federica bianco PRO
astro | data science | data for good
Title Text
University of Delaware
Department of Physics and Astronomy
federica bianco
she/her
Biden School of Public Policy and Administration
Data Science Institute
I am trained as an astrophysicst
1/2 million hours of star light with 5 measurements per second
9,000,000,000 data points
220 hours of star light with 30 measurements per second
158,400,000 data points
brightness
(arbitrary units)
star 1
star 2
brightness
(arbitrary units)
star 1
star 2
star 1
star 2
1/2 million hours of star light with 5 measurements per second
9,000,000,000 data points
220 hours of star light with 30 measurements per second
158,400,000 data points
NULL RESULTS ARE KEY SCIENTIFIC RESULTS!
prediction from solar system formation models
Reason to study Supernovae
SN are enable life in the Universe
SN are natural extreme physics laboratories
SN trace the evolution of the Universe
we are made of stars
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars.
We are made of starstuff.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
...a highly visible feminist who never lifted a finger around the house and paid scant attention to the needs of first-wife [Lynne] Margulis, [an evolutionary biologist,] whose career would one day rival his own...
https://www.americanscientist.org/article/carl-sagan-carl-sagan-biographies-echo-an-extraordinary-life
Elements up to iron are forged in star cores.
Iron is so tightly bound that it absorbs energy instead of generating it in fusion : temperature drops instead of rising, gravitational pressure wins
I. we are made of star dust
lives of stars
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Sun} = \mathrm{10 ~Billion~ years}
Massive stars
live fast die young
lives of stars
lives of stars
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Sun} = \mathrm{10 ~Billion~ years}
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Star} = \left(\frac{M_\mathrm{Sun}}{M}\right)^{2.5} {\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Sun}}
Massive stars
live fast die young
lives of stars
lives of stars
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{2xSun} = \mathrm{~1.5 ~Billion~ years}
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Sun} = \mathrm{10 ~Billion~ years}
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Star} = \left(\frac{M_\mathrm{Sun}}{M}\right)^{2.5} {\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Sun}}
Massive stars
live fast die young
lives of stars
lives of stars
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{100xSun} = \mathrm{~300,000~ years}
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{2xSun} = \mathrm{~1.5 ~Billion~ years}
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Sun} = \mathrm{10 ~Billion~ years}
\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Star} = \left(\frac{M_\mathrm{Sun}}{M}\right)^{2.5} {\mathrm{life}_\mathrm{Sun}}
….. live to be old and die peacefully by slowly cooling down
low initial mass
0.1-8 MSun
lives of stars
UNLESS...
low initial mass
0.1-8 MSun
lives of stars
low initial mass but with a sibling
even a low mass start will explode if its in a binary system and captures mass from the companion
lives of stars
II. understanding extreme physics
largest explosion on earth 10,000,000 erg
typical SN 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 erg
II. understanding extreme physics
largest explosion on earth 10,000,000 erg
typical SN
II. understanding extreme physics
largest explosion on earth 10,000,000 erg
typical SN
White Dwarf: supported by electron degenerate pressure - The Pauli exclusion principle states that no two electrons with the same spin can occupy the same energy state in the same volume.
Maximum mass: Chandrasekhar limit M = 1.44 MSun
Neutron star: supported by neutron degenerate pressure - The Pauli exclusion principle exists for neutrons as well.
1 Earth radius
size of manhattan
Black hole
star remnants:
extreme physics environments
III. they tell us fundamental things about the Universe
Farthest SN
10.5 billion years ago
3 billion years after the Big Bang
redshift 4
who 'sploded??
1 SN / 100 years / galaxy
Building a legacy:The Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST |
what's in a name?
The first ground-based national US observatory named after a woman, Dr. Vera C. Rubin
The first ground-based national US observatory named after a woman, Dr. Vera C. Rubin
Pioneered the study of Dark Matter
The DOE LSST Camera - 3.2 Gigapixel
3024 science raft amplifier channels
Camera and Cryostat integration completed at SLAC in May 2022,
Shutter and filter auto-changer integrated into camera body
LSSTCam undergoing final stages of testing at SLAC
artist (me) impression of the first image taken by ComCam
it takes a village - many villages - the whole world!
400 hours of 4k HD videos or 1,000,000 typical TikTok videos every night
made with gemini AI
(not sure what is up w the nose or the third arm....)
Dr. Somayeh Khakpash (she/her), postdoc at UD,
now LSSTC Catalyst Fellow, Rutgers
Can AI replace forward modeling of physical processes?
Many problems in astrophysics require expensive simulations.
Willow Fox Fortino (they/them), UD grad student
solving "who'sploded" with transformer AI
this one was a star 10 times more massive than the sun!
Continuous readout astronomical data for fast evolving transients (now with AI!)
Shar Daniels (they/them)
NSF GRFP Fellow
Multi City Urban Observatory
Director Greg Dobler, Biden School of Public Policy and Administration
REVA KAY WILLIAMS
first Black-American woman to receive a PhD in astrophysics
former professor at UD
Who's left behind
"an ideology that focuses on individual accumulation, capital, and individuality, rather than on redistributing power or reconsidering existing structures."
Focusing on equipping individuals to overcome the barriers to success imposed by the status quo, instead of dismanteling discriminatory structures
22 black women PhD in astro across the USA in 2022
having so little diversity shelters STEM from the reality of racism
Dr. Raven Baxter
The first ground-based national US observatory named after a woman, Dr. Vera C. Rubin
The first ground-based national US observatory named after a woman, Dr. Vera C. Rubin
Who's left behind
FEMMINIST
Feminist: the person who believes in the social
Political, and economic equality of the sexes
Beyonce'
What has feminism been about? its been about contesting a received idea of what a woman is.
we wanted to call into questions these presuppositions that had been taken for granted for too long
so we ask the question "what does it mean to be a woman" ?
its a question of history, its a question of freedom
feminism always left the question open and refused to answer it on principle
Judith Butler, author of "Gender Trouble"
You do you
Dont give it for granted
In 1919, Afghan women were granted the right to vote.
In 1920 the first school for girls opened its doors.
In the 1970s, the Afghan government raised the marriage age for women from 18 to 21, abolished polygamy and introduced compulsory education.
In the 1970’s, women made up a significant proportion of all teachers and a significant percentage of doctors and civil servants.
In 2021, before the Taliban regime, women formed 27% of the Members of Parliament in Afghanistan
© Getty Images
The board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933)
Iranian newspaper clip from 1968 reads:
"A quarter of Iran's Nuclear Energy scientists are women"
thank you!
University of Delaware
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Biden School of Public Policy and Administration
Data Science Institute
federica bianco
fbianco@udel.edu
UDinnovateher2025
By federica bianco
