Astrophysics & Cosmology Research
Astronomers study objects beyond Earth's atmosphere, ranging from the Moon and the planets out to the farthest galaxies known to humankind. One goal of studying astronomy is to understand the fate of the universe at a large scale, which can be accomplished by observing the distributions of sizes, shapes and distances of galaxies using both ground-based and space-based telescopes. Another goal of astronomy is to understand the objects close by, such as asteroids and planets, and learn about the history of our solar system.
These topics and others are what astronomy students study. They learn the physical principles behind the workings and evolution of the universe and its structures, including stars, black holes, galaxies, and cosmological large-scale structure.
Our graduate students combine observational and theoretical studies with the option of a thesis or dissertation project in observational or theoretical astrophysics. Observational work can be completed with 51ĀŅĀ×ās share of the MDM observatory and/or other national and international observatories.
Research Faculty
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Douglas CloweExpert on Astrophysics, Cosmology, Gravitational Lensing, Clusters of GalaxiesDouglas Clowe works in the field of observational cosmology, using weak gravitational lensing to study clusters of galaxies and their surrounding medium. The primary goals of his research are to measure the fundamental parameters of the universe, to determine the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and to measure the structural evolution of massive objects in the universe. Clowe's work using the "Bullet Cluster," a merger of two clusters of galaxies, provided the first direct evidence that dark matter must exist independently of any assumptions about how gravity works on cosmic scales.
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Hee-Jong SeoExpert on Cosmology and Galaxy SurveysHee-Jong Seo's research interests are in high precision cosmology with large scale structure. She studies the distributions of galaxies and matter on very large scales to infer how our Universe has expanded, what our Universe is composed of, and therefore to collect observational clues to identify dark energy and dark matter, which together makes up 95% of Universe while still being quite mysterious. The main topics of her work involve the detection of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) from the large scale structure of galaxies and matter.