Research

I am interested in a variety of research topics across cosmology and instrumentation. On the instrumentation end, I am interested in affordable alternatives to traditional orbital space missions. With regards to cosmology, I am interested in observational probes of the nature of dark matter and dark energy, specifically, I am interested in the large scale structure of the universe and galaxy cluster cosmology.

Active Projects Publications

Balloon-borne Imaging Telescop (BIT)

BIT is a series of Balloon-borne spacecrafts that operate as diffraction-limited wide-field near-infrared to near-ultraviolet observatories designed to exploit the stratosphere's space-like conditions.

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Little UV Space (LUVS) Telescope

A small space telescope with ultraviolet sensitivity and a large field-of-view for following gravitational wave events and other astronomical transients. The system intends to utilize SpaceX's affordable rideshare launch system.

Cluster Mass Net

This project is centered around the development of a neural net approach to the extraction of cluster mass estimates from optical images without the reliance on traditional scaling relations.

Publications

Refereed

L. Javier Romualdez, Steven J. Benton, Anthony M. Brown, Paul Clark, Christopher J. Damaren, Tim Eifler, Aurelien A. Fraisse, Mathew N. Galloway, Ajay Gill, John W. Hartley, Bradley Holder, Eric M. Huff, Mathilde Jauzac, William C. Jones, David Lagattuta, Jason S.-Y. Leung, Lun Li, Thuy Vy T. Luu, Richard J. Massey, Jacqueline McCleary, James Mullaney, Johanna M. Nagy, C. Barth Netterfield, Susan Redmond, Jason D. Rhodes, Jürgen Schmoll, Mohamed M. Shaaban, Ellen Sirks, Sut-Ieng Tam (2020), Robust diffraction-limited NIR-to-NUV wide-field imaging from stratospheric balloon-borne platforms -- SuperBIT science telescope commissioning flight & performance, Review of Scientific Instruments 91, 034501-034501

E. L. Sirks, P. Clark, R. J. Massey, S. J. Benton, A. M. Brown, C. J. Damaren, T. Eifler, A. A. Fraisse, C. Frenk, M. Funk, M. N. Galloway, A. Gill, J. W. Hartley, B. Holder, E. M. Huff, M. Jauzac, W. C. Jones, D. Lagattuta, J. S.-Y. Leung, L. Li, T. V. T. Luu, J. McCleary, J. M. Nagy, C. B. Netterfield, S. Redmond, J. D. Rhodes, L. J. Romualdez, J. Schmoll, M. M. Shaaban, S.-I. Tam (2020), Download by Parachute: Retrieval of Assets from High Altitude Balloons, Journal of Instrumentation 15, P05014–P05014

Gill, A., Benton, S. J., Brown, A. M., Clark, P., Damaren, C. J., Eifler, T., Fraisse, A. A., M., Galloway, M. N., Hartley, J. W., Holder, B., Huff, E. M., Jauzac, M., Jones, W. C., Lagatutta, D., Leung, J., Li, L., Luu, T., Massey, R. J., McCleary, J., Mullaney, J., Nagy, J., Netterfield, C. B., Redmond, S., Rhodes, J. D., Romualdez, L. J., Schmoll, J., Shaaban, M., Sirks, E., Sivanandam, S., Tam, S. Optical night sky brightness measurements from the stratosphere. The Astronomical Journal, 160, 266, doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/abbffb

Other

Mohamed M. Shaaban, C. Barth Netterfield (2021), SuperBIT: 2019 Test Results, Scientific Ballooning Technologies Workshop

Mohamed M. Shaaban, C. Barth Netterfield (2020), SuperBIT: A diffraction-limited near-infrared to near-ultraviolet wide-field balloon-borne observatory, CASCA

William Jones, C. Barth Netterfield, Richard Massey, Jason Rhodes, Steven J. Benton, Anthony Brown, Paul Clark, Christopher Damaren, TimEifler, Aurelien Fraisse, Mathew Galloway, John Hartley, Brad Holder, EricHuff, Mathilde Jauzac, David Lagattuta, Jason Leung, Lun Li, Vy Luu, Jacqueline McCleary, Johanna Nagy, Susan Redmond, Javier Romualdez, Jurgen Schmoll, Mohamed Shaaban, and Ellen Sirks (2019). The Enabling Capabilities of the Super Pressure Balloon Platform: Diffraction-Limited, Wide-field Imaging from the Stratosphere. In Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, volume 51, page 171-178

Mohamed M. Shaaban, C. Barth Netterfield (2020), SuperBIT Science Potential & 2019 Flight Hardware Integration, MSc Report, University of Toronto