A huge well done to our Work Experience Week students of 2018!
NSO Work Experience class and staff of 2018
We had a fantastic week and loved the effort, commitment and dedication that we saw everyone show towards their research projects and presentations (with some smaller fun activities on the side, nothing quite says team-building like constructing the tallest spaghetti-marshmallow tower).
To kick off the week we focused on team-building activities, having introductory astrophysics talks by the likes of Prof. Andrew Newsam and Dr. Stacey Habergham-Mawson and explaining what exactly we do here in the Astrophysics Research Institute - as well as describing the pioneering science the Liverpool Telescope is involved in. A number of PhD students also presented their current work and their paths through the astrophysics world up to their current research - whether that be solving the mystery of the formation of galaxies to using astronomical technology to preserve rare wildlife species.
The latter half of the week was then in the hands of our work experience students. To briefly summarize the research projects the they took part in:
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Exoplanets: Conducting photometric measurements to investigate the properties of an exoplanet transiting a G-type star.
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Galaxy Classification: Producing a Colour-Magnitude Diagram (CMD) for a selection of galaxies to investigate their properties.
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Globular Clusters: Producing a Hertzprung-Russell (H-R) / Colour-Magnitude Diagram for a select globular cluster to investigate the properties of the stars within.
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Sunspots: Using recent data in addition to data dating back 100 hundred years to investigate some of the properties of our own star, the Sun, such as its rotation period and deducing if there are any patterns correlating to the occurrence of sunspots.
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Variable Stars: Investigating the properties of an unidentified star which has a varying brightness, with the aim of determining the nature of its variability.
Each project was carried out in groups of 3-4 over the course of two days, with a written report and presentation carried out by each group to show their findings.
