Physics Students Get Paid for Supernova Research
04/16/2024
By Brooke Coupal
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (21 million lightyears, to be exact), a star with a mass at least eight times larger than the Earth’s sun exploded.
Known as a supernova, the explosion occurred after the star, located in the Pinwheel Galaxy, ran out of nuclear fuel and collapsed. Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki first discovered the supernova in May 2023, sending aspiring and professional scientists from around the world on a mission to gain a better understanding of the rare phenomenon.
Three of those aspiring scientists are UMass Lowell undergraduates.
Funded by the Kennedy College of Sciences’ Science Discoveries program, physics majors Jacob Medin, Ian Davis and Jordan Orenberg spent the summer following their first year of college studying the supernova.
Under the guidance of Physics Assoc. Prof. Silas Laycock and with help from Physics Ph.D. student Sayantan Bhattacharya ’21, the trio learned how to operate the UMass Lowell Schueller Observatory, allowing them to capture images of the supernova using the powerful telescope housed inside.
The students also partnered with the nonprofit organization Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston to receive additional images of the supernova. From there, they uploaded the photos into AstroImageJ, a software used for data analysis of astronomical photos.
Over three months, they tracked the magnitude of the supernova by examining its descending brightness and temperature. The data they collected is publicly available through the American Association of Variable Star Observers, a nonprofit organization of astronomers interested in stars that change in brightness.
“It’s very cool to help with the understanding of supernovas and contributing that data to the world,” Orenberg says.