the observations up to a set date available to the public (that means everyone, not just professional astronomers). One of the most recent data releases (the 12th in the lifetime of the SDSS, and thus referred to as Data Release 12) occurred in January of this year. You can read more about it here.
