Exploring Astrophysics: Recent Episodes
Vikram Bhamre
Join me as I learn about the world of Astrophysics. My name is Vikram Bhamre and I am 16 years old. I will look into the daily lives of people in the profession, explore the breath of the topic, and gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of the field.
Dr Byrnes talked about his journey to astrophysics having initially started out with a Mathematics degree at the University of Cambridge. He also talked about his research looking at the early universe - particularly the inflation period. Towards the end, he mentioned his work into primordial black holes and whether they may be the key to finding out about dark matter.
Dr Garcia has been looking at the gravitational fields near black holes and neutron stars to better understand the phenomenon we see in these unordinary circumstances. He talked about his transition from atomic physics to X-ray astrophysics, and what he has been working on recently. Stay tuned till the end of the episode, where he gives advice on what you can do to get involved in research.
Dr Romer shared some of her most exciting and coolest experiences as an astrophysicist, including a trip to the south pole! She also mentioned how in the past astronomers would have to travel to the obersevations sites in places like Chile to take the images, rather than having it all automated from your office. Dr Romer spoke about the recent James Webb space telescope images, and her reaction and thoughts to seeing the amazing pictures.
In this episode Dr Estrela spoke about her research into classifying and charecterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets, and also her research the effects of stellar activity on these exoplanets. Dr Estrela explained how she first was interested in astrobiology and how her work is helping us answer the age old question: Is there life out there?
Active galactic nuclei are found in the centers of galaxies and emit extremely high levels of radiation, which Dr Hervet tries to model computationally. Dr Hervet is also part of the VERITAS collaboration which is a ground based observatory with an array of 4 telescopes, each with a 12 meter wide diameter!
This episode Dr Du spoke about some of her work looking at the physical properties of the interstellar medium in distant galaxies. She also spoke about her interest in asgtronomy outreach and the kind of work she does as outreach manager at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. Listen to the end of the podcast to hear her advice on learning more about astronomy at a young age!
Dr Daylan, told me about his work on explanets utilising primarily the TESS mission, and how the transit method is used to discover these planets. Additionally, he also spoke about the charecteristics that can be inferred from a discovered planets, such as the mass, density and orbital radius.
In this episode Dr Ezzeddine told me about how the chemical and physical compositions of stars can be inferred by the use of spectroscopy. Additionally, she explained what the r-process is, and how by building radiative transfer models we can calculate the abundances of elements in the atmospheres of stars.
Dr Salimpour explained the intersection between art and cosmology, and why he believes those two things are inextricable. He also delved into how the beauty of simplicity underlies all of cosmology.
In this episode, Sven spoke to me about his work in gravitational lensing, and more specifically, a novel statistical analysis method he is developing. He also spoke about how he transitioned to astrophysics from studying math, as well as how his analysis technique could prove incredibly useful in learning more about the matter distribution in our universe.
In this episode, Marcus spoke to me about his current PHD work as well as his interest in cosmology. He explained a little about Astrochemistry and the research he is doing related to it. Lastly, he spoke about the process of getting a PHD and the final outcome required for completion.
Dr Jeffery goes into detail about how dark energy and dark matter, two things he is researching extensively, are elusive and that astrophysicists know very little about it. The Dark Energy Survey is a project which he is part of that tries to map the distribution of dark energy in our universe. Dr Jeffrey also spoke about machine learning in the context of his research and how it is being used extensively throughout the projects he is working in.
This episode I spoke to Dr Doel about some of the projects he has been working on. He told me about the considerations that need to be accounted for when retrofitting telescopes as well as how he entered this field. Dr Doel also described how he thought the field have changed in the past to what it is now.
This episode I spoke to Dr Cavaglia about what the LIGO collaboration is and how it operates, as well as some of the details of the interferometers. He also spoke about the kinds of data cleaning a data analyst such as himself needs to perform of the LIGO data to actually find gravitational wave signals. I also asked him a little about his role teaching and some advice he might give to high school students looking to pursue astrophysics.
I spoke to Dr Leistedt on how statistics plays an important role in astronomy, as well as why astronomy is somewhat unique in comparison to other fields of physics such as particle physics. In addition, we spoke more about astronomical datasets, and how the sheer amount of data makes it more difficult to process as well as how even hardware imprecisions have to be taken into account when projects are conducted.
I enjoyed speaking with Dr Pablo Lemos today as he described his work involving dark matter and energy which includes testing models and determining how accurate they are. He also spoke to me about the research he did for his PHD and how he implemented Artificial Intelligence into one of his projects.
In this episode I spoke to Dr Mahony about her work using gravitational lensing to research more into the properties of dark energy and matter. We spoke about some of the work she found challenging and how she overcame those obstacles, while also speaking about the future implications her research could have in the field of astrophysics.
In this episode we talked about how Aaron became involved with his current research and what AGN galaxies are. It was also very interesting about how he used computational techniques to cut down a database of 500,000 galaxies into just the 200 that met the criteria he was looking for.
In this episode we looked at how astrophysical simulations can never be completely realistic due to the sheer scale of the universe, and how computational astrophysicists have to work around that. Prof. Diemer also spoke about his project with a textile specialist, fabricoftheuniverse.org, which tries to visualise dark matter data in a unique ways, such as representing the data as 3D woven textiles.
In this episode I speak with Dr Nevin on her work building a tool to recognise and classify galaxy mergers. She also talked about using machine learning and statistical tools in her work to assess how realistic fake galaxies can be to the ones observed. We also looked at some of the types of galaxies mergers present.
In this episode I talk to Dr. Tacchella about how his research is looking for ways to explain the structure of galaxies, as well as why they come in many different forms such as spiral and elliptical galaxies. I also talk with Dr. Tacchella about the specific research he is doing, including some of the theories that exist that try to explain the physical properties of galaxies.
A big part of Dr. Massara's research is studying the structure of the universe, and creating simulations to explain the irregularity of matter dispersal in the universe. In particular, we talked about her work observing the voids(A vast space in the universe containing very few galaxies) and how voids are where neutrinos can be indirectly detected.
Dr. Evans is designing new technologies to improve advanced LIGO, a laser interferometer that detects gravitational waves. In 2019 he was awarded the New Horizons in physics prize for research on present and future ground-based detectors of gravitational waves. I talked to him about how he accidentally got into the field of astrophysics, and his work in the LIGO group.
A graduate of Columbia University in New York City, Gladys holds a Bachelor of Science degree in astronomy & physics. Gladys has conducted high energy particle astrophysics at various labs around the world, such as Nevis Laboratories and as part of the VERITAS collaboration. I talked with Gladys about her experience teaching at MIT, as well as some of the discoveries she think we will witness in the near future in astrophysics. She also recounted how she found her passion in the subject.
Dr Pat Scott leads the Gambit collaboration, a project with multiple theorists and experimentalists from around the world, is a project that aims to use the vast amounts of data available to test the likelihood of models beyond the standard model, which can be downloaded by anyone. I also talked to him about how he got into the field and his experience teaching some students, as well as what he plans to do in the future.
This podcast will be a monthly release where I speak to all kinds of people working in and around astrophysics, be it hunting for dark matter or searching for the origin of the universe by looking back in time.