Dr Anna Ogorzałek

Welcome! I am a Visiting Assistant Research Scientist working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and University of Maryland College Park. I received my PhD from the Department of Physics at Stanford University, where I was a member of the X-ray Astronomy and Observational Cosmology group at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology .

What role does the feedback from supermassive black holes play at shaping the lives of galaxies? This question remains central to my research. The missing link is the hot, X-ray gas that makes up energetic winds launched by the central Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and the gaseous halos that surround galaxies (Circumgalactic Medium) and galaxy groups and clusters (Intercluster Medium). Challenging to observe, these environments hold the key to understanding the physics of AGN feedback.

To understand the link between galaxies and their central black holes, I use high resolution X-ray spectroscopy paired with novel statistical methods. Current data comes from X-ray gratings on board of Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton. In September 2023, the JAXA/NASA X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) will launch. As a member of the XRISM Science Team, I am eager to make use of the X-ray microcalorimeter it will carry (first X-ray Intergral Field Unit widely available). Looking towards the future, as the Leadership Team member I am helping to develop the mission concept for the Line Emission Mapper (LEM), a 1bn$ mission to be proposed in Fall 2023 in response NASA's first ever Astrophysical Probe Explorer Mission call.

Research Highlights

Currently, I am one of the volunteers behind NASA's Imagine the Universe: Ask an Astrophysicist public outreach initiative. I also mentor undergraduate students who intern at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center thanks to partnerships with CRESST and Howard University.

During my PhD I enjoyed teaching undergraduate and graduate students basics of optical observations and data reduction with the use of telescopes at the Stanford Student Observatory. There, you often could have found me running public telescope observing and outreach sessions. My commitment to teaching has been recognized by the Department of Physics at Stanford. I also volunteered for and helped organize multiple mentorship programs for women in STEM at Stanford.

SLAC Accelerating Girls' Engagement in STEM summer camp visiting Stanford Student Observatory (August 2018).

Upcoming:

• Conference talk, KIPAC 20th anniversary meeting, Stanford, CA/online: TBD, September 2023

• Conference talk, High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy, Cambridge, MA: "Hot Milky Way halo seen in 1 Ms Chandra HETG observation of NGC 4051 over eight years: the power of self-consistent, Bayesian framework", August 2023
• Conference talk, AGN Winds on the Chesapeake, Easton, MD: "A deep, multi-epoch Chandra HETG study of the ionized outflow from NGC 4051", June 2023
• Conference talk, The 20th Divisional Meeting of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the AAS, Waikoloa Village, HI: “Mapping the hidden driver of galaxy evolution”, April 2023
• Conference talk, IAU symposium #378 Black hole winds at all scales, Haifa, Israel: “A deep, multi-epoch Chandra HETG study of the ionized outflow from NGC 4051”, March 2023
• Conference talk, The 240th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Pasadena, CA: “Constraining the power of X-ray wind in NGC 4051: a Bayesian approach”, June 2022
• KIPAC Tea Talk, Stanford, CA: "“Mapping the hidden drivers of galaxy evolution with LEM, a large-grasp X-ray microcalorimeter Probe”", May 2022
• Astrophysics Colloquium, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV: Uncovering the physics behind AGN feedback with high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, April 2022
• Conference talk, The 19th Divisional Meeting of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the AAS, Pittsburgh, PA: A deep, multi-epoch Chandra HETG study of the ionized outflow from NGC 4051, March 16th 2022
• Conference talk, 50 years astronomical X-ray spectroscopy in the Netherlands: A deep, multi-epoch Chandra HETG study of the ionized outflow from NGC 4051, January 2022
• Invited conference talk, Chandra Data Science: Novel Methods in Computing and Statistics for X-ray Astronomy: Constraining the power of X-ray wind in NGC 4051: a Bayesian approach, August 2021
• Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy VII, online poster: Constraining the power of X-ray wind in NGC 4051: a Bayesian approach, June 2021
• Galaxy Crawl seminar, University of Arizona, USA (online): Uncovering the physics behind AGN feedback with high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, May 2021
• AtomDB Workshop and Advanced Spectroscopy School, online poster talk: Constraining the power of X-ray wind in NGC 4051: a Bayesian approach, August 2020
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Doctoral Dissertation Award in Astrophysics finalist talk, American Physical Society April Meeting, Washington, DC, USA: Probing the Physics of AGN Feedback with High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy, online, April 2020
• Black Hole Initiative Colloquium, Harvard University, USA: Uncovering the physics behind AGN feedback with high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, November 2019
• Doctoral thesis defense, Stanford University, USA: Probing the physics of AGN feedback with high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, July 2019
• Conference poster, 17th High Energy Astrophysics Division Meeting, Monterrey, USA: Constraining the power of X-ray winds: a Bayesian approach , March 2019
• Rodger Doxsey Prize Dissertation talk, AAS 233rd Winter Meeting, Seattle, USA: Probing the physics of AGN feedback with high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, January 2019
• Institute seminar, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK: Insights into AGN feedback from high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, September 2018
• Lunch talk, Leiden Observatory, Netherlands : Insights into AGN feedback from high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, September 2018
• Conference posters, 15th Potsdam Thinkshop. The role of feedback in galaxy formation - from small-scale winds to large-scale outflows, Potsdam, Germany: Understanding wind-mode feedback in the X-ray brightest AGN and Using hot gas velocity measurements to probe AGN feedback in massive galaxies, September 2018
• Conference talk, SnowCluster 2018: Physics of Galaxy Clusters, Snowbird, USA: Using new hot gas velocity measurements to probe feedback in massive galaxies, March 2018
• Colloquium talk, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, Netherlands: Utilizing X-ray gas velocity measurements as a new probe of AGN feedback in giant elliptical galaxies, September 2017
• Conference talk, The power of X-ray spectroscopy, Warsaw, Poland: Probing hot gas velocity field in massive galaxies and galaxy clusters with resonant scattering in the era of high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, September 2017
• Conference talk, 16th High Energy Astrophysics Division Meeting, Sun Valley, USA: Utilizing X-ray gas velocity measurements as a new probe of AGN feedback in giant elliptical galaxies and Poster: Resonant scattering as a sensitive diagnostic of current collisional plasma models , August 2017
• Conference talk, The X-ray Universe, Rome, Italy: Using X-ray velocity measurements as a new probe of AGN feedback in massive galaxies, June 2017
• Conference poster, High Energy Density Laboratory Astrophysics, SLAC, USA: Resonant scattering measurements of turbulence in nearby elliptical galaxies, May 2016

Contact

I am always happy to chat about science, research, and outreach! You can reach me at anna.ogorzalek[at]nasa.gov or ogoann[at]umd.edu.