Seminarium Zakładu Astrofizyki

A key discovery from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was the existence of dusty galaxies with remarkably high infrared (IR) luminosity LIR (integrated between 8 and 1000 μm). The most extreme kind are what's known as hyperluminous infrared galaxies (which emit over 90% of their energy in the IR) with IR luminosities greater than 10^13 L_solar. If the IR luminosity is solely due to star formation, the star-formation rate of HLIRGs would exceed 1000 M_solar/yr.

Thousands of extrasolar planets have been discovered up to date. Although many of the known exoplanets do not resemble those in our solar system, they have one thing in common - they all orbit a star. However, theories of planet formation and evolution predict the existence of free-floating planets, gravitationally unattached to any star.

Certain active galaxies produce powerful jets with relativistic velocities, which emit highly anisotropic non-thermal radiation. In case that a jet is directed towards an observer, the observed luminosity of its radiation exceeds significantly the luminosity of the host galaxy; such objects are called blazars. Observations of blazars indicate very efficient mechanisms of energy dissipation and non-thermal particle acceleration. The inner sections of jets are most likely relativistically magnetised, i.e., the magnetic energy density exceeds the rest-mass energy density of the matter.