The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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Luca Ighina

Center for Astrophysics

Post-doctoral Fellow

Luca Ighina

luca.ighina@cfa.harvard.edu

About

Luca is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the CfA, specialising in quasars that host powerful relativistic jets in the early Universe. His expertise lies in multi-wavelength observations and analysis of these extreme systems, spanning the radio, optical/near-infrared, and X-ray bands. Luca’s research focuses on tracking the redshift evolution of their properties and emissions to understand how the very massive black holes observed at high redshift formed and rapidly grew to their large sizes.

PhD Astrophysics, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria -- INAF-Brera Observatory

Telescopes and Instruments

Magellan Telescopes

The twin Magellan Telescopes in Chile are each 6.5 meter optical telescopes. These telescopes are both equipped with instruments to take images and spectra of light from a wide variety of astronomical sources, including exoplanet systems, star-forming regions, supernova remnants, and interacting galaxies. The Magellan Telescopes — named Baade and Clay — are hosted at the Las Campanas Observatory and are operated by a consortium of institutions, including the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Carnegie Institution for Science, University of Arizona, the University of Michigan, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, CfA scientists and engineers provided a wide field f/5 focal system (including secondary mirror and corrective optics), and a powerful astronomical camera for use at the Clay telescope.

Visit the Magellan Telescopes Website

Chandra

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is NASA’s flagship X-ray observatory, providing essential data on everything from the environment surrounding newborn stars to the emissions from hot plasma inside galaxy clusters. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), as part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, manages Chandra’s day-to-day operations, providing spacecraft control, observation planning, and data processing for astronomers. Chandra is one of NASA’s orbiting Great Observatories, along with the Hubble.

Visit the Chandra Website