Week 0: Introduction and Background

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first blog post of my senior project.  Over the course of my project, I will be finding the distances to cosmic objects. My future posts will go further into depth about the process and the overall science surrounding cosmology.

I’ve always been interested in space. I’ve been trying to read books such as The Black Hole War since long before I’ve been able to understand cross products vs. dot products. I’ve always wanted to better understand relativity and the black hole information paradox, to find out all the hows and whys surrounding… space. Space is often considered the ultimate mystery, and it’s something I want to unravel.

So for my senior project, I decided to dabble in astrophysics and find the distance to type Ia supernovae from raw telescope data.

Why? Well, I hope to answer one of the fundamental questions about our universe: How far? By analyzing the light curves of type Ia supernovae, we seek to answer fundamental questions related to the expansion of the universe, the nature of dark energy, and the reliability of Type Ia Supernovae as standard candles. The project will contribute to refining the cosmic distance ladder, providing crucial insights into the large-scale structure of the universe by refining cosmological models and determining fundamental parameters like the Hubble constant. Earlier measurements of NGC 5643’s distance have already been calculated using the Tully Fisher method, but this method can yield inaccurate results. My research also aims to offset the 20% uncertainty of the Tully-Fisher method through more accurate measurements using standard candles. 

Type Ia supernovae are often referred to as “standard candles” due to their consistent luminosity. By accurately determining the distance to a Type Ia supernova, researchers can use it as a standard reference point for measuring cosmic distances, which is crucial for understanding the scale and structure of the universe. Studying the distance to a Type Ia supernova in its host galaxy provides valuable information about the galaxy itself. This helps astronomers understand the distribution, evolution, and dynamics of galaxies in the universe. And since Type Ia supernovae result from the explosion of white dwarf stars in binary systems, analyzing their light curves provide further insight into the life cycle of stars and the conditions under which Type Ia supernovae occur. 

Finding the distance to faraway galaxies is also essential for calculating the expansion rate of the universe, which requires a combination of finding the redshifts, recessional velocities, and distances to galaxies. And once we know the expansion rate, we can predict the future state of the universe.

I’m excited to start finding the answers to these questions I’ve had ever since my childhood. Stay tuned for updates!