VVO Projects

Photometry of T Tauri stars

The T Tauri project monitors pre-main sequence stars in the Orion nebula and NGC2264.
Information on KH15D.

Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

The discovery and study of black holes in the centers of low-mass dwaft galaxies provides new insight into the common processes by which galaxies and black holes evolve.

Structure and Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei

Investigations of nearby AGNs reveal their structure within a few light years of the massive black holes that power them and how these objects have evolved over cosmic time.

X-ray Binary Populations

The properties of X-ray sources in nearby galaxies can tell us about the star formation history of those galaxies.  We investigate these sources with a particular emphasis on X-ray binaries that harbor stellar-mass black holes.

Transiting Exoplanets

The Wesleyan Transiting Exoplanet Project (WesTEP) utilizes the on-campus 24-inch Perkin Telescope to observe the light curves of stars as their planets transit, and the largest telescopes in the world to take spectra of the transiting exoplanet's atmosphere. (image from the NASA TRACE mission)

Local Interstellar Medium

Spectra of the nearest stars are analyzed in order to reconstruct a three-dimensional morphological model of the gas and dust in our immediate cosmic neighborhood. (image from NASA, Hubble Heritage Team)

Planetary Science Group

A collaboration between the Astronomy department and Earth and Environmental Science, we work together in a study of the origin of planetary systems, planetary geology and geochemistry and the application of remote sensing to terrestrial environmental problems.