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.
One of the world's largest optical telescopes, the Hobby-Eberly telescope (HET) at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory has reached a milestone — 25 years of service.
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.
Scientists have uncovered what sets the masses of stars, a mystery that has captivated astrophysicists for decades. Their answer? Stars, themselves.Using highly detailed simulations, a collaborative team led by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin has made a breakthrough discovery that star formation is a self-regulatory process, knowledge that may allow researchers to understand star formation within our own and far away galaxies. Read more
Two new images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope show what may be among the earliest galaxies ever observed. Both images include objects from more than 13 billion years ago, and one offers a much wider field of view than Webb's First Deep Field image, which was released amid great fanfare July 12.
AUSTIN, Texas — The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a next-generation optical/infrared telescope being developed in northern Chile that will yield important discoveries on topics such as galaxies in the early universe and Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars.
The University of Texas at Austin is investing an additional $45 million in the GMT, the world’s most powerful telescope. This additional funding brings the university’s total commitment to $110.3 million.
FORT DAVIS, Texas – West Texas and the Big Bend region are known for their starry night skies, made possible in part due to ongoing efforts to preserve them. Recently, McDonald Observatory and the non-profit organization Texan by Nature recognized the efforts of Catalyst Midstream Partners (“Catalyst”), a joint venture between Howard Energy Partners (“HEP”), and Devon Energy Corporation (“Devon”), to reduce light emissions at their County Line Processing Plant near Orla, Texas.
AUSTIN — An international group of astronomers led by Benjamin Thomas of The University of Texas at Austin has used observations from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at the university’s McDonald Observatory to unlock a puzzling mystery about a stellar explosion discovered several years ago and evolving even now. The results, published in today’s issue of The Astrophysical Journal, will help astronomers better understand the process of how massive stars live and die.
FORT DAVIS, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory will hold its first Dark Skies Festival Friday, April 29, and Saturday, April 30. The festival will include daytime and evening events for the whole family, plus the debut of the new “Preserving Dark Skies” exhibit in the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center. Both the exhibit and the festival are funded by Apache Corporation.
