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The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is a collaboration between the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian combines the resources and research facilities of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a single director to pursue studies of those

basic physical processes that determine the nature and evolution of the universe. Content is expected to be relevant to the subject matter in general and individual posts in particular. Be aware that Facebook is a third-party website with its own terms of use and privacy policy. The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian does not control Facebook's collection, use, or dissemination of information. To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, do not include any personally identifiable information that you do not wish to be made available to the general public. In addition, the Smithsonian may archive materials posted on this website pursuant to its document retention policies. By posting content, you are giving the Smithsonian and those authorized by the Smithsonian permission to use or modify it for any educational, promotional, or other standard museum purpose, in media of any kinds whether now known or later developed. Any data that users post on this site or that the Smithsonian collects from this site is subject to our terms of use and privacy policies which can be found at http://www.si.edu/termsofuse/ and http://www.si.edu/privacy/. We monitor comments and posts on this page consistent with the Smithsonian terms of use, as described at http://si.edu/termsofuse, and we reserve the right to remove content in accordance with these terms.

✨ In cool, calm corners of our galaxy's central chaos, stars may be coming to life. Astronomers have discovered a calm ...
06/17/2026

✨ In cool, calm corners of our galaxy's central chaos, stars may be coming to life.

Astronomers have discovered a calm "island" of gas in the harsh center of the Milky Way that may be a birthplace of future stars.

The discovery shows that even in extreme environments, gas can become calm and cool enough for gravity to take over, creating pockets resembling the star-forming clouds in the Milky Way’s outer disk.

Rojita Buddhacharya, student at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and , presented the results at a press conference Tuesday during the 248th American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena, CA.

Buddhacharya used the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile as part of the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey (ACES), which maps gas in our Milky Way’s Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). The CMZ is a thick ring of dense gas in the inner region of our Galaxy.

“Our results show that even in the extreme environment of the Galactic Center, gas can reach a state similar to what we see in nearby star-forming clouds,” said Buddhacharya. “This suggests that calm gas structures are a fundamental part of star formation, even in the most turbulent regions of our Galaxy. The gas that formed the Sun likely experienced a similar calm phase before collapsing into stars.”

Check out the full calm-to-chaos story at our link in bio.

06/12/2026

✨ STARSTRUCK. It's landed.

Our own 3D interactive, virtual reality experience launches visitors into the universe aboard the world's most powerful space telescopes. Developed with data from our own Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience is your chance to see real astronomical data up-close and personal, in a breathtaking journey through space.

⭐ Highlights include:

💫 Begin Your Cosmic Journey: Meet your guide, Astro, on the summit of Mount Hopkins in Arizona, home to our own Whipple Observatory.

🌌 Dive Deep: Step into legendary images like the Hubble Deep Field, now reimagined in immersive 3D. Glide through the cosmos, drifting past thousands of galaxies, and experience the staggering scale and beauty of our universe.

☀️ Bask in the Sun: Take a quick detour to the Sun to witness solar flares 30 times larger than Earth, captured directly from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, the satellite that made the closest-ever pass to the Sun..

🛰️ Stand on the Shoulders of Giants: Witness the cosmos through the eyes of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Step onto the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, then look ahead to the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert to search for habitable planets beyond our solar system.

⚫ Behold Black Holes: This one's our favorite! Stand at the edge of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, and witness a star plunge toward its grasp, ejecting a thunderous burst of debris that scatters into the galaxy.

Learn more and get tickets at https://smithsonianstarstruck.com!

✨ The universe leans in a little closer in the desert.These sweeping photos reveal our own Milky Way from some of the da...
06/03/2026

✨ The universe leans in a little closer in the desert.

These sweeping photos reveal our own Milky Way from some of the darkest skies on Earth.

The first and second images show our galactic core, with the bright region marking the center of our galaxy, nearly 26,000 light years away.

The third image shows the core underneath a full moon so bright it appears to be daytime.

The final image shows the twin 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes seen at dusk.

The images were taken by, and feature, our postdoctoral fellow Kaley Brauer while visiting the Las Campanas Observatory, , in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Each uses a 30-second exposure to capture the night sky.

✨ The proton sharks showed up on a Friday.A group of Parker Solar Probe scientists were scrolling their data visualizing...
05/27/2026

✨ The proton sharks showed up on a Friday.

A group of Parker Solar Probe scientists were scrolling their data visualizing solar winds. Suddenly, a weird shape flashed on the screen.

“This looks like a hammerhead shark,” said heliophysicist Jaye Verniero of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center..

Instead of a usual rounded blob of solar‑wind protons, this distribution had a long, flattened, head-like structure jutting out to one side. Thus, hammerheads: and the nickname stuck.

Now, CfA astronomer Srijan Bharati Das and his colleagues have figured out that these are incredibly hot, rapidly moving proton clumps that signify the edges of the sun's heliospheric current sheet: a vast surface where the Sun’s magnetic field flips.

The hammerheads can help scientists locate the current sheet, which is invisible to our eyes, and further help us understand why the sun’s outer layers remain so much hotter than science says they should be.

Read more on our CfA News page!
https://s.si.edu/4uw6etz

✨ Like a blister in the sun. In the most detailed observation of its kind, a CfA-led solar research team watched a huge ...
05/21/2026

✨ Like a blister in the sun.

In the most detailed observation of its kind, a CfA-led solar research team watched a huge rising solar flare suddenly stall, stop, and fall back home.

The failed solar prominence was prevented from erupting fully by an unusual magnetic field pressing in on it, in addition to the one hurling it into space.

Not only is it very cool to visualize, but lead author Tingyu Gou and colleague Katharine Reeves, both astronomers at the CfA's Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), say the findings help us understand why we've observed that other stars seem to have fewer solar flares than our Sun.

Read more at our CfA News website! https://s.si.edu/4tULMBv

✨Cutting through the fog into deep deep space.Astronomers have measured for the first time the millions of tiny, turbule...
05/13/2026

✨Cutting through the fog into deep deep space.

Astronomers have measured for the first time the millions of tiny, turbulent ripples that distort space between our telescopes and the objects we most want to see. In this study, they looked at the quasar TXS 2005+403, about 10 billion light-years away.

On the left, this artist’s conception shows the quasar as it truly appears, with a bright accretion disk and jets blasting. On the right, we see a clouds of ionized gas and electrons producing a turbulent haze, disrupting scientists’ view of the quasar in much the same way heat haze from a fire warps our view of the objects behind it.

The better we are at measuring this turbulence and accounting for it, says lead scientist Sasha Pravin, the better able we’ll be to measure other complex things with accuracy…like black holes.

The study used the ’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA).

Read more at our link in bio.

Credit: Melissa Weiss/CfA

✨With AI poised to revolutionize how we do science, some of our brightest scientists and engineers at the Smithsonian ca...
05/13/2026

✨With AI poised to revolutionize how we do science, some of our brightest scientists and engineers at the Smithsonian came together to discuss how we can make it work for us - if we do it with integrity.

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory scientist Cecilia Garraffo, director of the AstroAI Institute at CfA, spoke at a special AI expo in DC this week. Smithsonian Under Secretary of Science and Research Ellen Stofan (far right) moderated a panel with (from left to right) Becky Kobberod, Smithsonian Chief Digital and Innovation Officer; Carlos Jaramillo, Smithsonian Tropical Research Center Staff Scientist; Garraffo; and Rebecca Johnson, National Museum of Natural History C.W. Whitney Chief Scientist.

✨ Members of the Chandra X-ray Observatory recently participated in the 2026 Space Fest at the JFK Library Foundation Do...
05/06/2026

✨ Members of the Chandra X-ray Observatory recently participated in the 2026 Space Fest at the JFK Library Foundation Dorchester, MA.

The Chandra team guided children and adults through black hole demos and binary code, running immersive VR and sonification experiences, and discussing Chandra 3D models and micro/macro scales.

Shout out to Chandra's Nance Wolk and Rutu Das, who organized the event with Wendy Fernandez!

✨ That's a wrap on our April Public Observatory Night! So much fun to explore the explosive power of supernovae and how ...
05/01/2026

✨ That's a wrap on our April Public Observatory Night!

So much fun to explore the explosive power of supernovae and how the CfA is at the forefront of studying these phenomena.

Post-doctoral fellows Anya Nugent and Danielle Frostig spoke on “Things That Go Boom in the Night” to more than 100 people in Phillips Auditorium.

We learned about core-collapse supernovae, the massive, terminal explosions that mark the end of the lives of stars; kilonovae, the powerful, rare astronomical explosions caused when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole merge; and how the Rubin Observatory and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will lead to many more of these discoveries! 🔭

Outreach Manager Philippe Reekie then led tours of our historic Great Refractor Telescope. Telling people about the spectacular science done by our astronomers and the rich cultural history of the CfA...it never gets old. 🏛️ 💥


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