The sky over Broida Hall. Looking south across the Santa Barbara Channel.
Use the left and right arrow keys to look around. Research targets on the sky are buttons.
Department of Physics · 34.414° N 119.849° W
Theory, observation and instrumentation, from asteroids in our own solar system to the first quasars and the cosmic microwave background.
Tonight
Next rise over the sea horizon at Broida Hall, Pacific time.
§ 01Research
Astrophysics research at UCSB is based in the Physics Department. It includes experimental work on the cosmic microwave background, observational work at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, and theoretical work in all parts of astrophysics. The group works closely with the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics on campus and with Las Cumbres Observatory, headquartered a few miles away in Goleta.
Fig. 1
01 / 06
Direct imaging and spectroscopy of young giant planets and brown dwarfs, the orbital architecture of planetary systems, and the detectors and polarimeters that make the measurements possible, including superconducting MKID cameras built on campus.
02 / 06
How stars live and die: stellar pulsations, accreting white dwarfs, thermonuclear flashes, and the supernovae, kilonovae and tidal disruption events caught by the Las Cumbres Observatory robotic network.
03 / 06
Compact binary mergers seen in gravitational waves, neutron stars from pulsars to magnetars, strong lensing, accretion disks around supermassive black holes, and the runaway black hole RBH-1.
04 / 06
Star formation and the galactic winds it drives, the circumgalactic medium, multiphase and turbulent plasmas, cosmic rays, galaxy clusters, and dusty star forming galaxies in the early universe.
05 / 06
The first quasars and galaxies, the intergalactic medium, and the epoch of reionization, using the largest sky surveys, JWST, 21 cm cosmology and machine learning emulators.
06 / 06
The cosmic microwave background, directed energy propulsion for interstellar probes, and planetary defense against asteroids and comets.
§ 02News
Recent stories about the group from UCSB News.
UCSB and UT Austin researchers describe the violent event that shot a supermassive black hole into intergalactic space. It left a trail of young blue stars.
Euclid finds 31 of the most ancient quasars known. Two shine from when the universe was 670 million years old.
Image: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
Doctoral candidate Skyler Palatnick, one of eight new fellows, is extending coronagraph technology into the ultraviolet.
Image: Courtesy photo
Graduate student Joseph Farah finds that a magnetar powers the superluminous supernova SN 2024afav, whose light flickers with a rising 'chirp'. Published in Nature.
Image: Joseph Farah and Curtis McCully (LCO)
§ 03Publications
The newest work by group members, from NASA ADS. Group members are in gold.
§ 04Events
Talks and gatherings open to the group. Times are Pacific.
Wed 14 Oct · 12:00–1:00 pm PDT · Broida 3302
Sanika Khadkikar
Penn State
Title to be announced
A weekly informal gathering of UCSB, LCO and KITP astrophysicists to hear about current research by locals and visitors.
Wed 21 Oct · 12:00–1:00 pm PDT · Broida 3302
Yilun Ma
Princeton
Title to be announced
A weekly informal gathering of UCSB, LCO and KITP astrophysicists to hear about current research by locals and visitors.
Wed 28 Oct · 12:00–1:00 pm PDT · Broida 3302
Pedro Villalba González
UBC
First Maps from the Canadian Galactic Emission Mapper - An 8-10 GHz Northern Sky Polarization Survey
A weekly informal gathering of UCSB, LCO and KITP astrophysicists to hear about current research by locals and visitors.
Wed 18 Nov · 12:00–1:00 pm PST · Broida 3302
Abby Mintz and Michael Wyatt
Princeton and UCLA
Title to be announced
A weekly informal gathering of UCSB, LCO and KITP astrophysicists to hear about current research by locals and visitors.
No upcoming talks with announced speakers. Talks are added to the group calendar as they are scheduled.
Events in the group calendar, Pacific time. Occasional events are listed separately.
An informal gathering of UCSB and KITP astrophysicists over the finest British tea in the local universe. Papers to discuss are voted on benty-fields.
A weekly informal gathering of UCSB, LCO and KITP astrophysicists to hear about current research by locals and visitors.