The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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Dong-Woo Kim

Center for Astrophysics

Astrophysicist

Projects

ChaMP (Chandra Multiwavelength Project) and ChaMPlane (Chandra Multiwavelength Plane) Survey

High Energy Astrophysics

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is a groundbreaking space telescope, with abilities beyond anything that came before it. The Chandra Multiwavelength Project (ChaMP) and Chandra Multiwavelength Plane (ChaMPlane) Survey exploit those abilities to catalog the variety of X-ray sources within archival Chandra data, with follow-up using other telescopes in other parts of the spectrum of light. The surveys identified previously unknown galaxy clusters, quasars, neutron star binary systems, and other significant astronomical sources both in the plane of the Milky Way — ChamPLane — and beyond the galaxy — ChaMP. ChaMP and ChaMPlane are led by astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, in collaboration with researchers at a number of other institutions in the United States and around the world.

Telescopes and Instruments

Einstein Observatory

NASA’s Einstein Observatory was the first X-ray space telescope designed to produce images of astronomical X-ray sources. The spacecraft operated from 1978 through 1981, providing important observations of pulsars, supernova remnants, supermassive black holes in other galaxies, and many more, paving the way for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The X-ray telescope was designed by researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

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

Lynx X-Ray Observatory

The Lynx X-ray Observatory is a proposed X-ray space telescope, designed to be the next generation following NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s upcoming Athena Telescope. This observatory will be able to take images of a larger area of the sky in X-ray light with better resolution than any existing telescope, allowing astronomers to study the first supermassive black holes, the hot gas surrounding galaxies as they evolve, and radiation from the earliest stars. Researchers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and other universities are presenting Lynx to NASA for consideration in the 2020 Decadal Survey, with a proposed launch date in the mid-2030s.

Visit the Lynx X-Ray Observatory Website