Institute of Astronomy
About this community
The Institute of Astronomy (IoA) came into being in 1972 by the amalgamation of three institutions which had developed on the site. These were the Cambridge University Observatory which was established in 1823, the Solar Physics Observatory (1912) and the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (1967).
The IoA is a department of the University of Cambridge and is engaged in teaching and research in the fields of theoretical and observational Astronomy. A wide class of theoretical problems are studied, ranging from models of quasars and of the evolution of the universe, through theories of the formation and evolution of galaxies and stars, X-ray sources and black holes.
Much observational work centres around the use by staff of large telescopes abroad and in space to study quasars, galaxies and the chemical constitution of stars. A programme on the velocities of stars is conducted using the 36-inch telescope in Cambridge. Instrumentation development is also an important area of activity, involving charge coupled devices and detector arrays for rapid recording of very faint light and the design and construction of novel spectrographs.
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Recent Submissions
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Discovery and Characterisation of Gravitationally Lensed Quasars in Wide-field Surveys
(2019-10-25)The coincident alignment of two galaxies on the sky can create the rare cosmic phenomenon of strong gravitational lensing, in which light from the more distant galaxy is bent around the foreground galaxy to create multiple, ... -
Exploring Galaxy Clusters and Groups with Cosmological Simulations
(2019-11-24)Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally-bound objects in the Universe, their unparalleled size providing powerful leverage to probe large-scale structure growth and cosmology. At the same time, clusters and groups ... -
X-ray Studies of the Innermost Regions of Black Hole Accretion
(2019-07-02)In this thesis, I present the results of my research on the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes. The content of this thesis can be broadly separated into two parts: Chapter 2-3 for stellar-mass black holes in X-ray ... -
The influence of stellar birth environment on protoplanetary disc dispersal
(2019-07-11)Protoplanetary discs (PPDs) are the progenitors of planets and represent the material available for their formation. Recent surveys indicate that exoplanetary architectures are diverse and the processes that govern the ...
