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October 23 Spanish-language Livestream: Materia Oscura y Energía Oscura

Learn about dark matter and dark energy with your hosts Dr. Julián Muñoz and Saul Rivera. We will show you live views (weather permitting) of galaxies from a camera attached to a research-grade 16-inch telescope at the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center while we discuss (in Spanish!) about how we study galaxies, dark matter, and dark energy.

UT Astronomers Race To Capture Image of Exoplanet Near Star

AF Lep b is the lowest-mass planet with the smallest angular separation – that is, how close it is to its host star as seen from Earth - that has been directly observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. However, the team that wished to learn more about the planet had to race against the clock to capture it. That’s because it’s moving closer to its host star in its orbit. The closer it gets, the harder it will be to observe. 

UT Astronomers Find JWST Data Conflicts with Reionization Models

Reionization is a critical period when the first stars and galaxies changed the physical structure of their surroundings, and eventually the entire universe. Established theories state that this epoch ended around 1 billion years after the Big Bang. However, if calculating this milestone using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, Reionization would have ended at least 350 million years earlier than expected.

Giant Magellan Telescope Begins Primary Mirror Support System Testing

The Giant Magellan Telescope, of which UT Austin is a founding partner, today announced the successful installation of one of its completed 27.6-foot-diameter (8.4-meter-diameter) primary mirrors into a support system prototype at the University of Arizona’s Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. This highly sophisticated system — comparable in size to half a basketball court and containing three times the number of parts of a typical car — is vital to the telescope’s optical performance and precision control.

New Exhibit in Austin Features Hobby-Eberly Telescope

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is a powerhouse of astronomical research. You can see it when you visit McDonald Observatory. And now, you can see it in Austin, Texas, too. A scale model of the telescope is featured in a new exhibit about it and its research. "Big Eye on Dark Skies: The Hobby-Eberly Telescope" is on view at Texas Science & Natural History Museum (formerly Texas Memorial Museum) now through spring 2025.