The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
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Elias Aguirre Contreras

Center for Astrophysics
Mechanical Engineer
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Elias Aguirre Contreras
elias.aguirre_contreras@cfa.harvard.edu

About

Elias Aguirre Contreras is an engineer in the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Central Engineering's Mechanical group. He joined the CfA in June 2022, coming from IDEMIA, Draper, Analog Devices, and a previous internship at the CfA with the Latino Initiative Program (LIP) under Dr. Edward Tong. He has worked in different fields applying engineering design processes across different industries through creation of products and improvement of processes. Currently, Elias is creating 3-D CAD models for MUSE & SSAXI instruments. He also is serving as a STEM Mentor for Seiji Yoshihara, who is currently an Engineering Intern under Dr. Tong's Submillimeter Array group.

Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Telescopes and Instruments

Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)

The Sun’s surface is incandescently hot, but its outer atmosphere — the corona — is far hotter, for reasons astronomers don’t fully understand. NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is an orbiting observatory designed to study the mysterious transitional part of the Sun’s lower atmosphere, where the heating of the material flowing into the corona takes place. Understanding the heating process may help predict solar storms as well. Scientists and engineers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian contributed to the telescope for IRIS. In addition, CfA researchers participate in telescope operations, and provide scientific support and analysis for the observatory’s work.

Visit the IRIS Website
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High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C)

Why the Sun’s corona — the wispy outermost atmosphere — is so much hotter than its surface stands as a big mystery in solar science. NASA’s High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) is an ultraviolet telescope designed to help solve the mystery, and understand the processes by which the Sun sends violent storms of particles into the Solar System. Since most of the light from the Sun’s atmosphere is blocked by air molecules on Earth, Hi-C is carried on a short-flight rocket into Earth’s upper atmosphere. Since 2012, Hi-C has flown three times, providing the highest resolution images of the corona and revealing new details in the Sun’s atmosphere. Hi-C is jointly operated by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, with contributions from other researchers around the world.

Visit the Hi-C Website
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