CSRI duo set sights on space discoveries

Professor Kara Beauchamp and Cole Horan ’18 have their minds set on exploring a place that’s 5,000 light-years from earth–the Rosette Nebula.

“The Rosette Nebula is a star-forming region,” said Professor Beauchamp. “New stars are always being born in our galaxy, and they are usually born in these compact regions that have a lot of gas and dust.”

They are studying everything from the electron density to the magnetic field strength of the nebula for the Cornell Summer Research Institute. The duo is also diving into data that’s available online for the Rosette Nebula.

The researchers are trying to discover what the nebula actually looks like.

“We want to kind of get a better idea of the 3D structure of the nebula because when we look at this nebula that is very, very far away, all we can see is the 2D projection of what it would look like as a picture,” Horan said. “There have been some studies on 3D structures and some models proposed. We want to confirm some of those and maybe make some of our own.”

Watch their video story to find out more: