HFC physics and astronomy instructor Jesse Mason (center, wearing a bowtie) is surrounded by his student research group called the Dead Stars Society. Photo courtesy of HFC Marketing

The HFC astronomy research team was recently awarded a $20,000 grant through the LSST Discovery Alliance to be one of the lead groups to work with data from the LSST, or “Large Synoptic Survey Telescope,” which is one of the largest telescopes in the world located at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.

According to Henry Ford College astronomy instructor, Jesse Mason, an astrophysicist friend of his had reached out and asked him if he had any students that might be interested in doing research. Mason did indeed. One of his astronomy students, Anthony Preston, actually aspires to become an astrophysicist and proved he was more than capable of doing graduate level research.

Mason and Preston began with some old school laptops and struggled with getting the software to work. Two more students, Mariam Ismail Fawaz and Cortney Rinehart, joined the team. They nicknamed their group the “dead stars society.”

Mason mentioned that the first project they began to research was the possibility of the existence of “medium sized black holes,” which thus far has not been proven to actually exist. In hunting for them, Mason mentioned that he and his research team had in fact come up with a process in data analysis which has resulted in being exceedingly successful and useful.

Fawaz said, “We were hyper-productive doing graduate level research; some of us hadn’t even taken astronomy or physics, hardly anyone had coding experience either.”

Mason said, “The project lasted a year and got us grants and the collab with the LSST, yet we were still able to do meaningful research in astrophysics and working with synthetic data from the LSST and spent six months learning to use the LSST and then wrote a manual on how to use the data from LSST for students.”

In addition to their work with the LSST, according to Fawaz, the team is “researching data from a satellite regarding the patterns of neutron star low mass x-ray binary. We download the data that the satellite acquires and gather the geo-magnetic properties.” Geo-magnetic properties in this case would refer to the information about the objects being researched including factors such as their brightness or size. To do this, Fawaz said that she and her research teammates use Python script software, which generates graphs and analyzes the behavior of neutron stars since, thus far, no one has really been able to identify a fixed pattern or repetitive behavior which is what they are researching right now. Neutron stars are typically considered extremely unpredictable.

One of the research team’s main goals is to catalog as many binary systems as possible and collect all of their data regarding neutron stars in one catalog. Therefore, it will become available to other researchers who may show interest in the same topic and allow them to “blaze the trail with their own research.”

Another goal for the time being would be to find a frequent signal in any sort of binary system. According to Fawaz, “Technically we’ve only just begun our research on this topic and we’re still at the beginning.” It was difficult for them to begin their research seeing as they had numerous hiccups using their data on the computers and getting through the initial phase without any errors.

Amna Khalyleh is not only a member of the astronomy research team but she is also the current president of HFC’s Astronomy Club and explained how the club works. One person will go through a process to create a guide and share it with one of their fellow members; then that member will teach someone else who will then add more of their own research to the guide. That cycle would continue until a guide is completed and understood by each member of the astronomy club. Using this process, it makes it much easier for an undergraduate student to contribute to graduate level research. Khalyleh agrees with the old adage that, “the best way to learn is by teaching.” She says, “This process helps teach us how to use the research better and understand research further, especially with the neutron star project.”

Dominic Deyonker is a fairly new member of the astronomy research team. Deyonker admitted that he’d often feel worried about the efficiency of his research due to lack of experience with coding and this level of research in general.

However, Deyonker has found the other members of the team are incredibly supportive of each other and have gone through all the same struggles only to grow exponentially from it.

“I can always count on them for help and support,” Deyonker said. “Anytime I need help with my homework I know I can just call Marie.” Moreover, Deyonker mentioned that Mason often assigns him specialized tasks for him to complete; something he has done with all of his researchers, in order for them to recognize their own abilities and go further in their progress as astronomy researchers.

The researchers had various positive things to say about their time here at Henry Ford College as part of Mason’s astronomy research team. Fawaz said, “At university, it’s true that students have more opportunities to do one-on-one research with professors. But it’s the pressure of the credits and perfection that distract from the passion of research. It’s like you’re all in the same place and here with each other for the same thing. Mason offered us this job where I got to learn that working isn’t something I necessarily have to dread. In fact, it’s something we all look forward to everyday.”

Khalyleh added, “Here we get to know one another. I feel like we also get to teach each other and therefore learn more in our research. We can do it together while still learning about ourselves and not worry about extensive pressure.”

For more information on the astronomy research team, contact Jesse Mason: jlmason1@hfcc.edu.