Internship Diaries: Sanchit Das on High Energy Astronomy

 Today, we’re catching up with Sanchit Das, who recently completed an exciting internship at IISER Mohali under Dr. Aru Beri, an expert in high-energy astronomy. Driven by his passion for neutron stars, Sanchit took on a project that involved analyzing observational data to unlock the secrets of these cosmic giants. Let’s dive into his experience, the skills he developed, and his advice for anyone looking to pursue an internship in the field of astronomy. It’s sure to be an insightful and engaging conversation!

1. Where did you do your Internship?

    I did my internship at IISER Mohali itself, under the mentorship of Dr. Aru Beri who specializes at high energy astronomy.

2. What made you choose your internship topic? 

   Well, when it comes to physics I am enthusiastic about both astronomy and condensed matter, I always tried to find a correlation between the two of them. Studying about neutron stars I found that their interior structure is still not well understood and one can construct theoretical models in order to describe their properties. Hence I worked on modelling and probing equation of state models using the observational data from neutron stars.

3. Describe your project briefly. 

   As mentioned earlier, I worked on modelling and probing equation of state models for the neutron stars using their observational data. The project in a nutshell deals with extracting observational data form a source object (in my case the observational data of GX349+2, which is a low mass X-ray binary, collected by the NICER mission was used), processing the data in HEASOFT using different levels of data extraction and analysis. We try to find thermonuclear X-ray Bursts from the light curves of the observational dataset and then perform a time resolved spectroscopy of the burst spectra probing it with a absorbed blackbody spectrum model. The goal is to find a model that best fits the spectra and explains the physics of the neutron star.

4. What new skills did you learn throughout the course of your internship?

    I learnt a variety of new things pursuing this internship, one of them was the software I used for the data analysis. HEASOFT is a software that specializes in the field of high-energy astronomy for all the X-ray missions conducted till date, it is CLI hence I spent most of my time running bash in my Linux system. Not only did I learn how to use the software but also helped me honing my skills in data analysis. I had to also study X-ray and radio-astronomy in order to understand the physics, which added more to my knowledge arsenal. 

5. Did your coursework at IISERM help with your summer project?

    I didn’t take any courses at IISERM that teach astronomy or a branch of the subject, so the answer to that question would be a no.

6. Were there any prerequisites for your internship?

    There were no ”prerequisites” as such required for my internship, but I would say being used to working with Linux did turn out efficient. 

7. When is a good time to begin applying the summer internship in astro? How would you advise your juniors to go about doing the same?

    I would say the ideal time to apply for summer internships would at least 4-5 months prior to the break. I would advise my juniors to have a mailing draft ready, to have an updated CV, and to research their options well prior mailing. 

--Avni( MS22)