Home | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
WEBThe Center for Astrophysics is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard College Observatory that’s designed to ask big questions about the universe, build the tools needed to answer them, and share the resulting discoveries with the world. "The coming decade will be an extremely exciting time for ...
Solar System - Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
WEBWhile astronomers have discovered thousands of other worlds orbiting distant stars, our best knowledge about planets, moons, and life comes from one place. The Solar System provides the only known example of a habitable planet, the only star we can observe close-up, and the only worlds we can visit with space probes. Solar System research is essential for understanding the origin and evolution ...
About | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
WEBAbout. The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is a collaboration between Harvard and Smithsonian designed to ask — and ultimately answer — humanity’s greatest unresolved questions about the nature of the universe. Founded in 1973, the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is an ongoing collaboration between the ...
Cosmology | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
WEBThe Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), as part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, manages Chandra’s day-to-day operations, providing spacecraft control, observation planning, and data processing for astronomers. Chandra is one of NASA’s orbiting Great Observatories, along with the Hubble.
Facilities & Technology - Harvard–Smithsonian Center for …
WEBFacilities & Technology. Precise observations of the universe require precise tools. Engineers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian work in concert with our scientists to build the instrumentation necessary for their research, often within a tolerance of a few atoms. Learn more about our technology and explore the facilities ...
Stellar Structure and Evolution - Center for Astrophysics
WEBStars are the source of almost all of the light our eyes see in the sky. Nuclear fusion is what makes a star what it is: the creation of new atomic nuclei within the star’s core. Many of stars’ properties — how long they live, what color they appear, how they die — are largely determined by how massive they are. The study of stellar structure and evolution is dedicated to understanding ...
Black Holes | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
WEBBlack holes are some of the most fascinating and mind-bending objects in the cosmos. The very thing that characterizes a black hole also makes it hard to study: its intense gravity. All the mass in a black hole is concentrated in a tiny region, surrounded by a boundary called the “event horizon”. Nothing that crosses that boundary can …
Stellar Astronomy - Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
WEBHumans have studied the stars for thousands of years. To many cultures, stars were the metaphor for constancy, while everything else moved and changed. Modern stellar astronomy showed that stars do change on many time scales, ranging from days to longer periods of time than human history. Stars are born, they …
Galaxy Formation and Evolution - Center for Astrophysics
WEBGalaxy Formation and Evolution. Galaxies are home to most of the stars in the universe, and they form the beads of the cosmic jewelry that defines structure on the largest scales. But galaxies haven’t always been around, and they have changed over the universe’s 13.8 billion-year history. Astronomers study the ways galaxies form and evolve ...
Research - Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
WEBResearch. Research at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian ranges across many disciplines, from astronomy and astrophysics to improving life on Earth through science education, climate research, and technology development. Scientists and engineers at CfA are involved in international collaborations to create the next generation ...