The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

Support Our Science

Rafael Martínez-Galarza

Center for Astrophysics

Staff Astrophysicist

Rafael Martínez-Galarza

juan.martinez.galarza@cfa.harvard.edu

About

Rafael Martínez-Galarza is an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, where he serves as the deputy end-to-end scientist for the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) Data Systems. His research focuses on multi-wavelength studies of star-forming galaxies, as well as on the use of machine learning techniques for the exploration of large astronomical datasets, specifically with the aim of finding astrophysical transients such as X-ray binaries or tidal disruption events. Before joining the CXC, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics and a teaching fellow at Harvard University’s Institute for Applied Computational Science, where he taught stochastic optimization and machine learning. He has worked as a calibration scientist for the Mid-Infrared Instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope and is currently a member of the LSST science collaboration in transients and variable stars. He holds a PhD in astronomy from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

PhD in Astronomy (Leiden, 2012)

Projects

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

WorldWide Telescope (WWT)

Radio and Geoastronomy

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a free, open-source tool for exploring our knowledge of the universe. It provides planetarium-like views of the sky, as well as dynamic images of planets and other astronomical objects. The project enables users to incorporate images and video into scripts for custom “tours”, for use in classrooms, planetariums, museums, and other multimedia displays. WWT is a project of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), with scientific consultants from universities around the world, including the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. The WWT Ambassadors are scientists and science educators at CfA who use the WWT in public science outreach and education. WWT is both available as a web browser application and a desktop program for Windows computers.

The Cygnus-X Spitzer Legacy Survey

The Cygnus-X region of the Milky Way is a veritable factory for making new stars, including a large number of giant hot stars. The Cygnus-X Spitzer Legacy Survey is dedicated to studying how these giant stars formed, and how they affect the growth of smaller stars in their vicinity. Led by researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, this survey used NASA’s Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope to identify and track the course of star formation in Cygnus-X in multiple wavelengths of infrared light. Though the observational portion of the survey is over, researchers at CfA and many other institutions continue to generate new astronomical insights from its data.

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

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