University of Maryland Astronomy graduate student and avid Star Wars fan
Intro
Hello there! I'm Keaton Donaghue, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park.
I am an observational astrophysicist interested in nearby galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, I focus on extreme star formation and dense molecular gas in nearby galaxies and how such star formation or dense gas affects the galaxy as a whole. I use a variety of instruments to study these effects including, ALMA (millimeter/submillimeter), JWST (near-mid infrared), and the VLA (radio).
Research
Left image: JWST NIRCam Image of M82 credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alberto Bolatto (UMD). Right image: NOIRLab image of NGC 253. Credit: SSRO/PROMPT/CTIO
Ongoing/Current Work
At the University of Maryland, I am beginning to dive into JWST data (both MIRI and NIRCam data) of some of our nearest nuclear starburst neighbors, NGC 253 and M82. Starbursts galaxies are galaxies with extremely high star formation rates that will go through their gas resevoirs in short cosmological times. What drives these starbursts, how much gas is depleted, and how feedback and outflows will affect the galaxy are all current questions we hope to understand with high resolution data from JWST.
Figure 1: ALMA Band 9 continuum image of the SSC's in the central 100 pc of NGC 253. The 14 primary clusters as identified in Leroy et al. 2018 and Levy et al. 2022 are labeled. Although not a focus of my work here, we see clear extended structure as well as likely outflows. Image from Donaghue et al. in prep.
At the University of Kansas, I worked under the direction of Dr. Elisabeth Mills and focused on the central 100 pc region of NGC 253 which is currently undergoing a nuclear starburst. This region hosts roughly 14 super star clusters broken up into 32 subcluster that in total have the same star formation rate as the entire Milky Way. Besides this starburst, NGC 253 is similar in size and mass to the Milky Way and is actively being studied as a modern analog to starformation during cosmic high noon. I use the highest resolution continuum images (around 1pc for each with some even going subparsec) from ALMA and the VLA across 6 frequency bands (including some of the first subparsec resolution ALMA Band 9 data of another galaxy, see the Figure 1!) to characterize the continuum emission from these cluster. The continuum emission is a key component in determining gas mass, cluster sizes, cluster age, etc. My upcoming paper looks at the new Band 9 data to constrain the dust temperatures of the clusters in NGC 253 and current results have shown the dust temperature to be slightly higher than previously estimated but still well within the proposed range of temperatures from prior studies. More details on this work can be found when my forthcoming paper Donaghue et al. in prep is published!
Figure 2: Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) of the primary clusters in NGC 253 using 6 different frequency observations. We look at three primary continuum emission modes, synchrotron (green), thermal free-free (red), and dust emission (light blue). Based on the slopes, we can determine things such as which sources are synchrotron dominated i.e. likely older and which are dust dominated and thus should have really high dust temperatures. Figure from Donaghue et al. in prep
Past Projects
I was an REU student at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii for the 2023 summer. There I used data from the LYRA simulation, the highest resolution hydrodynamical cosmological simulation to date, to characterize properties of dwarf galaxy mergers. Specifically, I looked to see how such mergers affected the gas, particularlly star forming gas. My results showed that the overall 12+log(O/H) is consistent with data from z=0 dwarf catalogs. However we saw that LYRA doesn't properly measrue the C/O or N/O abundances due to a lack of metallicity dependent supernova yeilds. You can look at the results of this work in a poster I presented at the AAS 243 winter conference: Link to poster
About
I am an observational radio and millimeter/submillimeter astronomer. My research interests are (but are not limited to) gas morphology and kinematics of the ISM, properties of super star clusters and starburst galaxies, and general astrochemical processes. I use these areas as a modern analog for the fine properties of star formation during cosmic high noon and to help us better understand the impacts of the ISM in their host galaxies.
I grew up in Wichita Kansas and received a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Kansas. I am currently pursueing a Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park. At KU, I served two terms as the president of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) at the University of Kansas where I organized and ran meetings as well as encouraged undergraduate involvement in department events and outreach. I also served as an undergraduate representative within the department assembly where I represented undergraduate interests in curriculum mapping of the degrees we offer. Currently, I also created a student ambassador position where upperclassmen assist in meeting with prospective undergraduate students and advertise the program to students at official campus events.
Outside of academics, I enjoy hiking, sailing, watching sports, playing my saxophone, and reading. I'm an avid Star Wars fan and have been collecting star wars books (current count puts me around 330 books total). I've also recently gotten into the tabletop game, Star Wars Legion and have taken up model painting as a hobby.
Outreach
Photo of me running one of the solar filter telescopes for the KU gathering for the solar eclipse in April 2024. Photo by A. Lieber
I am very passionate about outreach and have worked both as a volunteer and coordinator for a variety of events. Much of my current outreach has been done through the KU chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) where I also served as president. In addition to running hands on demos, I've encouraged and utitilized digital demos/simulations that allow youth to explore physical concepts otherwise out of reach in a hands on way. One popular example, is a simple simulation that lets kids explore a moon orbiting a planet by changing the gravitational strenght, the distance, and speed of revolution. I have found this engages youth that otherwise might stay relatively quite during a physical demo and helps make them feel like a scientist running an experiment
For the April 2024 solar eclipse, I organized the largest KU Physics and Astronomy outreach event post pandemic to view the solar eclipse. This included securing a large outdoor venue, acquiring over 1000 eclipse glasses, setting up logistics for trash and restrooms, inviting speakers to talk throughout the day, and getting volunteers to run the solar filter telescopes and sunspotters the department had. The event was widely successful with over 1500 people from the Lawrence area attending. This event even made the local news! Link Here
Photo of me demonstrating a Van De Graaff generator to elementary students at the Sunset Hill Science Fair. Photo by E. Swinson Photo of helpers at the KU gathering for the solar eclipse.
This is bold and this is strong. This is italic and this is emphasized.
This is superscript text and this is subscript text.
This is underlined and this is code: for (;;) { ... }. Finally, this is a link.
Heading Level 2
Heading Level 3
Heading Level 4
Heading Level 5
Heading Level 6
Blockquote
Fringilla nisl. Donec accumsan interdum nisi, quis tincidunt felis sagittis eget tempus euismod. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus vestibulum. Blandit adipiscing eu felis iaculis volutpat ac adipiscing accumsan faucibus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus lorem ipsum dolor sit amet nullam adipiscing eu felis.
Preformatted
i = 0;
while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
print 'Iteration ' + i;
deck.shuffle();
i++;
}
print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';
.png)
.jpg)
