Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Temperamental supernova appeared strangely cool before exploding
A curiously yellow star has caused astrophysicists to reevaluate the possible pathways that can lead to the explosion of a massive star as a supernova.
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James Webb Space Telescope program aims to map the earliest structures of the universe
COSMOS-Webb is slated to be the largest program in JWST’s first year of operation.
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Baked meteorites yield clues to planetary atmospheres
The gases released from meteorite samples heated in a high-temperature furnace can tell scientists about the initial composition of the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets.
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Study warns of ‘oxygen false positives’ in search for signs of life on other planets
Oxygen in the atmosphere may not be an entirely reliable ‘biosignature,’ but there are ways to distinguish false positives from signs of life.
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Postdoctoral fellowships support planetary science research
Emily Martin and Melodie Kao have won 51 Pegasi b Fellowships to support their research on exoplanets.
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Celestial heights and oceanic depths
Two of UC Santa Cruz’s most prominent trailblazers in science, astronomer Sandra Faber and alumna and former astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, spoke of risks, discoveries, and sexism in candid “fireside chat” during a Science and Engineering Library floor-naming event.
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What Hollywood gets wrong (and right!) about protecting the Earth from asteroids
Meet alumna Kirsten Howley, the real-life astrophysicist working to prevent ‘Armageddon’.
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Astronomer J. Xavier Prochaska honored for top research paper in Science
J. Xavier Prochaska, distinguished professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, and his coauthors of a landmark paper describing a fast radio burst from a massive galaxy have been chosen to receive the prestigious AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize.
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Two UCSC astronomers elected Fellows of the American Astronomical Society
Astronomers Raja GuhaThakurta and Garth Illingworth were honored as 2021 AAS Fellows for their extraordinary achievement and service.
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UCSC’s Osterbrock Leadership Program goes national
The National Osterbrock Leadership Program provides experiences and opportunities for astronomy graduate students to develop leadership and management skills.
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Friends of Lick Observatory helps fund wildfire recovery efforts
The group has designated $75,000 for the emergency support of wildfire relief efforts at Lick Observatory, where telescopes were saved but infrastructure was damaged.
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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.