Hi there!
I am Sanjana and I like explosions in space. Many of the elements that make up our bodies and our world were created in these explosions, and my research seeks to discover their astrophysical origin stories. I love sharing these stories with anyone who will listen!
I am an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Astronomy at UC Berkeley. Before joining Berkeley, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago. I have lived and worked in India, the Netherlands, and all four US time zones :)
Email: sanjanacurtis@berkeley.edu
Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is the remnant of a massive star that exploded about 300 years ago. The X-ray image shows an expanding shell of hot gas produced by the explosion.
Nuclear Astrophysics and Nucleosynthesis
I study the origin of the chemical elements in extreme astrophysical events like core-collapse type supernovae as well as mergers of compact objects, such as neutron stars and black holes.
Source: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
The hot, dense, expanding cloud of debris stripped from the neutron stars just before they collided. This cloud, consisting of newly made heavy elements, produces the kilonova's visible and infrared light.
Electromagnetic Transients
I predict supernova and kilonova light curves as well as spectra based on computational models of these phenomena, with the goal of self-consistently linking these transients to their progenitors.
Source: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
Aftermath of a neutron star merger showing both the powerful jets (orange) and the neutron-rich debris of the explosion (depicted by the expanding and flattened blue spheres).
Multi-Messenger Astronomy
I connect simulations of multi-messenger sources to nucleosynthesis yields and electromagnetic counterparts with the goal of using multi-messenger astronomy to understand the underlying physics of these systems.