Physics graduate student Danielle Frostig combined her love of astrophysics and math with art by designing astronomical instruments, specifically WINTER. WINTER is a wide field camera that can detect infrared light in space.
It was designed with the aim to discover how the heaviest elements in the universe are produced. Scientists believe that heavy elements are produced by the rapid neutron capture process. A cloud of dust that glows infrared is produced when neutron stars circle each other and are torn apart. This is where WINTER comes in.
WINTER will work together with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory to observe an event of rapid neutron capture. WINTER, attached to the Plane Wave telescope, will be shipped to California later this year and may be brought to space in 2021.
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