Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
Project Type
individual
Campus
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Sydney Krause, Sophomore
Lead Presenter's Name
Sydney Krause
Lead Presenter's College
DB College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Bililign Dullo
Abstract
Galaxies are considered to have depleted cores when the central region’s concentration of stars is lower than typical, a feature linked to supermassive black hole formation and vital in galaxy evolution studies. In this project, “Unveiling Stellar Core Depletion in NGC 4649 with JWST NIRCam”, Space-based archival data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) was utilized for several forms of analysis. Initial analysis involved accessing these images via SAO DS9, an astrophysics software for viewing and manipulating files. These images were analyzed using Photoutils, a Python based coding package, part of the Astropy extension. To end the first stage, Photoutils was used in Jupyter Notebooks to retrieve several data tables and vital graphs such as the surface brightness profile, that depicts how the brightness of the galaxy changes with distance from the central region. The second stage involves using Two-dimensional fitting with IMFIT (IMage FITting). That code will then generate a model image of the galaxy, a residual image, and best-fit parameters. Final stages of the project include using several different packs of code to manipulate the final image. These methods allow for precise analysis of how stars are distributed in galaxy centers, providing insight into what leads to core depletion. This project is needed to provide understanding as to how supermassive black holes grow, and gives key insights into galaxy evolution.
Did this research project receive funding support (Spark, SURF, Research Abroad, Student Internal Grants, Collaborative, Climbing, or Ignite Grants) from the Office of Undergraduate Research?
No
Unveiling Stellar Core Depletion in NGC 4649 with JWST NIRCam
Galaxies are considered to have depleted cores when the central region’s concentration of stars is lower than typical, a feature linked to supermassive black hole formation and vital in galaxy evolution studies. In this project, “Unveiling Stellar Core Depletion in NGC 4649 with JWST NIRCam”, Space-based archival data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) was utilized for several forms of analysis. Initial analysis involved accessing these images via SAO DS9, an astrophysics software for viewing and manipulating files. These images were analyzed using Photoutils, a Python based coding package, part of the Astropy extension. To end the first stage, Photoutils was used in Jupyter Notebooks to retrieve several data tables and vital graphs such as the surface brightness profile, that depicts how the brightness of the galaxy changes with distance from the central region. The second stage involves using Two-dimensional fitting with IMFIT (IMage FITting). That code will then generate a model image of the galaxy, a residual image, and best-fit parameters. Final stages of the project include using several different packs of code to manipulate the final image. These methods allow for precise analysis of how stars are distributed in galaxy centers, providing insight into what leads to core depletion. This project is needed to provide understanding as to how supermassive black holes grow, and gives key insights into galaxy evolution.