However, in certain situations, an IMBH in a galaxy can leave an imprint of its presence in the light emitted by the gas surrounding it. This spectrum of light can encode much information about the black hole, including its mass. Chris Richardson, associate professor of astrophysics at ������Ƶ, created a suite of simulations in a paper published in 2022 that predicted what we would see from the James Webb Space Telescope if IMBHs were active in dwarf galaxies, which are much smaller than the Milky Way.

Two recent papers in which Richardson is a co-author have used these simulations to interpret their JWST observations of two dwarf galaxies at vastly different distances in the Universe. , led by John Chisholm at the University of Texas – Austin, found that Richardson’s models were the only possible explanation for the observed emission they viewed from the galaxy GN 42437 when the Universe was only 1 billion years old. Through various methods, a black hole mass between 100,000 and 10,000,000 times the mass of the Sun was estimated to reside in the galaxy.  recently submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, Matilde Mingozzi, at the Space Telescope Science Institute, showed that observations of the dwarf galaxy SBS0335-052 E with JWST were the most consistent with an IMBH about 100,000 times more massive than the Sun. Together, these papers are beginning to pave the way for a new avenue in finding IMBHs, which will help astronomers understand how galaxies like the Milky Way evolved into their current state.

The annual American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting attracts over 3,000 students, post-docs and faculty to discuss the latest astronomy research and teaching pedagogy. In addition, the event features world-renowned plenary speakers, job opportunities, space exhibits and graduate school representatives.

The conference featured innovative iPosters that allow students to expand upon traditional research posters by including electronic content like hyperlinks, high-resolution images and videos. Ths year two students presented iPosters, which undergo a peer review process before acceptance.

Sam DiRenzo ’24, an astronomy major and Glen Raven Scholar, showcased her research on using multi-wavelength observations to find active intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in dwarf galaxies. DiRenzo qualified for the prestigious Chambliss Competition, which only included 15% of participants. Jordan Wels, senior physics major and Lumen Scholar, presented his research about incorporating galaxy scaling relations into simulations of IMBHs, which attracted the attention of leading researchers.

Professor of Astrophysics Tony Crider spoke during a special session dedicated to new and emerging technologies for astronomy education. Crider presented on integrating augmented and mixed reality into undergraduate astronomy labs. He then joined other speakers in the session for a panel discussion focusing on artificial intelligence in the college classroom.

Associate Professor of Astrophysics Chris Richardson gave a research presentation on dwarf galaxies enabled by the Transatlantic Partnership Grant through the FACE Foundation. Professor Claudine Moreau mentored astronomy major Morgan Micharski ’26 as they learned more about merging their interests in astronomy and chemistry.

The venue offers undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs, and faculty opportunities to interact with experts in a variety of formats. This year, several ������Ƶ students and Faculty attended the 243rd AAS meeting in New Orleans, including ������Ƶ undergraduate Sam DiRenzo ’24, an astronomy major, who presented an iPoster.

DiRenzo entered the prestigious Chambliss Award competition where undergraduates and graduate students present their research to judges. A record number of iPosters were submitted this year, totaling over 400. DiRenzo made it through an early elimination round before the conference by recording audio that walked judges through her iPoster. At the conference, a second round of judging took place for only select participants.

Ultimately, DiRenzo’s research on intermediate mass black holes earned her along with a certificate to commemorate the achievement.

Associate Professor of Astrophysics Chris Richardson has co-authored a publication in the Astrophysics Journal to solve a long-standing problem present in galaxies.

Galaxies contain a large number of stars that emit light, also called photons, which are incident upon the gas clouds surrounding them. Astronomers can determine how many photos are emitted by these stars by analyzing the spectrum of light coming from their surrounding gas clouds. For relatively unevolved galalxies, the technique can provide insight about the mechanism responsible for the re-ionization epoch in the early Universe.

Previous work has shown that many galaxies resembling those in the early Universe are “missing” photons from stars because models are unable to explain their observed spectrum. This led researchers to investigate sources of photons other than stars, which could account for these missing photons. Kristen Garofali at NASA-GFSC led a team including Richardson to develop models that include black holes siphoning off gas from companion stars that becomes extremely hot and radiates light. These so-called X-ray binaries could produce the photons necessary to explain certain observations of early universe analog galaxies.

The novel modeling approach includes a self-consistent evolution of X-ray binaries and other stars as a function of time and composition. The new methodology is able to explain observations of a number of galaxies with missing photons, suggesting that X-ray binaries could play a prominent role in the early Universe. Not all galaxy observations can be explained in this way, however, so other sources of photons should exist. One such source could be intermediate-mass black holes, which will be the subject of future work.

led by Garofali for more details.

This year, the ������Ƶ astrophysics and astronomy majors, along with faculty, attended NCAM as a group to gain an understanding of the field outside of the classroom. The strong attendance from ������Ƶ represents a fast-growing astronomy program within the Physics Department where students are interested in exploring research in the discipline.

In particular, Jordan Wels ’24 presented the results of his Lumen Prize research by giving an oral presentation concerning elusive intermediate-mass black holes hidden in dwarf galaxies. Next year, NCAM will be sanctioned by the National American Astronomical Society, which aims to invite even more attendees from out of state.

Lise Ramambason at the University of Heidelberg led a research group that included Associate Professor of Astrophysics Chris Richardson in using a novel method of accounting for “dark” molecular gas that doesn’t emit light that astronomers can observationally detect but shows up in numerical models of the dwarf galaxies.

This new technique predicts that a substantial amount of molecules sit in shielded clumps of invisible gas in dwarf galaxies, which helps understand a key ingredient for star formation in early universe. The article describing the results was recently accepted for publication in the top-tier Astrophysics & Astronomy journal, while a pre-print version of the paper is available .

The astrophysics research group, led by Associate Professor Chris Richardson, recently went on a whirlwind of a tour to present their latest research findings. Students in the research group presented their work in both oral and poster formats at various institutions including University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and ������Ƶ to both general audiences and experts.

At the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, physics major Jordan Wels ’24 and astrophysics major Thomas Vivona ’23 gave poster presentations on the national stage about their work on modeling dwarf galaxies with active intermediate mass black holes.

Shortly thereafter, Vivona was invited to give a guest oral presentation for an astrophysics research group at UNC-Chapel Hill where he fielded questions from experts in his area of research. At the North Carolina Space Symposium held at NC State, Vivona also gave poster presentation to an audience ranging from high school students to astrophysics faculty. Engineering and astronomy major Sam DiRenzo ’24 and astrophysics major Jules Levanti ’25 attended the symposium to network with industry professionals and gain insight into the latest research.

Afterwards, DiRenzo presented a poster at the Integrating Science in Research conference on her research focusing on matching multiple galaxy surveys to better constrain galaxies with actively accreting intermediate mass black holes. Both Wels and Vivona were invited to give colloquium presentations at the weekly “Physics & Astro Tea” before their oral presentations on ������Ƶ’s SURF Day. DiRenzo also presented a research poster at SURF.

All together, these ten student presentations over the course of three weeks represent tremendous hard work and dedication from the entire research team. The group meets bi-weekly to discuss their research progress and practice informal presentations to guest speakers. Next year, Vivona will be attending graduate school at the University of Georgia to pursue a Ph.D. in astrophysics.

The effort was led by Lebouteiller’s graduate student, Lise Ramambason, who selected a sample of extreme star forming galaxies thought to show properties similar to the first galaxies that formed in the early universe. By using a sophisticated method of analysis that incorporates complex topologies, Ramambason showed that porous nature of these galaxies can cause energy to leak out into the surrounding medium. This leakage is a possible mechanism that ended the “dark ages” in the early universe, leading to the epoch of reionization. The work was recently accepted to the high ranking Astrophysics & Astronomy journal, and a is currently available.

, which features several ������Ƶ undergraduates, pertains to finding an elusive variety of black holes called intermediate black holes (IMBHs). The elusiveness of IMBHs has prompted new methods for their detection, many of which propose using the newly launched (JWST), largely recognized as the most revolutionary telescope since the Hubble Space Telescope was launched.

The paper proposes that some IMBHs thought to be hidden in local galaxies might be detectable with current telescopes. The paper also proposes that JWST is ideal for finding a vast number of hidden IMBHs in local dwarf galaxies and provides a method for doing so when observations start being taken this summer.

The proposal seeks to evaluate the role of compact objects, such as black holes or X-ray binaries, in dwarf galaxy evolution, which has implications for early universe conditions unable to be probed by current observatories.

Richardson and Lebouteiller will use unique theoretical and statistical approaches that incorporate complex topologies to elucidate the problem when applied to dwarf galaxy observations. Over the course of two years, the grant will support dissemination of results through conference travel and publications, which will include numerous ������Ƶ undergraduate researchers.