Isidro Pena Rose Hills
Characterizing Charge Signal Timing in the COSI Germanium Detectors
NASA’s Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a space telescope designed to observe a type of light invisible to the human eye — gamma rays — in an energy range that no instrument has been able to study well for over 20 years. This blind spot in our ability to observe the universe has left important questions unanswered, including a longstanding mystery about why our galaxy is producing enormous amounts of antimatter (positrons) and where they’re coming from.
My project addresses this mystery by developing better methods to pinpoint exactly where inside the detector a gamma ray lands. Analysis of experimental calibration data alongside computer simulations with Julia will improve understanding of how different factors (like the energy of the incoming gamma ray, interaction of detector components, and where exactly it hits the detector) affect the detector’s measurements. The result is a clearer picture of how well COSI can do its job, and a more reliable foundation for the new science it will produce.
Message To Sponsor
I am deeply grateful for the generous support of my research on NASA's COSI mission. The chance to work with the space sciences is something I find genuinely exciting, and your gift is what makes that possible. This project will give me more hands-on experience with both real experimental data and computational simulations, skills I hope to carry forward throughout my scientific career. Thank you for investing in the next generation of researchers and in the future of high-energy astrophysics.