北京大学科维理天文与天体物理研究所

Featured Science

Dynamic View of Mass Assembly in Massive Protocluster Formation and Evolution

Combining ALMA observations and single-dish observations including Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope (APEX) in Chile and James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii, Fengwei Xu, a fourth-year Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Ke Wang at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, proposed a comprehensive evolutionary picture of how massive protoclusters are assembled. The series of works have been accepted for publication by Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society and The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

PKU Astronomers Reveal the Formation of Dense Dwarf Galaxy ‘Fossils’

An international team of astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope (CFHT), Gemini North telescope (Gemini North), Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and Case Western Reserve University's Burrell Schmidt Telescope, have captured the eroding remains of more than 100 galaxies in an elusive state of transformation. These findings confirm that some of the densest galaxies in the Universe, dubbed “ultra-compact dwarfs” (UCDs) are likely the fossil remains of normal dwarf galaxies that have been stripped of their outer layers. The results were reported in a recent article, entitled, “An evolutionary continuum from nucleated dwarf galaxies to star clusters,” and was published on 9 November 2023 in the journal Nature. This research was led by Kaxiang Wang, a Ph.D. student at Peking University, and Eric Peng, a former professor at PKU.

The Interaction between AGN and Starburst Activity as Viewed with JWST

With excellent sensitivity and spatial and spectral resolutions, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) presents an unprecedented opportunity to promote our understanding of the evolutionary processes of galaxies. Taking advantage of a recently available set of JWST observations taken with Medium Resolution Spectrograph (MRS) on the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), Dr. Lulu Zhang, who got his PhD degree this July from Peking University under the supervision of Prof. Luis C. Ho at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, ascertained whether and the manner in which AGN feedback influences the circumnuclear star formation of the well-studied nearby luminous infrared galaxy, NGC 7469, which also hosts a powerful type 1 active galactic nucleus (AGN). Their findings appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2023, 953, L9).

PKU Astronomers Sheds Light on Evolutionary Paths of Supermassive Black Holes and Their H...

A new paper entitled “Evolutionary Paths of Active Galactic Nuclei and Their Host Galaxies” published on 17 August 2023 in Nature Astronomy provides critical new insights on the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. The research, conducted by Dr. Ming-Yang Zhuang, who graduated from Peking University in 2022 and currently affiliated with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Prof. Luis C. Ho from the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, derived structural and photometric properties of host galaxies of nearly 11,500 redshift ≤ 0.35 unobscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using data from Pan-STARRS1 3PI Steradian Survey to explore the connections between black hole mass and the properties of host galaxies in the nearby Universe. Peking University is the primary affiliation of the paper.

PKUers finds Key Evidence for Existence of Nanohertz Gravitational Waves

A group of Chinese scientists has recently found key evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves, marking a new era in nanohertz gravitational wave research. The research was based on pulsar timing observations carried out with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST).The research was conducted by the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array (CPTA) collaboration. Researchers (Prof. Kejia Lee, Post-Doc. Siyuan Chen, PhD students Jiangwei Xu, and Zihan Xue) from Department of Astronomy School of physics and Kavli Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of Peking University played vital roles in the collaboration. Their findings were published online in the academic journal Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA).

Starlight and the First Black Holes: Researchers Probe the Relationship Between the Black...

​New images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed, for the first time, starlight from two massive galaxies hosting actively growing black holes – quasars – seen less than a billion years after the Big Bang. The black holes have masses are close to a billion times that of the Sun, and the host galaxy masses are almost one hundred times larger, a ratio similar to what is found in the more recent universe. A powerful combination of the wide-field survey of the Subaru Telescope and the JWST has paved a new path to study the distant universe, reports a new study in Nature.