MSUM Students Contribute Data to NASA Mission
MSUM students Mara DeRung and Emily Watson submitted observations of an exoplanet transit to NASA’s TESS mission as part of the ground follow-up group. A transit occurs when a planet orbiting another star passes in front of the star, briefly dimming its light. The green line in the graph below shows the tiny dip in brightness of the star as the exoplanet passes in front of the star, diminishing its light by about 1%. Observations were done using the Paul P. Feder Observatory at MSUM Regional Science Center, which was upgraded over the summer to make it possible to observe from campus.
MSUM student Tanner Weyer played an important role in those upgrades, which were part of what made these observations possible.
Dr. Matt Craig is the research mentor for these students.
