Previous studies have shown that the cosmic expansion is accelerating despite the gravitational attraction between matter, caused by a mysterious source of energy denoted as dark energy. A cosmographic test of whether it exists in the form of a cosmological constant or more general dark energy was performed with Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms using the SCP Union2.1 supernova compilation. By fitting polynomials to Hubble series expansions, the Hubble Constant (H0), the deceleration parameter (q0), and the jerk parameter (j0) can be estimated … This study focuses on the effects of MCMC algorithms and model-building uncertainty the dependence of results based on fitting functions used. Eight tests of different orders and distance scales were performed. Through a new program devised in Java, resulting uncertainties of all parameters are significantly smaller than those from traditional statistical techniques. Combined with cosmographic method, MCMC yields much more Gaussian distributions of cosmological parameters.

I’ve lived in the small town of Burnt Hills, New York for all of my life. Starting at a young age I developed a love for science. In my spare time I would polish rocks in my rock tumbler. I spent hours digging around my gravel driveway trying to pick out the quartz among the limestone. I also enjoyed analyzing fingerprints with my toy forensic kit. At one point I actually wanted to become a forensic anthropologist (the show Bones was a favorite of mine). My father had a part in helping to propel my scientific interests. He had an old chemistry set and we would do experiments on the weekends. He also would set up his old telescope so we could gaze at the stars. Perhaps that’s where my love of astronomy began. My interest in nature also influenced my passion for science. As a little girl I would catch frogs, butterflies, crickets - really anything I could get my hands on. I loved, and still love, fishing at my grandparent’s lake, only a couple hours from where I live. Bloody Pond, despite the gruesome name, is where I have had some of my best memories. I’ve especially enjoyed my time spent looking up at the sky on those clear nights … As I got older I watched documentaries and read books on concepts like light speed and parallel universes, which immediately captured my imagination. I was in awe by how the world works and how we can learn about it through equations and experiments. What drew me to astronomy and physics is the idea that it is the basis of study for the entire universe; from the most elementary of particles, such as neutrinos, up to the largest and most distant galaxy structures studied. My passion for science was escalated the summer going into my sophomore year of high school. That summer I attended a career exploration program at Cornell University where I took a workshop on astronomy. Immediately I fell in love with the field and the exciting research it was producing. I was fascinated by dark matter, exoplanets, and all of the mysteries in the farthest depths of our universe.

Ever since Galactic Cosmic Rays were detected by Victor Hess 100 years ago (Hess 1912), their origin has been a mystery; what stellar object is powerful enough to accelerate particles into TeV energy ranges, and how does it release so much of them? Galactic Cosmic Rays are capable of releasing high energy X-rays and gamma rays, with energies up to GeV, as they travel through the interstellar medium. By studying the spectral patterns of the emitted X-rays and gamma rays, we can gain insight into the nature of the Cosmic rays themselves. To record such patterns, astronomers have used the Chandra telescope and the Very Large Array telescope to create high-resolution X-ray images of some sources of Cosmic rays. However, the low energy band of these preexisting telescopes has limited our ability to detect high-energy X-ray emissions from the sources and to gain further understanding of their particle acceleration mechanisms (Reynolds 2008). But with the recently launched Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), it is now possible to record these high-energy spectrum data with high resolution.

Looking up at night, it is easy to get lost in the grandeur of the view. Space seems infinite and the myriad stars inspire a multitude of feelings. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to understand the great mysteries of the universe first getting excited via buzz words like “black holes” and “curved space time.” Such fascinating ideas easily captivated my childhood curiosity . . . My interest started to become more tangible in elementary school when the school’s librarian recommended me to read Stepehen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time.” With the help of my father I finished the book and became noticeably more interested in astrophysics. I began dreaming of becoming a research scientist much like Einstein and discovering how the universe “works.” . . . My research project looked at a mathematical function called the two-point correlation function and applied it to measure the clustering of galaxies in a radio survey of the sky. This is important because it was the first time such an analysis was done in a frequency relevant to a new area of astrophysics called 21 cm tomography which hopes to give us precise measurements of cosmological parameters and insight into the very early universe…

From the very beginning of civilization, humans have pondered their future through innumerable myths and legends. Through the times of the ancient Greeks’ tales, with their stories of oracles prophesying the ruin of empires, and the Middle Ages, with seers like Nostradamus appearing to peek into the future, the idea of an ultimate destiny has become an obsession for many. Only nowadays do we have the scientific tools coupled with ultra-fast processing power necessary to make a well-substantiated picture of the distant future of the Solar System, which seems harbor large uncertainties for this planet. With the greatly increased radiation of an evolving Sun, our survival comes into question . . . Expansion of the Sun in the future will cause conditions to be vastly different from those today, leaving the Earth unsustainable. This study intends to establish which Solar System object will be most conducive to the survival of humans during five stages of solar evolution: (1) further along the main sequence at age 8.40 billion years (Ga), (2) during the red giant stage at 11.93 Ga (3) 6 million years (Ma) later prior to the helium flash (4) after the helium flash at age 12.17 Ga and (5) the beginning of core crystallization at age 12.23 Ga. The Evolve ZAMS code (Paxton, 2004) determines the mass and luminosity of the Sun at these stages. Semi-major axis lengths of each of the solar system objects (SSOs) are calculated based on mass loss (Schroder and Smith, 2008) and the principle of conservation of angular momentum. The potentially sustainable objects’ temperatures are solved for using blackbody equations, from which comparison of RMS gas speed with escape velocity determines the ability of a body to retain an atmosphere consisting of a specific gas. It is found that Earth and Mars are optimal SSOs in stage 1. In stages 2 and 3, Triton is most sustainable, but in stage 4, the Galilean moons and Titan appear to be more habitable. Stage 5 has Triton being the most optimal…