Research Interests
Eric Agol is predominantly interested in theoretical studies of compact objects, gravitational lensing, and extrasolar planets.
Here is a recent news article about a secondary eclipse map of
exoplanet HD 189733b:
news.cnet.comAstronomers have made a crude two-dimensional thermal map of an extrasolar world they cannot yet see, confirming that violent winds rapidly whip around the planet
He recently proposed that habitable planets might be found orbiting white dwarf stars:
Which has led to a pilot project started by Bruce Gary and Howard Relles:
Here are some blog posts describing the idea:
...and here are some news articles:
which reached the front page of Digg on March 31:
He and his collaborators have:
- First proposed with Heino Falcke and Fulvio Melia that radio VLBI could be used to see the shadow of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. See article in the New York Times and Science Magazine.
- Modelled black hole accretion disks with the goal of explaining the spectra and variability of active galaxies. Download model atmospheres here!
- Developed a technique for imaging quasars on very fine scales using gravitational lensing.
- Pointed out how to find isolated black holes and white dwarfs in binaries in our own galaxy using gravitational microlensing and X-ray surveys.
- Made multi-wavelength observations of the gravitational lens known as the 'Einstein Cross'.
- Made polarimetric and infrared measurements of a T-Tauri star which eclipses once every 48 days.
- Developed computer code for modeling transiting extrasolar planets.
- Proposed using timing of transits to search for low-mass planets.
- He has been probing weather on extrasolar planets by measuring the phases of extrasolar planets throughout their orbits using the Spitzer Space telescope. With graduate student Nick Cowan, he used this data to create the first crude 'map' of extrasolar planet HD 189733 B, as well as create an "alien map" of planet Earth using the EPOXI satellite looking back at Planet Earth, as described here.
- Here is a radio interview on KUOW. Look at Research to learn more.
Graduate students
- Jason Steffen (now a Brinson Fellow at Fermilab, hear him explain on NPR how to best board an airplane);
- Nicolas Cowan (now a CIERA fellow at Northwestern);
- Jason Dexter (physics) (moving to UC Berkeley), and
- Praveen Kundurthy.
Contact
| Office: | B370 Physics and Astronomy Building |
| 3910 15th Avenue NE | |
| Seattle, WA 98105 | |
| Phone: | (206) 543-7106 |
| FAX: | (206) 685-0403 |
| Email: | agol AT astro.washington.edu |
| Mail: | Astronomy Department |
| Box 351580 | |
| University of Washington | |
| Seattle, WA 98195 |