UofC Research
Research performed by the Faculty and Students at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory
Hi'iaka Studies with RAO-CMT Occultation Event
Data Acquisition by; Ruben Morales, Mr. Larry McNish, and Dr. Phil Langill
Data analysis by; Solveig Thompson, Dr. Estela Fernández-Valenzuela (Florida Space Institute), and Dr. Phil Langill
Hi'iaka is the largest satellite of the trans-Neptunian dwarf planet (136108) Haumea. Yes!, a very distant member of our solar system, that is smaller than Pluto, has moons and the RAO detected the largest one with the CMT. Incredibly precise predictions by Dr. Fernández-Valenzuela and her team were correct, and Hi'iaka blocked the light of a distant star as viewed from the RAO for a brief 11.3 seconds. Other observatories along the shadow's path were alerted to the possibility of seeing the occultation. The RAO caught the longest chord, which helps the most in constraining the calculation of the size of the moon; 200 km long x 140 km wide (+/- a few km). Results of this work should appear in the journal Nature Portfolio later this year.
Spectra Studies With the RAO Echelle Spectrograph
By: Arianna Mamer, Kyle Goodbrand, Manpreet Kaur, Mubin Manasia
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary
Spectroscopy is widely used in studying the cosmos, aiding in studying the chemical composition, mass, temperature and radial velocities of stars. This paper focuses on utilizing the RAO Echelle Spectrograph to study the stellar composition of the sun as well as the radial velocity of the Orion Nebula (M42)
Estimation of Physical Properties of Globular Cluster NGC 7006 using BVR Filter Photometric Analysis
By: Courtney Bashnick, Hugo Cheung, Sean Habermiller, Blake Ledger and Kyle Paltzat
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary
Using the 0.4 meter Clarke-Milone CCD Telescope we imaged the Globular Cluster NGC 7006 in the UBVRI Johnson-cousins Photometric anaylsis system. This was done to determined significant physical properties of the globular cluster such as its integrated magnitude for the BVR Filters, the total absolute magnitude in the R filter, the total number of stars with their assumed main spectral type, the total mass of the cluster, and lastly the interior mass in conjunction with the critical radius.
Properties of Potential Asteroids through Pixels
By: Amit Khan, Daniela Lapada, Nadeem Latif and Kelly Ma
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary
Our Solar System is occupied by eight planets, hundreds of moons, and thousands of asteroids. The first two are relatively easy to spot with telescopes, however the study of asteroids is quite different. Using the Baker-Nunn telescope at the RAO, we study the asteroids by looking for fast moving objects in our images. With this data we can determine the velocities of the asteroids, they're size and shape and their composition.