Dr. Antara Basu-Zych
Research Associate · Non-Tenure Track
Center for Space Science and Technology
She/Her/Hers/Herself
About
Dr. Antara Basu-Zych is an American astrophysicist working on starburst galaxies in the nearby and distant universe. She studies these galaxies using data across the electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to radio, which traces the emission from different components including stars and accreting compact objects. In addition, Dr. Basu-Zych is a staff scientist with the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), the primary archive for NASA’s (and other space agencies’) missions studying electromagnetic radiation from extremely energetic cosmic phenomena ranging from black holes to the Big Bang. She is the archive scientist for XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and the SRG missions and is responsible for maintaining the webpages, usage statistics, and table ingests for the HEASARC.
Research interests
Dr. Basu-Zych studies local analogs of distant galaxies to learn how galaxies evolve over the history of the universe. Since light takes time to travel to Earth from distant galaxies, we view distant galaxies as they were in the past. Therefore, these local analogs provide us with a “front row seat” to viewing galaxy evolution during its earliest stages. Dr. Basu-Zych's research interests include studying the X-ray emission from accreting compact objects (e.g. X-ray binaries) as related to the galaxy-wide properties (e.g. star formation rate, stellar mass, metallicity, stellar age); studying the causes for triggered and quenched star formation in interacting and close pair galaxies; investigating how the energetic components of galaxies (i.e. stars and accreting black holes) influence and are affected by the local interstellar medium environment.
Education
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Ph D, Astrophysics
— Columbia University (2009) Nature of z<1 Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies
- MA, Astrophysics — Columbia University (2005)
- BA, Physics & Astrophysics — University of California, Berkeley (2000)
Presentations
- The STAR-X Observing Plan: Studying the Fast, Furious and Forming Universe in X-rays and UV 2023
- The STAR-X Observing Plan: Studying the Fast, Furious and Forming Universe in X-rays and UV 2023
- X-ray surveys of binary populations in nearby galaxies from Chandra and XMM, and eROSITA to Athena 2022
- Cosmic Adventures – Hunting for Black Holes in Far Away Galaxies 2022
- James Webb Space Telescope: the Monster Time Machine and Alien Life Hunter 2022
- High ionization emission line galaxies near and far: A reckoning of all the energetic processes 2022