Posts by McDonald Observatory
August 26, 2024
Early Galaxies Weren’t Too Big for Their Britches After All
When astronomers got their first glimpses of galaxies in the early universe from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, they were expecting to find galactic pipsqueaks, but instead they found what appeared to be a bevy of Olympic bodybuilders. Some galaxies […]
August 25, 2024
Observatory Remembers Harlan J. Smith on His 100th Birthday
On August 25, McDonald Observatory commemorates what would have been the 100th birthday of Harlan James Smith. He was the Observatory’s director from 1963 to 1989, a period of lasting impact on the site’s facilities, public outreach programs, and place […]
August 22, 2024
Board of Visitors 2025 Summer Meeting Takes Place July 26-27
Our thanks for another wonderful Board of Visitors meeting! Over 207 members and guests joined us to experience VIP access to McDonald Observatory, learn about the cutting-edge science taking place there, and to connect with one another. Thanks to clear […]
August 14, 2024
McDonald Observatory Welcomes New Assistant Director for Research Support
McDonald Observatory is pleased to announce the appointment of B-G Andersson as its new assistant director for research support. As a part of the Observatory’s management team, the assistant director oversees the allocation of observing time on the telescopes and […]
July 31, 2024
Astronomers Use AI to Find Elusive Stars ‘Gobbling Up’ Planets
Astronomers have recently found hundreds of “polluted” white dwarf stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. These are white dwarfs caught actively consuming planets in their orbit. They are a valuable resource for studying the interiors of these distant, […]
July 24, 2024
Astronomers Image Cold Exoplanet 12 Light-Years Away
An international team of astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has directly imaged an exoplanet roughly 12 light-years from Earth. The planet, Epsilon Indi Ab, is one of the coldest exoplanets observed to date. The planet is several times […]
July 19, 2024
Astronomers Better Identify Distance to the Cygnus Loop
The Cygnus Loop is the ethereal wreckage of a supernova explosion that occurred some 17,000-25,000 years ago. It is a cloud of dust and gas, called a nebula, steadily expanding outward from the original blast site. Because it is relatively […]
July 2, 2024
Bass Foundation Gift Strengthens Outreach at McDonald Observatory
McDonald Observatory is honored to announce a generous gift of $4 million from the Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation. Funds will support updates to McDonald Observatory’s Frank N. Bash Visitors Center and improve and expand the Observatory’s visitor experience. “We […]
June 13, 2024
Giant Magellan Telescope Enclosure Ready for Construction
The University of Texas at Austin joined Giant Magellan Telescope and IDOM today in announcing that the telescope’s enclosure, set to be one of the world’s largest astronomical facilities, passed its final design review and is now ready for construction in Chile. The review marks a […]
May 23, 2024
Galaxies Actively Forming in Early Universe Caught Feeding on Cold Gas
Researchers analyzing data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have pinpointed three galaxies that may be actively forming when the universe was only 400 to 600 million years old. Webb’s data show these galaxies are surrounded by gas that the […]
May 16, 2024
Winter Board of Visitors Meeting Explores Artificial Intelligence
The 2024 Board of Visitors Winter Meeting took place February 23-24 at The University of Texas at Austin. Over 150 Board of Visitors members attended. Through a series of talks, the event explored some of the ways artificial intelligence (AI) is […]
April 17, 2024
Astronomers Uncover Methane Emission on a Cold Brown Dwarf
Using new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered methane emission on a brown dwarf, an unexpected finding for such a cold and isolated world. Published today in the journal Nature, the findings suggest that this brown dwarf might […]
April 3, 2024
UT Astronomers Use JWST to Probe an Extreme Starburst Galaxy
A team of astronomers, including Danielle Berg and John Chisholm at The University of Texas at Austin, has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to survey the starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82). Located 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, this […]
April 3, 2024
NASA Awards Fellowships to Two UT Austin Postdocs
The highly competitive NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) recently named 24 new fellows to its 2024 roster. Among the awardees are Jed McKinney, a postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, and Cheng-Han Hsieh, who will be joining UT Austin […]
March 28, 2024
UT Astronomy Graduate Student Receives Fellowship to Study Exoplanets
The Heising-Simons Foundation has awarded Quang Tran, Ph.D. candidate in The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Astronomy, one of its eight prestigious 51 Pegasi b Fellowships this year. Established in 2017, the fellowship provides postdoctoral scientists the opportunity to conduct […]