Hackathon

Astro Data Science Hackathon 2019

On Saturday 5 October 2019, the Astro Data Science Hackathon 2019 will take place at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute of the University of Groningen. It is a one day event starting early morning and ending around dinner time.

The Hackathon is aimed at high school students from the Northern provinces of the Netherlands. The students will form teams mentored by professional astronomical data scientists.

The theme of this year’s hackathon is “An Atlas of the Local Cosmos”. The Local Cosmos is the volume centered on our Sun encompassing the heliosphere, the Local Interstellar Cloud, the Local Bubble including the nearby stars and exoplanets. The teams will work on astronomical data science challenges along this theme, with a focus on developing infographics. A maximum of 24 students can participate.

The first prize will include featuring of the winning results at the Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems conference 2019, October 6-10 in Groningen. All participants and mentors will receive a certificate recognizing successful participation in the hackathon.

Through this exciting event the high school students will appreciate that astronomical data science is both an exciting study and a solid career step. Astronomical data scientists are in high demand, also outside academia.

3D map of all known stellar systems in the solar neighbourhood within a radius of 12.5 light-years. The Sun is at the centre and the Epsilon Indi binary system with the brown dwarf Epsilon Indi B lies near the bottom. The colour is indicative of the temperature and the spectral class — white stars are (main-sequence) A and F dwarfs; yellow stars like the Sun are G dwarfs; orange stars are K dwarfs; and red stars are M dwarfs, by far the most common type of star in the solar neighbourhood. The blue axes are oriented along the galactic coordinate system, and the radii of the rings are 5, 10, and 15 light-years, respectively.

This video shows an imaginary journey from Earth to the Alpha Centauri system. As we leave the Solar System we see the familiar constellation figures including the Southern Cross (Crux) and the bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri. As we approach Alpha Centauri we pass a faint red star, this is Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth and the faintest component of a triple star system. The final part shows the bright double star Alpha Centauri A and B with the Sun visible in the background. Alpha Centauri B is known to be orbited by an Earth-mass planet, the closest exoplanet to the Solar System.