News

 Dr. Carr with his poster
Awards

Dr. Carr took home the grand prize in the physical sciences division

Posted May 5, 2023

Dr. Carr took home the grand prize in the physical sciences division - a travel stipend worth up to $2000.

A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team looked more than 13 billion years into the past to discover a unique, minuscule galaxy that could help astronomers learn more about galaxies that were present shortly after the Big Bang.
Research

The (Brief) Diary of a Supernova

Posted April 14, 2023

Recently the James Webb Space Telescope captured, in a single image, three separate moments during the death of a star nine billion years ago. Here’s how to view it

A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team looked more than 13 billion years into the past to discover a unique, minuscule galaxy that could help astronomers learn more about galaxies that were present shortly after the Big Bang.
Research

Researchers discover tiny galaxy with big star power using James Webb telescope

Posted April 13, 2023

Galaxy is the smallest ever discovered at this distance—around 500 million years after the Big Bang

This observation from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope contains three different images of the same supernova-hosting galaxy
Research

MIfA Researchers are Early JWST Users

Posted March 24, 2023

MIfA Faculty, Postdoctoral Researchers, and Graduate Students have been busy analyzing JWST observations.

Image of X-ray observation of the sun
Research

Student-planned NuSTAR observation reveals hidden light shows on the Sun

Posted March 16, 2023

Students at the School played a key role in planning a NuSTAR solar observation which could help shed light on one of the Sun’s biggest mysteries. UMN physics grad students Marianne Peterson and Reed Masek, as well as recent physics Ph.D. recipient Jessie Duncan, under the guidance of Associate Professor Lindsay Glesener, of the School of Physics and Astronomy, all worked on a successful proposal to NASA to use the NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array)--typically used to view bodies outside the solar system such as massive black holes and collapsed stars-- to observe the Sun. The group is also actively analyzing the data obtained from the observations.

Patrick Kelly
Awards

Kelly Receives Borja Award

Posted February 21, 2023

Assistant Professor Patrick Kelly of the School of Physics and Astronomy has received the Guillermo E. Borja Award from the College of Science and Engineering.

Radio image in purple of SAURON, a mysterious ring of emission almost a million light years across.  At its center is a giant elliptical galaxy, seen here in a picture from the Dark Energy Survey, at a distance of a billion light years from Earth.
Research

Computer Picks a Mysterious Radio Object

Posted January 11, 2023

A team co-led by MIfA Professor Emeritus Lawrence Rudnick tapped a computer algorithm to search for unusual objects in the radio sky. One of its choices is this mysterious object, given the moniker SAURON, likely the result of a massive explosion in a distant galaxy, and, tantalizingly, perhaps the merger of a pair of super-massive black holes.

Light from supernova
Research

Kelly leads study of Red-supergiant supernova images

Posted November 16, 2022

Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics Professor Patrick Kelly led a team that has measured the size of a star dating back more than 11 billion years ago using images that show the evolution of the star exploding and cooling. The research could help scientists learn more about the early Universe.

TURBO telescope
Awards

Kelly receives $1 million grant to build superfast ‘TURBO’ telescopes

Posted October 6, 2022

A team led by Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics Assistant Professor, Patrick Kelly, is constructing two sets of telescopes that will open a new window into the collisions of neutron stars and black holes.

Ali Sulaiman
Research

Ringleader: New Faculty Member is Expert in Planetary Physics

Posted August 9, 2022

This fall, the School of Physics and Astronomy will welcome Ali Sulaiman to the space physics group.