Imaging Polarised Radio Continuum Emission in and around Nearby Galaxies

Project Description:

The MeerKAT HI Observations of Nearby Galactic Objects - Observing Southern Emitters (MHONGOOSE) survey is using MeerKAT to make extremely deep maps of the HI emission in and around 30 nearby galaxies revealing previously unknown HI features around these galaxies an order of magnitude fainter than previous surveys could detect (de Blok et al. 2024, Healy et al. 2024). Due to the amazing capabilities of MeerKAT, MHONGOOSE also obtains commensal, full polarization, radio continuum data for the full sample of galaxies. These data have yet to be processed, but they provide a wealth of opportunities to study nearby galaxies and their surroundings. The primary aim of this project will be to reduce and image the MeerKAT 4k radio continuum data for one of the MHONGOOSE galaxies. Using these data, the student can then explore one of the following science questions: 1. How does the radio continuum distribution within the MHONGOOSE galaxy compare with the HI distribution and other multi-wavelength tracers of stars, star formation, dust, and molecular gas? 2. How does the polarized continuum track the HI and stellar morphology of the galaxy? 3. Can we detect the magneto-ionized circumgalactic medium surrounding the target galaxy using rotation measure synthesis of the background radio sources?

Research Area:

Astronomy

Project Level:

Masters

This Project Is Offered At The Following Node(s):

(UCT)

Special Requirements:

The student should be adept at programming in Python. The student should have some familiarity with or the ability to quickly learn CASA and any of the various MeerKAT data reduction pipelines.