Posts by McDonald Observatory
July 9, 2018
McDonald Observatory, Oil and Gas Organizations Collaborate to Protect Night Skies
The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory has collaborated with the Permian Basin Petroleum Association (PBPA) and the Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA) to reduce light shining into the sky from drilling rigs and related activities in West […]
May 31, 2018
Texas Researchers Announce Gravitational Wave Event Likely Signaled Creation of a Black Hole
The spectacular merger of two neutron stars that generated gravitational waves announced last fall likely did something else: birthed a black hole, according to a team of researchers including Pawan Kumar and J. Craig Wheeler of The University of Texas […]
April 19, 2018
Creating Star Stuff on Earth is the Aim of New $7 Million Project
Astrophysicists will conduct experiments designed to re-create the physical environment inside stars, with a new $7 million grant that the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) has awarded to The University of Texas at Austin. This work could […]
March 8, 2018
McDonald Observatory to Train National Park Service in Skywatching Programs for Visitors
The University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory has entered into a partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) to train park rangers in bringing the wonders of the night sky to their visitors. The observatory also will create outreach […]
January 31, 2018
Two Postdocs Receive Fellowships to Study Extrasolar Planets
Two postdoctoral fellows in the Department of Astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin have received the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship from the Heising-Simons Foundation. Aaron Rizzuto and Ya-Lin Wu received two of the eight fellowships awarded nationally this […]
January 10, 2018
Texas’ Caitlin Casey Receives 2018 Pierce Prize from American Astronomical Society
Dr. Caitlin Casey of The University of Texas at Austin has been awarded the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize by the American Astronomical Society today at its semi-annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The organization awards the prize each year for “outstanding […]
December 14, 2017
Discovery of New Planet Reveals Distant Solar System to Rival Our Own
The discovery of an eighth planet circling the distant star Kepler-90 by University of Texas at Austin astronomer Andrew Vanderburg and Google’s Christopher Shallue overturns our solar system’s status as having the highest number of known planets. We’re now in […]
December 7, 2017
GMT Mount Stage 1 Contracts Awarded
The Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) and its founding partners, including The University of Texas at Austin, are pleased to announce that two contracts have been awarded this week to advance the design of the Giant Magellan Telescope mount. This […]
December 6, 2017
Massive Primordial Galaxies Found Swimming in Vast Ocean of Dark Matter
Astronomers expect that the first galaxies, those that formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, would share many similarities with some of the dwarf galaxies we see in the nearby universe today. These early agglomerations of a […]
November 29, 2017
Arizona State University Joins the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization
The Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) today announced that Arizona State University (ASU) has joined the mission to build the world’s largest telescope, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The University of Texas at Austin is a founding partner of GMTO, and […]
November 27, 2017
Texas Astronomers Will Lead Early Studies with $8 Billion James Webb Space Telescope
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, is expected to launch in 2019 after decades of development. Now the agency has announced the scientists who will use the $8 billion telescope first, testing its […]
November 16, 2017
Next Generation Astronomical Survey to Map the Entire Sky
The next generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V), directed by Juna Kollmeier of the Carnegie Institution for Science, will move forward with mapping the entire sky following a $16 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The […]
November 10, 2017
Hubble Spots Expanding Light Echo Around a Supernova
Voices reverberating off mountains and the sound of footsteps bouncing off walls are examples of an echo. Echoes happen when sound waves ricochet off surfaces and return to the listener. Space has its own version of an echo. It’s not […]
November 3, 2017
UT Austin and Partners Cast Fifth Massive Mirror for Giant Magellan Telescope
Today, The University of Texas at Austin and its partners in the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) are beginning to cast the fifth of seven mirrors that will form the heart of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The mirror is […]
October 26, 2017
Astronomers Detect Comets Outside our Solar System
Astronomers from The University of Texas at Austin, working with scientists from other institutions and amateur astronomers, have spotted the dusty tails of six exocomets — comets outside our solar system — orbiting a faint star 800 light years from […]