Submitted by jshaw-adm on October 31, 2013 - 3:43pm

Harvard University astronomers and Smithsonian Institution astronomers explore the cosmos together. The combination of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is known as the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA).

News Releases

March 18, 2021
Scientists Uncover Warehouse-Full of Complex Molecules Never before Seen in Space

Scientists have discovered a vast, previously unknown reservoir of new aromatic material in a cold, dark molecular cloud by detecting individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules in the interstellar medium for the first time, and in doing so are beginning to answer a three-decades-old scientific mystery: how and where are these molecules formed in space?
March 12, 2021
Astronomers Detect a Black Hole on the Move

Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space—but catching them in the act has proven difficult.

Latest Science Update

March 19, 2021
Cold Molecular Clouds as Cosmic Ray Detectors

The ionization of the neutral gas in an interstellar molecular cloud plays a key role in the cloud's evolution, helping to regulate the heating and cooling processes, the chemistry and molecule formation, and coupling the gas to magnetic fields.

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