Christa Gall

Associate professor
NBB, Tower G
Jagtvej 155
DK-2100 Copenhagen
Phone: +45 35 33 76 41
Email: christa.gall@nbi.ku.dk

Research field and projects
My research revolves around the formation and evolution of the building blocks of the Universe we live in. This is best described as the ‘Life cycle of cosmic matter’, which includes the elemental ingredients synthesised in massive stars. When the stars explode as supernovae, the elements are released and become available for the formation of molecules and solid particles, so called ‘cosmic dust’. While I am interested in the physical processes which govern the evolution of dust, stars and galaxies, I pay particular attention to the different types of supernovae, their progenitors and their post-explosion evolution.

Keywords:  The evolution of dust in galaxies, supernova dust and molecule formation, Type IIP, IIn, Ia supernovae, supernova impostors

Current Projects:
Villum Young Investigator
Project: Searching for the Known Unknowns — Lightening up the Dusty Universe

Selected Publications:

Lanthanides or Dust in Kilonovae: Lessons Learned from GW170817, (The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2017) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ApJ...849L..19G/abstract

Two transitional type Ia supernovae located in the Fornax cluster member NGC 1404: SN 2007on and SN 2011iv, (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2018) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018A%26A...611A..58G/abstract

Rapid formation of large dust grains in the luminous supernova 2010jl, (Nature, 2014)  http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014Natur.511..326G

Production of dust by massive stars at high redshift, (Astronomy & Astrophysics Review, 2011) http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011A%26ARv..19...43G