Research in Astronomy

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Professor Jore is using the newly re-commissioned 0.9 meter telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory to model the mass distribution in fast rotating spiral galaxies. These data will be combined with rotation measurements to determine the distribution of matter in the bulge, disk and halo of these galaxies.

 

Professor Olson is using the 0.9 meter telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory to measure the magnitude of open cluster stars in different regions of the visible spectrum. These data will be used to determine the age and distance of these clusters as well as to search for stellar members not predicted by current theory.

 

Professor Tamres conducts theoretical and computational research in astrophysics. Areas of interest include computational methods, stellar modeling, mechanisms of solar flares, and black hole interactions.

Professor Durbala's research involves photometric studies on Sloan Digital Sky Survey (www.sdss.org) images of galaxies obtained with a 2.5 m telescope. She also uses interferometric data obtained with a Fabry-Pérot instrument attached to the 2.1 m telescope at San Pedro Mártir in Baja California (www.astrossp.unam.mx/indexspm.html). Her photometric studies of spiral galaxies in different types of environments (isolated, compact groups and interacting pairs) aim at describing the properties of bulges (classical and pseudobulges), disks, bars and spiral arms.

 

Using observations taken from various Chilean observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope, Professor Pritzl’s research seeks to provide a better understanding of how major galaxies such as the Milky Way were formed.

 

Professor Zamfir uses optical spectra from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (www.sdss.org) to investigate the properties of the central engines in active galactic nuclei (AGN). His is also interested in a search for systematic differences between radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars.