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

主张：AST-0104455PI：赫尔利-凯勒，丹尼斯博士。赫尔利-凯勒被授予美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在凯斯西储大学(CWRU)开展研究和教育项目。她将对孤立的螺旋星系周围的矮小星系卫星系统进行光度测量，这将对盘状星系恒星群及其暗物质晕的演化提供限制。这项调查将使用CWRU Burrell Schmidt望远镜进行，将达到比其他孤立系统研究更暗的程度，并将在这些星系的暗晕中对矮球群进行采样。通过这次调查，她将能够研究两个主要问题：1)星系盘/晕/凸起的性质与其卫星系统之间的关系；2)矮小星系的数量对各种冷暗物质模型及其预测的限制。赫尔利-凯勒博士还将为非专业学生设计并开设一门本科课程。在这门课程中，学生探索科学的过程，减少对物质内容的关注，更多地在历史和现实天文问题的背景下像科学家一样思考。***

Prop: AST-0104455PI: Hurley-Keller, DeniseDr. 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. ***