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Astronomy and Astrophysics

November 25, 2024
Professor J. Xavier Prochaska to deliver December 4 Kraw Lecture
The Kraw Lecture Series aims to help audiences better understand the big picture behind scientific research at UC Santa Cruz and the broader trends at play. This tradition continues with the December 4 talk on how artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating the scientific pursuit.
November 25, 2024
24 in 2024: list of most highly cited researchers includes UC Santa Cruz scientists and engineers
In a notable recognition of scholarly achievement, 24 scientists and engineers from UC Santa Cruz have earned a spot on the 2024 Highly Cited Researchers list, recently unveiled by Clarivate.
November 13, 2024
Team discovers ultra-massive galaxies in early Universe that challenge standard cosmology
An international team of astronomers has identified three ultra-massive galaxies—each nearly as massive as the Milky Way—already in place within the first billion years after the Big Bang. The discovery is surprising because it indicates that the formation of stars in the early Universe was far more efficient than previously thought, challenging current models of galaxy formation.
October 23, 2024
Ultra-small spectrometer yields the power of a 1,000 times bigger device
UC Santa Cruz researchers are designing new ways to make spectrometers that are ultra-small but still very powerful, to be used for anything from detecting disease to observing stars in distant galaxies
October 23, 2024
UC Santa Cruz receives NSF grant to transform diversity and inclusion in STEM graduate programs
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded nearly $1 million to researchers at UC Santa Cruz to advance equity and inclusion by fostering a more inclusive, culturally rich environment in STEM graduate programs.
October 15, 2024
Science Division debuts ‘degree-defining experiences’ drawing on UC Santa Cruz’s unique strengths
The Science Division has received a $1 million donation to begin a major new program on “degree-defining experiences.” The program will pilot 17 projects across campus that aim to profoundly inspire undergraduate students and fill them with the kind of optimism that forever changes how they see their time at UC Santa Cruz and their future careers.
October 15, 2024
Astronomy postdoc to develop technologies that mold starlight to better detect exoplanets
The Astronomy & Astrophysics Department welcomes postdoctoral scientist Emiel Por, who invents technologies that mold the starlight captured by ground- and space-based telescopes to improve imaging of planetary companions. His work will be supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation's 51 Pegasi b Fellowship program.
September 18, 2024
UC Santa Cruz astronomer delivers keynote speech for Mexico's National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies
The council chose Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz as the final speaker in the series, which leads up to the inauguration of Mexico's new president on October 1, in honor of his distinguished career and accomplishments that followed his public education and training in Mexico.
September 18, 2024
Santa Cruz Symphony opens new concert with music from professor
Despite his background in astrophysics former professor Martin Gaskell has always had a passion for music. This weekend the Santa Cruz Symphony will be opening their first concert of the season with one of Gaskell’s pieces.
September 17, 2024
2023 astronomy Ph.D. graduate honored for dissertation work, mentoring and leadership
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has honored recent UC Santa Cruz Ph.D. graduate Maggie Thompson for research "considered unusually important to astronomy."
September 17, 2024
A wobble from Mars could be sign of dark matter, new study finds
New simulations suggest that there are enough primordial black holes—potential dark matter candidates—in the universe for one to pass through the inner solar system every decade. The work builds upon an astrophysical theory that has growing popularity.
September 03, 2024
UC Santa Cruz research will harness advanced AI to better measure, predict climate-change impacts
Two UC Santa Cruz research projects designed to leverage advanced forms of artificial intelligence to improve how scientists measure and predict the effects of climate change have won funding from a $20 million investment by the National Science Foundation.
August 29, 2024
Scientists to study nearby galaxies for galactic-formation history, dark matter
At approximately 100,000 light years in diameter, the Milky Way's vastness and the broader, ever-changing dynamics of the cosmos defy any attempt to fully understand our home galaxy and its history. UC Santa Cruz astronomer Puragra "Raja" GuhaThakurta sums up this dilemma in more familiar and figurative terms: "We simply don’t have a selfie stick long enough to take those kinds of photos."
August 09, 2024
Annual event at Lick Observatory links modern astronomy to native perspectives
In collaboration with the UC Santa Cruz American Indian Resource Center, the University of California Observatories (UCO) recently hosted the second annual Native Star Stories Night at Lick Observatory. Held this year on May 9, the special event is intended to show that this traditional way of engaging with the cosmos remains as relevant and valuable today to indigenous communities as it was thousands of years ago.
July 09, 2024
UC Santa Cruz astrophysicists honored for advancing research on the mysterious FRB
Fast radio bursts are sudden flashes of radio waves coming from random parts of the sky. Each one is on only for a few milliseconds, but they are extraordinarily bright: In those few milliseconds, they put out more energy than our sun does in an entire year. We also know that they come from objects in distant galaxies, sometimes billions of light years away.
June 13, 2024
Ph.D. student leads effort to open Kosovo's first observatory
Earth’s newest observatory will open to the public on June 20, 2024, coinciding with the summer solstice, thanks in large part to a UC Santa Cruz student from Kosovo who discovered her love of astronomy as a child amidst the chaos of the country’s brutal war for independence over 20 years ago.
May 30, 2024
Earliest, most distant galaxy discovered with James Webb Space Telescope
An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of the two earliest and most distant galaxies yet confirmed, dating back to only 300 million years after the Big Bang.
May 23, 2024
New exoplanets catalog showcases diverse, exotic worlds
Our understanding of exoplanets, those strange worlds that orbit stars beyond our solar system, is now broader and deeper thanks to separate studies published this week featuring the work of researchers at UC Santa Cruz.
April 17, 2024
UC Santa Cruz ‘Shadow the Scientists’ program honored for astronomical DEI efforts
A science-inclusion program based at UC Santa Cruz that has allowed thousands of school-age children, educators, and inquisitive individuals to look through world-class telescopes alongside trained astronomers has been honored for opening up scientific exploration to those from underrepresented backgrounds around the world.
April 04, 2024
First results from DESI make the most precise measurement of our expanding universe
We now have the largest 3-D map of our cosmos ever created, thanks to DESI—a powerful instrument mounted atop a telescope in Arizona with a robotic array of 5,000 fiber-optic “eyes” that look into the night sky.
April 02, 2024
The Science Division announces recipients of Distinguished Alumni Awards
Dr. José de Jesús González, Dr. Maximiliano Mateo Cuevas, and Dr. Charles A. Lawson are this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipients for the Science Division.
February 26, 2024
The Center for Creative Ecologies presents "Nuclear Nows: Contemporary Art, Radiation, and Militarized Ecologies”
This two-part symposium is the work of Zoe Weldon-Yochim, a Ph.D. Candidate in Visual Studies, in collaboration with T.J. Demos, Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture and Director of the Center for Creative Ecologies, and will discuss the intersection of contemporary art, militarized ecologies, and nuclear nationalism.
February 13, 2024
UC Santa Cruz Physicist Joel Primack wins 2024 AAAS Abelson Prize
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has awarded the prestigious 2024 Philip Hauge Abelson Prize to Joel R. Primack, distinguished professor of physics emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz and a key architect of the Cold Dark Matter theory.
January 18, 2024
Students search for hidden black hole activity
When stars get too close to the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, the black holes shred them apart in a process called a tidal disruption event (TDE). These TDEs cause bright flashes, but recent models suggest that scientists should see more of them than have been observed.