The Eagle Nebula

Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska, NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOAO/AURA/NSF) and B.A. Wolpa (NOAO/AURA/NSF)

JILA astrophysicists want to understand our origins and place in the scheme of things. That's why they investigate topics ranging from the dynamics of our Sun to the fundamental properties that give rise to the universe itself. Their quest is aided by vast amounts of new data gathered by ground- and space-based instruments such as the Apache Point 3.5 m telescope, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, the Far UV Spectroscopic Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the X-ray Multimirror Mission X-ray (XXM-Newton) Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. JILA scientists will also be part of the science team for the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph for the HST (if NASA allows the project to proceed) and the multi-satellite Constellation X-ray Observatory.

Researchers use astronomical data to test and refine theoretical simulations of processes that occur in our solar system and throughout the universe. JILA Fellows study solar weather, stellar structure & evolution, the interstellar medium, black holes & galaxies, planet formation, clouds of intergalactic hydrogen (called Lyman-α forests), gravitational waves, quasars, and cosmology. Cosmologists believe that identifying patterns in the microwave background could help them decipher the exact curvature of space and the nature of dark matter and energy. As part of their mission to understand the universe, JILA's astrophysicists are looking for answers to such questions as:

• What is the universe made of?
• How can we use astronomical observations to compare different cosmologies?
• What constitutes dark matter and energy?
• What is the interplay of the dark and luminous universe?
• Why is the expansion of the universe accelerating?
• What is inside a black hole?
• How do black holes affect the space around them?
• What is the relationship between black holes and the creation of galaxies?
• How do stars and galaxies form and evolve?
• What exists between stars and galaxies?
• What is the origin and evolution of the chemical elements?
• What is the internal structure of the Sun and other stars?
• How do planets form and migrate around stars?

Whether scientists investigate our solar system or look far out into time and space, there always seem to be new questions to ask about the universe. To answer them, JILA's astrophysicists collaborate with members of the University of Colorado's Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS), Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA), and Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP); with atomic physicists and precision measurement specialists at JILA; and with astronomers throughout the country and around the world.