Ph.D Student at New Mexico State University
Me on a warm summer day!
My name is Julio (Manuel) Morales, welcome to my website! I'm a first-generation, Puerto Rican, Ph.D. student, a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and an aspiring Astrophysicist. This page is for you to get to know me and my academic career.
Me at Cool Stars 21.
Alicea family reunion in Chicago Illinois, 2004.
Alicea family reunion in Chicago Illinois, 2004.
My mom, aunts, and I at Evolution 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
My bestfriends and I.
My great-great-grandparents. Mama Maria (left) and Papa Bartolo (right).
6 year old me with my siblings
Figure 1: Size comparisons of various stars
Like many in the field, I was inspired to pursue Astronomy at an early age. I can vividly remember being 6 years old, with nothing to do, but watch TV. In my search for something to capture my young, curious mind, I eventually stumbled across a show called "The Universe" on the National Geographic Channel. This episode was all about stars—how they form, evolve, and die, and the vast differences that can exist between any two stars. I was instantly enamoured. The shear sizes and distances invloved (see Figure 1) in stellar Astronomy inspired so many ideas and questions; why are some stars different from others? How many stars are there? What colors do stars come in? My eyes were glued to the TV whenever an Astronomy documentary populated its pixels.
Me at the UMass Amherst campus tour after being accepted
I spent months watching every piece of Astronomy media I could find, and it didn't take long before I realized that I wanted to be an Astronomer. I understood that I would have to go to college to accomplish this goal, so I snuck on my mothers Windows XP computer and googled "astronomy school". I read about UMass Amherst—a school where they made some big discoveries at the time. Being the self-assured child that I was, I told myself that I would one day go there. Fast forward 13 years and I was accepted into the Astronomy Department at UMass Amherst!
Me at the UMass Amherst 2022 commencement ceremony.
Four years after that, and I finished my Bachelors of Science in Astronomy and Physics in the spring of 2022 (see my CV). I am now at New Mexico State University where I work on my Ph.D with Professor Jason Jackiewicz on the solar meridional flow using helioseismology. I hope to eventually become a Professor of Astronomy at a small liberal arts college, so that I may continue research in the field, and lead my own lab of (primarily) undergraduate students.
My research utilizes the powerful technique of time-distance helioseismology to
create 3-dimensional velocity fields of the solar interior. This work is part of
a larger collaboration to better understand the solar magnetic field. Click the
box above above to learn more!
My work on pre-main-sequence stars characterizes the Hα emission of accreting
T-Tauri stars in the Giant Accreting Protoplanet Survey (GAPlanetS), and acts as
a guideline for interpreting photometric ratios for those in the Hα differential
imaging community. Click the box above above to learn more!
Stay tuned for results!
Figure 2: The magnetosphere of the star sets up an accretion column. The in-falling material produces Hα emission and the shocked reigon emits X-rays. The surrounding matter absorbs the energy emitted from the X-rays and produces a hotspot on the photosphere which emits in the UV and optical. Hartmann et al. (2016)
These are young, low-mass stars in a phase of formation characterized by accretion on to the star from the circumstellar environment. T-Tauri stars possess strong magnetic fields (several kilogauss). Their fields are so strong that they can interupt the Keplerian orbit of the inner-disk material. The material flows along the stellar magnetic field lines and crashes on to the photosphere where it shocks and produces X-ray, UV, and optical emission (see Figure 2).
Figure 3: The accretion process provides the primary source of UV photons which mediate the production of organic molecules within the protoplanetary disk. These molecules are thought to make their way onto the planets that will eventually form from the protoplanetary disk. Rab et al. (2016)
The accretion process is the primary source of ionizing photons in a planetary systems early life, and is believed to influence the chemical and physical properties of the protoplanetary disk (see Figure 3). Studying the accretion process is the ground work to a deterministic model of planet formation.
Figure 4: A light-curve taken of an accreting star. Magnitude (brightness) is shown on the y-axis and time on the x-axis. The periodicity (or stochasticity) can give us a peak into the structure of the inner accretion disk. Hartmann et al. (2016)
Photometric variability is a defining characteristic of T-Tauri stars (see Figure 4). The source of variability is highly dependent on the timescale the change is observed to occur on.
Figure 5: The HD 142527 system with it's central cavity imaged. The gaps in transitional disk systems can be astonishingly wide. For perspective, the white bar in the corner of the figure represents 50 AU. A combination of planet formation, accretion on to the star, and photoevaporative winds produce these clearings. Benisty et al. (2022)
My project was concerned with a subset of T-Tauri stars with large cavities carved out in their centers—transitional disks (see Figure 5). These cavities are thought to be formed by embedded accreting protoplanets. Owing to their distinct cavities, transitional disks were suspected to have different accretion patterns as opposed to their full-disk counterparts, but no significant differences have been identified yet. Transitional disks are also very good candiates for direct imaging of accreting protoplanets since they are not enshrouded by the protostellar natal envelope. My project attenpted to characterize the Hα emission produced by accreting transitional disks and produce photometric ratio light-curves to investigate variability and possible sources. The Hα/Cont ratios in my study were also used for direct imaging of the protoplanet (see Follette et al. (2022)).
Figure 8: A light-curve for the SAO 206462 object on April 12, 2014. We can see that there is little variation in the Hα/Cont ratio with time.
I find that none of the datasets show signifcant variability on the second-to-minute timescale (see Figure 8). The only source of variability we should expect on the second-to-minute timescale is due to a model-dependent oscillating shock-front in the accretion column. I assert that by taking the Hα/Cont ratio, we bypass continuum shock emission, which is why we see no variability. Alternatively, the ampltitude of the oscillations could just be too small to detect, and are lost in the errorbars. Change in mass-infall rate is the only souce of variability in the Hα/Cont ratios to which we are sensitive. However, changes in accretion rate are limited to the free-fall timescale (a couple of hours for most stars). The longest time-series in GAPlanetS is about 2.5 hours—too short to observe changes in mass-infall.
Figure 9: Two light-curves for the PDS 70 system on May 2nd, 2018 (left) and May 3rd, 2018 (right). There is a signficant increase in the Hα/Cont ratio from one day to the next.
Several datasets for which data was acquired for consecutive days for the same object show signficant variaiblity in their Hα/Cont ratios (see Figure 9). Day-to-day changes such as these are consistent with changes in mass accretion rate since enough time has passed for the magnetosphere to sweep through different parts of a clumpy, inhomogenous disk.
Figure 10: Two light-curves for the TW Hya system in 2014 (left) and 2018 (right). There is a signficant decrease in the Hα/Cont ratio which is consistent with large scale changes in mass-density of the inner-disk.
A few datasets show significant variability on the year-to-year timescale (see Figure 10). The object with the largest changes in GAPlanetS is TW Hya, which shows a 21% decrease in Hα over the course of 3 years. Such changes on the year-to-year timescale are consistent with large scale mass-density gradients in the inner-disk.
The black curve and gray dashed line represent the Hα/Cont ratio calculated from the Castelli & Kurucz models and Planck Function respectively. The blue triangles represent the ratios calculated from the WTTS templates, and the various colored stars represent the median ratios measured from the GAPlanetS data. Morales et al. (2023, in progress)
Coworkers, students, and I at Anna Maria College for the Upward Bound program.
Teaching younger students and doing my part to raise the next generation of scientists has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I've had the honor of working as an instructor, tutor, and teacher assistant for the following classes:
New Mexico State University (Fall 2022-Present)
Historic Northampton Lawn, 46 Bridge St., Northampton MA, 01060.
Public outreach is a fun way to get the general population interested in astronomy. There is nothing like the look of awe and curiosity on someones face when learning about the cosmos. It's the same feeling I have for it to this day, and it's also why I'm so passionate about outreach. In the summer of 2021, I organized and ran the event: "Explore the Solar System: The Amazing Science & History of the Heavens"
Figure 11: Completing a circuit with a pickle allows a current to flow. This causes electrons around the sodium atoms in the pickle to become excited (jump to higher levels of energy). Electrons prefer to be at lower energies so to get back down, they release some of their energy in the form of light. The color of that light depends on the element. For sodium, it typically has an orange or yellow color.
More than 100 participants attended my event to take part in various experiments that demonstrated astronomical phenomena. The experiment imaged above demonstrates emission lines by electrocuting a pickle (see Figure 11). The pickle glows and particpants were able to observe sodium emission lines using a cardboard spectrograph.
Figure 12: Planets form from the accumulation of dust by gravity. As larger and larger clumps of rocky bodies collide with each other, they heat up until the majority of the planet is molten. At this stage, elements that are denser, like iron and nickle, will sink to the center of the planet, and lighter elements like carbon and silicon will float. The same process can be seen when pouring liquids of differing densities in a beaker.
Our planetary formation experiment demonstrated how actively forming, molten planets layer themselves (see Figure 12). We did this by showing the exact same process in a beaker with liquids of varying density such as oil, rubbing alcohol, and dish soap.
Figure 13: Even the smallest distances in the Solar System are incomprehensible to the human mind. If you were to shrink the Sun down to the size of a 9 inch radius ball, the closest planet to it (Mercury) would be roughly 20 steps away. Earth would be almost 70!
Scale of the solar system had participants attempt to calculate the scaled distance between solar system bodies in the case where the Sun is scaled down to the size of a 9 inch radius ball (see Figure 13). Participants then raced across the solar system model, technically travelling faster than the speed of light!
Figure 14: Points on the surface of the Sun where the magnetic and thermal pressure balance can halt the convective motions of small patches of gas. These spots cool down by giving off radiation, and their black appearance comes from the fact that they are significantly cooler than the surrounding gas.
Participants had the oppurtunity to observe Sunspots (see Figure 14) directly using the Celestron Solar Telescope, generously provided by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Amherst College.
(From left to right) Ry Bleckel, Dane Mansfield, Alyssa Cordero, Julio Morales, Alex DelFranco, and Catherine Sarosi
I couldn't have run this event without the help of my fellow Follete Lab members. They helped me set up and run the entire event, and I'll forever be grateful for their help and friendship!
The Progress Pride Flag
Letters to a pre-scientist logo.
From left to right: Dorothy Vaughn, Katherine Johnson, and Mary Jackson.
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| Item One | Ante turpis integer aliquet porttitor. | 29.99 |
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