News / Education
Predicting Dwarf Nova Outbursts
High School Amateur Astronomer Continues Her Research
Congratulations to Nicole Melso, an 11th grade student at Springfield High School in Pennsylvania, USA, for receiving her second research time grant from Global Rent-A-Scope (GRAS)!Last year Nicole used observations she made with GRAS telescopes to study the “flicker” behavior of SS Cygni, a Dwarf Nova, before multiple outbursts. She noted events that she believes may be significant precursors of an impending outburst: a jump in the flicker statistic representing a change in magnitude and high frequencies closer to the start of the outburst.
After careful review of her proposal, Nicole has been granted time to use GRAS scopes to continue her observations in 2010. She plans to combine her observations with data from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) to evaluate outbursts from an entire year. Her goal is determine how soon these precursors appear before an outburst. Finding an accurate method of predicting when SS Cygni will go into outburst would make it easier for the many astronomers who observe this star and to understand it.
Nicole wrote in her research proposal, "Dwarf Nova are formed from a binary star system in which one star is a white dwarf that accretes matter from its companion star. This causes an accretion disk to form around the white dwarf producing a cataclysmic variable. A cataclysmic variable star irregularly increases in brightness by a large factor then drops back down to a quiescent state. Even in quiescence, however, Dwarf Nova can vary slightly and irregularly in magnitude. This is known as flickering and it is thought to be caused by turbulence occurring within the accretion disk. SS Cygni is a commonly observed Dwarf Nova, and it is dormant for almost 75% of the time."
Nicole is involved in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS), and plans to pursue a career in astronomy. She will submit her findings from this research in PJAS competitions, and enter in the Delware County Science Fair. Both of these competitions offer academically vigorous opportunities for students to do intense research and data collection.
Arnie Rosner, GRAS Founder, has asked Astronomy.FM to evaluate amateur research grant requests received by Global Rent-A-Scope. We thank Arnie for the confidence he is showing in our organization!
