Astronomy ideas

Here is a list of astronomy-related projects that I would like to do.

• Star formation in high-z galaxies with the ELT using the Illustris simulation suite.

  This project involves

  1. pulling particle data from the illustris simulation database,
  2. generating mock images with and without using the hyperion radiative transfer code,
  3. observing these projections of the galaxies with SimCADO
  4. Determining the observation limits for MICADO at the ELT with regards to galaxy total luminosity, size and luminosity of individual star formation regions, star formation rate, resolved galactic structure

  More about this project can be found here:

  • Level: Master thesis, 6-12 months work
  • Project description
  • Github repository
• Astrometry to disentangle galactic centre open cluster
  • Level: Master thesis, 6-12 months work
• The IMF in the era of the ELTs
  • Level: Master thesis, 6-12 months work
• Target lists of young stellar clusters that will be resolvable with the ELT
  • Level: Bachelor thesis, 2-4 months work

  The task would be to make a catalogue of young stellar clusters and find cluster properties like:

  • Coordinates
  • Image
  • Possible catalogue of stars
  • Age, mass, distance
  • Milky Way cluster, or external galaxy
  • Proper motions, internally and global
  • How many stars are in the cluster
  • Brightest star, absolute and apparent magnitude
  • How many bright stars above the MICADO saturation limit
  • Lowest mass star that can be observed
  • Light profile - half-light radius, tidal radius, core radius
  • Extent of cluster - how wide is it, how many MICADO fields will be need to cover it
  • Best zenith distance for observations
  • Estimates for IMF for the cluster