…and now we’re working to make a movie of one.
Our Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) is a new mission that will discover and measure a black hole’s photon ring, capturing light that has orbited a black hole. BHEX will extend the Event Horizon Telescope into space, producing the sharpest images in the history of astronomy.
We defend our home planet...
Our Minor Planet Center is the official worldwide organization in charge of collecting observational data for minor planets (such as asteroids), calculating their orbits and publishing this information for the benefit of the world.
We are now expanding the role of this world-leading center to form the Planetary Defense Nexus, a global watchtower for potentially hazardous near-Earth Objects that may threaten life on our home planet.
We’re mapping our home galaxy…
Our Via Project is using the Milky Way galaxy as a laboratory to answer fundamental questions about the nature of the universe. Via will conduct an all-sky survey of stars using the 6.5-meter MMT (Arizona) and Magellan (Chile) telescopes. The survey will utilize the ViaSpec instruments, which will be built and deployed on each of the telescopes.
We’re building world-leading instrumentation & missions…
The CfA’s Central Engineering builds state-of-the-art ground- and space-based scientific instrumentation and missions. With world-class engineers and state-of-the-art facilities, the CfA is a full service engineering organization that has helped build the most important discovery engines in the history of astronomy, including instruments for the world’s largest observatories to the James Webb Space Telescope to the Parker Solar Probe and far beyond.
… and we’re using frontier technologies for the biggest cosmic questions.
A center dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence to enable next generation astrophysics at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. AstroAI strives to bring experts in artificial intelligence together with scientists to tackle the most exciting and challenging problems in astrophysics.
