A Stellar Student Experience in the Lone Star State

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This award is funded in whole under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The foundations of a new partnership between the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin will be established. This program will provide students from a Hispanic-Serving Institution (UTRGV) the opportunity to carry out research at a world-class astronomical observatory. The McDonald Observatory is home to eight professional telescopes including the 11-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), the largest optical telescope in North America. The Observatory is located in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, which offer some of the darkest night skies in the 48 contiguous states.UTRGV students will be trained in optical photometry and spectroscopy with state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation at McDonald Observatory. Using the McDonald telescopes to take imaging data for a few selected nearby galaxies, students will make a systematic study to determine the nova rate of nearby galaxies, a rate which is currently poorly constrained. Novae are particularly luminous astronomical transient events and nova rates of nearby galaxies give an insight on stellar evolution and in particular stellar population synthesis models.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.