Professor Enectali Figueroa-Feliciano presents an Interdisciplinary Colloquium on December 1, 2022, organized by Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics. Read the full CIERA News story here.
Affectionately referred to as the B.O.A.T. (“brightest of all time”), the powerful explosion occurred approximately 2.4 billion light-years away from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Sagitta. Astrophysicists, including Jillian Rastinejad, first detected the GRB, which was a few hundred seconds in duration, in gamma-ray light on Oct. 9. Read the full Northwestern News
National Science Foundation
A Northwestern University-led team of astronomers has developed the most extensive inventory to date of the galaxies where short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) originate. Using several highly sensitive instruments and sophisticated galaxy modeling, the researchers, including Anya Nugent, pinpointed the galactic homes of 84 SGRBs and probed the characteristics of 69 of the identified host galaxies.
W.M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko
When astronomers use radio telescopes to gaze into the night sky, they typically see elliptical-shaped galaxies, with twin jets blasting from either side of their central supermassive black hole. But every once in a while — less than 10% of the time — astronomers might spot something special and rare: An X-shaped radio galaxy, with
Aretaios Lalakos
A still image taken from the 3D simulation of the natural development of an X-shaped jet. The gas (bright red) falls into the black hole, which launches a pair of relativistic jets (light blue). The jets propagate vertically and shock the ambient gas (dark red). The older cavities (dark blue) buoyantly rise at an angle
Aretaios Lalakos
On Aug. 21, 2022, a NASA-funded Northwestern University team of astrophysicists launched its “Micro-X” rocket from White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The rocket spent 15 minutes in space — just enough time to snap a quick image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the Cassiopeia constellation that exploded approximately 11,000
Northwestern University
On Aug. 21, 2022, a NASA-funded Northwestern University team of astrophysicists will launched its “Micro-X” rocket from White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The rocket spent 15 minutes in space — just enough time to snap a quick image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the Cassiopeia constellation that exploded approximately
Northwestern University
On Aug. 21, the NASA-funded team launched its “Micro-X” rocket from White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The rocket spent 15 minutes in space — just enough time to snap a quick image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the Cassiopeia constellation that exploded approximately 11,000 light-years away from Earth. Then,
Northwestern University
The massive black hole in M33 X-7 is hidden in the X-ray bright center of the pancake-like accretion disk of matter. The black-hole’s hot (blue) and massive star companion is losing mass in a wind that gets pulled and captured by the black hole. Learn more.
NU Viz and CIERA: Matthew McCrory, Francesca Valsecchi, and Vicky Kalogera
Professor Wen-fai Fong is interviewed for The Cosmic Companion and talks about her work studying kilonova explosions and collisions of neutron stars.
This image shows the glow from a kilonova caused by the merger of two neutron stars. The kilonova, whose peak brightness reaches up to 10,000 times that of a classical nova, appears as a bright spot (indicated by the arrow) to the upper left of the host galaxy. The merger of the neutron stars is
Gabriel Casabona, a theoretical astrophysicist who specializes in binary neutron star mergers, gives an interview with Suzette Lyn.
Suzette Lyn
The afterglow of GRB181123B, captured by the Gemini North telescope. Learn more: Short gamma ray burst leaves most-distant optical afterglow ever detected
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Paterson & W. Fong (Northwestern University).
A detailed simulation of a black hole’s accretion disc created by a global team of computational astrophysicists – including CIERA’s Prof. Sasha Tchekhovskoy – solved a decades-old mystery. The accretion disc is matter that orbits and then falls into a black hole. Researchers discovered how the disc aligns with the hole’s equator, details vital to
This image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows spiral galaxy NGC 7331, center, in a three-color X-ray image….
Andrew Connolly Public Lecture at the 2019 HotWired Conference in Evanston, IL.
233rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Seattle, WA Thursday, 10 January 2019
An image of AT2018cow and its host galaxy obtained on August 17, 2018 using W. M. Keck Observatory’s instrument, the DEep Imaging and Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS). Learn more: Birth of a Black Hole or Neutron Star Captured for First Time
R. MARGUTTI/W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY
