NRAO REU Students Lead an ALMA Proposal

NRAO REU Students Lead an ALMA Proposal

Three undergraduates participating in this summer's NRAO Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program have written and submitted an ALMA Cycle 1 observing proposal: Molly Gallagher (Grinnell College), Sinclaire Manning (Howard Univ.), and Rachel Smullen (Univ. Wyoming).

Challenged with the idea of writing an ALMA proposal (and a promised reward of a free dinner), these enterprising students took the initiative to learn about ALMA, download and use the ALMA Observing Tool, and write and submit an observing proposal! All the co-Investigators agreed that although the experience was challenging, it was extremely rewarding. "The hardest part was learning the technical jargon and devising the observing strategy," said Molly Gallagher, who was the proposal PI. The team requested ALMA observing time to map the molecular gas via the CO(2-1) emission line in a spectacular XUV disk in the galaxy NGC 289, chosen initially from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structures in Galaxies (S4G). In a week, these REU students will travel to the Jansky Very Large Array near Socorro, New Mexico to get a first hand look at a working radio interferometer like ALMA.

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