Undergraduate Research Symposium May 21, 2010 Mary Gates Hall Online Proceedings will use time-domain information to separate quasars from POSTER SESSION 1 stars, which show different variability characteristics. How- Commons West, Easel 53 ever, it is not yet clear how exactly variability will be used in 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM a quantitative fashion to achieve this goal. We analyzed data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which provides both spec- Sharing the Sky: Using Social Technologies for Scientific troscopy and time-domain information for a large number of Collaboration objects, with the aim of quantifying the criteria for selecting Ian Michael (Ian) Smith, Junior, Physics, Astronomy quasars. Using a sample of over 10,000 variable objects, in- Mentor: Andrew Connolly, Astronomy cluding 1,419 spectroscopically confirmed quasars, we mod- eled their light curves using quasar light curve models. By As enormous amounts of data are collected by the large mul- comparing the quality of light curve best fits, we are able tispectral survey programs such as Sloan Digital Sky Sur- to distinguish quasars from stars with a less than 20% con- vey (SDSS), and soon the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope tamination using variability information alone. Since a large (LSST), we are faced with the challenge of finding a way to fraction of the contaminants are expected to be unconfirmed meaningfully interact with this data to maximize scientific quasars, we provide a list of targets for spectroscopic follow return. Our goal is to create a flexible environment that or- up. ganizes disparate data sources, such as streamed images and database services, to be analyzed visually through the coordi- nation of simple tools that work on common data. We envi- POSTER SESSION 1 sion a framework that allows users to personalize their access Commons West, Easel 52 to data and to easily create custom tools to interact with and import data from new sources. The web browser is a natural 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM place to create such an environment, and by leveraging the Variable High Velocity Winds from Broad Absorption OpenSocial API we extend our model to allow collaboration Line Quasars between astronomers remotely. In addition to enhancing ac- Kenza Sigrid Arraki, Senior, Astronomy, Physics cess to data among astronomers, the web application will be EIP Scholar available to the public, encouraging exploration of the sky. Mentor: Scott Anderson, Astronomy Mentor: Daryl Haggard, Astronomy POSTER SESSION 1 Galaxies with a growing black hole are known as “active Commons West, Easel 51 galaxies” and, if they are extremely bright, “quasars.” Our 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM research group studies broad absorption line quasars (BAL QSOs) because these objects, in particular, probe the high Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, or are You a Quasar? velocity gas very close to the central black hole. Our project Keira Jayne (Keira) Brooks, Senior, Astronomy, Physics aims to determine the appropriate timescales for probing vari- NASA Space Grant Scholar ability in BAL QSO spectra. The variability timescales can Mentor: Zeljko Ivezic, Astronomy constrain the size of the emitting and absorbing gas cloud Mentor: Chelsea MacLeod, Astronomy near the supermassive black hole. We have observations of seventeen BAL QSOs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasars are fascinating objects whose abundant optical emis- (SDSS) and the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory’s 1.5m sion comes from an accretion disk around a black hole. Due telescope’s FAST Spectrograph. These objects are first iden- to their large distances and bright centers, quasars appear as tified as BAL QSOs in SDSS and we subsequently observe point sources from our telescopes on Earth and in orbit. Cur- them with FAST across 3 consecutive nights, and then on day rently spectroscopic observations are the best way to clas- 9, 27, and 81. Additional observations are acquired for 1 and sify quasars from stars, but for upcoming large-area imag- 2 year cadences. We also obtain a set of control non-BAL ing sky surveys, where spectra are not available, we want quasar spectra, in which we expect to see little or no variabil- to implement another selection technique. New techniques ity. We assess the magnitude of the variability in the observed Undergraduate Research Program 1 exp.washington.edu/urp spectra of our BAL QSOs and determine which constraints tonomously penetrate through sea ice to reach the ocean be- our investigations can put on the outflows impacting the BAL neath, enabling the study of sub-ice processes. region. SESSION 1P SESSION 1N ASTRONOMY AND PLANETARY NVIRONMENTAL CIENCES AND E S SCIENCE SURFACE PROCESSES:METHODS Session Moderator: Eric Agol, Astronomy AND RESULTS Mary Gates Hall Room 288 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Session Moderator: Joanne (Jody) Bourgeois, Earth & Space Sciences * Note: Titles in order of presentation. Mary Gates Hall Room 284 Monitoring Martian Inter-annual Climate Variability 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Laura Cristina (Laura) Mayorga, Junior, Astronomy * Note: Titles in order of presentation. NASA Space Grant Scholar Mentor: Joshua Bandfield, Earth And Space Sciences A New Tool for Studying Climate Change: The Ice-Penetrating Probe Similar to satellite measurements on Earth, scientists are Elizabeth Landicho (Elizabeth) Wicks, Sophomore, starting to assemble a multi-annual record of surface and at- Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics (Comprehensive) mospheric temperatures on Mars. By monitoring the Mar- Mentor: Dale Winebrenner, Earth & Space Sciences tian atmosphere, it may be possible to provide insight about Mentor: W. T. Elam, Applied Physics Laboratory global climate change and apply those findings to similar problems on Earth. On Mars, the movement of dust is a Gathering reliable data about the rapidly shrinking sea ice dominant and dynamic factor that drives both surface and at- cover of the Arctic is crucial to the study of climate change. mospheric temperatures. Using data returned from the Ther- Expanding our knowledge of processes beneath sea ice would mal Emission Spectrometer (TES) onboard the Mars Global expand our knowledge of features that significantly affect the Surveyor (MGS), we can retrieve atmospheric temperature global environment, such as ice thickness, melt rate, and ice profiles as well as surface temperatures. By monitoring the and ocean temperatures. Yet we currently have no means of global changes over the course of over four Martian years, deploying instrumentation beneath sea ice short of landing on seasonal and annual differences are mapped and plotted. Our the ice and operating it manually, which is not practical for study has found that even after a global dust storm that re- long-term measurements. To meet the demand for long-term sulted in significant regional changes in surface albedo, the data on sub-ice processes, our research team is developing temperatures and planetary albedo have returned to normal an autonomous ice-penetrating probe. We will use the same by the next year. This result contradicts work done by earlier deployment method as previous researchers, who have suc- studies, whose data was altered by calibration artifacts. The ceeded in deploying instrumentation on the ice surface via air- information acquired from the analysis of our data will lead plane. Other researchers have developed electrically powered to a better understanding of the magnitude of inter-annual cli- ice penetrating probes, which were successfully deployed in mate variability and its driving factors. glaciers on land to depths of hundreds of meters. However, these probes required manual operation and were inefficient because of their large size, which was limited by the size of SESSION 1P the electronics available at the time. Advances in technol- ogy have greatly reduced the size of the electronics required to make useful measurements, enabling our research team to ASTRONOMY AND PLANETARY construct an electrically powered ice-penetrating probe that is SCIENCE smaller, more efficient, and autonomous. We are constructing Session Moderator: Eric Agol, Astronomy such a probe by creating and testing a succession of design Mary Gates Hall Room 288 prototypes that are providing insight into the dynamics of ice penetration. Our successful first test article is faster and more 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM efficient than previous models, penetrating through about 40 * Note: Titles in order of presentation. centimeters of saline ice at a rate of 6.6 meters per hour with an average power input of 500 watts. The final probe de- sign will be capable of deployment via airplane and will au- 2 Searching for Milky Way Planetary Nebulae the intrinsic polarization and H-alpha equivalent width mea- Thomas Alexander (Thomas) Gomez, Senior, Astronomy, surements show that both disks faded in an inside-out manner, Physics with timescales much longer than the orbital periods of their EIP Scholar binary companions. We also detect small deviations away Mentor: Bruce Balick, Astronomy from the overall disk position angle in our polarization data; In the Milky Way, there are very few planetary nebulae (PNe) we speculate that this might be indicative of either a warp in known to be in the halo, less than a dozen. Studies of the the inner disk region or the injection of new disk material at Andromeda Galaxy have shown that there are more than 700 an inclined orbit to the plane of the pre-existing disk. We also PNe in the thick disk alone. By analogy, we would expect to present our initial efforts to model time dependent behavior of find several thousand PNe in the halo. We are using surveys our spectropolarimetric data using 3D Monte Carlo Radiative such as SDSS and 2MASS to identify new planetary neb- transfer codes. ulae candidates at high latitudes in the absence of suitable emission-line imaging surveys. Our recent research shows POSTER SESSION 2 that it is possible to refine the search using near-infrared col- Commons West, Easel 61 ors from 2MASS.