Graduate Student Kristin Brady has been awarded time on NASA’s Infra-Red Telescope Facility (IRTF) in support of her research. The IRTF is a 3.2-meter telescope on Mauna Kea dedicated to observations of the Universe in infrared light. Kristin is scheduled to observe on portions of five nights to explore radial velocity variations of a Cepheid variable star from high resolution infrared spectra. Infrared spectra probe different depths of the Cepheid’s atmosphere and may ultimately provide a better estimate of the star’s radius changes during pulsations. The project is in collaboration with Michael Pierce at the University of Wyoming and Caty Pilachowski here at IU. Congratulations Kristin – and good luck with the observations!
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