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Separating True Stars from Wannabes

UT Austin astronomer Trent Dupuy has shown what separates true stars from wannabes. Not in Hollywood, but in the whole universe. He presented his research in a news conference at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin.

BH swallows star

Do Stars Fall Quietly into Black Holes, or Crash?

Astronomers at UT Austin and Harvard have put a basic principle of black holes to the test, showing that matter completely vanishes when pulled in. Their results constitute another successful test for General Relativity.

HET with star trails

Upgraded HET Dedicated; New Science Coming

The 10-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope has completed a multiyear $40 Million upgrade to enable it to take on the biggest challenges in astronomy today: unraveling the mystery of dark energy, probing distant galaxies and black holes, discovering and characterizing planets around other stars and much more.

Abell 2744

Probing How the Early Universe Lit Up with Hubble Space Telescope

UT Austin astronomers have developed a new technique to discover the faintest galaxies yet seen in the early universe. These galaxies will help probe an important period in cosmic history, a billion years after the Big Bang, when the early, dark universe was flooded with light.

Betelgeuse in infrared

Betelgeuse Spins Too Fast; May Have Swallowed Companion

Craig Wheeler and an international group of undergraduate students have found evidence that the red supergiant star Betelgeuse may have been born with a companion star, and later swallowed that star.