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In case the link doesn't work, my email is astrorya (at) umich (dot) edu.
Jupiter Trojan Research
The above video is a short snippet of the occultation of a star by the L4 Jupiter Trojan, 15094 Polymele. Polymele will be visited by the Lucy spacecraft in 2027.
In late 2022, I was presented with a volunteer opportunity unlike any other. Working with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the project involved traveling to Longmont, Colorado, to practice
setting up a telescope and imaging equipment to observe and collect data on a stellar occultation by a Jupiter Trojan that the
Lucy spacecraft is visiting. Specifically, we observed Polymele and (as we now know) its natural satellite, Shaun, on February 4th, 2023.
As part of the largest organized occultation event in history, about 200 of us practiced setting up the equipment for nearly a
week before packing all the equipment and our belongings and driving to the nearest clear skies that were in the occultation path.
This volunteer work has led to co-authorship of an upcoming paper on the analysis of the data collected on the occultation.
For now, some of the work and results can be viewed here.
From this project, I also met Professor David Gerdes at the University of Michigan, as he was the local coordinator for the Michigan
group of volunteers, and he offered to include a 1 credit mini-course alongside the volunteer work. In this course, I learned how to
create simulated orbital objects based on covariance matrices, and used this to learn how to design a survey for a project such as
the Lucy spacecraft mission (Jupiter Trojans). During this mini-course, I also studied the stability of Jupiter Trojans and based my
final project on studying the stability of Hildas in the solar system and the potential for adding a Hilda asteroid to the Lucy mission.
At the end of the semester, me and my fellow Michigan volunteers that helped with the project presented at the University of Michigan
Department of Astronomy’s 2023 Spring Research Symposium.
Click here to view my full CV.