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MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Established1963
Field of research
Astrophysics
Address70 Vassar Street
LocationCambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Operating agency
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Websitewww.space.mit.edu

The MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI) is a research institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The center has designed experiments and spacecraft instruments for major NASA missions since the 1970s and supports 180 scientists and 37 faculty members. Since 2018, the institute has been directed by Robert A. Simcoe.[1]

History

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In May 1963, the MIT Center for Space Research (CSR) was founded by George W. Clark, a professor of physics who played a major role in the discovery of celestial Gamma ray sources, with the support of a NASA research grant.[2] He was joined by Bruno Rossi, who led the RaLa Experiment on the Manhattan Project prior to joining MIT in 1946.

Beginning in the early 1970s, the CSR at MIT designed spacecraft instruments for NASA missions to study the Sun, Earth's magnetosphere, astronomical X-rays, and interplanetary plasma, including on the Voyager program.[3]

In 2004, the Kavli Foundation made a large donation to produce an institute merging the CSR with MIT's Division for Astrophysics. The resulting research center centralizes astronomy and space research across MIT departments spanning physics, atmospheric and planetary science, and aerospace.

Research

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The institute has built instruments as a NASA partner for missions including the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS),[4] Chandra X-ray Observatory,[5] and the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). The institute also hosts MIT's research on gravitational waves, including through the LIGO experiment for which MIT Prof. Rainer Weiss received the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.

TESS

MKI supports international observatories and provided 3 instruments, including the Large Lenslet Array Magellan Spectrograph (LLAMAS), for the Magellan Telescopes in Chile. It also supports development of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) in South Africa with funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF).[6]

As of 2025, research at the institute focuses on dark matter detection, exoplanet surveys, black holes and gravitational waves, evolution and reionization of the early universe, and theoretical astrophysics.[7]

Directors

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No. Director Start End Notes
1 John V. Harrington 1963 1973 Inaugural director[8]
2 John F. McCarthy Jr. 1973 1978 [9]
3 Gordon Pettengill 1984 1989
4 Claude R. Canizares 1990 2002 Later served as MIT Associate Provost and VP of Research
5 Jacqueline Hewitt 2002 2019 Led CSR through establishment of MIT Kavli Institute in 2004
6 Robert A. Simcoe 2019 present

List of Missions

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Start End Instrument(s)/Experiment(s) Mission Status
1961 1961 Faraday cup plasma experiment Explorer 10 Complete
1975 1975 X-ray detectors for source localization SAS-3 Complete
1977 — Plasma Science Experiment (VPLS) Voyager 1 Active
1977 — Plasma Science Experiment (VPLS) Voyager 2 Active
1978 1978 Focal Plane Crystal Spectrometer Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2) Complete
1993 2001 Solid State Imaging Spectrometer (SIS) Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (Astro-D) Complete
1995 2018 All Sky Monitor (ASM); data system RXTE Complete
1999 — ACIS; HETG instruments Chandra X-ray Observatory Active
2000 2006 Wide-field X-ray & gamma-ray detectors HETE-2 Complete
2017 — Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer NICER Active
2018 — 4 wide-field CCD cameras TESS Active

References

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  1. ^ "Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research". Kavli Foundation. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  2. ^ Harrington, John V. (1965). NASA University Program Review Conference. Scientific and Technical Information Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. pp. 93–99. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  3. ^ "About". MIT Kavli Institute. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  4. ^ Sit, Evro Wee; Walber, Chad; Walter, Patrick; Wicks, Alfred (7 August 2025). Sensors and Instrumentation, Aircraft/Aerospace and Energy Harvesting , Volume 8: Proceedings of the 36th IMAC, A Conference and Exposition on Structural Dynamics 2018 (Chapter 15 ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-040-60338-3.
  5. ^ Sun, Carrie (11 February 2025). Private Equity: A Memoir. Penguin Group. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-593-65501-6. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  6. ^ The Economist. Economist Newspaper Limited. 2012. p. 81. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  7. ^ "MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research". MIT Course Catalog. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  8. ^ "John Harrington PhD '58, first director of the MIT Center for Space Research, dies at 90". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 15 December 2009. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  9. ^ "John F. McCarthy - NASA". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved 17 December 2025.

42°21′39″N 71°05′35″W / 42.360826°N 71.093167°W / 42.360826; -71.093167 (MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research)