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    "result": {"data":{"markdownRemark":{"id":"64961848-082a-52ad-a594-04de539f5e13","html":"<h3>Eyes on the stars</h3>\n<p>As a youngster, I always had my eyes on the skies. Living up in the mountains of Vermont, I grew up with a view of the night sky many are not so lucky to see anymore, given the spread of light pollution.</p>\n<p><em>The sky:</em> That's where all the big questions are:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why are we here?</li>\n<li>What is before/outside our universe?</li>\n<li>Why make all this space with light matter beings so far from anything?</li>\n<li>Do we expand forever or is it a consant pop (Big Bang) and retract?</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Anyways, the questions go on forever and I guess for now I am leaving it to the physicists (although Physics/Astronomy was my original major and one day I hope I can revisit this science).</p>\n<p><strong>But</strong>, I did get some time exploring the sky.</p>\n<h3>Applying Transformations and Folds to Light Curves</h3>\n<p>As a budding high school senior I reached out to Telescope Specialist at Middlebury College Jonathan Kemp and he set me to work confirming the eclipse period of the binary star system UX Ursae Majoris knowing I would find a neat surprise.</p>\n<ul>\n<li>I used curve-folding and transformation software on time-series collected light curves to come up with findings on the frequency of eclipses of the binary star system.</li>\n<li>My findings matched existing literature of that of the Center for Backyard Astrophysics.</li>\n</ul>\n<figure class=\"myCustomClassName\"><div class=\"myCustomClassName-grid\" style=\"\n            grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(48%, 1fr));\n          \"><img src=\"/assets/uxma-conclusion.png\" alt=\"<span style=&#x22;color:#777777;&#x22;> Lomb-Scargle Periodogram to Detect Eclipse Periodicity </span>\" width=\"100%;\"><img src=\"/assets/uxma-curve-fold.png\" alt=\"<span style=&#x22;color:#777777;&#x22;> Light Curve Folded Over Detected Periodicty Peak </span>\" width=\"100%;\"></div></figure>\n<center><span style=\"color:#777777;\"> Lomb-Scargle Periodogram and Light Curve Folded Over Detected Eclipse Periodicity </span></center>\n<p>Binary star systems such as UX Ursae Majoris are rare since their orbital plane lies in our line of sight giving us a a unique opportunity to study them.\n<strong>However</strong>, the neatest attribute of UX UMa is the fact that it is made up of white dwarf and a donor star. The donor star is constantly feeding gas to this ball of electron-degenerate matter creating a gorgeous accretion disk around it. The retrograde nodal precession of this accretions disk creates a second periodicity in the light curve which <strong>we can study!</strong></p>\n<figure class=\"myCustomClassName\"><div class=\"myCustomClassName-grid\" style=\"\n            grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(48%, 1fr));\n          \"><img src=\"/assets/accretion-wobble.jpg\" alt=\"<span style=&#x22;color:#777777;&#x22;> Accretion Disk Precession Period </span>\" width=\"100%;\"><img src=\"/assets/binary-star-white.png\" alt=\"<span style=&#x22;color:#777777;&#x22;> White Dwarf Binary Star System </span>\" width=\"100%;\"></div></figure>\n<center><span style=\"color:#777777;\"> UX UMa Accretion Disk Precession Period with White Dwarf Binary System Artistic Rendering </span></center>","excerpt":"Eyes on the stars As a youngster, I always had my eyes on the skies. Living up in the mountains of Vermont, I grew up with a view of the night sky…","frontmatter":{"date":"August 21, 2016","slug":"/binary-star-analysis","title":"Binary Star System Analysis","description":"Using light curve folding and transformations to discover the nature of Binary Star System UX Ursae Majoris","titleImage":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#381808","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/56a5aad5fdefef391793257625cafae1/87b04/binary-system-title.png","srcSet":"/static/56a5aad5fdefef391793257625cafae1/e1e95/binary-system-title.png 750w,\n/static/56a5aad5fdefef391793257625cafae1/87b04/binary-system-title.png 940w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[{"srcSet":"/static/56a5aad5fdefef391793257625cafae1/14783/binary-system-title.webp 750w,\n/static/56a5aad5fdefef391793257625cafae1/4e28a/binary-system-title.webp 940w","type":"image/webp","sizes":"100vw"}]},"width":1,"height":0.3191489361702128}}}}}},"pageContext":{"id":"64961848-082a-52ad-a594-04de539f5e13","previous":null,"next":{"id":"92f619b7-abd1-5454-889b-b6ce56c3add7","frontmatter":{"slug":"/cocoanec-radiation-model","template":"blog-post","title":"CocoaNEC For Radiation Models"}}}},
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