Eric Perlman, Ph.D.
Professor | Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences | Florida Tech
Melbourne, FL, UNITED STATES
Dr. Perlman is an observational astrophysicist whose research concentrates on the nuclei of galaxies.
Spotlight
Answers (4)
Areas of Expertise (6)
James Webb Space Telescope
Galactic Activity
Galactic Nuclei
Astrophysics
Black Holes
Astronomy
About
Dr. Eric Perlman is an observational astrophysicist whose research concentrates on the nuclei of galaxies, their physics and evolution, particularly those in which the central black hole has a large rate of accretion and is abnormally active (the so-called active galactic nuclei, or AGN).
He also specializes in the structure and physics of high-velocity outflows from compact objects and AGN, particularly, jets. He has a strong interest in clusters of galaxies, galactic activity in clusters and observational cosmology. He takes a multiwaveband approach to these subjects, and has worked in virtually every energy range from the radio through gamma-rays.
Dr. Perlman has, in the process of his research, received over $2 million in grants, including two 5-year NASA Long-Term Space Astrophysics Program grants, a 3-year NSF grant, and multiple smaller grants for observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory.
He is a member of the AGN science team for CanariCam, a first-light instrument for the Gran Telescopio Canarias, currently the largest ground-based optical/infrared telescope.
Dr. Perlman came to Florida Tech in 2007 after postdoctoral fellowships at Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute, as well as research staff and research faculty positions at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He maintains a large research group that includes a postdoctoral fellow as well as typically 3-4 graduate students and an equal number of undergraduate research assistants.
In his spare time, he enjoys chess, singing, Scrabble, playing with his kids, reading, photography and working out.
Research Focus (1)
A Multifaceted Astrophysicist
Dr. Perlman's research spans several areas of astrophysics, and my contributions in each have been strong, well cited and diverse. His main area of expertise is in the field of high-energy astrophysics, specifically the physics of active galaxies, where he has made important contributions to our knowledge of jets, the high-energy, relativistic flows that emerge from the central regions of the most powerful AGN. He has made critical contributions to the physical processes responsible for their emission, their response to stimuli and variability, and also made available a database of these objects. He has also done ground-breaking work on cosmology, including work at the very edge of physics and astrophysics, laying out the geometry and framework for tests of quantum gravity using astronomical observations of the most distant quasars, and on the distribution of clusters of galaxies in the local and distant universe. He parlayed these important accomplishments into two large chapters in graduate-level textbooks on extragalactic astrophysics, published during the last two years.
Media Assets
Publications:
Documents:
Videos:
Audio/Podcasts:
Media Appearances (6)
Are We There Yet? (space podcast)
WMFE Orlando radio
2022-07-12
The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope are out, revealing thousands of ancient galaxies, nebulae, and a close-up look at a planet outside our own solar system. The images are stunning and only just the beginning. We’ll break down this first batch of images with Florida Institute of Technology’s Eric Perlman and talk about what’s to come from this brand new observatory in the sky.
Impact of black hole winds, radiation examined in new study
Phys.org online
2022-03-31
"The impact of AGN outflows on the surface habitability of terrestrial planets in the Milky Way," published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is a research paper by the team of astrobiologist Manasvi Lingam and astrophysicist Eric Perlman from Florida Tech's Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, as well as researchers from the University of Rome, University of Maryland and Goddard Space Flight Center.
James Webb Space Telescope reaches orbit location, will start to unlock mysteries of the universe
WESH
2022-01-24
“These are galaxies and stars that we are seeing from 14 billion years ago. So it’s mind-blowing,” said Eric Perlman of Florida Tech.
NASA, ESA target Christmas morning launch of $10 billion telescope
Spectrum News tv
2021-12-22
More powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb is designed to peer back in time to about 100 million years after the Big Bang. “Hubble and all the other telescopes have been able to get us back to 600 or 700 million years after the Big Bang. But that 600 or 700 million years between the Big Bang and where Hubble has been able to get us to, a lot goes on,” said Dr. Eric Perlman, an astrophysicist at Florida Tech in Melbourne. “It’s a lot that we haven’t seen and it’s stuff that we need to learn about in order to figure out how it is that the universe came into being and came to be the way that we see it today.”
Hubble replacement telescope with much greater capabilities set for launch (guest column)
Florida Today print
2021-12-21
Importantly, unlike Hubble, JWST can observe in the infrared, and its angular resolution in the infrared improves on Hubble’s. Because the expansion of the universe moves the light from the earliest galaxies and stars into the infrared, JWST is uniquely able to view these objects. And JWST is a more powerful tool for observing exoplanets because the stars they orbit are fainter in the infrared, while the exoplanets are brighter.
Florida Tech Astrophysicist Eric Perlman Ready for Webb Telescope’s Answers on Black Hole, Exoplanets
Space Coast Daily News
2021-12-16
A fledgling astronomer since early childhood and now an accomplished astrophysicist at one of the country’s leading research institutions, Florida Tech’s Eric Perlman is excited about Dec. 24.
Education (2)
University of Colorado Boulder: Ph.D., Astrophysics 1994
Occidental College: A.B., Physics 1989
Links (2)
Selected Articles (5)
Probing Spacetime Foam with Extragalactic Sources of High-Energy Photons
arXiv:2205.128522022
The impact of AGN outflows on the surface habitability of terrestrial planets in the Milky Way Get access Arrow
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society2022
Light-curve Evolution of the Nearest Tidal Disruption Event: A Late-time, Radio-only Flare
The Astrophysical Journal2022
The Relativistic Jet Orientation and Host Galaxy of the Peculiar Blazar PKS 1413+135
The Astrophysical Journal2021
Affiliations (3)
- International X-ray Observatory Science Associates : Member
- AAS Working Group on Professional-Amateur Collaboration : Member
- CanariCam Science Team : Member
Social