Astronomy & Python: Projects

Shallow Water Equations

Modelling the shallow water equations

The shallow water equations model the flow of water bodies where their width is much greater than their depth. This is true for coastal areas. In this project you will create a model to solve the shallow water equations and tools to visualise the resulting surface waves.

Further reading: Video introducing the eq's here and some python code from Manchester and Reading Uni here.

Martian Surface Features

Analyse the surface of Mars using HiRISE images

This is a very open project. You would be using a wide range of data from both NASA and ESA to analyse one or more surface features. You could:

Implement feature recognition to classify objects such as boulders in HiRISE images
Analyse and visualise crater data
Track dust devil paths and identify how long they last

Further reading: On Mar's surface here and on ESA data products here.

Gravitational Potentials

Calculating effective gravitational potential and Lagrange points

This project will build on an existing intro activity calculating gravitational potential wells. You would be calculating the effective gravitational potential, which takes into account the angular momentum of an orbiting body, and calculating the Lagrange points for the system.

Further reading: On the effective gravitational potential here and notes on the Lagrange points here.

Data Visualisation

Visualise astronomical data sets

Communicating information clearly is a vital skill for a scientist. This project would see you delve into one or more astronomical datasets and create visualisations of the data to be shared with the public. Here you would have the opportunity to combine astronomy, coding, and art to create your own, informative, works of art!

Inspiration: Eleanor Lutz's Atlas of Space infographics here. My much more basic visuals and plots here.

astroedu Maintainer

Help implement new features into the astroedu package

astroedu is a python package which aims to deliver tools for educators to use in their instruction. As part of this project you would be helping maintain the package and implementing new features such as:

Loading large datafiles from a website/server to minimise package size
Adding interactive visuals based off existing .py code
Implementing new utility functions and interactives of your own

See the code: github.com/astroDimitrios/astroedu