Astronomy

Administration

  • Tereasa Brainerd Chair
  • John Clarke Associate Chair
  • Meers Oppenheim Director of Graduate Studies
  • Paul Withers Director of Graduate Admissions

Research Areas

The Department of Astronomy, through its affiliated research units (the Center for Space Physics, the Institute for Astrophysical Research, and the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling), has a robust and thriving research program. Our major research areas are extragalactic astronomy (including active galaxies, dark matter, and clusters of galaxies), galactic astronomy (including the interstellar medium, galactic magnetic fields, low-mass stars and star formation), instrumentation (including sounding rockets, satellites, polarimetry, and spectroscopy), planetary astronomy (including exoplanet imaging, planetary aurorae, and planetary atmospheres and ionospheres), and space physics (including space plasma physics, atmospheres, ionospheres, and space weather modeling).

    Overview of Department Facilities

    Students have access to instructional optical and radio telescopes in the Judson B. Coit Observatory, located on the rooftop of the College of Arts & Sciences building. Through our partnership with Lowell Observatory, BU astronomers have guaranteed time for ground-based astronomical research on the 4.3m Discovery Channel Telescope and on the 1.8m Perkins Telescope (both located near Flagstaff, AZ). BU astronomers are also frequent guests at national and international facilities in Puerto Rico, Chile, Peru, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Arizona, New Mexico, West Virginia, and Australia. BU astronomers also regularly use space-based facilities such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Cluster suite of four satellites, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Spitzer satellite, the Herschel satellite, and the Swift satellite.