In 2016, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Gemini Observatory piloted the Maunakea Scholars program at two Hawaii public high schools. The program provides students the opportunity to develop their own independent research proposals for execution on the Maunakea Observatories.
The students work with graduate student mentors from the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy to refine their proposals and then submit them for review by professional astronomers. In that first year, three projects were accepted. Flash-forward to today and the program reaches 12 public high schools across every island in the state of Hawaii. In West Hawaii, Kealakehe, Kohala and Honokaa High Schools all participate in the Maunakea Scholars program along with Waiakea in East Hawaii.
The first Kohala student receiving telescope time was announced on March 12. Sophomore Grace Todd received telescope time at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to study a magnetar. Magnetars are a very specific type of neutron stars that have extremely powerful magnetic fields. Neutron stars form when stars 10 times more massive than the sun reach the end of their lives and supernova. The remaining core is compressed by the intense gravity and forms a neutron star. If the Earth turned into a neutron star (it will not), it would compress to about three football fields in diameter. The star that Grace will study also has an intense magnetic field, making it a magnetar. Grace will use CFHT to make several observations of the star to see if its brightness varies.
Using data collected last year, five Maunakea Scholars students from West Hawaii qualified for the state science fair. All five students are juniors at Keleakehe High School. Amanda Schiff and Noa Roth’s project explores an unusual starburst galaxy. Starburst galaxies generally form when two galaxies merge. The collision triggers star formation in giant gas clouds called nebula. Amanda and Noa’s galaxy is isolated; it does not have any evidence of mergers or gravitational interactions with nearby galaxies that would cause the observed increase in star formation.
Shanen Arellano’s project tries to determine if there is a link between the metallicity and the size and shape of nebulas. Ninety-eight percent of the known universe is comprised of either hydrogen or helium. Because of the overwhelming amount of hydrogen and helium in the universe, many astronomers are interested in the roughly 2 percent that’s comprised of anything else. Shanen’s hypothesis is that nebula with a higher metallicity will be smaller.
Brock Taylor and Nathan Weir compared the composition of the accretion disks of supermassive and stellar mass black holes. Gas and dust orbiting the black hole forms a disk surrounding the black hole of material that ultimately will spiral inwards. While the black hole is not observable, Brock and Nathan looked at the spectra of two accretion disks. One disk surrounds a “small” black hole; it’s 3-30 times the mass of our sun. Their other target is a supermassive black hole in the center of a distant galaxy.
Good luck to Amanda, Noa, Shanen, Brock and Nathan in April at the State Science Fair! And good luck to all the Big Island students participating!