Shedding Light on the Fate of Satellite Galaxies and Integrating Current Research into Museums and K-12 Public School Classrooms

道格拉斯沃森博士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，在芝加哥大学开展研究和教育计划。 天体物理学中一个长期存在的问题是了解星系是如何形成的。 这样的理解对于揭示我们的宇宙是如何演化的以及深入了解我们银河系的起源是必要的。 了解星系形成的一个重要方面是研究卫星星系如何与它们所处的暗物质暗晕相关。 揭示这种联系提供了关于宇宙中星系形成和层次结构形成的丰富信息。 卫星星系过着混乱的生活，但对它们空间分布的理解为了解宇宙光明面和黑暗面之间的关系提供了线索。在这个项目中，该研究员将专注于星系形成理论的两个主要方面，试图揭示卫星星系的命运：首先，卫星星系的径向密度分布有很强的光度趋势，这样明亮的卫星是占主导地位的底层暗物质的不良示踪剂。 然而，导致这一结果的物理原因尚不清楚。 该研究员将寻求采用高分辨率的暗物质N体模拟，这将能够解决subhalos到非常小的规模的利益。 由于卫星星系被认为是居住在subhalos，subhalos的空间分布的详细调查是至关重要的，以测试在极端小尺度的一致性λ冷暗物质模型。 其次，研究员将研究一种新技术，利用卫星星系的空间聚集来了解它们的恒星质量损失是如何发生的。 了解卫星星系如何失去恒星质量，可以产生不同尺度的漫射晕内光（IHL）的数量的直接预测，并可能被证明是非常宝贵的，为深入了解星系形成的物理学。 激励公众和下一代伟大科学家的一种方法是让天文学家以灵感和清晰的方式传达复杂的想法。 该研究员将采取两部分的方法来实现这一奋进：（1）改善阿德勒天文馆的公共宣传工作，（2）培训K-12芝加哥公立学校教师，以获得有效地向服务不足的少数民族学生教授科学（特别是天文学）的技能。 第一部分是在芝加哥的阿德勒天文馆与博物馆参观者进行互动演示时，研究员开发新的可视化和引人入胜的叙述。 在第二部分，研究员将帮助建立和实施一个新的教师专业发展讲习班，重点是天文学。 阿德勒演讲的经验将有助于告知研究员将天文学带入课堂的有效方法。 教学讲习班不仅将使教师直接接触真实的科学家和科学方法，而且还将评估天文学家激励服务不足的青年追求科学职业道路的能力。 这项活动将有助于教师激励学生从事科学事业。

Dr. Douglas Watson is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of Chicago. A longstanding problem in astrophysics is to understand how galaxies form. Such understanding is necessary to uncover how our Universe evolved and to gain insight into the origin of our own Milky Way Galaxy. One important aspect of understanding galaxy formation is to study how satellite galaxies relate to the dark matter subhalos in which they reside. Uncovering this connection provides a wealth of information about galaxy formation and hierarchical structure formation in the Universe. Satellite galaxies lead chaotic lives, yet an understanding of their spatial distribution gives clues into the relationship between the light and dark sides of the Universe. In this project the fellow will focus on two principal aspects of galaxy formation theory that seek to shed light on the fate of satellite galaxies: First, there is a strong luminosity trend of the radial density profile of satellite galaxies such that bright satellites are poor tracers of the dominant, underlying dark matter. However, what is physically responsible for driving this result remains unclear. The fellow will seek to incorporate high resolution dark matter N-body simulations that will be able to resolve subhalos down to the very small scales of interest. Since satellite galaxies are believed to reside within subhalos, a detailed investigation of the spatial distribution of subhalos is crucial towards testing the concordance Lambda Cold Dark Matter model at the extreme small scales. Second, the fellow will investigate a new technique to use the spatial clustering of satellite galaxies to understand how their stellar mass loss occurs. Understanding how satellite galaxies can lose stellar mass can yield direct predictions for the amount of diffuse intrahalo light (IHL) at varying scales and may prove invaluable for providing insight into the physics of galaxy formation.The broader impacts of this project include a significant educational component. One way to invigorate the general public and the next generation of great scientists is for astronomers to convey complex ideas with inspiration and clarity. The fellow will take a two-part approach to this endeavor: (1) improving public outreach efforts at the Adler Planetarium, and (2) training K-12 Chicago public school teachers in acquiring the skills to effectively teach science (astronomy in particular) to underserved, minority students. The first part involves the fellow developing new visualizations and engaging narratives for use in interactive presentations with museum visitors at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. In the second part the fellow will help to construct and implement a new professional development workshop for teachers with a focus on astronomy. The experience with the Adler presentations will help inform the fellow on effective methods for taking astronomy into the classroom. The teaching workshop will not only allow teachers direct exposure to real scientists and the scientific method, but it will also assess the ability of astronomers to galvanize the underserved youth to pursue career paths in science. This activity will help enable teachers to inspire students to pursue careers in science.