BY COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES STAFF WRITER

To gaze at the stars is human. To be able to see them in three-dimensional detail is very nearly divine.

Divine vision is what the James Webb Space Telescope has granted earthbound scientists in a new near-infrared, detailed image of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a stellar remnant – the clouds of gas, dust and other material left behind when a star dies.

FORT DAVIS, Texas -- This week, McDonald Observatory and numerous partners join in celebrating the first anniversary of the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve.

The first images from the largest program in the James Webb Space Telescope’s first year show many types of galaxies, including dazzling examples of spiral galaxies, gravitational lensing and evidence of galaxy mergers. Scientists from the COSMOS-Web program released mosaic images taken in early January by JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

Jorge Salazar, Staff Writer

Sponsored by The University of Texas at Austin, the hybrid festival will feature scientists, authors and innovators both virtually and in person at UT locations, including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. The festival will feature panels, podcasts, storytelling, activities and social events that explore everything from medical breakthroughs and energy innovation to understanding outer space — and even the science of barbecue and bluebonnets.

Highlights of the festival will include:

The Cosmic Dawn ("CoDa") Project, an international team of astrophysicists, recently reached a new milestone – CoDa III – the first trillion-element simulation of how the universe evolved in its first billion years. This is when galaxies formed and flooded the universe with enough UV starlight to ionize all its atoms and lift the fog that blocked our view. CoDa III is the most detailed and accurate simulation ever produced of this cosmic era, known as the Epoch of Reionization ("EoR"), aligning theoretical and observational data for the first time.

AUSTIN, Texas — New images from NASA’s newest Space Telescope, JWST, reveal for the first time galaxies with stellar bars — elongated features of stars stretching from the centers of galaxies into their outer disks — at a time when the universe was a mere 25% of its present age.

Astronomers on a historically ambitious and massive galaxy-mapping mission have activated more than 10,000 amateur scientists in 85 countries to help in their quest.

Reflections on 25 Years of Science

The Hobby-Eberly telescope (HET) at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory has reached a milestone — 25 years of service. One of the world's largest optical telescopes, the HET captures light from stars and distant galaxies to help astronomers solve the mysteries of the cosmos.