astrofizik

Astrofizik, or astrophysics, is the branch of astronomy that applies the laws of physics to understand the nature and evolution of celestial objects and the universe. It seeks to explain how stars and planets form, how stellar systems evolve, how galaxies are assembled, and what governs the behavior of extreme phenomena such as black holes and supernovae. By combining empirical data with theoretical models, astrofizik aims to describe the physical processes that produce the observed light and other signals from space, from radio waves to gamma rays and beyond.

Researchers use observations, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations to study topics such as stellar physics, planetary science, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, and high-energy phenomena. Techniques include spectroscopy to determine composition and motion, photometry to measure brightness, imaging to resolve structure, and time-domain analysis to study variability. Theoretical work develops models of dynamics, radiation transport, nucleosynthesis, and cosmic evolution, often relying on high-performance computing.

Astrofizik relies on instruments ranging from ground-based telescopes to space missions and detectors for gravitational waves and neutrinos. Notable facilities include optical, infrared, radio, and X-ray observatories, as well as space telescopes such as Hubble, Chandra, and the James Webb Space Telescope. The field intersects physics, mathematics, and engineering and informs questions about dark matter, dark energy, the early universe, star formation, and the potential habitability of exoplanets.