Several members of the Adler Astronomy Department also hold joint appointments at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. The nature of these joint appointments strengthens the integration of the Adler and its educational mission with the research community. Energentic events such as supernovae stir up the gas in our Galaxy and create bubbles and filaments over a range of astronomical sizes. Using the VLBA, a radio telescope array half the size of the earth, Dr. Faison has observed clumps of gas as small as our solar system. Dr. Fortson's research work surrounds the question of the origin of cosmic rays.
Cosmic rays are tiny, subatomic particles that continuously rain down on the Earth's atmosphere.
Dr. Fortson conducts experiments in the high deserts of Utah to study this cosmic radiation and confirm the theory that a large amount of cosmic rays are produced in supernovae explosions. The University of Chicago Dr. Gates works in the field of theoretical cosmology, studying the structure and evolution of the Universe. The University of Chicago Dr. Gyuk is interested in Cosmology and the structure of our galaxy. He is particularly interested in the galactic halos and the dark matter of which they consist. He is a member of MEGA, a worldwide collaboration to probe the halo of the Andromeda Galaxy using Gravitational Microlensing, a technique that uses the effect of gravity on light to study dark matter.