Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy

Welcome to the CEA

Foundation

The renaissance of observational astronomy and cosmology in the Department of Physics at Durham University dates from the mid-1970s. This activity has grown substantially in the decades since and we are now one of the largest astronomy groups in the UK and Europe, hosting world-class activities in observational extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, encompassing the formation and evolution of galaxies, clusters and large scale structure.

To mark the fortieth anniversary of that renaissance and to recognise the scale of the observational research activity at Durham, in 2015 we founded the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy (CEA). Together with the associated astronomy research centres focusing on theoretical and instrumentation development, the CEA provides a rich research environment to enhance productivity by fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Durham's astronomers and cosmologists are consistently ranked among the world's most highly cited researchers in space science — Professors David Alexander, Carlos Frenk, Adrian Jenkins, Tom Theuns and the late Richard Bower all feature on Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list.

Mission

Observational astronomy and astrophysics is the fundamental foundation of our understanding of the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies, black holes and large-scale structure in the Universe. The Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy’s core mission is to extend society’s knowledge and understanding of the Universe we inhabit.

We achieve this by supporting our internationally-leading staff to pursue innovative research programmes and to exploit these to train the next generation of world class early-stage researchers. The expertise of our staff encompasses the key observational techniques needed to develop and exploit the next generation of multi-wavelength surveys for galaxies, black holes and large-scale structure, and the detailed study of their properties.

Research Programme

The CEA's research programme makes extensive use of the world's forefront observational facilities to test advanced theoretical models of galaxy and structure formation developed in Durham. We utilise the largest ground-based optical and near-infrared telescopes including those in Chile, Hawaii, Australia and the Canary Islands, and we have been particularly successful at obtaining time on the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Our work extends across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio surveys with LOFAR and the SKA, through X-ray observations with Chandra, XMM-Newton and eROSITA, to gamma-ray studies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array.

We also closely interact with staff in the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation to aid the development and commissioning of instrumentation purpose-built for studies relevant to this area. In addition we pursue a number of common projects on galaxy formation, large-scale structure and the nature of the cosmic dark matter with theoretical research staff within the Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) at Durham.