Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. How can we expand the limits of human knowledge further into the unknown? The Center for Astrophysics is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard College Observatory that’s designed to ask big questions about the universe, build the tools needed to answer them, and share the resulting discoveries with the world.

The CfA today includes over 850 collaborators and support staff pursuing a staggering array of scientific inquiry, draws on over 300 combined years of tradition in institutional support for groundbreaking discoveries, and earns support from a variety of sources, including Federal appropriations, University funds, contracts and grants from …

Jan 30, 2025 · Cambridge, MA - The missing ingredient for cooking up stars has been spotted for the first time by astronomers. Much like a pressure cooker has a weight on top of its lid to keep the pressure in, merging galaxies may need magnetic fields to …

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is an organization comprised of scientists, engineers, students, and support staff, covering a staggering array of scientific inquiry and all working toward the common goal of advancing humanity’s understanding of the Universe.

The Center for Astrophysics (CfA) provides world-class opportunities for academic training and career development in astrophysics. It is home to the Harvard University Department of Astronomy, which features both graduate and undergraduate programs, as well as to the SAO pre-doctoral program, numerous undergraduate summer research programs, and superb opportunities for post-doctoral studies.

Understanding the cosmos involves both observation and theory. Observation provides real-world data about how stars, galaxies, and other objects in space behave. Theory connects that data together into a full understanding, and makes predictions about phenomena we haven’t observed yet. Theoretical astrophysics includes mathematical models for astronomical systems, along with templates to fit ...

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian has hosted a large percentage of the astrophysics community through the course of their scientific, professional and scholarly development. CfA fellowship programs have also hosted, chemists, computer scientists, engineers and physicists from other ...

2025 CfA Postdoctoral FellowshipAugust 2024. 2025 CfA Postdoctoral Fellowship. August 2024. The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) is a joint institution with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and the Harvard College Observatory (HCO).

The Milky Way is home to hundreds of billions of planets, an estimate based on the thousands of known worlds discovered just within the last few decades. With this much information, astronomers work to understand the similarities and differences between planetary systems, including our Solar System. This field encompasses research on the planets, comets, and other inhabitants of the Solar ...

Explore the following facilities for locations, directions, events, associated technology and instruments, labs and more. Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian operates three major facilities, including the organization’s research headquarters in Cambridge, MA, and observatories in Arizona and Hawaii.