DARK News 2014
Congratulations to Allison Wing Shan Man
1 January 2015
Allison Wing Shan Man successfully defended her PhD thesis "Galaxy Evolution Over the Past Eleven Billion Years: Mergers and Quiescence" on Wednesday 17 December 2014. Allison has been working at DARK with supervisors Sune Toft and Andrew Zirm.
Congratulations to Asger Grønnow
16 December 2014
Congratulations to Asger Grønnow who successfully defended his Master’s thesis titled ''Mergers produce outliers from the fundamental metallicity relation'' Tuesday 16 December 2014 with supervisors Kristian Finlator and Lise Christensen.
Congratulations to Martin Sparre
12 December 2014
Martin Sparre successfully defended his PhD thesis "Galaxy formation: observations and simulations of galaxies" on Friday 12 December 2014. Martin has been working at DARK with supervisor Johan Peter Uldall Fynbo.
Using supermassive black holes to measure cosmic distances
26 November 2014
One of the major problems in astronomy is measuring very large distances in the universe. The current most common methods measure relative distances, but now research from DARK demonstrates that precise distances
Using supermassive black holes to measure cosmic distances
26 November 2014
One of the major problems in astronomy is measuring very large distances in the universe. Research from DARK shows that precise distances can be measured using supermassive black holes. The results are now published in Nature.
Mystery of dwarf galaxy could be ejected black hole
19 November 2014
Astronomers have observed a mysterious pheno- menon, which could be a massive black hole that has been ejected into space in connection with two galaxies colliding. This may be due to gravitational waves from the collision.
Congratulations to Xue Li
30 October 2014
Xue Li successfully successfully defended her PhD thesis "Exploring Cosmology with Supernovae - A study of supernovae and their applications" on Thursday, 30 October 2014. Xue has been working at DARK with supervisor Jens Hjorth.
Welcome Arianna Di Cintio, new DARK Fellow
27 October 2014
This week, Arianna Di Cintio starts as a new DARK Fellow. She recently received her PhD at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Arianna works on analysis of the cosmological Constrained Local Universe, simulations, CLUES project...
Congratulations to Ece Kilerci Ese
12 October 2014
Ece Kilerci Ese successfully defended her PhD thesis "Active Galaxies: A Study of Local Seyferts and Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies" on Monday, 12 October 2014. Ece has been working at DARK with supervisor Marianne Vestergaard.
Lise Christensen wins YDUN grant
7 October 2014
Congratulations to Lise Bech Christensen, who this week was awarded 6,457,791 kr. for the project: Galaxy building blocks: Dwarf galaxies at high redshifts from the Danish Council for Independent Research / Natural Sciences (FNU).
Congratulations to Sarah Massalkhi
30 September 2014
Congratulations to Sarah Massalkhi who successfully defended her Master’s thesis Tuesday 30 September. Sarah has been working on a project with the title ''Circumstellar Dust Shells around Evolved Massive Stars''.
Camilla Juul Hansen started 2-year Villum postdoc
26 September 2014
Camilla Juul Hansen started this month as a 2-year Villum postdoc. She works on chemical evolution and dust in the formation of stars and planets.
Welcome back to Copenhagen, Camilla!
Lise Hoffmann, new student helper
23 September 2014
Lise is DARKs new student helper. She'll be at DARK for approx. 10 hours/3 days pr. week. She will help with practical things such as the coffee machine, cleaning the kitchen etc., and will also edit the DARK-webpage.
Cosmic grains of dust formed in supernova explosion
9 July 2014
New research published in Nature shows that not only can grains of dust form in gigantic supernova explosions, they can also survive the subsequent shockwaves they are exposed to. Led by researchers from Aarhus and DARK
Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, new adjunct professor of high energy astrophysics
19 May 2014
Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz is professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, USA, and he is also head of the Theoretical Astrophysics Santa Cruz Institute, has been appointed adjunct professor at the Dark Cosmology Centre
New insights into gamma-ray burst afterglows
30 April 2014
Gamma-ray bursts are powerful bursts of gamma radiation in connection with the explosive death of massive stars. The bursts themselves are short lived – typically less than a few minutes, but is followed by an afterglow that can be observed for several days. A team including researchers from DARK, have shown that the afterglow behaves differently than expected
Johan Samsing receives the prestigious Einstein Fellowship
20 March 2014
Johan Samsing, who is just about to complete his PhD at Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute, has just been awarded one of the most prestigious research fellowships in astrophysics, the so-called ‘Einstein Fellowship’
Congratulations, Teddy Frederiksen
3 March 2014
On 28 February 2014, Teddy Frederiksen successfully defended his PhD thesis, "Nurseries of supernovae - A study of young high redshift type Ia supernova host galaxies."
Stream of stars in Andromeda satellite galaxy shows cosmic collision
23 February 2014
The Andromeda Galaxy is surrounded by a swarm of small satellite galaxies. DARK researchers have detected a stream of stars in one of the Galaxy’s outer satellite galaxies, called Andromeda II. The movement of the stars tells us that what we are observing is the remnant of a merger between two dwarf galaxies
The NTE is a go!
17 February 2014
On Friday 14th of February 2014, The Niels Bohr Institute and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) officially entered into a collaboration to build the NOT Transient Explorer (NTE), an instrument that will take the scientific capabilities of the
Early galaxies grew massive through collisions
28 January 2014
New research from DARK and a group of collaborators shows that massive galaxies were formed by explosive star formation that was set in motion by the collision of galaxies a few billion years after the Big Bang
Congratulations to DARK's PhD student Martina Falco
13 January 2014
Martina Falco successfully defended her PhD thesis "Dynamics of galaxy clusters and their outskirts: beyond the virialization regime" on Friday, 10 January 2014. Martina has been working at DARK since September 2010, with supervisor Steen Hansen
Monster gamma-ray burst in our cosmic neighbourhood
21 November 2013
Gamma-ray bursts are violent bursts of gamma radiation associated with exploding massive stars. For the first time ever, researchers from DARK, among others, have observed an unusually powerful gamma-ray
Welcome to Kasper Elm Heintz
11 November 2013
Welcome to DARK's new student helper Kasper Elm Heintz! Kasper started working at DARK on November 4th. Kasper is studying Physics at the University of Copenhagen and is specializing in astronomy. He is currently on his ...
Darach Watson receives Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize
31 October 2013
Darach Watson has been awarded the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists for his outstanding and innovative research in astrophysics, where he has developed a groundbreaking method for measuring distances in the cosmos
Nature: new understanding of star death
17 October 2013
An international team including DARK Affiliated Scientist, Giorgos Leloudas (Oskar Klein Center), studied two super-luminous supernovae for more than a year and found that their origins may be explained by a type of explosion within the star’s core which creates an extremely dense and rapidly spinning magnetic star. The results were published this week in the journal Nature.
Welcome Jun Yi (Kevin) Koay
30 September 2013
Welcome to post doc Jun Yi (Kevin) Koay. Kevin got his PhD in 2012 in astrophysics at Curtin University in Australia. He joins DARK to work on observational projects related to ALMA observations of quasars with Marianne Vestergaard and others.
Congratulations to Troels Paarup!
23 September 2013
Congratulations to Troels Paarup, who successfully defended his Master’s thesis Friday 13 September 2013. Troels has been working on a project with the title “Quasar K-correction in the UV-optical spectral region and broad...
Welcome Anders Pinzke
9 September 2013
Anders Pinzke starts at DARK this week as a Swedish Research Council Fellow. Anders got his PhD in theoretical physics in Stockholm in 2010 and since has been a post doc at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Welcome to Per Andersen
1 September 2013
Welcome to DARK's new PhD student, Per Andersen! Per will start at DARK September 2nd 2013, and he will be working with Jens Hjorth on a project on ......
Per finished his bachelor degree from...
New DARK Fellow, Sebastian Hönig
27 August 2013
DARK welcomes Sebastian Hönig, who starts at DARK on September 1st as an independent DARK Fellow. Sebastian finished his PhD in 2008 at the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy at the University of Bonn...
Welcome Caroline Heneka
27 August 2013
Caroline Heneka starts September 1st as a PhD student working with David Rapetti. Caroline got her Master’s degree at the University of Heidelberg working in cosmology and Bayesian statistics...
Welcome to PhD student Jens Juel Jensen
27 August 2013
Jens Juel Jensen starts September 1st as a PhD student working with Marianne Vestergaard. Jens got his Master’s degree at the Niels Bohr Institute in August 2012 where he was working with Marianne on a project characterizing the velocity field of...
Welcome to Professor Per Lilje, sabbatical
12 August 2013
DARK welcomes Per Lilje, who will spend his 2013-14 sabbatical year at DARK. Per is Professor at the University of Oslo and was Head of Department, Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics there from 2005-2012.
Quasar observed in 6 separate light reflections
7 August 2013
Using a special method where you observe light that has been bent by gravity on its way through the universe, a group of astrophysics students from NBI have observed a quasar whose light has been deflected and reflected in
Nature: Short-duration GRBs explained
22 July 2013
DARK's Professor Jens Hjorth is among researchers publishing this week in Nature. They present the strongest evidence yet that short-duration gamma ray bursts are produced by the merger of two small, super-dense stellar objects.
Welcome to Camilla Holbæk Pearson
18 July 2013
Welcome to DARK's new student assistant, Camilla Holbæk Pearson! Camilla will be working in the DARK administration starting from Monday 22 July 2013. Camilla is studying Veterinary Medicine at the University of Copenhagen...
New knowledge about early galaxies
3 July 2013
Using new detailed studies carried out with the ESO Very Large Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers from DARK have studied an early galaxy in unprecedented detail. Led by PhD student, Jens-Kristian Krogager...
Congratulations to DARK's master's student Simone Juul Jakobsen!
21 June 2013
Congratulations to DARK's Master's student, Simone Juul Jakobsen, who succesfully defended her thesis Friday 21 June 2013. Simone has worked on supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae in the Norma region, and her work has partly...
DARK researchers launch project on gender and science
12 June 2013
Social scientist Beate Sløk- Andersen is visiting DARK for the month of June to prepare a research project with DARK staff on gender and science in the European Union. Inspired by the work of Wennerås and Wold...
Congratulations to Daniel Lawther!
10 May 2013
Congratulations to DARK's master's student, Daniel Lawther, who successfully defended his master's thesis Friday, 10 May 2013. He has been working with Marianne Vestergaard on a project on the imaging of FeLoBAL quasar host galaxies.
Welcome to PhD student Jonatan Selsing
21 April 2013
Jonatan Selsing starts this week as a 4+4 PhD student working with Lise Christensen. Jonatan has just finished his 1st year as master's student in astronomy at the Niels Bohr Intitute. Jonatan will be working on a project to investigate host galaxies...
Hubble breaks record for furthest supernova
4 April 2013
The Hubble Space Telescope has broken the record in the quest to find the furthest supernova of the type used to measure cosmic distances. This supernova exploded more than 10 billion years ago (redshift 1.914), at a time the Universe was in its early formative years and stars were being born at a rapid rate.
Barrel-shaped blast debris may signal black hole creation
12 February 2013
Using data from Chandra, Spitzer and VLA, a group of scientists led by Laura Lopez (MIT) and including DARK master's student, Sarah Pearson, suggest that a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Galaxy...
Welcome to Moire Prescott!
1 February 2013
Welcome to new postdoctoral DARK Fellow, Moire Prescott, who starts her position 1 February 2013. Moire finished her PhD in 2009 from the University of Arizona, where she worked with Dr. Arjun Dey on the space density, environments...
Welcome to Kristian Finlator!
1 February 2013
Welcome to new postdoctoral DARK Fellow, Kristian Finlator, who starts his position at DARK February 1st. Kristian obtained his PhD degree in Astronomy from the University of Arizona in 2009. Since then he has been a Hubble Fellow...