GALACTIC ASTRONOMY AT MSSL

Artist's impression of a cataclysmic variable © 1996 by Mark A. Garlick

This is the homepage of the Galactic Astronomy group at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory. We invite you to browse through our web pages for an overview of the work we do here.

OUR MAJOR TOPICS OF INTEREST ARE: 

MAGNETIC CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES

X-RAY BINARIES

STELLAR WINDS
See the Beginner's Guide to CVs for an introduction to cataclysmic variables.


Members of The Galactic Team:

  • Mark Cropper
  • Cynthia James
  • Keith Mason
  • Jon Mittaz
  • Tracey Poole
  • Jon Rainger
  • Gavin Ramsay

    • Current Areas of Research:


    Indirect imaging of the accretion stream in polars:
    The brightness distribution of polar accretion streams can be used to examine the interactions between the stream plasma and the magnetosphere of the white dwarf.


    Accretion Regions in AM Her Systems:
    'Stokes imaging' of the accretion region in Magnetic Cataclysmic Variables



    Polarimetry of Magnetic CVs:
    How we use their polarised emission to get important system parameters.


    X-ray Spectra from Magnetic CVs:
    How we model the X-ray spectra from the accretion region in magnetic CVs.


    Winds in CVs:
    Using ultraviolet spectroscopy to study the mass outflow from accretion disks.


    The MSSL Polar Page:
    All the currently known polars together with their positions etc

    A list of our Publications since 1994 is available.


    More general information about Cataclysmic Variables may be found in the following page:

    MSSL home pages:

  • MSSL Astrophysics Group home page
  • Mullard Space Science Laboratory home page

    • This page created by Kerry Nicholson (kln@mssl.ucl.ac.uk)

    Maintained by Gavin Ramsay (gtbr@mssl.ucl.ac.uk).
    Last modified 1 June 1999



    Spectropolarimetry as a probe of stellar winds:     Linear spectropolarimetry is used to investigate the geometries of the stellar outflows from both early- and late-type stars.