Astrophysics

1. Overview
   
   
2. Astrophysics Areas of Research
   
   
3. Astrophysics Faculty
   
   • Alphabetical Listing
   • By Area of Research
     
     
4. Affiliated Labs and Centers
   
   • Haystack Radio Observatory
   • The Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research at MIT
   • Magellan Project at Las Campanas Observatory (with OCIW, and the Universities of Arizona, Harvard, and Michigan)
   • Michigan-Dartmouth-MIT Observatory
   • George R. Wallace Jr. Astrophysical Observatory

Overview

Astrophysics research at MIT focuses on two areas: astrophysical compact objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes) and cosmology, the study of the universe. The study of compact objects began in the 1960s when the cosmic ray group led by Prof. Bruno Rossi turned its attention to energetic particles in space. Using orbiting telescopes, MIT quickly became a leader in the study of X-ray emission from accretion disks around black holes and neutron stars. At the same time, MIT developed a research program in cosmology starting with the study of radio emission from quasars accreting black holes millions to billions of times as massive as the sun, and soon expanding across the electromagnetic spectrum.

More recently, MIT has become a leader in the search for the gravitational waves emitted by orbiting compact objects predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. In addition to compact objects and cosmology, MIT astrophysicists study planets around other stars, space plasmas, and a range of topics in theoretical astrophysics. Faculty research is complemented by the work of staff scientists of the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

Additional information may be found at the MIT astrophysics division web site.

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Astrophysics Areas of Research

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Astrophysics Faculty: Alphabetical Listing

• John Belcher
• Edmund Bertschinger
• Hale Bradt, Professor of Physics, Emeritus
• Adam Burgasser
• Bernard Burke, Professor of Physics, Emeritus
  
  
• Claude Canizares
• Deepto Chakrabarty
• George Clark, Professor of Physics, Emeritus
  
  
• James L. Elliot
  
  
• Enectali Figuero-Feliciano
  
  
• Alan Guth
  
  
• Jacqueline Hewitt
• Scott A. Hughes
  
  
• Paul Joss
  
  
• Erik Katsavounidis
  
  
• Walter Lewin
  
  
• Nergis Mavalvala
  
  
• Saul Rappaport
  
  
• Paul Schechter
• Robert Simcoe
  
  
• Max Tegmark
  
  
• Rainer Weiss, Professor of Physics, Emeritus
• Josh Winn

Italicized names denote emeriti faculty.

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Astrophysics Faculty: by Area of Research

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