The University of Delaware received a three-year, $596,067 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation Division of Astronomical Sciences under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (47.049) federal grant program. The award will support research to detect and study light echoes in the era of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and artificial intelligence from August 1, 2021 through July 31, 2024. Under the award, the University of Delaware will develop machine learning algorithms and data processing tools to identify light echoes in the massive datasets that will be collected by the Rubin Observatory. In the early phases of the project, The Johns Hopkins University will contribute expertise and share existing data, as a $0 sub-awardee, to help train and evaluate the detection algorithms and integrate models of stellar explosions and eruptions across galaxies. The funding will advance the scientific community's ability to extract dust properties from light echoes observed by next-generation telescopes.
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