D I R A C I n s t i t u t e
Data Intensive Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Washington
Category: Recent Publications
Astronomers document the rise and fall of a rarely observed stellar dance
A team led by Dr. James Davenport, analyzed more than 125 years of observations of HS Hydra, and showed how this system has changed dramatically over the course of just a few generations.
Read MorePhotometric Redshifts with the LSST II: The Impact of Near-Infrared and Near-Ultraviolet Photometry
Published paper includes contribution from DIRAC Researchers: Graham Melissa, Connolly Andrew, Morrison Christopher B., Ivezić Željko, Daniel Scott, Jones R. Lynne, Jurić Mario, Yoachim Peter, Bryce Kalmbach J. Published Date: April 2020. Abstract Accurate photometric redshift (photo-zz) estimates are essential…
Read MorePhotometric Biases in Modern Surveys
Dr. Stephen Portillo, DIRAC Postdoctoral Fellow, coauthored paper “Photometric Biases in Modern Surveys” published in March 2020. Photometric Biases in Modern Surveys Abstract Many surveys use maximum-likelihood (ML) methods to fit models when extracting photometry from images. We show that…
Read MoreOrbital Dynamics of 2020 AV2: the First Vatira Asteroid
Paper by DIRAC Researcher, Sarah Greenstreet Published February 2020 Orbital Dynamics of 2020 AV2: the First Vatira Asteroid Abstract Vatira-class near-Earth objects (NEOs) have orbits entirely interior to the orbit of Venus with aphelia 0.307 < Q < 0.718 AU….
Read MoreInsights from MU69’s (Lack of) Craters
Months ago, a team of scientists led by Sarah Greenstreet (B612 Asteroid Institute and University of Washington) conducted a study in which they made predictions for the crater count they expected to find on MU69’s surface. Greenstreet and collaborators used…
Read MorePatient Astronomers Catch Stellar Litterbugs: What Happens Next Is Shocking!
Dr. Melissa L. Graham, LSST Research Scientist and DIRAC Fellow, coauthored paper on a large Hubble survey of supernovae “Delayed Circumstellar Interaction for Type Ia SN 2015cp Revealed by an HST Ultraviolet Imaging Survey”. The supernova explosions of white dwarf…
Read MoreEstimating the Milky Way’s Mass via Hierarchical Bayes: A Blind Test on MUGS2 Simulated Galaxies
Published in the Astrophysical Journal, by DIRAC Researcher, Gwendolyn Eadie.
Read MoreCollaborative, participant-driven learning works!
Science has become a big-data endeavor. But scientists are not universally adept in “data science” — the computing and statistical skillsets needed to handle, sort, analyze and draw conclusions from big data. The shortage of know-how in data science can…
Read MoreDIRAC Researcher Helps Investigate the “Most Mysterious Star” from the Kepler Mission
DIRAC Researcher and NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, James Davenport, is a coauthor on a recent paper studying “Boyajian’s Star”, aka the Most Mysterious Star in the Universe!
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