Sanil Mittal
Pronouns: He/him
Research Mentor(s): Michael Meyer
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Astronomy / LSA
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 4 – 2:40pm – 3:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Sanil Mittal, Michael Meyer
Presenter: 54
Abstract
We computed an estimate of the total rotational energy of the Pleiades Star Cluster and compared it with gravitational binding energy and kinetic energy. A project with analysis of rotational velocities has not been done before in a way that analyzes the internal cluster dynamics for the Pleiades star cluster as a whole. Measuring the rotation rate of clusters can inform models of giant molecular cloud formation (the origin sites of the clusters) as well as models of cluster evolution. An in-depth analysis with astrometry and data obtained from GAIA would give insight into how complex systems such as star clusters interact. The analysis revealed that the rotational kinetic energy was very low compared to the total kinetic energy and the potential energy, which suggests that the Pleiades star cluster may be rotating on an axis with a very small overall rotational velocity of the order of (to be determined). A plot of radial velocities with the distance from the center had a least-squares line fit with a positive slope of (to be determined) which suggests a strong case for a small rotation of the Pleiades star cluster about an axis. To perform statistical analysis on radial velocities of the Pleiades star cluster, we obtained data from a previous research paper. The statistical inferences were performed using Python for the least-squares fit and gaussian and histogram plots and to find the most probable axis of rotation in the plane of the sky (under the assumption that the axis for rotation lies in the plane of the sky).
Interdisciplinary, Physical Sciences
