News

Kyle Houser and Jenna Burgett with a model of their cube satellite SOCRATES.
Research

First University of Minnesota-built Small Satellite Launches

Posted

When launched, SOCRATES will be the first small satellite built by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities to go into space.

Lucy Fortson
Awards

Fortson Receives Nicholson Medal for Outreach

Posted

The Nicholson Medal recognizes the humanitarian aspect of physics and physicists created through public lectures and public media, teaching, research, or science related activities.

CK Vulpeculae, an hourglass-shaped remnant of a collision between a white and brown dwarf
Research

Minnesota Astrophysicists Help Spot Rare Stellar Collision

Posted

Professors Charles Woodward and Robert Gehrz are part of the ALMA collaboration that discovered the object, long thought to be a nova, is actually a remnant of a rare type of solar collision.

Micaela Bagley
Awards

Bagley wins STAR Prize

Posted

Graduate Student Micaela Bagley received the Euclid Special Talent And Recognition (STAR) Prize.

MACS 1149+2223 Lensed Star 1, also known as Icarus, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Research

The Farthest Star Helps Probe Dark Matter

Posted

Assistant Professor Patrick Kelly led a team of researchers that set a distance record and discovered the farthest individual star ever seen.

Roberta Humphreys
External

The Award Rejection that Shook Astronomy

Posted

Professor Roberta Humphreys reflects on Margaret Burbidge's 1971 decision to decline the Annie Jump Cannon Award, an act that forced the astronomy community to reconsider the prize and examine discrimination against women in the field.

The Tarantula Nebula as seen by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
External

What Stars Will Hatch From The Tarantula Nebula? NASA’s Flying Observatory Seeks to Find Out

Posted

Researchers from the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, led by graduate student Michael Gordon, flew on NASA's flying telescope, SOFIA, to identify and characterize the brightness, ages and dust content of three young star-forming regions within our galactic satellite, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Galaxy NGC 2403 with SN54J in the upper left corner.
Research

Long-standing Supernova Mystery Solved

Posted

Professors Roberta Humphreys and Kris Davidson and graduate student Michael Gordon in the School of Physics and Astronomy and their collaborator Schuyler Van Dyk at Caltech have solved the 63-year-old mystery of a supernova that wasn’t.

Lindsay Glesener and student, Kendra Bergstedt
Research

Space Physicist to provide exciting research opportunities for students

Posted

Lindsay Glesener is a faculty member in the School of Physics and Astronomy, studying high energy events in the Sun.

An artist's rendering of the HR 8799 system
External

Probing a Planetary System Like Ours

Posted

The extraordinary sensitivity of the LBT has revealed the architecture of a young stellar system whose structure promises to shed light on how our own solar system formed and help answer questions about the number and locations of Earth-like planets.