Galactic Astronomy

Primary Current Research Efforts of Rice AST Faculty

See also the High Energy Astrophysics page for related research

Reginald J. Dufour

Hubble Space Telescope imagery and modeling of photoionized nebulae

Spitzer IR telescope studies of the spatial variation of molecular hydrogen

CNONeS element abundances in the ISM of galaxies and galactic chemical evolution

Patrick Hartigan

Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observations and models of shock waves in stellar jets and outflows

Laboratory laser experiments, numerical models, and astronomical observations of 3-D supersonic fluid dynamics in jets

Accretion and Wind flows Around Young Stars

Christopher M. Johns-Krull

Magnetic fields and stellar activity

Extra-solar planet and brown dwarf searches

Accretion and Wind flows Around Young Stars

Links above have complete descriptions of ongoing research programs

Examples of AST research at Rice:

A spectral image of the collimated stellar jet HH 30 taken through a wide slit with the STIS spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. The image shows that the jet is visible very close to the star (position denoted by a horizontal white line) in both emission lines of singly-ionized sulphur. These images make it possible to learn about physical conditions such as the density, ionization fraction, and temperature, and allow us to measure how the jet becomes collimated as it emerges from the accretion disk that drives the outflow from this young star		The Whirlpool galaxy as imaged by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The background image is the 3 color image taken with the Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). The orange strip across the nucleus and disk of the galaxy is a map of H2 S(2) emission. The H2 S(2) line was mapped using the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS)