Welcome to the ASTRAL 2026 program. ASTRAL is building a cohort of STEM student leaders of the future that can both act as role models and participate in cutting-edge astrophysics research. ASTRAL students are taught the rigour of the scientific process, and skills in astrophysics, supercomputing, technology, research analytics and leadership. Our aim is to develop a cohort of inspirational student STEM leaders.
Each folder contains resources for each specific aspect of the ASTRAL 2026 Summer Program. For instance, the gaia folder will contain Gaia DR3 data, which will be analysed in the ASTRAL 2026 summer program sessions.
Importantly, each folder documentation file, called docs.md, which will contain necessary information and extra documentation on what the folder contains. There's also some helpful tips and extra pieces of information provided.
This GitHub repository also contains a wiki, which also contains key information and concepts that you will be learning over the course of the ASTRAL 2026 program. This wiki can be accessed using this link here. This wikipedia will be regularly updated, with further links and learning materials for those who are curious to learn more.
If there are any issues with either the documentation or the data in this repository, you can add issues here. Templates have been provided, and you just need to select the template of choice and fill in the details to report an issue.