Professor Or Graur
Biography
I am a Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, as well as a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History and an Honorary Associate Professor at University College London.
In 2013, I received my PhD in Physics and Astronomy from Tel-Aviv University. I then held two postdoctoral research positions at The Johns Hopkins University (2013-2014) and New York University (2014-2016), before moving to the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian as an independent National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2020).
Research interests
I study supernovae - the explosions of stars - as well as other transient astrophysical phenomena. I use observations (images and spectra) obtained with ground- and space-based observatories and large-scale spectroscopic surveys (such as SDSS and DESI). I am specifically interested in uncovering the nature of the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae, studying these supernovae when they are several years old, and conducting population studies of supernovae in general. I am also working on discovering and characterizing tidal disruption events - flares caused by stars that are ripped apart by super-massive black holes - and the galaxies in which they occur. I am also interested in the multicultural mythology of the Milky Way.
Research outputs
2026
Data Release 1 of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Collaboration, D., Karim, M. A., Adame, A. G., Aguado, D., Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., Alam, S., Aldering, G., Alexander, D. M., Alfarsy, R., Allen, L., Prieto, C. A., Alves, O., Anand, A., Andrade, U., Armengaud, E.,
13 Apr 2026, In: The Astronomical Journal. 171, 5, 34p., 285
Research output: Article
Photometry and Spectroscopy of SN 2024pxl: A Luminosity Link Among Type Iax Supernovae
Singh, M., Kwok, L. A., Jha, S. W., Dastidar, R., Larison, C., Filippenko, A. V., Andrews, J. E., Andrews, M., Anupama, G. C., Arunachalam, P., Auchettl, K., BÁnhidi, D., Barna, B., Bostroem, K. A., Brink, T. G.,
9 Mar 2026, In: The Astrophysical Journal. 999, 2, 26p., 227
Research output: Article
The Remarkable Late-time Flux Excess in Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Type Iax Supernova 2012Z
Schwab, M., Kwok, L. A., Jha, S. W., McCully, C., Graur, O., Foley, R. J., Camacho-Neves, Y., Newman, M. J. B., Larison, C., Sears, H.
13 Feb 2026, In: The Astrophysical Journal. 998, 2, 10p., 240
Research output: Article
2025
TiDES: The 4MOST Time Domain Extragalactic Survey
Frohmaier, C., Vincenzi, M., Sullivan, M., Hönig, S. F., Smith, M., Addison, H., Collett, T., Dimitriadis, G., Ellis, R. S., Gandhi, P., Graur, O., Hook, I., Kelsey, L., Kim, Y. L., Lidman, C., Maguire, K.,
10 Oct 2025, In: The Astrophysical Journal. 992, 1, 18p., 158
Research output: Article
The La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey
Miller, A. A., Abrams, N. S., Aldering, G., Anand, S., Angus, C. R., Arcavi, I., Baltay, C., Bauer, F. E., Brethauer, D., Bloom, J. S., Bommireddy, H., Catelan, M., Chornock, R., Clark, P., Collett, T. E.,
29 Sep 2025, In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 137, 9, 30p., 094204
Research output: Article
Effect of Positronium on the γ-Ray Spectra and Energy Deposition in Type Ia Supernovae
Dutta, A., Fullard, A., Kerzendorf, W., O'Brien, J. T., Powers, C., Sim, S. A., Flörs, A., Graur, O.
3 Sep 2025, In: The Astrophysical Journal. 990, 2, 12p., 129
Research output: Article
JWST and ground-based observations of the type Iax Supernovae SN 2024pxl and SN 2024vjm: evidence for weak deflagration explosions
Kwok, L. A., Singh, M., Jha, S. W., Blondin, S., Dastidar, R., Larison, C., Miller, A. A., Andrews, J. E., Andrews, M., Anupama, G. C., Auchettl, K., Bánhidi, D., Barna, B., Bostroem, K. A., Brink, T. G.,
13 Aug 2025, In: The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 989, 2, 24p., L33
Research output: Article
AT 2018dyk: tidal disruption event or active galactic nucleus? Follow-up observations of an extreme coronal line emitter with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Clark, P., Callow, J., Graur, O., Greenwell, C., Hu, L., Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., Bianchi, D., Brooks, D., Claybaugh, T., Dawson, K., Macorra, A. d. l., Doel, P., Gontcho, S. G. A., Gutierrez, G., Honscheid, K.,
24 May 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 540, 1, p. 871-906
Research output: Article
The CASTOR mission
Côté, P., Woods, T. E., Hutchings, J. B., Rhodes, J. D., Sánchez-Janssen, R., Scott, A. D., Pazder, J., Amenouche, M., Balogh, M., Blouin, S., Cournoyer, A., Drout, M. R., Kuzmin, N., Mack, K. J., Ferrarese, L.,
14 May 2025, In: Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems. 11, 04, 37p., 042202
Research output: Article
The rate of extreme coronal line emitters in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey LOWZ sample
Callow, J., Graur, O., Clark, P., Kim, A. G., O'Connor, B., Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., Bianchi, D., Brooks, D., Macorra, A. d. l., Dey, A., Doel, P., Forero-Romero, J. E., Gaztañaga, E., Gontcho, S. G. A.,
1 May 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 539, 1, p. 231-245
Research output: Article