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Observatories

Chandra x-ray telescope NRAO VLA
Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Professors Kaaret, Lang, and McEntaffer use Chandra in combination with other telescopes to observe the Galactic Center, black holes, and supernova remnants. Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope located just outside Iowa City. This is one of the ten VLBA radio antennas spread across the United States. Our radio astronomers use this and other radio telescopes. The VLBA is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. This telescope consisting of 27 radio antennas in New Mexico is used by our radio astronomers. The VLA is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. (Photograph courtesy of Philip Greenspun.)
Professor Lang bllac Galactic center

Owens Valley Millimeter Array near Bishop, California. Professor Lang is shown in a control room with a view of the six-telescope array and the White Mountains. The Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) is operated by the California Institute of Technology.

Image of the active galaxy BL Lac taken by Professor Mutel with the VLBA. A core at the top is near the location of a black hole, and the long feature below it is thought to be a bent relativistic jet originating from the accretion disk of the black hole. The fractional polarization of the magnetic field, shown in color, was measured to verify this explanation. Image of the central 60 pc (~100 ly) of the Galaxy, taken by Professor Lang with the VLA. The linear features are interpreted as evidence for a poloidal magnetic field configuration in the central galaxy. Professor Chandran's theoretical topics include the origin and confinement of these magnetic fields.
Sickle Galactic center
Image of radio emission from gas in the Sickle HII region of the Galactic center, showing linear magnetic filaments, taken by Professor Lang with the VLA. X-ray image of the central 900 X 300 light years of the Galaxy, taken by Professor Lang with the Chandra X-ray telescope. This image was featured on the cover of Science News.
Black holes in the Medusa  
Images from Hubble Space Telescope (left) and Chandra X-ray Observatory (right) of the Medusa, a pair of interacting galaxies. Both images are to the same scale and were made under Prof. Kaaret's research program. The Chandra image reveals a black hole at the core of the Medusa and another black hole in the "hair of the Medusa" - the tidal tail created when the two galaxies collided - seen in the upper half of the image.  


Last updated December 18, 2008.
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