Narsireddy Anugu, PhD University of Porto, 2017
I am a staff scientist at the CHARA Array. I work on building long-baseline interferometric and adaptive optics instruments and applying them for imaging stellar surfaces, and protoplanetary disks and detecting binaries. I worked on every currently operating major optical interferometers in the world, including the CHARA Array, the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), and the Large Binocular Interferometer (LBTI). Before joining the CHARA Array, I pursued Postdoc fellowships at the University of Arizona and the University Exeter/Michigan. While workin in Tucson, I participated in building the MAPS instrument for the MMT observatory. While working in Michigan/Exeter, I built sensitive beam combiners for CHARA, namely, MIRC-X (J+H-bands) and MYSTIC (K-band). I earned my Ph.D. degree from the University of Porto by involving in the successful development of VLTI/GRAVITY. My PhD thesis is here.
Email: nanugu@gsu.edu Last updated Sep 13 2024
Selected cutting edge instrumentation (VLTI/GRAVITY and CHARA/MIRC-X)
Selected breakthrough science results
First Successful Test of Einstein’s General Relativity Near Supermassive Black Hole (from GRAVITY observations). Press Release and A&A letter (led by GRAVITY collaboration). Super excited our work helped 2021 Nobel Prize Physics (Reinhard Genzel).
GW Ori: Misaligned and warped Protoplanetary Disk around a Triple-Star System (from MIRC-X). Press Release , CNN and Science Journal paper (led by S. Kraus).
GRAVITY observations show breaking spectrum of exoplanets using better filter of planet signal from host star using interferometry coherence. Press release and A&A letter (led by GRAVITY collaboration).
Our group solved the mystery of Betelgeuse unexpected dimming in 2019/2020. This ESO/L. Calçada artist’s animation shows how the dust obscuring the southern region of Betelgeuse at different observational epochs. This work published in Nature (led by M. Montargès). Press release, CNN, Nytimes and BBC.
I and my co-authors captured CHARA images during its Great Dimming in December 2022 and again in August 2023, during its rebrightening phase. Papers (Anugu et al. 2023 and Anugu et al. 2024) and Press releases 1 and 2.
My co-authors and I found evidence suggesting that one or more planets may exist in the AC Her system, an evolved circumbinary system. Paper (Anugu et al. 2023) and Press release.
Our CHARA images of a Young Stellar Object led by Noura Ibrahim. Here are two images, captured a month apart, depicting the inner region of a planet-forming disk around the young, massive star V1295 Aquilae. The images reveal unexpected moving structures within the disk and confirm the mysterious inner emissions noted in earlier studies. Paper and Press Release.
Our our work of CHARA images revealed large bright and dark spots on the surface of Polaris. The Paper and Press Release.
My co-authors and I worked on the First Images of the Yellow Hypergiant Rho Cassiopeiae System, a massive star in the final stages of its evolution. Using CHARA interferometry in the H and K bands, we captured images that reveal four bright convection cells on its surface. Paper published in ApJ.
An artist's rendering of the Castor system illustrates each binary pair and their respective orbits. The system forms a hierarchical triple, with each component being a spectroscopic binary. With CHARA, we were able to directly measure the position of each spectroscopic binary pair over time, mapping out each orbit in all three dimensions for the first time. Paper and an article.