University of Hawaii
Institute for Astronomy

J. Patrick Henry

Professor and Astronomer
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1974
henry@ifa.hawaii.edu

Cosmology

Research Description

My collaborators include X-ray astronomers around the world. We investigate the origin and evolution of large-scale structure in the universe as elucidated by clusters of galaxies. We construct samples of distant clusters of galaxies identified by their X-ray emission. Such samples should be less prone to a bias that may exist in optically selected catalogs. This work requires a synthesis of space and ground-based observations. In recent years we have constrained the dark matter and dark energy density parameters of the universe from the cluster temperature function at moderate redshift.

I am also interested in physical processes occurring in clusters of galaxies. We have made temperature, pressure and entropy maps of bright nearby clusters of galaxies and recently extended these maps to the cluster virial radius. We have also made some of the first high spectral resolution absorption measurements against background AGNs that show the velocity distribution of warm gas associated with the cluster.

Awards

1969 National Fellow from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation
2003 Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany
2007 Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from La Salle University, Philadelphia
2008 Rossi Prize from the High Energy Division of the American Astronomical Society
2011 Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research from the University of Hawaii