The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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Nancy Remage Evans

Center for Astrophysics

Associate

Nancy Remage Evans

nevans@cfa.harvard.edu

About

My major area of expertise has been in the exploration of the classical
Cepheid population of our galaxy, particularly their fundamental properties
(masses) and binary properties as related to star formation. This involved
observations with the IUE, HST, Chandra, FUSE, WIRE, MOST, Kepler, and
XMM satellites. I was a major contributor to the construction of the Galactic Cepheid Database. Most recently I was a staff scientist at the Chandra X-ray Center where I worked in user support and ran the Einstein (Chandra) Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program . Over my career I have taught at Erindale College of the University of Toronto, been a resident Astronomer at the IUE satellite and was associate director of the Space Astrophysics Laboratory at the Institute for Space and Terrestrial Sciences, York University .

PhD

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

Kepler/K2

Since the early 1990s, astronomers have identified thousands of planets orbiting other stars. Most of those identifications have come thanks to one observatory: NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Until it lost its ability to point, Kepler observed a region of the sky containing about 150,000 stars with potential planets, monitoring them for the slight decrease in light caused by planets crossing in front of the star. After the spacecraft’s pointing control failed, the mission was renamed K2, and it continued to hunt for exoplanets as it tumbled slowly, with its field of view drifting slowly across the sky. The mission finally ended in 2018, though the data it produced continues to provide astronomers with valuable information about planets in our galactic neighborhood. Astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian were responsible for the preparation of the catalog for potentially interesting stars, and have participated extensively in follow-up observations of Kepler planetary discoveries.

Visit the Kepler/K2 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

Spitzer Space Telescope

Infrared light is the key to studying a wide range of astronomical systems, including newborn stars and planets, dust in distant galaxies, and material swirling around black holes. The Spitzer Space Telescope was NASA’s orbiting infrared observatory, and part of NASA’s Great Observatories program, along with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists and engineers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian led the design, testing, and construction of the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched in 2003 and retired in 2020.

Visit the Spitzer Space Telescope IRAC Page