Young Astro-Scholars Summer 2023 Research Internship
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This summer high school internship program is led by Dr. Peter Plavchan from the College of Science, and from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. The program is an interactive STEM experience where students carry out a cutting-edge research program including the collection of data from the George Mason Observatories, and then analyze that data in support of genuine mission follow-up observations for the NASA TESS mission.
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Browsing Young Astro-Scholars Summer 2023 Research Internship by Author "Collins, Kevin"
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Publication Ground based light curve follow up observations and false positive testing for TESS Object of Interest 3553.01(George Mason University, 2023-10) Kanigicherla, Aarushi; Plavchan, Peter; Collins, KevinThe Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission gathers data for thousands of candidate exoplanets and their host stars (Zhang et al., 2022). In this paper we present research of TOI 3553, which is orbited by candidate exoplanet TOI 3553.01. The goal of this paper is to provide a ground based follow up of the planetary nature of TOI 3553.01. We also will confirm if TOI 3553 is a near eclipsing binary (NEB). We took 303 exposures with the GMU 0.8 m telescope and reduced them, then we conducted ground based multi aperture photometry using AstroImageJ to generate a light curve. Lastly, we conducted an NEB analysis on TOI 3553. We determined that TOI 3553.01 is not a near eclipsing binary. Due to the fact that the transit did not happen during the expected time, we did not confirm the planetary nature of TOI 3553.01.Publication Ground-based Light Curve follow-up Validation Observations of TESS Object of Interest TOI 5147.01 with V-Shaped Profile(George Mason University, 2023-10) Xiao, Cindy; Plavchan, Peter; Collins, KevinContext The best-fit light curve model helps determine various characteristics of the exoplanet, such as its orbital period, radius, and sometimes even its atmospheric properties. Aims Conducting an analysis and interpretation of light curves derived from the provided dataset. The dataset contains various parameters for each observed slice of data, including saturated labels, Julian Dates, Heliocentric Julian Dates, Barycentric Julian Dates, air mass, object altitude, CCD temperature, exposure time, object coordinates, full width at half maximum (FWHM), source and sky radii, relative flux measurements, and associated errors for multiple comparison stars (C1 to C11) and the target star (T1). Methods Methodology employed for data processing, the extraction of photometric information, and the calculation of relevant parameters for each star in the dataset. The photometric measurements are compared to established values to validate the accuracy and consistency of the obtained results.Publication Transit Method Analysis for Exoplanet Detection Validation Observations for TESS Object of Interest 3553.01(George Mason University, 2023-10) Singh, Jayarsh; Plavchan, Peter; Collins, KevinThe goal of this observational research was to further develop a conclusion for the confirmation of TIC 239628993 (TOI 3553.01) as an exoplanet, originally detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). We used the transit method to measure the light emitted from a system's host star and plotted data values throughout the exoplanet's transit. To increase the effectiveness of the transit method, we used image calibration, stack editing, image stabilization/alignment, interactive macro settings, multi-aperture photometry, and differential photometry, all supplied via the software AstroImageJ. Using the features of AstroImageJ, we compared the emitted light of the target star to those of numerous surrounding stars, and generated light curves consisting of normalized and best-fit data. Based on the best-fit modeled light curve, TIC 239628993 (TOI 3553.01) was classified as an exoplanet However, the light curve showed that the host star's brightness consistently decreased towards the end of the data set, not showing the returning increase of brightness. The decrease in emitted light was deemed sufficient to further support the classification of TIC 239628993 as an exoplanet, but based on these tentative results, the transit of the exoplanet as it passed in front of its host star was rendered an incomplete (partial) transit.