On Monday, April 8, a total solar eclipse swept across North America, from Mexico to Canada. Along the way, it traveled through the Lone Star State, giving Texans a second opportunity to see a solar eclipse within one year – an annular “ring of fire” eclipse was visible on October 14, 2023.
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 generate aurorae similar to those seen on our own planet as well as on Jupiter and Saturn.
The highly competitive NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) recently named 24 new fellows to its 2024 roster.
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).
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.
BY ESTHER ROBARDS-FORBES
NASA’s newly announced space telescope project, UVEX (Ultra Violet EXplorer), will have researchers from The University of Texas at Austin leading several key projects as the mission examines how galaxies and stars evolve.
On Monday, April 8, parts of North America will experience a total solar eclipse. This happens when the Moon passes between the Earth and Sun, completely covering the Sun’s disk. The brief moment when the Sun is 100% covered is called “totality.” To see it, you must be within the “path of totality,” a narrow band about 100 miles wide.
The path of totality for April’s eclipse travels from Mazatlán, Mexico, to the island of Newfoundland, Canada. It will sweep into the Lone Star State at Eagle Pass and exit near Texarkana.
National Science Foundation to deliver funding plan for the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program by May 2024.
The University of Texas at Austin joins the Giant Magellan Telescope today in welcoming Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA), a distinguished Taiwanese research institute, into the Giant Magellan Telescope’s international consortium.
Ever since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured its first glimpse of the early Universe, astronomers have been taken aback by the presence of what appear to be more “ultra-massive” galaxies than expected. Based on the most widely accepted cosmological model, they shouldn’t have been able to evolve until much later in the history of the Universe, spurring claims that the model needs to be changed.
This would upend decades of established science.
