The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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Christopher S. Moore

Center for Astrophysics

Postdoc Astrophysicist

Christopher S. Moore

christopher.s.moore@cfa.harvard.edu

About

I am an Astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics in the Solar and Stellar X-ray Group (SSXG) within the High Energy Astrophysics (HEA) division. My current research focuses on the solar corona. Specifically, working on techniques to improve constraints on the plasma temperature distribution, elemental abundances, and deriving connections between magnetic and radiative fluxes. I utilize X-ray and EUV observations, compares them to models and works to develop new instrumentation for better measurements. I am involved with many missions and projects including the Hinode X-ray Telescope, MinXSS CubeSat, new SmallSat projects and the Hi-C Flare sounding rocket. I am also a mentor for the NSF funded SAO Solar REU and Latino Initiative programs. Our group is always looking for new motivated graduate students and postdocs to partake in technology development, instrumentation, data analysis, and numerical modeling projects.

PhD, Astrophysics and Planetary Science, University of Colorado-Boulder MS, Astrophysics and Planetary Science, University of Colorado-Boulder BS, Physics, University of Iowa BS, Astronomy, University of Iowa

Telescopes and Instruments

Hinode

The Sun is the closest star to Earth, and the single most important influence on the worlds of the Solar System in terms of the light and particles it emits. Studying the Sun, in other words, helps us understand the habitability of Earth, but also other stars elsewhere in the universe. One important solar observatory is the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hinode spacecraft, which carries three powerful instruments to study the Sun in X-rays, visible light, and ultraviolet light. Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian engineers collaborated in the development of the X-ray Telescope for the spacecraft. Hinode has been observing the Sun continuously since its launch in 2006, providing important day-by-day information about our host star’s activity.

Visit the Hinode/XRT Website

Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

The Sun is both life-giving and dangerous. Variations in the Sun’s light and wind have profound effects on Earth, while solar storms can wreak havoc on power and communications systems. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a spacecraft dedicated to studying these potentially dangerous variations, and the magnetic fields that drive them. Engineers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian contributed to the design and construction of the four Atmospheric Imaging Array (AIA) telescopes. AIA is one of the three major experiments carried by SDO.

Visit the SDO Website

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