Teen Science Café: Unwinding Spiral Galaxies

The winding arms of spiral galaxies are one of their most obvious features. By measuring how tightly the arms are wrapped, we can reveal clues about other components that are much harder to observe, such as dark matter content and central black hole mass. We aim to partner volunteers with AI in order to identify individual spiral arms in tens of thousands of galaxies, measure how tightly each arm is wound, and use those measurements to estimate these elusive properties. Doing so will help us better understand how galaxies similar to our own Milky Way form and evolve. About the Presenter Dr. Patrick Treuthardt is the Assistant Head of the Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and a Research Affiliate in the Department of Computing Sciences at Coastal Carolina University. He studies the shapes, structures, and internal physics of nearby galaxies in order to better understand how they form and evolve. Dr. Treuthardt is the lead researcher of the Spiral Graph citizen science project and its follow-up, Cluster Buster.