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 CfA Headquarters inCambridge, Massachusetts | |
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| Abbreviation | CfA |
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| Established | 1973 |
| Purpose | Research inastronomy,astrophysics, Earth, andspace sciences |
| Headquarters | 60 Garden Street,Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
Director | Lisa Kewley |
| Staff | 850+ |
| Website | www |
Formerly called | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics |
TheCenter for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), previously known as theHarvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is anastrophysicsresearch institute jointly operated by theHarvard College Observatory andSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Founded in 1973 and headquartered inCambridge, Massachusetts, United States, the CfA leads a broad program of research inastronomy,astrophysics,Earth andspace sciences, as well asscience education. The CfA either leads or participates in the development and operations of more than fifteenground- andspace-based astronomical researchobservatories across theelectromagnetic spectrum, including the forthcomingGiant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and theChandra X-ray Observatory, one ofNASA'sGreat Observatories.
Hosting more than 850 scientists, engineers, and support staff, the CfA is among the largest astronomical research institutes in the world.[1] Its projects have included Nobel Prize-winning advances incosmology andhigh energy astrophysics, the discovery of manyexoplanets, and thefirst image of a black hole. The CfA also serves a major role in the globalastrophysics research community: the CfA'sAstrophysics Data System (ADS), for example, has been universally adopted[2] as the world'sonline database of astronomy and physics papers. Known for most of its history as the "Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics", the CfArebranded in 2018 to its current name in an effort to reflect its unique status as a joint collaboration betweenHarvard University and theSmithsonian Institution.Lisa Kewley has served as the director of the CfA since 2022.
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is not formally an independent legal organization, but rather an institutional entity operated under amemorandum of understanding betweenHarvard University and theSmithsonian Institution. This collaboration was formalized on July 1, 1973, with the goal of coordinating the related research activities of theHarvard College Observatory (HCO) and theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under the leadership of a single director, and housed within the same complex of buildings on theHarvard campus inCambridge, Massachusetts. The CfA's history is therefore also that of the two fully independent organizations that comprise it. With a combined history of more than 300 years, HCO and SAO have been host to major milestones inastronomical history that predate the CfA's founding. These are briefly summarized below.
Samuel Pierpont Langley, the thirdSecretary of the Smithsonian, founded the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on the south yard of theSmithsonian Castle (on the U.S.National Mall) on March 1, 1890. The Astrophysical Observatory's initial, primary purpose was to "record the amount and character of the Sun's heat".[3]Charles Greeley Abbot was named SAO's first director, and the observatory operatedsolar telescopes to take daily measurements of theSun's intensity in different regions of theoptical electromagnetic spectrum. In doing so, the observatory enabled Abbot to make critical refinements to theSolar constant, as well as to serendipitously discoverSolar variability. It is likely that SAO's early history as asolar observatory was part of the inspiration behind the Smithsonian's "sunburst" logo, designed in 1965 byCrimilda Pontes.[4]
In 1955, the scientific headquarters of SAO moved from Washington, D.C. toCambridge, Massachusetts, to affiliate with theHarvard College Observatory (HCO).[3]Fred Lawrence Whipple, then the chairman of the Harvard Astronomy Department, was named the new director of SAO. The collaborative relationship between SAO and HCO therefore predates the official creation of the CfA by 18 years. SAO's move to Harvard's campus also resulted in a rapid expansion of its research program. Following the launch ofSputnik (the world's first human-made satellite) in 1957, SAO accepted a national challenge[5] to create a worldwide satellite-tracking network, collaborating with theUnited States Air Force onProject Space Track.
With the creation ofNASA the following year and throughout theSpace Race, SAO led major efforts in the development oforbiting observatories and largeground-based telescopes, laboratory andtheoretical astrophysics, as well as theapplication of computers to astrophysical problems.
Partly in response to renewed public interest in astronomy following the 1835 return ofHalley's Comet, the Harvard College Observatory was founded in 1839, when theHarvard Corporation appointedWilliam Cranch Bond as an "Astronomical Observer to the University".[6] For its first four years of operation, the observatory was situated[7] at theDana-Palmer House (where Bond also resided) nearHarvard Yard, and consisted of little more than three small telescopes and an astronomical clock.[6] In his 1840 book recounting the history of the college, then Harvard PresidentJosiah Quincy III noted that "there is wanted a reflecting telescope equatorially mounted".[6] This telescope, the 15-inch "Great Refractor", opened seven years later (in 1847) at the top of Observatory Hill inCambridge (where it still exists today, housed in the oldest of the CfA's complex of buildings). The telescope was thelargest in the United States from 1847 until 1867. William Bond and pioneer photographerJohn Adams Whipple used the Great Refractor to produce the first clearDaguerrotypes of theMoon (winning them an award at the 1851Great Exhibition in London). Bond and his son,George Phillips Bond (the second director of HCO), used it to discover Saturn's 8th moon,Hyperion (which was also independently discovered byWilliam Lassell).
Under the directorship ofEdward Charles Pickering from 1877 to 1919, the observatory became the world's major producer of stellar spectra and magnitudes, established an observing station inPeru,[8] and applied mass-production methods to theanalysis of data. It was during this time that HCO became host to a series of major discoveries inastronomical history, powered by the observatory's so-called "Computers" (women hired by Pickering as skilled workers to process astronomical data). These "Computers" includedWilliamina Fleming,Annie Jump Cannon,Henrietta Swan Leavitt,Florence Cushman andAntonia Maury, all widely recognized today as major figures inscientific history.[9]Henrietta Swan Leavitt, for example, discovered the so-calledperiod-luminosity relation forClassical Cepheid variablestars,[10] establishing the first major "standard candle" with which to measure the distance togalaxies. Now called "Leavitt's law", the discovery is regarded as one of the most foundational and important in thehistory of astronomy; astronomers likeEdwin Hubble, for example, would later use Leavitt's law to establish that theUniverse is expanding, the primary piece of evidence for theBig Bang model.
Upon Pickering's retirement in 1921, the directorship of HCO fell toHarlow Shapley (a major participant in the so-called "Great Debate" of 1920). This era of the observatory was made famous by the work ofCecelia Payne-Gaposchkin, who became the first woman to earn a PhD in astronomy fromRadcliffe College (a short walk from the observatory). Payne-Gapochkin's 1925 thesis proposed thatstars were composed primarily ofhydrogen andhelium, an idea thought ridiculous at the time.[11] Between Shapley's tenure and the formation of the CfA, the observatory was directed byDonald H. Menzel and thenLeo Goldberg, both of whom maintained widely recognized programs in solar and stellar astrophysics. Menzel played a major role in encouraging the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to move to Cambridge and collaborate more closely with HCO.
The collaborative foundation for what would ultimately give rise to the Center for Astrophysics began with SAO's move to Cambridge in 1955.Fred Whipple, who was already chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department (housed within HCO since 1931[12]), was named SAO's new director at the start of this new era; an early test of the model for a unified directorship across HCO and SAO. The following 18 years would see the two independent entities merge ever closer together, operating effectively (but informally) as one large research center.
This joint relationship was formalized as the new Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on July 1, 1973.George B. Field, then affiliated withBerkeley, was appointed as its first director. That same year, a new astronomicaljournal, theCfA Preprint Series was created, and aCfA/SAO instrument flying aboardSkylab discoveredcoronal holes on the Sun.[13] The founding of the CfA also coincided with the birth ofX-ray astronomy as a new, major field that was largely dominated by CfA scientists in its early years.Riccardo Giacconi, regarded as the "father of X-ray astronomy", founded the High Energy Astrophysics Division within the new CfA by moving most of his research group (then atAmerican Sciences and Engineering) to SAO in 1973. That group would later go on to launch theEinstein Observatory (the first imagingX-ray telescope) in 1976, and ultimately lead the proposals and development of what would become theChandra X-ray Observatory. Chandra, the second ofNASA's Great Observatories and still the most powerful X-ray telescope in history, continues operations today as part of the CfA's Chandra X-ray Center. Giacconi would later win the2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for his foundational work in X-ray astronomy.
Shortly after the launch of theEinstein Observatory, the CfA'sSteven Weinberg won the1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work onelectroweak unification. The following decade saw the start of the landmarkCfA Redshift Survey (the first attempt to map thelarge scale structure of the Universe), as well as the release of the "Field Report", a highly influentialAstronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey chaired by the outgoing CfA DirectorGeorge Field. He would be replaced in 1982 byIrwin Shapiro, who during his tenure as director (1982 to 2004) oversaw the expansion of the CfA's observing facilities around the world, including the newly namedFred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, theInfrared Telescope (IRT) aboard theSpace Shuttle, the6.5-meter Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT), theSOHO satellite, and the launch ofChandra in 1999. CfA-led discoveries throughout this period include canonical work onSupernova 1987A, the "CfA2 Great Wall" (then the largest known coherent structure in the Universe), the best-yet evidence forsupermassive black holes, and the first convincing evidence for anextrasolar planet.[14]
The 1980s also saw the CfA play a distinct role in the history ofcomputer science and the internet: in 1986, SAO started developing SAOImage, one of the world's firstX11-based applications made publicly available (its successor, DS9, remains the most widely used astronomicalFITS image viewer worldwide). During this time, scientists and software developers at the CfA also began work on what would become theAstrophysics Data System (ADS), one of the world's first online databases ofresearch papers.[2] By 1993, the ADS was running the first routine transatlantic queries between databases, a foundational aspect of the internet today.[2]
Charles Alcock, known for a number of major works related tomassive compact halo objects, was named the third director of the CfA in 2004. Today Alcock oversees one of the largest and most productive astronomical institutes in the world,[1] with more than 850 staff and an annual budget in excess of $100 million. The Harvard Department of Astronomy, housed within the CfA, maintains a continual complement of approximately 60PhD students, more than 100postdoctoral researchers, and roughly 25undergraduate astronomy and astrophysics majors fromHarvard College. SAO, meanwhile, hosts a long-running and highly ratedREU Summer Intern program as well as many visiting graduate students. The CfA estimates that roughly 10% of theprofessional astrophysics community in the United States spent at least a portion of their career or education there.[16]
The CfA is either a lead or major partner in the operations of theFred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, theSubmillimeter Array,MMT Observatory, theSouth Pole Telescope,VERITAS, and a number of other smallerground-based telescopes. The CfA's 2019–2024 Strategic Plan includes the construction of theGiant Magellan Telescope as a driving priority for the center.
Along with theChandra X-ray Observatory, the CfA plays a central role in a number ofspace-based observing facilities, including the recently launchedParker Solar Probe,Kepler space telescope, theSolar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), andHinode. The CfA, via the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, recently played a major role in theLynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-fundedlarge mission concept study commissioned as part of the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey ("Astro2020"). If launched,Lynx would be the most powerfulX-ray observatory constructed to date, enabling order-of-magnitude advances in capability over Chandra.
SAO is one of the 13 stakeholder institutes for theEvent Horizon Telescope Board, and the CfA hosts its Array Operations Center. In 2019, the project revealed the first direct image of a black hole.[17] The result is widely regarded as a triumph not only ofobservational astronomy, but of its intersection withtheoretical astrophysics. Union of the observational and theoretical subfields of astrophysics has been a major focus of the CfA since its founding.[13]
In 2018, the CfArebranded, changing its official name to the "Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian" in an effort to reflect its unique status as a joint collaboration betweenHarvard University and theSmithsonian Institution. Today, the CfA receives roughly 70% of its funding fromNASA, 22% fromSmithsonian federal funds, and 4% from theNational Science Foundation. The remaining 4% comes from contributors including theUnited States Department of Energy, theAnnenberg Foundation, as well as other gifts and endowments.[16]
Research across the CfA is organized into six divisions and seven research centers:
The CfA is also host to the Harvard University Department of Astronomy, large central engineering and computation facilities, the Science Education Department, the John G. Wolbach Library, theworld's largest database of astronomy and physics papers (ADS), and the world's largest collection of astronomical photographic plates.
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42°22′53″N71°07′42″W / 42.38146°N 71.12837°W /42.38146; -71.12837
