Astrophysics laboratory
Physics and astrophysics first cycle
Objectives and competences
Students will learn:
- basic concepts of astrophysical data formats and commonly used data bases;
- hands on experience in reduction, calibration and analysis of the public photometric and spectroscopic astrophysical datasets.
Prerequisites
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Content
- Data formats and data bases in astrophysics
- Standard procedures in reduction and photometric calibration of CCD images
- Standard procedures in reduction and extraction of spectra. Wavelength calibration and spectrophotometric calibration. The effect of atmospheric absorption on the spectra.
- Overview and comparison of data from non-optical instruments
- Analysis of public data of current experiments
Intended learning outcomes
- knowledge of astrophysical data (sources and contents) and appropriate analysis tools and methods
Readings
Assessment
- homeworks
- final project
Lecturer's references
Dr. Tanja Petrushevska je docentka za področje fizike na Univerzi v Novi Gorici.
Dr. Tanja Petrushevska is an assistant professor of physics at the University of Nova Gorica. Her research interests lie in the field of observational astrophysics and cosmology, especially time domain astronomy. Her research has showed the feasibility of searches for strongly lensed supernovae with ground-based facilities and resulted in the discovery of five of the most distant core-collapse supernovae with implications on the volumetric core-collapse rates to very high redshifts. It has furthermore showed the utility of supernovae for cosmological studies, by investigating the properties of the strongly lensed and very distant supernova. As part of the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory, she has contributed to the discovery of supernovae and their study, including the first resolved, multiply-imaged supernova Ia and the first supernova forming a compact neutron star binary. Her current research also includes studying tidal disruption flares and searching for short gamma-ray bursts from supernovae induced by axion-like particles which are candidates for dark matter.