Selam (pictured below) is the strange secondary of the Dinkinesh binary asteroid system in the main-belt. Using the secular theory based on binary-Yarkovsky-O’Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (BYORP) and tides, we were able to constrain the age of this asteroid to 1-10 million years. Read up on the methods and results in the article in Astronomy & Astrophysics published here. As a part of this work, we derived some really interesting equations as well which include an improved tidal-BYORP equilibrium equation and a condition for YORP stability.
Acta Astronautica Article Published!
Colby Merrill (2nd year PhD student) just published their first journal article! In their first year at Cornell, they produced a mission design to create a contact binary asteroid and observe its formation process. They presented the first iteration of this work at JHU/APL and a further iteration at the 8th International Planetary Defense Conference. The paper is titled “Creating a contact binary via spacecraft impact to near-Earth binary asteroid (350751) 2002 AW” and features contributions from ASTRAlab members Carl Geiger and Abu Tahsin, SIOSlab PI Dmitry Savransky, and SSDS PI Mason Peck. Access the full publication here.
SIOS at oSTEM 2023!
SIOS Laboratory grad student Colby Merrill presented their research at the 13th oSTEM (out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Conference in Anaheim, CA. The poster they presented focused on designing the orbits necessary to successfully demonstrate a gravity tractor technology.
On Cython
Following up on our ‘compiling Python’ session, we recently did a quick tutorial on Cython. The materials for the tutorial are located here: https://github.com/dsavransky/cython_demo and you can watch the recording, below.
We’re Not Slacking Off, We’re Compiling Python
At a recent group meeting, we discussed how to compile the Python/OpenBLAS/Numpy toolchain from scratch (and why you might wish to do such a thing). See the recording, below, and the associated notes here: https://gist.github.com/dsavransky/a0e15fb3cf2dc40fbed9db1d2b481deb
Research Trip to NRC HAA
As a member of the GPI2.0 CAL2 team, Duan Li visited the NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre (HAA) last week. She worked with William Thompson and Christian Marois, and conducted wavefront sensing and control experiments (e.g. speckle nulling) on SPIDERS (Subaru Pathfinder Instrument for Detecting Exoplanets & Retrieving Spectra).
SIOSlab is Part of the CPP!
NASA recently announced the selections for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Research and Support Participation Opportunities, including the membership of the Coronagraph Community Participation Program (CPP). SIOSlab personnel will work alongside six other research groups (as well as the broader community) for the next three years in support of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument. The full announcement is available here.
Congratulations to Dr. Spohn!
On July 12th, Corey Spohn successfully defended his B exam, completing the requirements for his PhD program. You can see a recording of his talk below.
JOSA A paper published
“Image plane wavefront sensing and Kalman filtering for automated alignment of off-axis aspherics” by Duan Li and Dmitry Savransky has been published in the Journal of the Optical Society of America A and is available here. The paper presents an automated alignment technique on a double off-axis parabolic mirror system, with high accuracy and robustness to uncertainties.
Congratulations to Grace Genszler on Being Named a 2023 Amelia Earhart Fellow
Grace Genszler has been named as one of the 2023 Amelia Earhart Fellows by Zonta International. Amelia Earhart fellowships are granted to those who have achieved an outstanding academic record and demonstrated initiative, ambition and commitment to pursuing a career in aerospace engineering and space sciences. The press release of the announcement is available here.