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2020 Astro and Planets

December 21, 2020
Steven Ritz stepping down after 10 years as director of particle physics institute
Jason Nielsen, professor of physics, will take over as director of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP) in the new year.
November 16, 2020
UC Santa Cruz leads interdisciplinary consortium for astrobiology research
With funding from NASA, the UCSC-led team will lay the foundation for detecting the signatures of life in the atmospheres of other planets.
November 10, 2020
Radioactive elements may be crucial to the habitability of rocky planets
Earth-size planets can have varying amounts of radioactive elements, which generate internal heat that drives a planet’s geological activity and magnetism.
October 15, 2020
Anemic star cluster breaks metal-poor record
In a surprising discovery, astronomers have found a globular star cluster in the Andromeda galaxy that contains a record-breaking low amount of metals.
September 22, 2020
Astrophysicist Jonathan Fortney awarded 2020 Farinella Prize
Jonathan Fortney has been awarded the 2020 Paolo Farinella Prize from the Europlanet Society for his contributions to the understanding of the structure, evolution, and atmospheric dynamics of giant planets.
August 26, 2020
New observations of black hole devouring a star reveal rapid disk formation
The first clear confirmation of accretion disk formation in a tidal disruption event without x-ray emissions supports theoretical predictions.
August 20, 2020
UC’s Lick Observatory threatened by fire
Residences on Mt. Hamilton sustained some damage, but fire crews have so far been able to protect the observatory’s telescope domes and visitor center.
August 05, 2020
Calcium-rich supernova examined with x-rays for first time
An international team has obtained unprecedented observations of a rare calcium-rich supernova.
July 16, 2020
How galaxies die: New insights into the quenching of star formation
A simple model explains a wide range of observations by describing a contest between galaxy halos and their central black holes that eventually turns off star formation.
July 15, 2020
Astrophysics graduate student Diana Powell wins 2020 Ford Fellowship
Powell won a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship to support her work as she completes her Ph.D. thesis on exoplanets.
July 06, 2020
White dwarfs reveal new insights into the origin of carbon in the universe
A new analysis of white dwarf stars supports their role as a key source of carbon, an element crucial to all life, in the Milky Way and other galaxies.
June 22, 2020
Evidence supports ‘hot start’ scenario and early ocean formation on Pluto
A new study suggests that Pluto and other large Kuiper belt objects started out with liquid oceans which have been slowly freezing over time.
June 01, 2020
Detection of Crab Nebula shows viability of innovative gamma-ray telescope
A new prototype telescope opens doors for future discoveries at the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array.
May 28, 2020
Physicist Tesla Jeltema wins Mentorship Award from American Physical Society
An accomplished astrophysicist, Jeltema is also a champion for diversity and a dedicated supporter of students at all levels.
May 27, 2020
Universe’s ‘missing matter’ finally found in the space between galaxies
An international team of astronomers has solved the decades-old mystery of the ‘missing matter’ long predicted to exist in the universe but never before detected.
May 26, 2020
Astronomers create cloud atlas for hot, Jupiter-like exoplanets
Giant planets in our solar system and circling other stars have exotic clouds unlike anything on Earth, and the gas giants orbiting close to their stars—so called hot Jupiters—boast the most extreme.
May 20, 2020
Astronomers discover a massive rotating disk galaxy in the early universe
The discovery by an international team of astronomers of a massive rotating disk galaxy, seen when the universe was only ten percent of its current age, challenges traditional models of galaxy formation.
May 12, 2020
Powerful new AI technique detects and classifies galaxies in astronomy image data
UCSC researchers developed a deep-learning framework called Morpheus to perform pixel-level morphological classifications of objects in astronomical images.
April 27, 2020
Planetary scientist Francis Nimmo elected to National Academy of Sciences
Francis Nimmo, professor of Earth and planetary sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
April 23, 2020
Astronomer Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Other new members of the class of 2020 include singer Joan Baez, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and poet and playwright Claudia Rankine.
April 14, 2020
Planetary scientist Myriam Telus wins NASA Early Career Award
Myriam Telus, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, has received funding from NASA through the Planetary Science Early Career Award program to support her research in cosmochemistry, the chemical analysis of extraterrestrial materials.
April 13, 2020
New formation theory explains the mysterious interstellar object ‘Oumuamua
A new scenario based on computer simulations accounts for all of the observed characteristics of the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system.
April 02, 2020
Physics undergraduate wins prestigious Goldwater Scholarship
Elizabeth Yunerman, a junior studying physics and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, has been named a 2020 Goldwater Scholar by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.
March 26, 2020
Postdoctoral fellowship supports planetary science research
Elizabeth Bailey has won a 51 Pegasi b Fellowship from the Heising-Simons Foundation for research at UC Santa Cruz on exoplanets and the formation of planetary systems.
March 16, 2020
In Memoriam: Lloyd Robinson (1929–2020)
Lloyd Burdette Robinson died peacefully in his sleep on March 12, 2020. He was 90.
March 11, 2020
UCSC thin-film expertise to help develop NASA’s next generation of space telescopes
Engineer Nobuhiko Kobayashi's expertise in thin-film technology could improve the performance of NASA’s next generation of space telescopes.
March 10, 2020
Astronomers use slime mold model to reveal dark threads of the cosmic web
The problem-solving prowess of a simple slime mold has been harnessed to trace the large-scale structure of the universe.
February 24, 2020
Heising-Simons Foundation supports exoplanet imaging projects at UC Santa Cruz
Three new grants totaling $2.4 million will fund work at UCSC on new instruments and technologies to support research on planets beyond our solar system.
February 11, 2020
Bringing new perspectives to astronomy
An array of grants from the Heising-Simons Foundation is helping UC Santa Cruz accelerate astrophysics and other sciences while changing what we think an astrophysicist looks like
January 10, 2020
Astronomer Sandra Faber awarded Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal
The Royal Astronomical Society has awarded its Gold Medal in Astronomy to Sandra Faber, professor emerita of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.
January 08, 2020
$1 million gift creates William Wallace Campbell Director’s Fund for Lick Observatory
A new endowment honoring the third director of Lick Observatory will support current and future directors’ priorities for the observatory.