Education
B.S. Physics & Astrophysics, summa cum laude, University of Florida, 2024
Thesis Advisor: Elizabeth Lada
Research Interests: Star & Planet Formation, Protoplanetary Disk Dynamics, Star Clusters, Young Stellar Objects, Infrared Astronomy
Publications: ADS citations
SETI Institute REU 2024: Modeling protoplanetary disk winds
Mentor: Uma Gorti
Our understanding of star formation has been plagued by the “angular momentum problem” — in order for a protostar with a rotating circumstellar disk to form a star like our own Sun, some angular momentum must be lost from the system. A likely candidate for this loss of angular momentum is protoplanetary disk winds, in which material is ejected from the protoplanetary disk along the magnetic field lines that have been conserved during the initial molecular cloud collapse. The emission from these winds have been observed in CO with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), but new data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is allowing us to gain additional information about H2 emission from these winds. With both CO and H2 emission, we can visualize the nested morphology of the of these winds and better understand the physics and chemistry that govern them. For this project, I created a program that allows a user to input a set of starting parameters (the mass and radius of the protostar, the inner and outer disk radii, the molecular abundance, etc.) and calculates a model using recent theories of magnetohydrodynamic disk winds, then using the radiative transfer program RADMC-3D to create an image of the model's emission. Using this program, we successfully modeled the HH30 H2 disk wind and determined the total mass loss rate of the system, which we plan to publish soon alongside a general version of our modeling program.
Click here for the abstract of my presentation, for which I won the SETI REU Award of Excellence. We are currently preparing these results for publication.
University of Florida: Studying star clusters & YSOs in Orion
Mentor: Elizabeth Lada
The Orion molecular cloud complex is the closest active star-forming region to us, and has thus been extensively researched over the years. The incredibly high population of the region makes it a great laboratory for better understanding star & cluster formation, and the advent of new high-resolution telescopes means that we can gain a plethora of information from the region. My studies have focused on the NGC 1977 cluster, which lies north of the heavily studied Orion Nebula Cluster. Recent studies of gas kinematics in the region have hypothesized that a large feedback event (likely multiple supernovae) occurred in close proximity to NGC 1977, and likely triggered the formation of the entire Orion molecular cloud complex. I have used astrometric and parallax data from Gaia DR3 and near-infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope to characterize this region, analyzing its structure, its kinematics, its luminosity function, and the fraction of the stars in the region that possess circumstellar disks. My analysis of the proper motions of the region have been consistent with the hypothesis of a large feedback event driving cluster motions, and I am currently writing up these results for publication. I presented my initial spatial and kinematic analysis of the region at the 242nd meeting of the AAS in Albuquerque and was awarded the Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award.
Click here for my AAS 242 iPoster on this project. A publication will be available soon!
Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF): Understanding AGN variability using TESS
Mentor: Matthew Graham
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) exhibit irregular and stochastic variability that is not well understood, and studying this variability requires collecting data from telescopes with a wide range of observational cadences. Because the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was designed to make high-precision, high-cadence observations, it is a naturally beneficial addition to the sky surveys being applied to studies of AGN variability. However, since exoplanet transits are well-modeled, TESS is not able to easily distinguish between legitimate stochastic signals from an AGN and random thermal noise. Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) provides AGN light curves on month to year timescales, and can thus be used as a quality check for the light curves from TESS. I worked on modifying the existing Quaver data pipeline to accelerate and automate the process of producing accurate short-timescale AGN light curves and applied it to data from TESS and ZTF in tandem. We were able to review high-amplitude short-term variability that, without data from TESS, would have gone completely unnoticed.
Click here for my AAS 243 presentation on this project.
Teaching:
TA, The Art & Science of Astrophotography (Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, & Spring 2025)
TA, Physics with Calculus 2 Laboratory (3 sections, Spring 2025)
Learning Assistant, Analytical Geometry & Calculus 2 (Spring 2022)
TA, Research & Creativity (Summer 2021 & Fall 2021)
Outreach:
Rosemary Hill Observatory Public Observing Nights (multiple occasions, telescope operator)
NSF Broader Impacts SEFS Astronomy Event (telescope operator)
Girls Do Science (interactive demos)
2024 Solar Eclipse Event (distributing solar glasses to public)
Mars Closest Approach Event (setup)
Email: sophieclark [at] ufl [dot] edu
Address: Bryant Space Science Center, 1772 Stadium Rd, Gainesville, FL 32611
Check out the Instagram link below for my astrophotography!
