2024 Project Description

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Full-sky intensity map with TESS

Keywords:

Big Data

Cosmology

OIR Astronomy

Supervisors

Yi-Kuan Chiang
Find out more about supervisors on ASIAA website

Task Description and Goals

There is a growing interest in the extragalactic community to explore the low-surface brightness Universe and large-scale structure intensity mapping. Such studies require wide-field imaging with stable photometry and low sky noise, ideally observed from space. Surprisingly, in the most studied optical wavelength, full-sky space-based images weren't available until the recent TESS mission launched by NASA. Since the TESS userbase has been focusing on time series analyses, we still do not have a full-sky map in a convenient format for intensity mapping. This summer, a student will work with Dr. Yi-Kuan Chiang at ASIAA to make the first space-based, full-sky intensity map in the optical using TESS data to unlock the low surface brightness sky for observational cosmology.

Required Background

Python programming