Today, we have submitted a new paper on the formation of the first metal-enriched stars. We concentrate on the scenario where an external supernova blastwave enriches a nearby halo to 1/30,000th of the solar metallicity, sparking the gravitational collapse of the gas that can cool through molecular hydrogen formation on newly-formed dust grains. See … Continue Reading ››

We have submitted a new paper to The Astrophysical Journal on the formation of massive black holes (BHs). See this link for movies. The first massive BHs form in pre-galactic clouds that could be the seeds of supermassive BHs observed when the Universe was only 1 billion years old. These massive BHs could be 10,000 … Continue Reading ››

Today marks the beginning of the first Atlanta Science Festival, a week-long celebration of science and technology with dozens of activities happening around metro Atlanta. Members from the CRA will be leading a few events in the next week.

• Tech Talks (Monday, March 24, 2014 – 6:30pm to 8:00pm; Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business … Continue Reading ››

Reionization is an extended process where the whole universe transitions from neutral to ionized between 300 and 1,000 million years after the Big Bang. While it has been established that galaxies are the main drivers of reionization and that active galactic nuclei (AGN) are unimportant during this process, very few have made an effort to … Continue Reading ››

Last month, I was in Hokkaido University, giving an Enzo users' workshop with a few of my colleagues. While I was there, I agreed to give a public talk about the first galaxies, titled "Baby Galaxies: The First Steps to the Milky Way". Elizabeth Tasker graciously wrote a post about my talk. I thought … Continue Reading ››