The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is one of the largest and most diverse astrophysical institutions in the world, where scientists carry out a broad program of research in astronomy, astrophysics, earth and space sciences, and science education. The center's mission is to advance knowledge and understanding of the universe through research and education in astronomy and astrophysics. The center was founded in 1973 as a joint venture between the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University. It consists of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The center's main facility is located between Concord Avenue and Garden Street, with its mailing address and main entrance at 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beyond this location there are also additional satellite facilities elsewhere around the globe. The current director of the CfA, Charles R. Alcock, was named in 2004. The director from 1982 to 2004 was Irwin I. Shapiro.
New method of finding planets scores its first discovery
(Phys.org) —Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking ...
May 13, 2013
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Supernovae and the origin of cosmic rays
(Phys.org) —In the spring of the year 1006, one thousand and seven years ago this April, observers in China, Egypt, Iraq, Japan, Switzerland (and perhaps North America) reported seeing what might be the ...
Apr 22, 2013
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The distant cosmos as seen in the infrared
(Phys.org) —At some stage after its birth in the big bang, the universe began to make galaxies. No one knows exactly when, or how, this occurred. For that matter, astronomers do not know how the lineages ...
Apr 12, 2013
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Galaxy collisions
Collisions between galaxies are common. Indeed, most galaxies have probably been involved in one or more encounters during their lifetimes. One example is our own Milky Way, which is bound by gravity to the ...
Apr 09, 2013
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Galaxies the way they were
(Phys.org) —Galaxies today come very roughly in two types: reddish, elliptically shaped collections of older stars, and bluer, spiral shaped objects dominated by young stars. The conventional wisdom is ...
Apr 03, 2013
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A new telescope probes a young protostar
(Phys.org) —IRAS 16293-2922B is a very young star – a protostar - perhaps only about ten thousand years old. Slightly smaller in mass than our Sun, it is still deeply embedded in its surrounding natal ...
Apr 03, 2013
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New insights on how spiral galaxies get their arms
(Phys.org) —Spiral galaxies are some of the most beautiful and photogenic residents of the universe. Our own Milky Way is a spiral. Our solar system and Earth reside somewhere near one of its filamentous ...
Apr 02, 2013
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Pan-STARRS finds a 'lost' supernova
(Phys.org) —The star Eta Carinae is ready to blow. 170 years ago, this 100-solar-mass object belched out several suns' worth of gas in an eruption that made it the second-brightest star after Sirius. That ...
Mar 07, 2013
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Supermassive black hole spins super-fast
Imagine a sphere more than 2 million miles across - eight times the distance from Earth to the Moon - spinning so fast that its surface is traveling at nearly the speed of light. Such an object exists: the ...
Feb 27, 2013
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Future evidence for extraterrestrial life might come from dying stars
(Phys.org)—Even dying stars could host planets with life—and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. This encouraging result comes from a new theoretical study of Earth-like ...
Feb 25, 2013
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13 light years away: Earth-like planets are right next door
Using publicly available data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized ...
Feb 06, 2013
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Solving a mystery of the Sun's corona
(Phys.org)—The corona of the sun is the hot (over a million kelvin), gaseous outer region of its atmosphere. The corona is threaded by intense magnetic fields that extend upwards from the surface in braids ...
Feb 04, 2013
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Giant, magnetized outflows from our galactic center
(Phys.org)—Two years ago, CfA astronomers reported the discovery of giant, twin lobes of gamma-ray emission protruding about 50,000 light-years above and below the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, and centered ...
Jan 28, 2013
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Space instrument adds big piece to the solar corona puzzle
(Phys.org)—The Sun's visible surface, or photosphere, is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As you move outward from it, you pass through a tenuous layer of hot, ionized gas or plasma called the corona. The corona ...
Jan 23, 2013
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First 'bone' of the Milky Way identified
(Phys.org)—Our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy—a pinwheel-shaped collection of stars, gas and dust. It has a central bar and two major spiral arms that wrap around its disk. Since we view the Milky Way from ...
Jan 08, 2013
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