Sure. In fact, I will give you an example which is of some importance to the research I am now doing.
As you may know, the Big Bang produced a lot of radiation which we can now detect as the so-called 'cosmic background radiation' at microwave frequencies. The NASA Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) studied this radiation and confirmed several important predictions of the Big Bang theory in 1991. COBE also measured the infrared light from the sky, and currently my colleagues and I are trying to place new limits on how much of the infrared light from the sky is of extragalactic origin, and possibly related to either the Big Bang, or young stars formed a few billion years after the Big Bang.
The data we have is in the form of sky maps of infrared light intensity which has been very accurately measured with a high precision photometer; one photometer for each of the 10 infrared bands. Have a look at my area which describes typical data from the COBE Satellite, along with selected images in the different bands. We are currently investigating the cosmic background component in the near infrared bands at 1.25, 2.2, 3.5 and 4.9 microns. As you can see in the image of the 1.25 micron sky over in my COBE viewing area, there are a lot of bright stars in the sky at this wavelength; or at least the 'point sources' we see cluttering the view LOOK like stars. There are many more of them towards the plane of the Milky Way, and a study of a few of them confirms that they coincide with known bright stars.
To extract the cosmic infrared light from the sky data, I want to confirm that a variety of these point sources really are just foreground stars in the particular field we are investigating for establishing the brightness of the extragalactic infrared light. So, here is the plan.
1.....I will provide you with a list of coordinates for a selection of 20 - 50 of these star-like infrared objects. The coordinates will be in standard Right Ascension and Declination for the epoch 2000.0.
2.....With these coordinates, you will look at a star map and identify any bright naked eye star within 1/2 degree of the position I give you. You will need an accurate star map such as the W. Tirion Sky Atlas 2000.0 for the epoch J2000.0 Don't use an older atlas for some other epoch.
3....The next thing you will do is to go over to the Palomar Digital Sky Survey and download the optical sky images of the fields centered on each of the coordinates in the list. Have a look at my response to a previous question to see how to get to and use the DSS archive. You will collect and save the GIF images, and examine these fields for bright stars or prominent non-stellar objects ( galaxies) and note their sizes. A few may be objects you have already identified in the sky atlas search.
4....Finally, you will correlate the infrared brightness against the size of the star image you measured; or against the object type ( galaxy vs star) and speculate whether at the faintest infrared levels we are still just seeing the same old objects ( stars mostly) or whether there could be room for some new population of astronomical objects which is optically faint but bright as an infrared source.
This is an example of real research. The conclusions you will arrive at and defend through your analysis and interpretation, will have an impact on an actual research program now underway this year. The results, if you are careful, work independently, and are resourceful, this work may be published as part of the ongoing research by COBE scientists.
If you are interested in participating in this research as part of a Science Fair project, send me an acknowledgment. There are some hard copies of the actual infrared sky data you ought to obtain from me as well.
Return to Ask the Astronomer.