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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On the evolution of gaseous haloes in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation
The study of gaseous haloes holds the key to understanding gas flows in and out of galaxies, which in turn determines how galaxies form and evolve. However, recent observations have revealed them to be very complex, with ... -
Observational Insights into White Dwarf Planetary Systems
In recent decades the number of known planets has escalated from the eight solar system planets to over 5000 exoplanets; the focus has now shifted to their characterisation. Spectroscopic studies of white dwarfs ‘polluted’ ... -
Hierarchical Bayesian Spectro-temporal Models of Type Ia Supernovae in the Optical and Near-Infrared: Understanding the Properties of Dust in Supernova Host Galaxies
With the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope both on the horizon, Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology is about to undergo a paradigm shift. Whilst this new ... -
Cosmology from the CMB and Lyman-α forest
In this thesis, we study challenges arising in cosmological data analysis using data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), remnant radiation from the Big Bang, and the Lyman-α forest, absorption features in spectra ...
