My name is Eric and I am a student at BASIS Oro Valley High School. During my last trimester, I will be undertaking a project at the University of Arizona with Dr. Steve Ertel, an instrument scientist with the University's Steward Observatory. I will be doing observations at the Steward Observatory as well as creating a program that will allow the astronomy team to locate the plantesimal dust surrounding a white dwarf star in the Helix Nebula.

 

Most of the time, planetesimal (rock material in space) dust is difficult to observe, so Dr. Etrel looks at one the brightest places he can, a white dwarf star in the Helix Nebula. Around this star, Dr. Ertel hopes to find evidence of dust left over from the collisions of extraterrestrial material. During the first round of observations, the dust was not found. Therefore, Dr. Ertel began this project.  The goal for this project is to create a program which will take in certain parameters in order to allow us make a prediction of the location of the dust such that we can then make observations in that region. This information will give the researchers a look into the creation of planets as the debris is left over from planet formation.

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At the conclusion of this project, Dr. Ertel and his peers will be creating a research paper on their findings and publishing the results.