Sebastian Lopez
Astronomy Ph.D. Student at The Ohio State University
Email: slopez.astro@gmail.com or lopez.764@osu.edu
My research mainly focus on galactic feedback. I study the various properties of galactic winds across the whole electromagnetic spectrum with a focus on X-rays. Below you can find my projects as well as more information about myself. Don't hesitate to reach out via email about anything!
Research Projects:
The Hot Gas Properties of NGC 253's Starburst Driven Outflow
Hot Gas Outflow Properties of the Starburst Galaxy NGC 4945
First Author: Natalia Porraz Barrera
Co-authors: Sebastian Lopez, Laura A. Lopez, Adi Foord, Dustin D. Nguyen, Todd A. Thompson, Smita Mathur, Alberto D. Bolatto
In this project we studied various properties of the X-ray emitting phase of NGC 4945's outflow. We derived temperature, and density gradients along the outflow. We compare them to wind models and find that a spherical adiabatically expanding wind model is not consistent with observed profiles. We derive metal abundances in the northern and southern outflow and like NGC 253 and M82, the metal abundances show high alpha to Fe ratios indicating most of the outflow is composed of supernova ejecta. The galaxy also hosts an AGN with visible spectral signatures in the X-ray. Although the AGN does not power the wind, we still derived its properties finding them to be consistent with past work.
Paper is here: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023arXiv231208444P/abstract
Outreach and Mentorship:
I enjoy and find it important to do outreach to local communities to teach about not only Astronomy, but STEM in general and what career options are available. Specifically I am dedicated to helping underrepresented minorities (URMs) in STEM learn about their career options and support them through the various challenges they face being a minority.
I have volunteered in the POLARIS program at the OSU Astronomy Department which pair graduate and URM undergraduate students to learn about research in Astronomy and provide a support system for them to succeed.
I am also one of the founding members of AstroLatinX, an organization formed of graduate and undergraduate Spanish speaking students to provide outreach to local communities in Spanish. Much outreach is done in English so our goal to help educate and support young Latin-American students who speak English as a second language.
Having had the privileged of being assisted by great mentors, I also find it important to mentor and become better at mentoring students to better help their future. I have been part of the OSU Astronomy Department SURP program that designs summer programs for undergraduates and pairs them with faculty or graduate student. My first student's project (NGC 4945 project above) led to a first author accepted ApJ paper and I will be mentoring another student this summer of 2024.
About me:
Education Background:
Personal Background:
I was born in Cali, Colombia though only lived there until the age of 3 before my family immigrated to the US where I grew up in Miami, FL. I graduated high school at the School for Advanced Studies in Kendall and then went to the University of Florida in 2016.
I immediately knew what to major in because I have always been interested in Astronomy since I was a child. This was thanks to a book my mother gifted me called the The Kingfisher Young People's Book of the Universe that I just could not put down because of how engrossed I was in the subject matter. Then in high school as a result of the topics I was exposed to when competing in the Astronomy section of Science Olympiad I gained an interest in star formation and the interstellar medium.
Personally I enjoy playing video games, specifically sim racing, watching and Formula 1 and other motorsports, and traveling. I haven't traveled to many places but some pictures from my travels are on the left in the slideshow. I hope to continuously expand my list of places I've been to for as long as I can.