Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Science Updates

07/06/2018
What Powers the Most Luminous Galaxies?

Galaxy-galaxy interactions have long been known to influence galaxy evolution. They are commonplace events, and a large majority of galaxies show signs of interactions, including tidal tails or other morphological distortions.
06/29/2018
A Cluster of X-Ray Binary Stars Near the Galaxy's Center

A binary star system is one that contains a pair of stars orbiting each other. A black hole X-ray binary is a binary system in which one of the stars is a black hole and the other is a normal star.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a "research institute" of the Smithsonian Institution. It is joined with the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Because these research activities share Harvard and Smithsonian staff and resources, the links at this website will take you to information posted on the "CfA" pages.