Nantucket Maria Mitchell Observatory NSF-REU Interns Present Summer Astrophysics Research Projects

Kelly Bernatzky • July 30, 2021

On August 11 at 7pm, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association’s Summer 2021 National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) interns will present their summer research projects in astrophysics virtually on Zoom as part of the free MMA Science Speaker Series. 

 

This summer’s research projects covered a wide range of topics from determining how stellar activity might affect the habitability of exoplanets and searching for sources of gravitational waves, to monitoring the X-ray flares from the supermassive black hole at the center of our nearest neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, to unraveling the contents of the cosmic web. 


For more than fifty years, the Maria Mitchell Observatory (MMO) has offered summer research opportunities in astronomy and astrophysics for undergraduate students on Nantucket. During the program, the six NSF-REU interns will present their individual research projects developed under the guidance of Maria Mitchell Observatory Director Dr. Regina Jorgenson and several affiliated astronomers. “We are so happy to be able to be back in person this summer, and to have been able to invite the interns out to Nantucket. It’s been a tough year for everyone, and the opportunity to spend the summer on Nantucket engaging in hands-on astrophysics research, as well as interacting with our many visitors to public open nights at the Loines Observatory, will likely change the lives of these young scholars,” said Jorgenson. This summer was a particularly competitive year for the MMA’s NSF-REU program, which received over 250 applications for the six positions. 


The summer 2021 Maria Mitchell Observatory (MMO) NSF-REU intern class includes: Kamara Culbreath, University of North Carolina-Greensboro; Jada Louison, Barnard College; Corinna Peña, Butler University; Alejandro Ross, Johns Hopkins University; Mayra Velazquez, Hendrix College; and Michele Woodland, University of Massachusetts-Lowell.


The research projects that the interns will be discussing are:

  • “Do stellar flares impact disk emission and structure?”
  • “Searching for gravitational wave sources using NASA’s TESS mission” 
  • “A Study of resolved AGB and post-AGB stars in GAIA”
  • “Searching for X-ray flares from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Andromeda Galaxy” 
  • “The search for intermediate mass black holes using white dwarf disruptions”   
  • “Using Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) to Untangle the Cosmic Web: IFU Studies of FRB Host Galaxies.”

 

The research interns have been advised by Dr. Jorgenson and the MMA’s post-baccalaureate research fellow Georgia Stolle-McAllister of the MMA, as well as several affiliated astronomers from a range of institutes including the Chandra X-Ray Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Boston University, and M.I.T in Boston, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. This summer two of the affiliated astronomers are former MMA NSF-REU interns themselves: Dr. Suvi Gezari of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Dr. Meredith MacGregor of the University of Colorado, Boulder.


To register for this event, please follow the link below:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kzPyjSRoS_aX1zJVnrS6pQ


For the full Science Speaker Series schedule, please visit our website here:

https://www.mariamitchell.org/science-speaker-series

 

This series is generously presented by our lead sponsor, Bank of America, and additional sponsors, Cape Air, Cisco Brewers, and White Elephant Resorts.

 

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.

For Immediate Release

July 30 2021

Contact: Kelly Bernatzky, Development Associate

kbernatzky@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 27, 2025
This is what our landscaper for MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House this is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 19, 2025
May 27. {1857} There is this great difference between Niagara and other wonders of the world, that is you get no idea from descriptions or even from paintings. Of the Mammoth Cave you have a conception from what you are told, of the Natural Bridge you get really a truthful impression from a picture. But Cave and Bridge are in still life, Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying form of the water of the change of color; no description conveys to your mind the ceaseless roar. So too the ocean must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked upon it. Maria Mitchell would tour the Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge during her trip to the southern United States as Prudence Swift’s chaperone – I have written of these travels and Prudence before. Niagara Falls is a place she likely saw on her way to visit her younger sister Phebe Mitchell Kendall, who once lived with her husband in Pennsylvania. I was a bit surprised that she feels the way she does about the Cave and Bridge being well-represented by images but I do kind of se her point. But Niagara, the ocean, any moving body of water – she is right. You don’t fully comprehend it until you hear it, touch and taste it, see its colors, and feel it splash, sprinkle, or mist across your face. Niagara certainly mists across your face – sort of like a breezy day at the beach and the salt mist that slowly builds across your face and coats the beach grass so that it shimmers in the sunlight. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 12, 2025
I have been watching it. Waiting. Today, I was rewarded with the scent as they have now started to open. From late fall, all through the winter and early spring, there is a very large patch of dirt with traces of roots and purple-like portions of some sort of plant. Then, they slowly start to send their shoots forth – up from that dusty pile of dirt come little greenish pips that become the leaves. Then, you start to see the stems tightened against the leaves and then lovely chartreuse buds are visible that then turn to white and slowly open from top to bottom. As soon as they star to open, I wait. Knowing that one morning I will walk by soon and then I will get a delicious waft of Lily of the Valley. I have written about this patch at the Mitchell House before. I have always been fascinated by the fact that these grow in full sun – they have no shade whatsoever. And this patch is old. I’m not sure how old – I do not think late nineteenth century but possibly – or maybe very early twentieth century. We have one or two images in the collection from the early 1900s but one does not show the ground, and the other not so much either. I also think this is one of the earliest flowering patches of Lily of the Valley on island – let me know if you’ve seen others this early. And in FULL sun to boot! But in any case, today was the day – May 5, 2025 – that I got the first waft. Saturday when I was here, they were not ready yet. But now, they are! And when I smell it, I know why it was my mother-in-law’s favorite flower. JNLF
Show More