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Big Bend Stargazer trailer under awning with nigh-sky friendly lights in Terlingua, Texas. photo by Stephen Hummel / McDonald Observatory.

West Texas Businesses Recognized for Friendly Lighting

McDonald Observatory recognizes local business & organizations for practicing night-sky friendly lighting, which keeps light on the ground and out of the sky.

 

Planet Orbiting Nearby Barnard's Star Disproved

Astronomers have disproved a 2018-announced planet orbiting Barnard’s Star, the second-closest star to our Sun. The findings are based on observations with the Habitable Zone Planet Finder instrument on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope.

Exoplanet Gobbles Up Gas and Dust as it Builds Mass

Yifan Zhou and Brendan Bowler have used  Hubble Space Telescope to get a rare look at a young, Jupiter-sized planet that is growing by feeding off material surrounding a young star 370 light-years from Earth.

GMT-Sixth-Mirror-Casting

Sixth Mirror Cast for Giant Magellan Telescope

The University of Texas at Austin and other GMT partners the fabrication of the sixth of seven of the world’s largest monolithic mirrors. These mirrors will allow astronomers to see farther into the universe with more detail than any other optical telescope before.