Thinking Like a Scientist: Dwarf Galaxy Satellite Systems Beyond the Local Group

Hurley-Keller Denise A, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Abstract

Prop: AST-0104455 PI: Hurley-Keller, Denise Dr. Hurley-Keller is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). She will carry out a photometric survey of dwarf galaxy satellite systems around isolated spiral galaxies, which will provide constraints both on the evolution of disk galaxy stellar populations and their dark matter halos. The survey will be conducted with the CWRU Burrell Schmidt telescope and will reach fainter than other studies of isolated systems and will sample dwarf spheroidal populations throughout the dark halos of these galaxies. With this survey, she will be able to investigate two primary issues: 1) the relationship between the properties of a galaxy's disk/halo/bulge and of its satellite system, and 2) the constraints that numbers of dwarf galaxies place on various cold dark matter models and their predictions. Dr. Hurley-Keller will also design and offer an undergraduate course for non-majors in which students explore the process of science by focusing less on the material content and more on 'thinking like a scientist' in the context of both historical and current astronomical problems. ***