Kirsten Larson

ESA/AURA Astronomer at STScI

 

Main Research Fields

As an ESA Astronomer at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, I work on the MIRI instrument team on JWST. I joined the MIRI Commissioning Team in 2021, and am now the lead on MIRI's Medium Resolution Spectrograph (MRS). As lead of MRS, I support science operations and coordinate ongoing calibrations for the instrument.

My research is focused on star formation in nearby galaxies. I aim to better understand the lifecycle of star formation in both normal spiral galaxies, as part of the PHANGS team, and in the extreme environments of galaxy interactions with the GOALS team.

 


Keywords

  • Star formation, histories, and evolution
  • Star clusters and Stellar associations
  • Interstellar medium
  • Galaxy formation and evolution
  • Luminous Infrared Galaxies
  • photometry
  • IFU spectroscopy

Ongoing collaborations

  • PHANGS (Physics at High Angular Resolution)
  • GOALS (Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey) 

Publications

orcid ID:0000-0003-3917-6460

ADS

Project/mission at ESA

JWST - MIRI