News: Faculty

‘An exhilarating period for science,’ say UChicago scientists who played key role in telescope design and deployment

The NRAO awarded the 2026 Karl G. Jansky Lectureship to Professor John E. Carlstrom, Chair and Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Physics. The Jansky Lectureship is an honor established by the trustees of AUI to recognize and celebrate outstanding contributions to the advancement of radio astronomy.

The cosmic microwave background is the faint residual light from the very beginnings of the universe. It’s often referred to as the afterglow of the Big Bang. 

At over 13 billion years old, it is the oldest light in the universe—which makes it a tantalizing object of study for scientists seeking clues about our origins.

Astrophysicist leads launch of NASA balloon to detect high-energy particles from the cosmos

Finding reveals how starlight drives surprising chemistry, offers new way to study alien atmospheres

Study led by UChicago researchers uses bending by gravity of the oldest light in the universe to map the intervening structure

UChicago scientists offer new way to read atmospheric data on a vast class of 'sub-Neptune' worlds

Detection by Askaryan Radio Array holds promise for future research into sources, nature of cosmic rays and neutrinos

On trip to Chilean telescope, UChicago undergrad class sheds new light on evolution of earliest stars

Still in its original galaxy, a rare holdout from the second generation of stars sheds new light on the origins of the elements—and how massive supernovae reshaped the cosmos

Unique UChicago-led instrument PUEO caught a ride aboard a NASA balloon in search of high-energy neutrinos

XRISM satellite allows UChicago scientists to directly detect turbulence driven by Perseus, M87 black holes

Donald G. York, an astronomer with the University of Chicago who helped revolutionize the field as a co-founder of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and made pioneering contributions to the study of the interstellar and intergalactic mediums, died Dec. 26 at the age of 81.  

Faraway planet defies our understanding of planet formation, say UChicago scientists

A new technique gives astronomers — and the public — a different look at some of the largest objects in the universe. Developed using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory data, “X-arithmetic” classifies galaxy clusters and groups by their nature rather than appearance.