SCHOOL OF ASTRONOMY

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School of Astronomy

Astronomy is described as the study of the universe beyond the Earth's atmosphere. It is a science driven by observations with strong links to physics, and many other branches of basic sciences. Technology and its advances play key role in astronomy.
School of astronomy was established in early 2007 to facilitate the growth of observational astronomy and cosmology in a coherent fashion.
Over the past few decades the perception of astronomical and cosmological research has been shifted to theoretical astrophysics and cosmology, a consequence of lack of investment in observational facilities and its related technology.

School Strategy plan Our aim is to play a prominent role in astronomy research both within Iran and internationally. It will certainly be impossible to master all the branches of astronomy and cosmology given the absence of world class resources and facilities. Given the present expertise and resources available within IPM, Extra-galactic astronomy forms the core of the observational program but the school fosters other studies and developments in exo-planet sciences, computational astrophysics. The emphasis on observational studies does not prevent the school of paying attention to the theoretical studies and thus a strong early universe cosmology group has been established in 2012.

Under the general title of the extra-galactic astronomy, the focus has been on formation and evolution of galaxies, through structural studies or star formation indicators, galaxy-environment-IGM connection, AGN activities and feedback, mass mapping (strong, weak lensing and X-ray) of galaxy systems and galaxy halos involving observational and numerical studies. Our approach involves multi-wavelength observations across the spectrum from radio to X-ray, of systems ranging from dwarf galaxies to galaxy clusters, with a special interest in the application of novel analysis techniques to get the most out of our data.