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"Finding young planets is challenging. We really need to understand the behavior of the parent star to be able to find the shallow signals of these planets which can be overwhelmed by starspots and flares," says Adina Feinstein, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Chicago and co-author of the study.

Fermilab, UChicago scientists tap South Pole Telescope data to shed light on universe

A team of scientists have demonstrated how to "weigh" galaxy clusters using light from the earliest moments of the universe - a new method that could help shed light on dark matter, dark energy and other mysteries of the cosmos, such as how the universe formed.

A new solar telescope in Hawaii has captured images of the sun unlike any seen before.  Professor Robert Rosner, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and one of the lead investigators on the project, says he’s been waiting for almost 40 years to see images like the ones recently captured.

Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences honors UChicago scientist’s pioneering work.
 

The Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) is awarding its 2020 Laboratory Astrophysics Prize to Dr. James Truran of the University of Chicago. This prize is given for his theoretical work on early star formation and the nucleosynthesis history of the universe, as well as for his seminal contributions to the study of astrophysical thermonuclear explosions, nucleosynthesis, and the use of nuclear-decay chronometers to determine ages of stellar and terrestrial matter.

"The most exciting thing is always something you haven't anticipated. In astronomy, whenever we've invented a new way to look at the sky, we discover something new that no one had ever thought of before. Our gravitational wave detectors haven't discovered anything profoundly unexpected, at least not yet."
- Daniel Holz, astrophysicist

 

NASA’s TESS spacecraft discovers its first habitable planet, first world with two stars

NASA mission named for pioneering UChicago scientist produces landmark research

Phil Mansfield has been appoined as  the James Cronin Graduate Student Fellow.

When NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launches in 2021, one of its most anticipated contributions to astronomy will be the study of exoplanets—planets orbiting distant stars. Among the most pressing questions in exoplanet science is: Can a small, rocky exoplanet orbiting close to a red dwarf star hold onto an atmosphere?

In a series of four papers in the Astrophysical Journal, a team of astronomers proposes a new method of using Webb to determine whether a rocky exoplanet has an atmosphere. The technique, which involves measuring the planet’s temperature as it passes behind its star and then comes back into view, is significantly faster than more traditional methods of atmospheric detection like transmission spectroscopy.

“We find that Webb could easily infer the presence or absence of an atmosphere around a dozen known rocky exoplanets with less than 10 hours of observing time per planet,” said Jacob Bean of the University of Chicago, a co-author on three of the papers.

Congratulations to UChicago Astronomy & Astrophysics Professor Jacob Bean, who is the new NASA science team lead for CASE!

NASA will contribute an instrument to a European space mission to explore the atmospheres of hundreds of exoplanets.

The instrument, called the Contribution to ARIEL Spectroscopy of Exoplanets, or CASE, adds scientific capabilities to ESA's Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, or ARIEL, mission.

A test image from the pilot study on mining astronomical data from historical glass slides.

MAROON-X team members and Gemini Observatory staff standing in front of the Gemini North telescope with the MAROON-X unit.

UChicago-led proposal receives NSF funding for pioneering sky measurements