Penn State has a large and active group pursuing observational and theoretical investigations in Extragalactic Astronomy. Current research programs include a wide range of topics in Active Galactic Nuclei (optical and X-ray surveys for quasars, broad and narrow absorption line systems in quasars, AGN spectral energy distributions, and properties of accretion disks), gamma-ray bursts, the distance scale, very deep X-ray surveys, interacting galaxies, the search for intracluster stars, and the evolution of X-ray properties of normal galaxies.

Penn State astronomers led the effort to obtain the deepest X-ray image of the sky, a 2 million second (over 23 days) Chandra exposure of the Hubble Deep Field, and have played a key role in the creation and execution of the SDSS Quasar Survey. The Mission Operations Center for NASA's Swift satellite, launched in 2004 and dedicated to the study of gamma-ray bursts, is located at Penn State; more than 20 Penn State scientists and students are involved in the study of these distant fireballs.

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• Quasar Absorption Line Research Group

• Sloan Digital Sky Survey Group
• Cosmological X-ray Surveys
• The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
• Dark Energy, Dark Matter and Antimatter Theories
• Cosmology with Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Hubble Constant Determinations and Intercluster Stars
• Active Galactic Nuclei