AURA Board Chair University of Toledo Karen Bjorkman received a B.S. in Physics from Univ. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Univ. Colorado, Boulder. She was a staff scientist at Univ. Wisconsin, Madison for 7 years before moving to Univ. of Toledo, where she rose through the faculty ranks. There […]
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University of Oxford Roger Davies started his research in Cambridge and spent 6 years at NOAO in Tucson, Arizona. He worked out a new way of measuring the distances to galaxies and discovered the “Great Attractor”, a huge concentration of galaxy clusters in the southern sky. He moved to Oxford in 1988 to lead the […]
Carnegie Science and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Leopoldo Infante is a staff scientist at Carnegie Science and a full professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). He earned his physics degree at PUC and his PhD at the University of Victoria, Canada. Infante directs Las Campanas Observatory and founded multiple astrophysics programs […]
SOC Chair University of Colorado, Boulder Dr. Emily CoBabe-Ammann is the Senior Advisor and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Colorado, serving as the Chief Research Strategist to develop new research directions that align with national interests and priorities. She is currently the Acting Executive Associate Director for the Center for […]
University of Texas Daniel Jaffe is the Vice President for Research and Jane and Roland Blumberg Professor in the Department of Astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin. As Vice President, he oversees the University’s research infrastructure and several of its interdisciplinary centers and institutes including the Applied Research Laboratory, the Oden Institute, the […]
The Dark Energy Camera captures an image of the dazzling Coma Cluster, named after the hair of Queen Berenice II of Egypt. Not only significant in Greek mythology, this collection of galaxies was also fundamental to the discovery of the existence of dark matter. The theory emerged in 1937 when Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky noticed that the Coma Cluster galaxies behaved as if they were under the influence of vast amounts of unobservable ‘dark’ matter.
Made famous in 1995 by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Pillars of Creation in the heart of the Eagle Nebula have captured imaginations worldwide with their arresting, ethereal beauty.
A festive array of bright pinks and blues makes for a remarkable sight in this image captured with the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. Resembling a cloud of cosmic confetti, this image is being released in celebration of Gemini North’s 25th anniversary. NGC 4449 is a prime example of starburst activity caused by the interacting and mingling of galaxies as it slowly absorbs its smaller galactic neighbors.
Since the very first instant after the Big Bang the Universe has been expanding. This means that the early Universe was considerably smaller and early-formed galaxies were more likely to interact and merge. Galaxy mergers fuel the formation of quasars — extremely luminous galactic cores where gas and dust falling into a central supermassive black hole emit enormous amounts of light. So when looking back at the early Universe astronomers would expect to find numerous pairs of quasars in close proximity to each other as their host galaxies undergo mergers. However, they have been surprised to find exactly none — until now.
The fund is connected to the upcoming start of operations of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and will be administered by the Fund Management Office of the Department of Astronomy of the University of Chile. Distribution will run from May 30 to July 29, 2024.
Over the last two years, scientists have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called Webb or JWST) to explore what astronomers refer to as Cosmic Dawn – the period in the first few hundred million years after the big bang where the first galaxies were born. These galaxies provide vital insight into the ways in which the gas, stars, and black holes were changing when the universe was very young. In October 2023 and January 2024, an international team of astronomers used Webb to observe galaxies as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program. Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph), they obtained a spectrum of a record-breaking galaxy observed only two hundred and ninety million years after the big bang.
The largest camera ever built for astrophysics has completed the long journey from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California to the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile, where it will soon help unlock the Universe’s mysteries.
On a bright April morning in Tucson, Arizona, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy’s (AURA) Annual Meeting kicked off. Held annually, the meeting brings together representatives from AURA’s 52 member institutions to interact with AURA leadership, Center Directors, and staff. The Member Representatives hear updates from each Center and AURA Corporate, vote on slates for governance positions, and discuss current issues in astronomy.
The first stars to form in the universe were very different from our Sun. Known to astronomers (somewhat paradoxically) as Population III, or Pop III, stars, they were made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. They are believed to have been much larger, hotter, and more massive than our Sun. As a result, Pop III stars use their fuel more quickly and have shorter lifespans.
The dark, dusty cometary globule known as CG 4 is spotlighted in this image from the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. How these hard-to-detect clouds get their distinctive structure is still unclear, but astronomers speculate that it’s a consequence of the hot, massive stars that surround them.
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