Science
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Astronomer Sandra Faber awarded Harvard Centennial Medal
Sandra Faber, University Professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been awarded the Centennial Medal of the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). The Centennial Medal, first awarded in 1989 on the 100th anniversary of the GSAS, honors alumni for contributions to society that have emerged…
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Study shows earthquake shaking triggers aftershocks
A new analysis of earthquake data indicates that aftershocks are triggered by the shaking associated with the mainshock, rather than by the added stress on nearby faults resulting from rearrangement of the Earth’s crust. The triggering of aftershocks by shaking may seem obvious, but is in fact a surprising result, said Emily Brodsky, assistant professor…
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Long Marine Lab’s annual Whale of an Auction set for Friday, June 23
The Friends of Long Marine Lab will hold the 21st annual “Whale of an Auction,” the group’s popular annual fundraiser, on Friday, June 23. The event will take place at Porter College on the UC Santa Cruz campus, starting at 6 p.m. A social and gastronomic occasion as well as an auction, the evening includes…
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Saturn’s moon Enceladus may have rolled over to put a hot spot at the pole
Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn, may have dramatically reoriented relative to its axis of rotation, rolling over to put an area of low density at the moon’s south pole. According to a new study, this reorientation process could explain the polar location of a region where NASA’s Cassini spacecraft recently observed icy jets…
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Two geographic sites in Antarctica named in honor of UCSC biologists
Costa Spur and Terrie Bluff, once nameless features of the austere Antarctic landscape, have now been officially named in honor of Daniel Costa and Terrie Williams, professors of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Both scientists have done extensive field research on marine mammals in Antarctica. The U.S. Board on…
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Stephen Thorsett named dean of physical and biological sciences at UCSC
The University of California, Santa Cruz, has appointed Stephen Thorsett to serve as dean of the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences. The UC Board of Regents approved the appointment today, effective July 1. Stephen Thorsett Photo by Andrea Michels Thorsett, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, has served as acting dean of physical and…
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Seismologists detect a sunken slab of ocean floor deep in the Earth
Halfway to the center of the Earth, at the boundary between the core and the mantle, lies a massive folded slab of rock that once formed the ocean floor and sank beneath North America some 50 million years ago. A team of seismologists led by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, detected the…
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Hubble surveys find gamma-ray bursts and supernovae in different environments
Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are associated with the deaths of only the most massive stars and occur relatively rarely in spiral galaxies such as our own Milky Way, according to research published online in Nature this week. That’s good news, because a nearby gamma-ray burst could wreak havoc on Earth by destroying the ozone layer…
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New capture scenario explains origin of Neptune’s oddball moon Triton
Neptune’s large moon Triton may have abandoned an earlier partner to arrive in its unusual orbit around Neptune. Triton is unique among all the large moons in the solar system because it orbits Neptune in a direction opposite to the planet’s rotation (a “retrograde” orbit). It is unlikely to have formed in this configuration and…