Work already accomplished in the pursuit of this work can be viewed in our AAS Observatory Annual Report
The Home Page of the astronomy group is also available.
To better understand the fundamental makeup of the Universe, our group is using space-based facilities such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and also the new generation of ultra-large ground-based observatories, to probe the structure of galaxies. Using the speed of light as a ``time machine'' we are comparing nearby and faraway galaxies in order to understand how galaxies change over time, how they formed, and how they populate the universe. The space and ground-based facilities produce new challenges for both the volume and types of data they provide, and require new ways for storing, extracting, analyzing, modeling, and sharing the data with the larger research community. Specific parts of the project involve preparation of an atlas of nearby galaxies that can serve as a template for studying more distant galaxies, detailed studies of nearby individual galaxies in order to understand how galaxies form stars and how details of their 3-D structure connect to long-term change, and detailed studies of very distant galaxies to see how galaxies looked when they were relatively young. Besides observing galaxies, we also experiment with them using computer simulations.