Maryland Extragalactic Group

The extragalactic observational group current members employ a wide range of observational and theoretical tools (with an emphasis on optical, radio and X-ray astronomy) in an attempt to understand the origin, dynamics, and evolution of both active and normal galaxies. A particular current interest is in Seyfert galaxies and the intergalactic medium. Stacy McGaugh is an observer interested in low surface brightness galaxies and the insights they provide into galaxy formation and the mass discrepancy problem. Chris Reynolds (also theory) is interested in the central regions of black hole systems, as well as the physics of the jets that some black holes produce. Sylvain Veilleux is an observer whose work centers on understanding the nature of starburst and black-hole driven activity in galaxies. Stuart Vogel studies the dynamics and evolution of galaxies with CO observations with the BIMA array of telescopes. Andrew Wilson is performing mainly observational studies of active galactic nuclei, attempting to understand how the black hole plus accretion disk produces the phenomena that are seen.

The Chandra X-ray image of the powerful radio galaxy Cygnus A. The bright spot in the center is the nucleus of the galaxy, while the two bright spots to the upper right and the one to the lower left are X-ray emission from the radio synchrotron hot spots at the outer edges of the radio lobes. The X-rays from the hot spots result from inverse Compton scattering of the radio synchrotron radiation by the radio-emitting electrons. The overall ``football-shaped'' structure represents the effect of the radio jets on the intracluster gas in the cluster of galaxies of which Cygnus A is a member; the jets inflate a low density bubble and compress the surrounding gas, which has a temperature of tens of millions K.

Reference: A. S. Wilson, A. J. Young \& P. L. Shopbell, ``Chandra Observations of Cygnus A: Magnetic Field Strengths in the Hot Spots of a Radio Galaxy'', Astrophys. J. Letters {\bf 544}, L27 (2000)

Back to Research Groups
Department Email and Phone Directory

Andrew Wilson

Stuart Vogel

Sylvain Veilleux

Stacy McGaugh

Chris Reynolds

DongChan Kim

David Rupke

Ben Weiner

Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742-2421
Phone: (301) 405-3001 FAX: (301) 314-9067

Comments and questions may be directed to webmaster@astro.umd.edu

Page updated on: 01-Sep-2006.