Facebook Instagram Twitter RSS Feed PodBean Back to top on side

PhD. Topics

Astronomical Institute

Topic
Analysis and modelling of asteroid activity in terms of rotation, 3D shape and tail morphology changes
PhD. program
Astonomy and Astrophysics
Name of the supervisor
Mgr. Marek Husárik, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics
Annotation
Affiliation: Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Tatranská Lomnica, 059 60 Vysoké Tatry

Syllabus
Focus of the research: The activity of small objects in the Solar System is usually expected (in the case of comets), but in recent decades we have also encountered cases where mostly objects classified orbitally as asteroids show some unexpected activity. The reasons of the activity may be different: an impact of a small body, a rotational splitting, a thermal defragmentation, etc. (the cause is not always clear). Also, the duration of the active phase can vary considerably from a few days to several months. Sometimes the activity is recurrent, but it may not be related to, for example, the arrival of a body in perihelion. Among other things, these bodies leave behind rather unusually shaped tails than those seen in comets.

Objectives: Analysis of the activity of a normally inactive body with respect to the orientation of the rotation axis in space, with respect to its shape, possible precession or surface albedo variegation. Computational modelling of tail formation and morphology based also on own observations.

Requirements:
(i) knowledge of programming in a commonly used language (Java, C++, preferably Python with astropy, scipy, matplotlib…) and the basics of the LaTeX environment, (ii) good knowledge of the English language, (iii) experience in observations and the ability to reduce the observed material and obtain the values needed for further analysis are welcome.
Research field: Dynamic evolution of small Solar System bodies

Literature:
[1] Binzel, R. P., Gehrels, T., and Matthews, M. S., Asteroids II, 1989
[2] Bottke, W.F. at al., Asteroids III, 2002
[3] Michel P., DeMeo, F., Bottke, W.F., Asteroids IV, 2015
[4] Warner, B.D., A Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis 2nd ed., 2016
[5] Chandler, C. O., et al., SAFARI: Searching Asteroids for Activity Revealing Indicators, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, vol. 130, no. 993, p. 114502, 2018. doi:10.1088/1538-3873/aad03d.

For a next information go to:
https://www.astro.sk/en/study/phd-study/