The 100-m Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia.

NANOGrav Student Teams of Astrophysics ResearcherS (NANOStars) at F&M

Bringing the search for graviational waves to the F&M campus.

The NANOStars research and education program is part of the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center, an effort to detect gravitational waves using pulsar timing. NANOStars allows F&M students to use the premier radio observatories around the world for pulsar projects. NANOStars students search the data collected using a pulsar candidate viewer to identify new radio pulsars. These pulsars are then confirmed and further studied.

New Pulsars Discovered by F&M NANOStars Students

• PSR J1148+08 (AO327 pulsar discovered by Mark Lederer '17 in April 2014)
• PSR J2000+19 (PALFA pulsar discovered by Dan Mix '17 in November 2015)
• FRB 141113 (PALFA Fast Radio Burst co-discovered by Ben Nguyen '18 in May 2016)
• PSR J1919+04 (MSP) (PALFA pulsar discovered by Ben Nguyen '18 in July 2019)
• PSR J1940+25 (MSP) (PALFA pulsar discovered by Issac Lin '22 in September 2019)
• PSR J0540-69 (LMC pulsar) (PKS70 pulsar discovered by Wenky Xia '24 in July 2023)

NANOStars Useful Links

• NANOStars Program Description (for new prospective students)
• NANOStars Participation Checklist (F&M access only; read this to understand the steps required to participate in the program during the semester)
• CITI Online RCR Training Registration and Training (select "Log In" in the upper right corner of the screen; select "Log in Through My Organization"; type "Franklin & Marshall College" into the box that appears; select the "Continue to SSO Login/Instructions"; select the category Physical Science; once this is done you can complete the RCR modules)
• Wenky's Candidate Rating Tool

NANOStars Documentation

• Documentation for Wenky's Candidate Rating Tool from Wenky Xia
• Searching for and Identifying Pulsars (a pulsar search tutorial for new students)
• Radio Pulsars: Introductory Reading from Shami Chatterjee

NANOStars Students

The NANOStars students at F&M are:

• Delaney Adair '25 (team leader)
• Mckenzie Golden '25 (team leader)
• Tai Jespersen '26 (team leader)
• Eleanor Craver '27
• Adeon Muyskens '26
• Volkan Turan '27

If you are an F&M student interested in joining the NANOStars program, please contact Froney Crawford (fcrawfor@fandm.edu) to discuss.

NANOStars Telescopes

The NANOStars program uses data from the following radio telescopes:

• The Arecibo 305-m Radio Telescope
• The Green Bank 100-m Telescope (GBT)
• The Parkes 64-m Radio Telescope

NANOStars Meetings and Events

The NANOStars teams from the different NANOGrav institutions meet weekly to discuss science, present progress on research activity, and plan upcoming data analysis tasks.

• Internal F&M Team Meetings for Fall 2024:

  Fridays 4:30-5:30 p.m. in Hackman 220

• NANOStars Telecons for Fall 2024:

  Fri Sep 27 at 4:30 p.m. ET
  Fri Oct 18 at 4:30 p.m. ET
  Fri Nov 15 at 4:30 p.m. ET
  Fri Dec 6 at 4:30 p.m. ET

Other events for NANOStars students to attend:

• NANOGrav Fall Meeting
  Location: U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
  Date: Oct 5-6 (Student Workshop)
  Date: Oct 7-9, 2024 (Science Meeting)

• F&M Fall Research Fair
  Location: Mayser Gymnasium
  Date: Fri Oct 18, 2024
  Time: 12:30-4:30 p.m.

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