Graduate student s BADASS code has astronomical benefits
RIVERSIDE, Calif. An astro-statistics course University of California, Riverside, graduate student Remington O. Sexton took three years ago taught him techniques that led him to develop free, open-source code benefiting astronomers everywhere.
Called BADASS, which stands for Bayesian AGN Decomposition Analysis for SDSS Spectra, the code in its current form fits astronomical spectra of active galactic nuclei, or AGNs, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, or SDSS, using advanced statistical methods. The code is unique in that it finally provides a way for astronomers to fit the stellar motions of stars simultaneously with many other components, is written in the popular programming language Python, and is versatile enough to fit not just AGNs, but normal galaxies as well, said Sexton, who earned his doctoral degree in physics and astronomy in September 2020.
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By Jim Shelton
December 14, 2020
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A time-domain spectroscopic survey of quasars and X-ray sources. (Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser)
After 20 years and four previous phases, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s Phase V(SDSS V) is ready to give Yale astronomers a new look at the wonders of the cosmos.
The survey’s mission is ambitious: It aims to create a detailed, three-dimensional map of the universe, using a 2.5-meter, wide-angle optical telescope located at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.
Previous SDSS surveys have mapped one-third of the sky. SDSS data have been used in more than 7,700 peer-reviewed, scientific papers, offering insights into the chemical makeup of the Milky Way and the structure of distant galaxies. It has also helped produce multi-color imaging for hundreds of millions of stars, and gleaned information about 100,000 asteroids and other objects