[Sci-all-l] Physics and Astronomy Student Colloquium: Part 5

[Scott Fleming]

Part 5 of the Vassar College Physics and Astronomy Student Colloquium will
be held on Monday, October 25 at 4:00 PM in Sanders Physics Lecture Hall,
Room 207.  Tea and cookies will be served before the talks.  All are
welcome to come and hear about the exciting research performed by Vassar
College students over the summer.  Part 5 will feature talks by Ellen
Foster, Steve Gilhool and Meredith Schaffer:



Ellen Foster, Vassar College

Title: The Search for Exoplanets: Spectrographic Classification of
Photometric Planet Candidate Stars

Abstract: During June and July 2004, we used the Vassar College 32-inch
telescope to make spectroscopic observations of three 10th through 12th
magnitude stars with potential transiting exoplanets.  These stars were
selected by wide-field CCD monitoring by the Space Telescope Science
Institute XO group, which selects stars with periodic decreases of about
1%.  The comparison of the program stars’ spectra to standard spectra
taken with the same telescope allows us to classify the candidate stars as
an F2V, F8V, and F9IV-V with a ±1 error in spectral type and a +1 error in
luminosity class.  The stars were classified using spectral features
between 4000 and 9000 angstroms.  From our analysis, none of these stars
are giants and none of them show evidence of being a binary system, making
them good planet candidates for further observation.


Steve Gilhool, Haverford College

Title: A Search for Giant Radio Pulses in EGRET Error Boxes

Abstract: I will discuss a search for pulsars in the error boxes of 56
unidentified gamma-ray sources from the third EGRET catalog which could
be previously undetected energetic pulsars.  In particular, the search
was for pulsars that periodically emit giant pulses. Detection of giant
pulses is a secondary way to detect radio pulsars and may pick up
candidates missed by a standard Fourier transform search. Pulsars in the
known population that have been observed to emit giant pulses have
unique properties, so any pulsars discovered in our search would be
particularly interesting and provide valuable information about these
phenomena and their connection.



Meredith Schaffer, Vassar College

Title: Protogalaxies: Analysis of High-Redshift Galaxies in the Hubble
Ultra Deep Field