Penn State Senior's Research Will Help Astronomers Analyze Quasars
A Penn State senior is doing research that might bring astronomers closer to uncovering the mystery behind quasars, which are some of the brightest and most distant objects ever observed in the universe. Jonathan Trump of Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, is creating the largest known catalog to date of unusual objects known as broad-absorption-line quasars for his senior thesis.
Scientists are not sure about many aspects of quasars, other than that they are distant bodies that produce enormous amounts of energy and light. Many experts think quasars are powered by massive black holes at their centers, which draw in large amounts of materials that collide and, as a result, produce huge amounts of energy and light. Quasars are surrounded by gaseous materials, which the light given off by the quasars must pass through before it reaches an observer's eye. Sometimes these materials block light at certain wavelengths, so the colors that correspond to those wavelengths are not visible to the observer. By studying a quasar's visible spectrum, or visible light pattern, astronomers can analyze the pattern of blocked wavelengths or "absorption lines" to try to identify and determine the properties of the materials that surround the quasar. "This analysis helps astronomers to put constraints on the quasar model and to narrow down the ideas of what a quasar really is," Trump said.
Trump's mission is to catalog known quasars that exhibit broad absorption lines, or large gaps of missing light in their spectra. With the catalog, astronomers looking to study these particular quasars can find many of them recorded in one place. "It's an attempt to categorize the most distant objects that we know of," he said. This catalog, when completed, will be about ten times larger than the biggest catalog of its kind to date, he said. To do this, he is working with Donald Schneider, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, in using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a five-year, international project aimed at mapping the universe by surveying a quarter of the sky in acute detail. Schneider is the chair of the Sloan Survey's Quasar Research Group.
Trump said his thesis also will support the idea that "the mechanism behind broad absorption lines is the same as that behind narrow absorption lines in quasars," meaning that the two are fundamentally caused by the same process. He added that he hopes to have his thesis published in a scientific journal this summer. Trump said he enjoys his research and considers it to be like job training. "It's what I want to do for the rest of my life," he said. He added that it has contributed to his education by teaching him things he could not learn in a classroom. "You learn a lot of things you don't learn in class, like how to collaborate with other astronomers," he said. "The techniques I've learned through my research are more applicable to what I'll be doing for the rest of my life."
Trump received a research award from the Eberly College of Science that allowed him to present his early work on broad absorption lines at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Atlanta in early January 2004. He also received a scholarship for $1,500 from the Penn State Society of Distinguished Alumni last August.
Trump, who intends to graduate in May 2004 with degrees in both astronomy and physics, said he plans to attend graduate school for astronomy in the fall. He has applied to nine schools and already has been accepted to Wisconsin, Colorado, Washington, and Cornell. He said he is interested in studying astronomy theory as well as black holes and quasars.
His other activities at Penn State include serving as the outreach chair for the Mars Society, and he is a member and former vice president of Circle K, a community-service organization. He is active in the Boy Scouts of America and enjoys canoeing, hiking, and hunting in his spare time.
Jonathan is the son of Jack and Sally Trump and a graduate of Conrad Weiser High School in Robesonia, Pennsylvania.
CONTACTS:
Jonathan Trump
jtrump@astro.psu.edu
814-237-7622
Donald Schneider
dps@astro.psu.edu
814-863-9554