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UT Astronomers Find Strongest Evidence Yet for ‘Black Hole Stars’

The complex puzzle known as little red dots has become more complete since their initial discovery by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2022. Now a particular little red dot’s spectrum is helping connect many of the pieces. A team of astronomers led by Vasily Kokorev at the University of Texas at Austin identified the lucky dot in question: GLIMPSE-17775. 

HETDEX Opens Massive Cosmic Dataset to Scientists, Novices, and AI

On June 3, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) - which recently completed the largest survey ever taken of the early universe - released all of its immense, information-rich database to the public. Built from more than half a petabyte of raw and processed data, it will allow astronomers to study how the first galaxies formed and evolved, measure how gas and stars were distributed within these galaxies, map the large-scale structure of the cosmos, and investigate rare and unexpected objects not easily found in traditional surveys.

IGRINS Confirms Link Between the Composition of Exoplanets and Their Stars

Using the high-resolution Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrograph (IGRINS), astronomers were able to simultaneously quantify the magnesium and silicon content of the exoplanet’s atmosphere. This is the first time such a measurement has been made. And with it, astronomers have found that the planet WASP-189b shares the same magnesium-to-silicon ratio as its host star, providing the first observational evidence of a widely adopted assumption about planet formation.

Livestream July 15: History of Eclipses

Explore the Sun with McDonald Observatory! Learn about the history of eclipses, how they happen, and enjoy live views of the Sun's surface (weather permitting).

A Night at the Telescope

A group of astronomy undergraduate students from the University of Texas at Austin is invited to “test drive” the 107 inch Harlan J. Smith telescope at the McDonald Observatory. As Harlan J. Smith Scholars, the students are tasked with investigating a distant globular cluster and determining whether it may contain a black hole.