Posts by McDonald Observatory
October 2, 2025
Local Properties Keep Our Stars Bright with Night Sky Friendly Lighting
The night sky is a treasured part of life in the Big Bend region – an awe-inspiring backdrop to our lives. Preserving it takes the support of all in our community. In this effort, three organizations with local properties – Village […]
September 30, 2025
UT Austin Welcomes MIT to Giant Magellan Telescope International Consortium
The University of Texas at Austin joins with other members of the Giant Magellan Telescope today in welcoming the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the international consortium, constructing the $2.6 billion observatory in Chile. The Institute’s participation is enabled by […]
August 28, 2025
Astronomers Investigate Complex Heart of a Cosmic Butterfly
The Butterfly Nebula, located about 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, is one of the best-studied planetary nebulae in our galaxy. “The first sensitive optical images of this nebula were obtained by David S. Evans, an astronomy professor from 1968-1986 […]
August 26, 2025
Board of Visitors Summer Meeting Showcases Breakthroughs in Cosmic Discovery
Friday, July 25, through Saturday, July 26, McDonald Observatory hosted the annual Board of Visitors Summer Meeting. Featuring science talks, discussion groups, and telescope tours and viewings, the event connected almost 200 attendees with the latest astronomical research. Although there […]
August 7, 2025
The Universe’s Secret Harvest: UT Astronomers Shed Light on “the Cosmic Grapes”
Astronomers have discovered a remarkably clumpy rotating galaxy that existed just 900 million years after the Big Bang, shedding new light on how galaxies grew and evolved in the early universe. Nicknamed the “Cosmic Grapes,” the galaxy appears to be […]
August 6, 2025
Meet the Universe’s Earliest Confirmed Black Hole: A Monster at the Dawn of Time
An international team of astronomers, led by UT Austin’s Cosmic Frontier Center, has identified the most distant black hole ever confirmed. It and the galaxy it calls home, CAPERS-LRD-z9, are present 500 million years after the Big Bang. That places […]
August 6, 2025
Some Young Suns Align with Their Planet-forming Disks, Others Are Born Tilted
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, UC Santa Barbara, Yale University, and National Taiwan Normal University have found that a fair number of Sun-like stars emerge with their rotational axis tilted with respect to their protoplanetary disks, the […]
July 21, 2025
Stowaway Bat Returns Home Friday, July 25
On Friday, July 25, representatives from Austin Bat Refuge in Austin, Texas, will be onsite at McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas, to release a Big Freetail bat back into the wild. Named Hubble after the famous astronomer, he is thought to […]
June 13, 2025
Giant Magellan Telescope Advances to National Science Foundation Final Design Phase
The University of Texas at Austin is on track for huge leaps forward in astronomy research capabilities. The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) has received official approval from the National Science Foundation (NSF) confirming that the observatory will advance into its […]
June 6, 2025
COSMOS-Web Releases Deepest Yet View Into the Universe
COSMOS-Web provides the most expansive and deepest observations of the universe to date. Now, the team behind this work – which includes several members from The University of Texas at Austin – has released the data and images associated with its full survey, all processed […]
May 20, 2025
UT’s Cosmic Frontier Center Welcomes New Class of Fellows
The Cosmic Frontier Center in The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Astronomy is proud to announce its second class of postdoctoral fellows. The three Frontier Fellows were selected from a competitive pool of 73 applicants. Joining the center in the fall of 2025, […]
April 28, 2025
Vast Molecular Cloud Discovered Near Our Solar System
An international team of scientists, including from McDonald Observatory at The University of Texas at Austin, has discovered a potentially star-forming cloud that is one of the largest single structures in the sky and among the closest to the Sun and […]
April 15, 2025
John Good Recognized with UT Outstanding Staff Award
On April 15, The University of Texas at Austin announced its 2025 Outstanding Staff Awards. Thirty-one staff members were selected from a highly competitive pool of nominations. Among those to receive the honor is McDonald Observatory Engineering Scientist John Good. “John richly deserves the […]
April 7, 2025
JWST Awards UT Astronomers 10% of Its Coveted Observing Time
In March, the Space Telescope and Science Institute announced the selection of 274 programs for the fourth year of observations on its James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This includes approximately 8,500 hours of observing time. Of that, a whopping 10 percent (over […]
April 4, 2025
AAS Names Steven Finkelstein as Fred Kavli Plenary Lecturer for 246th Meeting
With support from the Kavli Foundation, the Vice Presidents of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) name a special invited lecturer to kick off each semiannual AAS meeting with a presentation on recent research of great importance. At the 246th AAS […]