The Helix Nebula as seen by the Local Volume Mapper
I recently tasked myself with a project: using the publicly available data of the Helix Nebula from the SDSS-V Local Volume Mapper to measure emission lines. This is something I …
Postdocs are Resilient
This past year has not been a good year for postdocs. We've faced federal funding cuts, a harsh job market, and many of us have faced looming immigration and visa issues. Yet, …
The Peculiar "Bulge" of NGC 5474
What is it? Hint: It's not a bulge! (Probably.)
Farewell Letter - Saying Goodbye After Two Years
Just a simple farewell letter to the graduate students in the College of Arts & Sciences at CWRU summarizing all that we have accomplished over the past two years and all that we …
Fixing Academia as a Grad Student
Academia, and graduate school specifically, is very broken. In the past three years, I have been working to improve the lives of graduate students at CWRU, but consantly reaching …
Calculating Uncertainties on Strong-line Abundances
Using new data for M101, I show how to use the method outlined in Moustakas et al. (2010) to calculate uncertainties on strong-line abundances in a statistically reasonable way.
An Astronomer's Perspective
When I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the …
Life on Venus?
Recently, a new paper came out about the detection of phosphine on Venus. What does this mean? Is there life on Venus?