Astrophysics is an area concerning various physical ranging from planetary sized systems, to galactic scale systems and beyond, that intersects various disciplines such as Newtonian dynamics, relativistic physics and particle physics processes.
For our latest developments/activities in this area, please see the listing below at the end of this article.
An exoplanet is a planet outside the Solar System. In the Milky Way galaxy, it is expected that there are many billions of planets (at least one planet, on average, orbiting around each star, resulting in 100–400 billion exoplanets), with many more free-floating planetary-mass bodies orbiting the galaxy directly.
We study the long-term dynamics of known multi-planet systems. This allow us to test the accuracy of the orbital parameters' determinations, as well as to understand how these systems evolved. We also look for the stable zones in the gaps between already-known planets in order to determine where is it possible to locate Earth-like planets.
See here a movie made by the PhD Animation on "Exoplanets Explained", for a review on the main observational methods used to detect exoplanets.
Gr@v warmly congratulates the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration for the first direct image of a black hole. This discovery has had a worldwide impact, including news coverage in Portugal with the contribution of Gr@v and former Gr@v members.
In a recent paper "Spontaneous scalarisation of charged black holes: coupling dependence and dynamical features", [arXiv:1902.05079], by Gr@v members A. Pombo and E. Radu, in collaboration with a group at IST-Lisbon (P. Fernandes, C. Herdeiro and N. Sanchis-Gual), fully non-linear evolutions of the process of spontaneous scalarisation of charged black holes.
Gr@v member Valério Ribeiro was part of an international team of researchers studying thermonuclear eruptions in the Andromeda galaxy. The team published, in Nature magazine, the discovery of a super-nova remnant which is bigger than most supernova remnants. They found that the super-nova remnant was the consequence of yearly repeated eruptions over millions of years. Few of these systems are known in the galaxy due to the fact that we suffer from dust obscuration.
Gr@v member João Rosa was one of the recipients of the 2018 Alberto prize, awarded by the Portuguese Society of Relativity and Gravitation (SPRG). The prize was given for his work on the phenomenon of superradiance and its physical and astrophysical implications. The prize was shared by Richard Brito, a researcher of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, in Berlin, Germany. The prize was delivered at the General Assembly of the SPRG, on 19th December 2018, during the XI Black Holes Workshop.
Gr@v member Pedro Cunha was one of the invited lecturers of the V Amazonia Workshop on Black Holes and Analogue Models of Gravity, that took place at the Federal University of Pará, in Belém, Brazil, from December 3rd to 7th, 2018. Cunha gave five lectures on "Geodesics and Shadows of Kerr black holes".