Student astronomer turns telescope’s data into pictures

Friday, December 4, 1998

Student astronomer turns telescope’s data into pictures

Ortiz’s space agency work since high school helps in decoding
images of nebula

By Nick Williams

Daily Bruin Contributor

To an unaided eye, the night is a display of tiny flickering
points of light

But with the help of astronomers’ tools, such as telescopes and
computer imaging, the tiny lights become stars, planets and
nebulae.

While most students spend their summers relaxing, one UCLA
student spends his summers using these tools to give the world a
closer glimpse of what the night sky offers.

Every day for three summers, Chris Ortiz, a second-year
undeclared student, passed by armed guards, flashed his valid
identification and went to work at NASA’s Ames Research Center in
Northern California’s Silicon Valley.

Ortiz spent eight hours a day in the computer laboratories of
the NASA Research Center creating images of interstellar
objects.

Near the end of his junior year at Bellarmine High School in San
Jose, Ortiz was selected to be a part of an elite group of students
to work in paid civil service positions at the nearby NASA
facility. Of 300 applications, only 30, including Ortiz, were
chosen.

The goal of the program, Ortiz said, was "to expose you to a
full-time working environment."

Robert Rubin, a former visiting professor of astronomy at UCLA
who now works for NASA, selected Ortiz to work for him.

Throughout the next three summers, Ortiz worked for Rubin,
extracting and analyzing information from the Hubble Space
Telescope.

"He just gave me manuals and said, ‘Do it,’" Ortiz said.

Ortiz was assigned to master a type of data analysis called IRAF
(Image Reduction and Analysis Facility). Astronomers take data from
the Hubble Space Telescope and turn it into images that can be
easily viewed by using IRAF.

"You can’t just take a picture and develop it," Ortiz said,
explaining the reason for using a complex process such as IRAF.

"To pick up IRAF and then to work on it is intrinsically a
difficult thing. It’s a challenge even for us," Rubin said,
referring to his colleagues, the majority of whom have doctoral
degrees.

"We rely on Chris to do it right," Rubin said.

The major project that Ortiz was assigned was to obtain a clear
photographic image of a particular nebula 6,600 light years
away.

Through four weeks of applying IRAF, Ortiz successfully produced
a clear image that was of high enough quality to be distributed
throughout the astronomy community as well as the world wide web,
Rubin said.

The image of the nebula reminded Rubin of a turtle, so it was
named the Turtle Nebula.

Thanks to his work with IRAF, Ortiz is currently co-authoring a
paper along with four professional astronomers.

"There’s no paper without the image," Ortiz said.

Ortiz is the only author working on the paper who does not have
a doctoral degree. He has also had research acknowledgements in
some of Rubin’s other papers. The paper that Ortiz will share
authorship is second in a series about new ways of applying atomic
data.

"Chris is a primary example of outstanding performance at that
age. He has a propensity to pick it (IRAF) up really well," Rubin
said.

According to Rubin, Ortiz has a measurably strong work
ethic.

"Chris was here every day, not messing around but plugging
away," he said.

Even though Ortiz says he enjoyed working at NASA, he said it
"ate up my whole summer."

Ortiz also remembered the job as being tedious at times.

"There were times when I wanted to quit; it was frustrating," he
said. Nonetheless, he continued his work and produced the Turtle
Nebula image.

Prior to applying for the research program, Ortiz was not
necessarily interested in astronomy.

He said he wanted to study in the general field of computer
science, but since his entrance into college, his interests have
changed to life science.

Ortiz now hopes to apply to medical school.

"I’m always told that since medical schools like to see their
students to be distinguished, I definitely hope this helps," Ortiz
said.

Even though Rubin is appreciative of Ortiz’s work, he supports
Ortiz’s desire to be a doctor.

"I want Chris to switch more to biochem – it’s the best use of
his capabilities," Rubin said.

To view the Turtle Nebula images on the Internet, please visit
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1998/36/pr-photos.html.MICHAEL
ROSS WACHT/Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Chris Ortiz, a second-year student, helped NASA develop
photographs from the Hubble telescope.

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