The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
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Optical and Infrared Astronomy

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Optical and Infrared Astronomy (OIR) division focuses on extragalactic and galactic astronomy emphasizing studies of the large-scale structure of the Universe, clusters of stars and of galaxies, and the formation and evolution of stars and planets by using data from satellite-, balloon-, and ground-based observatories; and development of spectroscopy and imaging techniques.

Optical and Infrared Astronomy

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Optical and Infrared Astronomy (OIR) division has two major charges. One is to operate and develop telescopes and associated instruments and the other is to do forefront research on a wide variety of galactic and extragalactic topics, often but not exclusively using those very telescopes.

OIR operates the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt Hopkins in Arizona, which is comprised of the MMT, a 6.5m telescope jointly operated with the University of Arizona, and three smaller telscopes, a 1.5m, a 1.3m and a 1.2m telescope, all using instruments built in the OIR division. Several robotic telescopes are also located nearby: the HAT project, Minerva, and Mearth, all being run by other groups under the umbrella of the OIR division. The Veritas gamma ray array is located at the base of Mt Hopkins, operated by a consortium of universities worldwide.

The OIR division also has provided the Magellan 6.5m Clay telescope with an f/5 secondary mirror and a wide field imager, further enhancing the abilities of that telescope for CfA astronomers.

Astronomers in the division were key players in the development of the NASA Spitzer telescope, providing one of the essential instruments, and have contributed to the design of several subsequent satellites. OIR scientists are also major contributors to the design of the Giant Magellan Telescope to be located on Las Campanas, and to two of the instruments under construction that will be used at first light, in 2029.

Key research programs of OIR scientists include the large scale structure of the universe, evolution of galaxies in clusters, the explosive activity in galaxy nuclei, the history of star formation in galaxies, the detailed structure of our own Milky Way galaxy and the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, and the study of explosive stars, both near and far.

A New Tool For Discovery

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will begin a new era of observation in astrophysics, and represents a huge leap forward in the technology used for astronomy. Equipped with instrumentation capable of detecting the spectral signature of atmospheric oxygen in distant exoplanets, the GMT may be humanity’s next best chance of discovering signs of life on other worlds.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE

 

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SAO Telescope Data Center

The SAO Telescope Data Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, supports the above optical telescopes operated by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian with the following services:

The Time Allocation Committee (TAC) manages proposals and allocation of CfA OIR telescope time. 

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Projects

2MASS Redshift Survey

Optical and Infrared Astronomy
Galaxies are distributed in long filaments, huge “walls”, and large clusters, which astronomers call the large-scale structure of the cosmos. This structure is a tracer of dark matter, and is a way to understand how the universe has evolved. The 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) is an ambitious map of the galaxies relatively close to the Milky Way. Led by astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 2MRS used data collected from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), which is an an atlas of the entire sky in infrared light. The completed 2MRS project resulted in a three-dimensional view of the distributions of nearby galaxies, providing a way to understand the structure of the modern universe and distribution of dark matter.
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AstroAI

Atomic and Molecular Physics, High Energy Astrophysics, Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Radio and Geoastronomy, Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences, Theoretical Astrophysics, Harvard University Department of Astronomy, Science Education Department, Central Engineering, Director's Office, Chandra X-ray Center, Institute for Theoretical Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics, Institute for Theory and Computation
AstroAI is a institute dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence to enable next generation astrophysics at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Learn More
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Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)

Optical and Infrared Astronomy
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) consortium is conducting a five-year survey to map the large-scale structure of the Universe over one-third of the sky and 11 billion years of cosmic history, aiming to study the physics of dark energy.
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GMACS

Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Central Engineering
GMACS - Moderate Dispersion Optical Spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope is a powerful optical spectrograph that will unlock the power of the Giant Magellan Telescope for research ranging from the formation of stars and planets to cosmology.

For Scientists
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James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES)

Optical and Infrared Astronomy
JADES will use guaranteed time in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) cycle 1 to produce infrared imaging and spectroscopy of unprecedented depth in the two premier extragalactic deep fields, GOODS-South (CDF-S) and GOODS-North (HDF). These data will reveal the early phases of galaxy formation, probing the rest-frame optical spectroscopy and morphology of galaxies from redshifts 2-3 out to z>10. JADES expects to collect data on about 100,000 galaxies, adding to the extensive legacy of these well-studied fields.
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Sensing the Dynamic Universe

High Energy Astrophysics, Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences, Science Education Department
The Sensing the Dynamic Universe (SDU) project creates sonified videos exploring the multitude of celestial variables such as stars, supernovae, quasars, gamma ray bursts and more. We sonify lightcurves and spectra, making the astrophysics of variables and transients accessible to the general public, with particular attention to accessibility for those with visual and/or neurological differences.

SDU Website
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Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Chandra X-ray Center
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey continues its twenty-year legacy of wide-field optical/infrared imaging and spectroscopy, which has led astronomy into the era of large archives and data science. Harvard and Smithsonian are both full institutional members of the latest epoch of the survey, SDSS-V, which started observations in 2020.
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The H3 Stellar Spectroscopic Survey

Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Harvard University Department of Astronomy
The H3 Survey is answering the question: how did the Milky Way Galaxy grow and assemble over cosmic time? To answer this question, a group of scientists at the CfA and the University of Arizona are mapping the outer limits of the Galaxy with >200,000 stars observed with the 6.5m MMT telescope in Arizona.
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CASTLES Survey

Optical and Infrared Astronomy
Large galaxies and galaxy clusters sometimes act like lenses. Their gravity distorts the structure of spacetime, magnifying light from more distant objects. This effect, known as strong gravitational lensing, allows astronomers to study galaxies that would ordinarily be too far to see, map the distribution of mass in the galaxies doing the lensing, and measure the expansion rate of the universe. The CASTLeS (CfA-Arizona Space Telescope Lens Survey) is a program jointly managed by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and the University of Arizona, which used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to study multiple aspects of strong gravitational lensing as caused by galaxies. Today, CASTLeS team members maintain a catalog of these lenses, updated with new observational data.
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CfA Redshift Catalog

Optical and Infrared Astronomy
The universe is expanding, carrying galaxies with it like flotsam on a fast-flowing river. This expansion also stretches the wavelength of light, which astronomers call cosmological redshift, since it pushes visible light colors toward the red end of the spectrum. That means astronomers can determine the distance to far-away galaxies by measuring the redshift of light they produce. The CfA Redshift Catalog (ZCAT), created by researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, is a clearinghouse for historical redshift data from a number of observatories, including the 1.5-Meter Tillinghast Telescope and the MMT Observatory, both CfA-operated telescopes located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in Arizona. This data provides a map of galaxies in three dimensions, allowing astronomers to piece together how galaxies group on the largest scales in the universe. ZCAT is an essential resource for data on redshift surveys up to 2008, carrying on the legacy of the original CfA Redshift Surveys conducted in the 1970s and ‘80s.
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The Star Formation Reference Survey

Optical and Infrared Astronomy
Astronomers study star formation as a way of understanding our own origins, as well as the structure of galaxies and the evolution of the cosmos as a whole. However, the farther back in time, astronomers often rely on a single measurement type for each galaxy to measure star-formation rates. The Star Formation Reference Survey (SFRS) is designed to improve and assess the reliability of all of these measurements by cataloging nearby star formation, using NASA’s Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope and other observatories. The data produced provides a useful reference data across a wide range of wavelengths in the spectrum of light, which can be applied across surveys of star formation in close-by and distant galaxies. The SFRS observational effort is led by astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, in collaboration with other researchers around the world.
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Telescopes and Instruments

1.2 Meter (48-inch) Telescope

The 1.2-Meter (48 Inch) Telescope is a general purpose visible-light telescope located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO), a major observational facility of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian located in southern Arizona. Astronomers use this telescope to observe objects in the Solar System and the Milky Way, as well as other galaxies, including the supermassive black holes known as quasars. Astronomers also use the 1.2-Meter Telescope to observe star systems that might contain exoplanets, which is a major program for the observatory.

Visit the 1.2-Meter (48 Inch) Telescope Website
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1.3 Meter Telescope

The Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) was an ambitious project to map the entire sky in infrared light, providing a cosmic census of galaxies, star clusters, small Solar System bodies, and many more. 2MASS used two telescopes: the 1.3 Meter Telescope operated by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona; and an identical instrument operated by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The survey was concluded in the late 1990s, making the telescope available to CfA astronomers and collaborators for new projects. The telescope was converted to automatic control, and renamed Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope (PAIRITEL), for a program monitoring transient events such as supernovas and gamma-ray bursts. The PAIRITEL project ran from 2003 to 2012. Plans are underway in 2019 to reconfigure the telescope for visible-light measurements to hunt for exoplanets.

Visit the 1.3 Meter Telescope Website
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1.5-meter Tillinghast (60-inch) Telescope

The 1.5-Meter (60 Inch) Tillinghast Telescope is a general purpose visible-light telescope located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona, operated by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Astronomers use this telescope to measure the spectrum of light emitted by a wide variety of objects in the Solar System, the Milky Way, and in distant galaxies.

CfA Operated (OIR) | Open to CfA Scientists | Active

Visit the 1.5 Meter (60 Inch) Tillinghast Telescope Website
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Giant Magellan Telescope

Is Earth unique, or are there other planets with life in the Milky Way? To answer this question and many others, astronomers need larger and more sensitive observatories than anything we currently have. For that reason, the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is collaborating with a number of other institutions around the world to create the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), currently under construction in Chile. The GMT will consist of seven large mirrors acting in concert as one giant telescope 80 feet across. That large size provides an unprecedented view of the sky and the ability to detect the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres. Like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the GMT will be a powerful tool across the field of astronomy, providing insights into the formation of planets, the structure of galaxies, and the evolution of the universe itself.

Visit the GMT Website
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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
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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
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MMT Observatory

The MMT Observatory is the premier visible-light and infrared telescope jointly managed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and the University of Arizona. Located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona, this 6.5-meter (21 foot) telescope is used to study objects across the field of astronomy, from the Solar System to distant galaxies. The MMT has provided a testbed for new telescope technologies developed by scientists and engineers at the CfA and the University of Arizona.

Visit the MMT Website
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Pan-STARRS-1 Science Consortium

Many objects in the sky don’t change or move visibly on human time scales. However, many others do, especially objects in the Solar System. The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) program is designed to monitor the sky for transient astronomical phenomena: everything from near-Earth asteroids to supernovas in far-off galaxies. The first phase of the program, Pan-STARRS1, used a 1.8-meter telescope on the summit of Haleakalā on the island of Maui in Hawaii. The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is part of the international Pan-STARRS1 Science consortium, along with the University of Hawaii and other institutions around the world. Pan-STARRS1 data revealed many asteroids, comets, and other previously-unknown moving or variable astronomical objects.

Visit the Pan-STARRS1 Science Consortium Website
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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
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Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars. Extrapolating from that knowledge, the Milky Way alone is probably home to hundreds of billions of planets, many of which are likely rocky, Earth-like worlds. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space observatory designed to look for exoplanets in orbit around 200,000 nearby bright stars, with a particular interest in identifying small planets. Astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian are part of the scientific team to analyze TESS data, as well as performing follow-up observations. The relative closeness of worlds in the TESS survey will allow astronomers to even study some of their atmospheres, using the future Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and other observatories. TESS observational program is complementary to NASA’s long-running Kepler/K2 mission, and could identify as many as 20,000 new exoplanet orbiting a wide variety of star types.

Visit the TESS Website
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