Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes MMA Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellows Pop-Up Science Talk

November 16, 2023

NANTUCKET, MA — The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces that it will host the MMA’s National Science Foundation Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellows, Emmy Wisz and August Muller, for a pop-up science talk concerning their research. People may know them from Open Nights at Loines Observatory and their weekly Star Reports. Their pop-up science talk, “In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Spectral Analyses of Distant Galaxies,” will take place on Monday, December 4 at 4:30pm EST. It will be presented in person at the MMA’s Research Center, 4 Vestal Street, or online via Zoom. This presentation is free to all.


How do we learn about galaxies a billion light years away? How do we learn about the history of our own home galaxy, the Milky Way? By using spectral analysis, as well as other techniques, we can gain insight into the chemical composition of faraway galaxies and their environments, creating a roadmap to understand how galaxies form and evolve over time. Emission from galaxies reveals properties of the local galactic environment, such as the star formation rate and age. Absorption features provide a peek into regions of the galactic environment that are rich in gas and home to the elements necessary for star formation. Focused on a type of galaxy called a damped Lyman-alpha system, or DLA for short, Emmy Wisz will explain how we use bright background sources as lighthouses to learn about galaxies that are too distant to be seen directly. By investigating the home galaxies of the still-mysterious fast radio bursts, August Muller will discuss how these strange bursts may come to be and how we are using them to probe the distant Universe.


Emmy Wisz obtained her B.A. in Astronomy and Physics from Bryn Mawr College. Her undergraduate research focused on galaxy formation and evolution, studying the impacts of morphology on radial metallicity gradients. She is excited to continue to be involved in the field of galaxy evolution, researching damped Lyman-ɑ (DLA) systems to expand on her understanding of the formation of galaxies over time.


August Muller holds a B.S. in Physics from Haverford College. Her undergraduate thesis investigated techniques for detecting extreme mass-ratio inspiral gravitational wave signals for the upcoming LISA gravitational wave detector. During her year on Nantucket, August is excited to learn more about observational astronomy as she investigates the host galaxies of fast radio bursts.


Join Emmy Wisz and August Muller for this Pop-Up Talk in person or on Zoom. Pre-registration is required for Zoom.


To register for this event, please follow the link below:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_I9eFc4PrTCW-H_E-WiEcug


This series is generously sponsored by our lead sponsor, Bank of America.


The Maria Mitchell Association is a private non-profit organization. Founded in 1902, the MMA works to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages.


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For Immediate Release

November 16, 2023

Contact: Molly Mosscrop, Marketing Director

mmosscrop@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 6, 2026
July 15. {1863} My dear Sally . . . I think Mitchell is all right in his algebra. He can’t stand an examination in Trig but I don’t believe he will have a rigorous one. Father has seen the Prof. and will give him a letter to them.  If you can’t be honest with your sibling, who can you be honest with? Apparently, Sally Mitchell Barney’s son, William Mitchell Barney – known as Mitchell as his cousin William Mitchell Barney was known as Willie (how is that for honoring your father?!) – was visiting his aunt Maria and his grandfather, William Mitchell, at their home in Lynn, MA. Sally still lived on Nantucket and I suspect Mitchell was not only visiting but getting some much needed help with his mathematics by his aunt Maria. As always, she is brutally honest – he won’t pass a test in trigonometry (but, neither would I!). JNLF

Top O’ the Ridge!

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 29, 2026
In April and early May, at long last, the Mitchell House roof was replaced. (I noted this in an earlier blog.) I had also noted that the roofwalk, given the condition it was in and its location – sitting on the ridge – had to be replaced. They had thought they could jack it up – as they have done with other walks – but the Blizzard of February 2026 that was ALL wind (83 MPH winds – read Category 1 Hurricane) and no real snow, made the walk impossible to treat in such a manner (read: crumble). So, after much discussion, review by our preservation easement holder, and permits, as well as some fundraising, we are replacing the roofwalk. The prior walk was not the original. The original blew off in a gale in the late nineteenth century, replaced at some point in the 1930s, and likely replaced again in the 1960s or 1970s. Then, since that time, it was heavily repaired. Its framing members were notched to accept the ridge boards (read: peak) of the roof and I think that may have been an original way to construct a walk. Makes perfect sense – and gives the walk more support and a lower profile. It was after all about putting out chimney fires and preventing roof fires. People copied what worked – and there have been a few others noted to be built in this manner still. It presents an issue though – because if you need to work on the ridge board or close to it – you cannot get to it easily – I guess you may be able to access it to some extent by lifting the deck boards of the walk. The new Mitchell House roofwalk will sit about six inches above the ridge – which will also allow air to circulate better over the ridge and the shakes in that area. That is the only thing that will really be different. It is protected by a preservation easement – as part of the Mitchell House’s easement – and frankly, even if we did not have an easement, we would not want it to look any different. So keep your eyes to the skies at 1 Vestal as we work to re-build the walk. With a special thank you to Barber and Sons and Lydon and Sons. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 22, 2026
1875, June 20. A meeting of the Officers of Congress was called at the house of Mrs. Hanaford, 5 Summit Ave., Jersey City. The weather was intensely cold. I went to New York on the 19 th and stopped with my friend Mrs. Clapp, 100 W. 54 St . . . .It was a question who should preside. Mrs. Hanaford thought the Chairman of the Executive Committee should and I had been told that I should, etc. The question was decided by the non-arrival of the Chairman of Ex.Com. I called them to order at an hour after the time appointed. Of course I made many blunders, as I have never presided before, but I continued for 4 hours. We did a few good things . . . The thing most weighing on Maria’s mind at this meeting was the looseness of membership for the Congress. She felt people were not being vetted properly in some areas of the country and thus they may allow in “undesirables.” I would take this to mean women who were not entirely behind the cause of the Congress and the Association for the Advancement of Women. I am not surprised by her suspicions and likely she was correct – one could see naysayers gaining access to this group and trying to destroy it from the inside. The women’s rights movement would have many schisms within it as people disagreed and broke into smaller factions.  Another important thing to point out is that Mrs. Hanaford is Nantucket-born Phebe Coffin Hanaford. Raised a Quaker, like Maria, Coffin Hanaford would become the first woman Universalist minister in New England – among many other firsts. She grew up with Maria, attended and taught at the Coffin School here on Nantucket, and was a founding member of another women’s organization, Sorosis, which Maria was also a founding member of. It’s nice to see two sister Nantucketers continuing to work together as adults – far from home! JNLF
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