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Astrophysics at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism concentrates on
understanding extrasolar planets - pioneering detection studies,
observations of their birthplaces, modelling of their formation, and
physical understandings of their atmospheres.
Yet, the astrophysics staff and fellows have a diverse range of interests beyond planets including galaxy formation and dynamics and star formation.
Our Carnegie Fellows are an integral part of the DTM astronomy group and do independent research on the origin and evolution of the universe, galaxies, stars, planets, and life. Our fellows have access to a wide range of facilites. Carnegie operates the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, including the twin 6.5-m Magellan
telescopes. Theoretical calculations are performed on the Carnegie Clusters of Alpha and Xeon processors.
For detailed information on current research projects, please see the
DTM annual
report of astronomical research.
In the staff list, below, links will take you to entries in the DTM
Faculty Biographies. In the "Research Areas" section, below, links will
take you to individual staff members' web pages.
Research Areas
Extrasolar Planet Detection
(R. Paul Butler,
Alan Boss and
Alycia Weinberger)
Butler, with the California & Carnegie Extrasolar Planet Search group, is
surveying the nearest 1,700 Sun-like stars (F8 - M5) using the radial velocity/
iodine cell technique they pioneered. These surveys have produced nearly all
the known multiple planet systems, the first (and only nearby) transit planet,
nearly all the sub-Saturn-mass planets, and the first Neptune-mass planet. Long
term goals include detection of Solar System analogs and characterization of
planet distributions down to saturn-masses.
Boss and Weinberger and colleagues are undertaking a new astrometric
planet search program with the 2.5-m du Pont telescope at Carnegie's Las
Campanas Observatory. This long-term search targets planets and brown
dwarfs on long-period orbits (10 years or more) around nearby low mass
stars (principally M,L,T dwarfs).
Proto-planetary Disks
(Alycia Weinberger)
Weinberger studies young circumstellar disks to establish the conditions
for planet formation and evolution. Models of planet formation generate
copious dust during an epoch where large bodies perturb each other and
collide. She studies the temporal and compositional evolution of such
dust with an emphasis on high spatial resolution imaging and
spectroscopy to look for disk structure and processing.
Planetary System Formation
(Alan Boss and
John Chambers)
Chambers studies the formation and dynamical stability of planetary
systems. He devises innovative numerical simulations to study the
orbital and collisional evolution of the planets and their
precursors. These models are run on Carnegie's new Xenia computer
cluster. He assesses the influence of giant planets on terrestrial
planet formation and volatile content and to determine the frequency of
Earth-like worlds.
Boss develops theoretical models of gas and ice giant planet formation,
with an emphasis on his pioneering disk instability mechanism. Disk
instability can form a protoplanet in only a thousand years, and may be
able to explain many of the known properties of extrasolar planets as well
as the outer planets in our Solar System. He also uses three-dimensional
hydrodynamical models to study mixing and transport processes in
protoplanetary disks with implications for the primitive meteorites.
Star Formation
(Alan Boss)
Boss models the collapse and fragmentation of dense, magnetic, molecular
cloud cores to understand how clouds collapse to form single, binary, and
multiple protostar systems. He uses three-dimensional hydrodynamics with
radiative transfer and self-gravity to predict the outcome of the collapse
of magnetic molecular clouds that start with different geometries and other
other physical properties.
Galaxy Kinematics
(Vera Rubin)
Rubin explores galaxy formation and evolution by studying dark matter
properties of galaxies. Her recent work is on low surface brightness
galaxies that test unexplored regions of galaxy properties. She is also
working on the internal velocity fields of irregular and polar ring
galaxies.
Related Fields at DTM
Cosmochemistry
Planetary Physics
Astronomy Web Links
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