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Astronomy and Astrophysics Institute (I.A.A.)

Faculty of Sciences | Physics

(Code: ULB105)


Person in charge of the unit : JORISSEN Alain.

The IAA is involved in theoretical and observational research activities in various fields of astrophysics. These concern in particular the synthesis of
atomic nuclei, the chemical and isotopic composition of the solar system and of stars from our Galaxy, the structure and evolution of low- and
intermediate-mass stars including diferent mixing processes as well as the modelling of binary systems and of stellar hydrodynamic phenomena of the detonation type. The
modeling of the above phenomena is compared with observed quantities, like the chemical composition of stars from various classes. The chemical composition
is derived using the best tools, both observational (telescopes and spectrographs from the European Southern Observatory, or from our own high-resolution
spectrograph HERMES) and theoretical (model atmospheres, atomic and molecular data). Similarly, nucleosynthesis predictions require many nuclear data which
are collected and evaluated, or generated in large-scale theoretical calculations. They are used to generate extended nuclear reaction networks which are
made available to the astrophysical community. Besides these research topics where I.A.A. has long been recognized has an international centre of
excellence, I.A.A. nowadays contributes substantially to the preparation of the E.S.A. Gaia mission. Astrometry and galactic dynamics are therefore two new active
research fields at I.A.A.

Campus : Campus de la Plaine
Location : Bat. NO, Niveau N4, plaine des Manoeuvres
Address : CP226
Phone number : +32-2-650.28.42 / 28.64
Fax : +32-2-650.42.26
E-mail : astro@ulb.ac.be
Web site : http://www.astro.ulb.ac.be


Disciplines CRef :


 • Astronomy

 • Astronomy - other radiations

 • Astrophysics

 • Atomic and nuclear physics

 • Condensed matter physics (electronic structure#)

 • Cosmos sciences

 • Interplanetary spaces physics

 • Numerical analysis

 • Spectroscopy (electromagnetism, optics, acoustics)