About Us - Team Aether

We are Team Aether, an undergraduate research team studying astronomy and cosmology at the University of Maryland. We are a part of the Gemstone Honors College, a four-year program that allows multidisciplinary teams of undergraduate students to pursue independent research in the field of their choice. Our goal is to increase our understanding of the universe around us by creating synthetic observations from cosmological simulation data that can be directly compared to observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope. This will allow us to improve the accuracy of the simulations, accomplish more science with the fleeting time that the James Webb Space Telescope will be in operation, and better understand the laws and processes that shaped the early universe.

In particular, we are seeking funding for two main research items: data storage and conference costs. The sizes of the individual simulations that we are handling are on the order of terabytes, and as such our team needs high-quality, high-capacity hard drives to manage the multitude of simulations that we are handling. Once our research is complete, we aim to present our code pipeline and subsequent findings at an astrophysical conference--which can be expensive! Your financial contribution to Team Aether will greatly assist us in covering the cost of hard drives, conference fees, and travel. 

We are incredibly thankful for your help in allowing us to unveil the dawn of time!

Gifts in support of the University of Maryland are accepted and managed by the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, Inc., an affiliated 501(c)(3) organization authorized by the Board of Regents. Contributions to the University of Maryland are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Please see your tax advisor for details.