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Title
Associate Professor
Education
Ph.D., Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, 1985
M.M., Music, Catholic University of America, 2001
B.S., Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1977
Previous Experience
Before coming to UMBC in 1999, I was an associate professor at the University of North Dakota and visiting assistant professor at UCLA. After graduate school, I was a post-doc at the Space Telescope Science Institute and worked on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Professional Interests
My research field of interest is high energy astrophysics. In particular, I study the formation of large scale structure in the Universe: galaxy clusters, superclusters, and filaments. Structure formation involves energetic collisions of massive objects that produce a ~100 million Kelvin plasma as well as relativistic protons and electrons. These in turn produce a characteristic X-ray signature that I use to study the physics of structure formation.
Selected Publications
“Hard X-ray Emission from the NGC 5044 Group", Henriksen, M.J., 2011, ApJ, 726, 9.
“The X-ray View of Abell 3120”, Henriksen, M. & Finoguenov A., 2009, ApJ, 701, 122.
“A Puzzling Merger in A3266: The Hydrodynamic Picture from XMM-Newton ", Finoguenov, A., Henriksen, M., Miniati, F.; Briel, U. G.; Jones, C, 2006, ApJ, 643, 790.
“Cluster Mergers, Core Oscillations, and Cold Fronts ", Tittley, E.,& Henriksen, M., 2005, ApJ, 618, 227.
“XMM-Newton Study of A3562 and Its Immediate Shapley Environs ", Finoguenov, A., Henriksen, M., Briel, U. G., de Plaa, J., Kaastra, J. S, 2004, ApJ, 611, 811
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This X-ray image shows a comet-like blob of gas about five million
light-years long hurtling through a distant galaxy cluster at over 500
miles per second (nearly 1,000 km/s). The comet is confined to the orange
regions in this image. The head is the lower right, with reddish areas.
The tail fans outward because there is less pressure to confine it.
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Research