Professor Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil Awarded NSF Funding to use AI to Discover Faintest Galaxies in the Universe

This August, astronomy professor Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil received NSF funding to discover some of the smallest, faintest galaxies in the Universe.  

Over the next three years, her research team will analyze vast astronomical datasets obtained by observatories all over the world. Mutlu-Pakdil and her team are combing through this data looking for subtle signs of dwarf galaxies - dim and ancient relics from the beginnings of the Universe. 

Mutlu-Pakdil is especially excited to work with data from the recent Legacy Survey of Space and Time produced by Vera C. Rubin telescope. Images from LSST cover more of the sky and in greater detail than ever before. While LSST provides one of the most promising datasets for Mutlu-Pakdil, it is also the most daunting to work through because of its sheer volume. Dwarf galaxies are faint and small, which makes them difficult and time-consuming to identify.

To tackle their mountains of data, Mutlu-Pakdil and her students are combining AI with a novel convolutional neural network image classifier code. By training AI to identify promising candidates for them, her team aims to discover a solid statistical sample of dwarf galaxies. The team will then follow up with additional observations to collect more information.

"These discoveries will be put into context with other dwarf galaxies in and beyond the Local Group, which will illuminate many aspects of small-scale galaxy formation. Our program will also build a valuable training sample for future searches of dwarf galaxies, maximizing the full scientific potential of upcoming Rubin/LSST observations."
-Professor Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil, PI 

In fact, Mutlu-Pakdil's group has already identified three new dwarf galaxies since receiving funding! These three are now some of the most isolated and faint dwarf galaxies known. Mutlu-Pakdil's student, graduate Kai Herron, got to officially name one of the galaxies. Dubbed Kamino, this little dwarf is providing a unique opportunity for Burçin and her team to test cosmological models out at the smallest scales.

As part of their NSF funding, Mutlu-Padkil and her students will create a series of video blogs explaining their process of scientific discovery. Suitable for all audiences, these videos will be shared on the Sciall youtube platform. Check back sometime in late 2026 for their first vlog!

This research award is partially funded by a generous gift from Charles Simonyi to the NSF Astronomy division. The project includes significant contributions to Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time.