Adam Samuels

PhD Student, Astronomy

Adam Samuels is a 2nd year graduate student in the Astronomy department under Dr. Tereasa Brainerd. His research focuses on the role of dark matter in galaxy formation. In particular, he looks at the distribution of satellite galaxies located around bright, isolated host galaxies. Samuels uses large observational galaxy databases, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, as well as simulated galaxy databases, such as the Illustris TNG. His initial research shows that satellite distributions are lopsided with respect to their hosts, which suggests that the satellites have made very few orbits around their hosts. His next step is to use simulations to look at the orbital paths and interaction histories of the satellites and hosts to determine whether or not the established Cold Dark Matter theory is capable of reproducing these results.