Jupiter and Saturn are our solar system’s largest gas giants with some of the most popular features of any known planet: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) and Saturn’s rings. Over the summer of 2018, we analyzed these characteristics at Pacific Lutheran University’s W. M. Keck Observatory. Closer to the Earth, Jupiter’s atmosphere is subject to differential rotation in which the atmosphere of the planet rotate at different speeds. We use feature tracking and 2D to 3D mapping techniques to observationally determine the angular rotation of the GRS and compare it to the expected rotation of 11.5 km/s determined by the magnetosphere. Through our analysis we observe the movement of the GRS over multiple nights and determine the average speed to be around 10.97 km/s, a 4.60% difference from the expected value. Further beyond, Saturn’s rings are composed of particles of ice and dust that are thought to be remnants of comets, asteroids, or moons that collided in orbit around the planet. Since these rings are not single structures, their particles feature non-uniform spacing. The light intensity of the rings increase as you approach the B ring from either direction (with the exceptions of the Cassini Division, Encke, and Keeler gaps). Our research focused on determining the spatial variation of these intensities as observed from our land-based observatory and comparing this data to Hubble Space Telescope data quantifying atmospheric scattering in Tacoma.

Single electron devices (SEDs) are electronic devices that can isolate individual electrons along a conducting path. SEDs have potential applications in the field of metrology [science of measurement] and quantum computation. However, the devices have issues with performance, uniformity, and stability that must be addressed before these applications can be realized. To investigate these issues with SEDs, this work focuses on low-frequency charge noise, much less than 1 Hz, called charge offset drift. Previous studies have shown that the geometry of the device impacts charge offset drift. In this talk, I will describe our efforts to extend these studies, performed at 2.5 Kelvin, to millikelvin temperatures to further our understanding of these issues.