Astronomer | United States | Danielle Rowland

Danielle Rowland

Hello! I'm an astronomer, currently pursuing my B.A. in astrophysics at Columbia University in the City of New York. My primary research interests are in cosmology, dark energy, large-scale structure and quantum gravity, however I have also worked on galaxy formation and evolution. I am a Native American and member of the Tonawanda Band of Senecas located in western New York. Currently I live in New York City with my husband and four children.

New York, NY

05.2019

LEAPS @ Leiden Observatory,

Leiden, NL

Summer 2019

UPCOMING EVENTS

TBA

DETAILS

MY LATEST RESEARCH

STScI SASP 2017 Symposium Danielle Rowland talk "Data Reduction & Dwarf Satellite Galaxy Characterization in the SAGA Survey"

During a summer 2017 internship at Space Telescope Science Institute I started my work reducing follow-up long-slit spectroscopic data for The SAGA Survey. After producing 1D spectra, I then extract their

rotation curve velocities to determine characteristics of satellite galaxies in the sample. Performing mass modeling on these rotation curves allows for the determination of dark matter content. This is an on-going project that seeks to find and characterize dwarf satellite galaxies around 100 host galaxies that are analogous to our Milky Way to enable a direct comparison to satellite galaxies within the Local Group.

*Click on the image and go to the 34:30 minute mark to view my talk about obtaining the 1D spectra in this project*

I spent the 2016 summer working on the beginning stages of HETDEX while visiting The University of Texas at Austin. Joining a team of about 10 astronomers (including Prof. Karl Gebhardt above) we gathered data from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory to test detection algorithms and software to identify red-shifted Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies to map the expansion of the early universe.

Also during summer 2016, Prof. Steven L. Finkelstein (UT Austin) and I began investigating the stellar initial mass function for plausible changes with cosmic time by utilizing Hubble Space Telescope data (3DHST). From a sample of 3,958 galaxies with redshift values between 0.7 to 1.5, I compared their H-alpha emissions to expected values calculated assuming a Salpeter IMF to search for variations. Initial results show the majority of galaxies were consistent with expectations, however there was significant scatter that I am following up on, as well as other IMF (Chabrier, Kroupa,etc) values I will also compare.

McDonald Observatory location: west Texas

2.7m Harlan J. Smith Telescope

Old School Viewing?

In modern times we use control rooms like this...

...and this to control the telescope and data

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope: the HET in HETDEX!

Inside the HET dome

2.1m Otto Struve Telescope

On the catwalk of the 2.7m; 2.1m in the distance

MDM Telescopes?

MDM Observatory has smaller telescopes but mostly relies on the 2.4m and 1.3m telescopes to balance our side of the mountain with Kitt Peak National Observatory