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Dense, swirling winds help supermassive black holes grow

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Dense, swirling winds help supermassive black holes grow

By studying nearby galaxy ESO320-G030, a team of international astronomers led by CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow Mark Gorski has discovered extremely dense and powerful rotating, magnetic winds help the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole grow. This image, created by CIERA Professor Aaron Geller, depicts this phenomenon. The process is strikingly similar to the birth of new

M. D. Gorski/Aaron M. Geller

  • Science

Andromeda in 5 minutes

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Andromeda in 5 minutes

This is a single photo of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) taken by CIERA graduate student Imran Sultan from the darkest skies in America. Astrophotographers typically “stack” hundreds of photos together to reveal faint detail in images, but the sky here was so dark that just one five minute exposure was enough. Sultan shot the photo

Imran Sultan/Northwestern/CIERA

  • Science

M81 and M82

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M81 and M82

In our sky, close to the handle of the Big Dipper are the two galaxies M81 (Bode’s Galaxy, right) and M82 (Cigar Galaxy, left). These are two of the closest galaxies to our own Milky Way and two of the brightest galaxies in our sky that can be observed with amateur telescopes. Photographer and CIERA

Imran Sultan/Northwestern/CIERA

  • Science

‘Blob-like’ home of farthest-known fast radio burst is collection of seven galaxies

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‘Blob-like’ home of farthest-known fast radio burst is collection of seven galaxies

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the host galaxy of an exceptionally powerful fast radio burst, FRB 20220610A. In summer 2022, astronomers detected the most powerful fast radio burst (FRB) ever observed. And coming from a location that dates halfway back to the Big Bang, it also was the farthest known FRB spotted to date.

NASA, ESA, STScI, Alexa Gordon (Northwestern)

  • Science

Western Veil Nebula photographed by Imran Sultan

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Western Veil Nebula photographed by Imran Sultan

The colorful Western Veil Nebula, photographed by graduate student and CIERA member Imran Sultan, is a stunning remnant left behind from the explosion of a massive star 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Located 2,100 light-years away, the nebula resides within the constellation Cygnus (the Swan). Sultan’s photo of the Western Veil Nebula won first place in

Imran Sultan

  • Achievement,
  • Outreach,
  • Interdisciplinary

‘Teenage galaxies’ are unusually hot, glowing with unexpected elements

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‘Teenage galaxies’ are unusually hot, glowing with unexpected elements

Light from 23 distant galaxies, identified with red rectangles in the Hubble Space Telescope image at the top, were combined to capture incredibly faint emission from eight different elements, which are labelled in the JWST spectrum at the bottom. Although scientists regularly find these elements on Earth, astronomers rarely, if ever, observe many of them

Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern, CIERA + IT-RCDS

  • Science

CIERA’s 15th Annual Public Lecture – “The Day We Found the Universe: A Centenary Celebration” with Marcia Bartusiak

Event

CIERA’s 15th Annual Public Lecture – “The Day We Found the Universe: A Centenary Celebration” with Marcia Bartusiak

On October 5th, nearly 200 people gathered at Cahn Auditorium to hear Marcia Bartusiak present her talk The Day We Found the Universe: A Centenary Celebration for CIERA’s 15th Annual Public Lecture.  Bartusiak introduced the audience to the astronomers who laid the foundations for Edwin Hubble to prove that the cosmos is vast and home to countless galaxies.  Bartusiak told the very

  • Education,
  • Event,
  • Outreach

Bursts of star formation explain mysterious brightness at cosmic dawn

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Bursts of star formation explain mysterious brightness at cosmic dawn

Artist conception of early starbursting galaxies. Stars and galaxies are shown in the bright white points of light, while the more diffuse dark matter and gas are shown in purples and reds. When scientists viewed the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images of the universe’s earliest galaxies, they were shocked. The young galaxies appeared

Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern, CIERA + IT-RCDS

  • Science

Mysterious dashes revealed in Milky Way’s center

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Mysterious dashes revealed in Milky Way’s center

Two populations of filaments, perpendicular and parallel to the galactic plane, which runs horizontally. Professor Farhad Yusef-Zadeh discovered the vertical filaments in the 1980s. He discovered the horizontal filaments recently and the news was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 2, 2023. Continue to the full CIERA news story.

Farhad Yusef-Zadeh/Northwestern University/CIERA

  • Science

Aaron Geller and Alex Gurvich showcase Firefly on AAS Journal Author Series

Interview

Aaron Geller and Alex Gurvich showcase Firefly on AAS Journal Author Series

On May 27, 2023, CIERA Research Assistant Professor Aaron Geller and former NSF Graduate Fellow Alex Gurvich were featured on the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Journal Author Series to showcase Firefly, their new browser-based interactive tool for visualizing 3D particle data sets. Geller and Gurvich were interviewed by the AAS’s Frank Timmes. Read the full news story

  • Event

2nd annual Astronomy Night Out – “Sequencing the DNA of Galaxies with JWST”

Event

2nd annual Astronomy Night Out – “Sequencing the DNA of Galaxies with JWST”

On Friday, May 19, 2023, Northwestern Professor Allison Strom presented CIERA’s 2nd annual Astronomy Night Out to a crowd of 165 community members. Prof Strom’s lecture “Sequencing the DNA of Galaxies with JWST“, detailed how she and her team are using NASA’s Webb Space Telescope and its powerful infrared instruments to uncover the mysteries behind some of our

  • Education,
  • Event,
  • Outreach