D. Starkey

Papers

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About

D. Starkey is an astrophysicist whose research focuses on active galactic nuclei (AGN) and the dynamics of supermassive black hole accretion flows. Their most cited work, "Robotic reverberation mapping of the broad-line radio galaxy 3C 120" (2020, 11 citations), exemplifies their key contribution: using robotic telescope networks to perform reverberation mapping—a technique that measures the time delay between variations in the accretion disk’s continuum emission and the response of broad emission lines, thereby probing the geometry and kinematics of gas near the black hole. By leveraging the Las Cumbres Observatory global robotic network, Starkey demonstrated how automated, long-baseline observations can overcome traditional scheduling limitations, enabling continuous monitoring of AGN variability. This work, part of the LCO AGN Key Project, has advanced our understanding of how matter flows into and is ejected from active black holes, particularly in radio-loud systems like 3C 120. Starkey’s research is notable for bridging observational astronomy with innovative robotic instrumentation, offering a scalable method for future reverberation mapping campaigns. Their findings have implications for black hole mass measurements and the physics of relativistic jets, making them a rising figure in time-domain astrophysics.